6 Chapter 1
ority (e.g., the overrepre sen ta tion of Jews in education). The aforementioned
are the “tsarist continuities” that form a part of this monograph’s central
argument. Chapter 3 covers the Intervention period and the five- year joint
rule of the Rus sian Far East between the entente forces led by the Japa nese
and the FER (Far Eastern Republic). During this period, several Soviet
Koreans displayed outstanding leadership and loyalty to Soviet power.
Chapter 4 describes the five foundations of Korean korenizatsiia: repre sen ta-
tion, economic life, citizenship, land construction, and education. Chapter
displays a diff er ent side to korenizatsiia: that policies promoting indigeniza-
tion and internationalism could run concurrently with policies that were
repressive and chauvinistic/anti- internationalist. During this period, the
partial deportations of Soviet Koreans began in 1927 and ran until 1931. In
1928 the Arsenev and Geitsman reports surfaced, which argued against So-
viet internationalism and that the Koreans were alien to Soviet socialism.
This is a di ff er ent view of korenizatsiia.
Chapter 6 demonstrates that as Korean socialist construction was in full
bloom, the local Soviet leadership prepared for the total deportation of the
Koreans and the Chinese. Then, in the summer of 1937, Pravda constructed
a Soviet “yellow peril” from old tsarist tropes. Chapter 7 covers the po liti cal,
social, legal, and logistical aspects of the Korean deportation, the case of
Khai Ir Ti, an NKVD translator who worked in hundreds of NKVD cases
and “ trials” during the Terror, and the North Sakhalin concessions. Chapter
describes how I conducted my fieldwork and interviews in Central Asia
and why “simplicity” works. The complexity of oral history is detailed in
the case of Elizaveta Li, and its multivocality is displayed in several of her
interviews. Chapter 9 establishes that the greatest reverse piedmonts ever
established on Soviet soil occurred during the Intervention. Fi nally, there
is the case of Gum Nam Kim, a Soviet Korean, and the North Korean
engineers and specialists who were sent to Uzbekistan to be trained by
Mr. G. N. Kim.
This study follows the Library of Congress’ transliteration (of Rus sian to
En g lish) whenever pos si ble. Some Rus sian/Soviet and Korean words and
names that are well known and spelled other wise followed their “commonly
used” transliteration. The primary sources utilized consist of archives, con-
temporary lit er a tures and periodicals, and interviews with Korean deport-
ees. Materials were obtained from the Rus sian archives in Vladivostok,
Khabarovsk, and Moscow (RGIA- DV, GAKhK, RGASPI, and GARF
respectively); American archives (NARA and MacArthur); and Japa nese
archives. Con temporary newspaper articles such as those from Krasnoe znamia
and Pravda are cited extensively. Oral interviews with approximately sixty
el derly Koreans and their descendants were conducted. The majority of the