18 Chapter 2The enactment of repressive laws, quotas, and the like exposed the true sen-
timents of t hese leaders, ethnographers, and intelligent sia towards Asia and
Asians. The Rus sian Far East since its inception had been a land where capi-
talism, markets, and labor often had free rein. Yet, Pan- Slavists and the na-
tionalists within the RFE administration wanted “fixed outcomes” wherein
Rus sians came to the forefront of business and business dealings no matter
what their merits.^47
By the late nineteenth century, Russification and “passing” as Rus sian
became far more complicated than the mere conversion to Orthodoxy.^48
Despite conversion, East Asians were given smaller land grants than Rus-
sians, Cossacks, or Eu ro pean settlers, faced extralegal taxes, and their eco-
nomic might was typically seen as a geopo liti cal threat. V. D. Pesotskii’s
Koreiskii vopros (The Korean Question, ca. 1913) supported gradual assimi-
lation, believing that the second and third generation would assimilate to
Rus sian culture and values.^49 V. Vagin concurred with Pesotskii regarding
the Koreans as assimilable Rus sian subjects. He stated: “It is said that, for the
new Rus sian settlements, one should consider settling the land with ten Rus-
sians for every Korean and not the reverse. This was the opinion of Przheval-
skii. Why should it be such and not the reverse?”^50 Koreans were a difficult
group to place in the imperial ethnic register. In regard to intelligence, pro-
ductivity, and initiative, they seemed equal to many Eu ro pean groups. Yet
their physiognomy was undisputedly Asian: dark hair, narrow eyes, yellow
skin, and high cheekbones. Their features (race) could never be erased by Rus-
sification without intermarriage.
The introduction of East Asian labor and settlers into the area also
introduced “transnationalist” entrepreneurial practices, ele ments, and men-
talities into the tsarist economy of the RFE. The RFE avoided the hereditary
monopolies that the nobility held on certain industries in Western Rus sia.
With these hereditary rights, the nobility practiced extremely wasteful and
inefficient business practices for centuries.^51 The transnational sentiments
and way of life (byt) introduced by East Asians working with Rus sia and
Rus sians was perhaps the truest form of “Eurasianism” in Rus sia.^52 Chinese
and Koreans brought their own agriculture and business practices to the area.
These practices were recognized as being equal to the best of Eu ro pean busi-
ness practices despite the name- calling and conspiracy theories (predators,
etc.). China exported a considerable amount of goods and raw materials to
the RFE at prices typically from two to ten times less than those in the
RFE.^53 Rus sian settlers arrived in the RFE without any of the products and
comforts of home. Asian exports such as food products, liquor, commodities,
clothes, tools, and furniture, as well as labor, allowed Rus sian colonists to
live in luxury as long as they were willing to adjust their tastes and accom-