The RFE as a Frontier Melting Pot 23Koreans w ere urban, many were educated, bilingual Rus sian and Korean
speakers, and loyal to the tsar. They submitted a petition asking the local
administration to draft Korean men for the Rus sian Army. In exchange, the
proposal subtly requested that a wide swath of the Korean community be
allowed to become Rus sian subjects. It was very logical that Russified Kore-
ans who had businesses in the cities of the RFE would want to become tsarist
subjects in order to provide their families with a larger degree of security. In
the following excerpt from an RFE newspaper, Dalny Vostok (Far East), the
writer, Bournakoff, is astounded by how quickly and thoroughly the urban
Koreans have Russified. Figuratively, Bournakoff completes the vision that
Pesotskii had had for Koreans— that the second or third generation would
be Russified and loyal by 1910!
Petition
We, the representatives of the Korean associations of the Primore region
from Vladivostok, Nikolsk- Ussuriisky, Khabarovsk, Bogorodskoe, Nikolae-
vsk, Suchan, Novokievskoye, Iman, Viazemskoe, and other places, number-
ing sixteen people, met in the city of Vladivostok on August 19, 1910. We
resolved to request that the Rus sian Government allow Korean subjects to
become Rus sian subjects.... You should take into account that we, Koreans,
have resided for many years on the Rus sian territory, and have lost any
connections with our former motherland, which has been replaced by Rus sia.
We would like to be faithful subjects of Rus sia along with many other nation-
alities, populating it with equal rights equal to them [the other nationali-
ties]. We entrust the Rus sian government with the responsibility for these
rights, and pledge to serve the Rus sian czar faithfully, as his loyal subjects,
after we are accepted. We are ready to render military ser vice, and thus, to
reinforce the ranks of the Rus sian army in the Far East.... We sign this on
behalf of the associations of the Primore region numbering some 9,780 males
of the population, not including females and children. City of Vladivostok,
August 19, 1910.^74The following passage is from I. Bournakoff, Dalny Vostok (ca. 1910) stating
that hundreds of young Koreans were just entering the Rus sian school system,
finishing their secondary education, or had just obtained work among the
general (Russified) populace.By their character and the po liti cal situation of their country, the Koreans
are the sole representatives of the yellow race who are disposed to become
loyal Rus sian subjects and to love Rus sia as their new fatherland, although
among the lower classes they retain their religion, language, and customs....