8 Chapter 1
deportations, there is no better witness or historical “document” than the
deportees themselves. Burnt by the Sun employs the Annales School’s
longue durée, examining historical legacies and practices from tsarism to the
Soviet period (1863–1940s) as well as contrasting the implementation of
Soviet socialism and korenizatsiia among the Soviet Chinese, Jews, Poles,
and Germans with that of the Koreans. In conclusion, this study seeks to
capture the sense of individual and collective agency, the multiple perspec-
tives from within the community, and the unevenness of life as one of the
“deported peoples.”