12 Chapter 21860 to 1882, the RFE area received a total of 5,186 Rus sian settlers, which
equal approximately 235 settlers per year!^11 Beginning in 1883, the govern-
ment, in addition to providing “Rus sian” (this category meant Slavs and
those of Eu ro pean descent) settlers the one- hundred desiatina land grants,
paid their travel and food expenses and provided livestock and farming tools
(inventar) to prospective settlers. Immigration increased, but the Far East
remained too unprotected and isolated to merit serious consideration for
most colonists.
In 1863, thirteen Korean families crossed the Tumen River into the
Ussuri region and founded the village of Tizinhe. They began their “new” lives
with little or no changes in lifestyle and farming techniques. By 1864,
Koreans had established seven villages in or around Poset Bay: Tizinhe,
Yanchihe, Sidimi, Adimi, Chapigoi, Krabbe, and Fudubai. Soon they began
to sell their vari ous grains, cereals, and millets.^12 In late winter 1866, condi-
tions and crops were particularly poor in Hamgyong. Entire villages, such
as Pegan and Samdonsa along the Russian- Korean border, simply packed
up and began new lives in Rus sia. Another five hundred Koreans crossed the
border in 1867.^13 Ki- Baik Lee blamed the bureaucratic rapaciousness and
the excessive taxes forced upon commoners, peasants, and farmers for the
large exodus to Manchuria and the RFE beginning in the 1860s.^14 In addi-
tion, it was against Korean law for peasants to leave Korea. They were seen as
traitors, and their desire for a better life in Rus sia was punishable by death.
Korean border guards often shot emigrants they caught crossing the Tumen
River, the site of the Russian- Korean border. Chinese officials sometimes
intervened with Rus sian authorities on behalf of the Korean government.^15
Taking into account the risks, Korean emigrants preferred to leave Korea in
the dead of night in order to begin their new lives in Rus sia without their
cattle and farming equipment.^16
Many Koreans arrived in Rus sia with just the clothes on their backs
after being robbed by bandits and vari ous border guards (Chinese and Ko-
reans). Rus sian authorities would give those who arrived in winter only the
lowest- qu ality rye to survive until summer. In summer, the Rus sians would
again supply the Koreans with seeds to grow wheat, garden vegetables, and
a variety of melons. However, the seeds they gave them were from China.^17
Purchasing goods, equipment, or labor from China, Korea, and/or Japan was
problematic, because Rus sian authorities did not want to become reliant on
adversaries who might use their incomes to reclaim the RFE.^18 In Rus sia,
this issue was often called the “yellow question” (zhyolty vopros). The “yellow
question” appeared many times in official ethnographic reports funded by
the state (usually governor- generals of the Priamur) and conducted by eth-
nographic luminaries such as V. V. Grave and Vladimir Arsenev during the