The RFE as a Frontier Melting Pot 11their feet by moving to new environs. This study focuses upon those who
chose the latter option.THE ARRIVAL OF THE KOREANS IN THE RFERus sian archives point to Koreans crossing into the Ussuri/Primorye (then
northern Manchuria) in the first half of the 1850s in order to conduct trade.^8
The history of the Korean migration to Poset Bay began with a short note
from Poset Staff Captain P. A. Gelmersen entitled “Memo regarding Kore-
ans Wanting to Become Rus sian Subjects.” It noted that a few Korean itin-
erant traders were travelling near the Novgorod post in Poset Bay as early as
1857 and had been attacked repeatedly by hunghuzi. They reported this to
Captain E. F. Cherkavskii of the Novgorod sentry post nearby. Cherkavskii
offered them his protection and the opportunity to settle land near the post,
giving them “preference over Manchus and Chinese.” Later, during the
winter of 1860, some Koreans brought cattle from Bian Lian Jichen, Korea,
to Novgorod in Poset Bay, which they sold very cheaply to local Rus sians and
Cossacks. A few of the Koreans deci ded to remain and asked permission to
bring their families as well.^9
In 1861, Alexander II approved the bill “On the Administration of
Rus sian and Foreign Settlement in the Amur and Primorski Oblasts of
Eastern Siberia,” which gave five main incentives to colonists: (1) the choice
of temporary or permanent title to parcels of public land; (2) one- hundred
desiatinas of land per family; (3) no poll tax; (4) no military obligations
for ten years; and (5) exemptions from paying taxes on their land for twenty
years.^10 Despite these concessions, Rus sians, Cossacks, and other settlers
from Western Rus sia did not beat a path to the RFE until after 1882. From
Table 1. Korean Population in the RFE and Manchuria
Ye a r Koreans (Manchuria) Registered Koreans (Rus sian Far East)
1869 na 3,321
1881 10,000 10,137 (1882 yr.)
1894 65,000 16,564 (1892 yr.)
1904 78,000 32,410 (1902 yr.)
1912 238,403 59,7 1 5
1917 3 37,4 61 81,825
Sources: Population of Koreans in the RFE data adapted from Grave, Kitaitsy, 129‒130, and Chae- Jin
Lee, China’s Korean Minority (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986), table 2.1. * Indicates data from
Wada, “Koreans in the Soviet Far East, 1917–1937,” 30.