The RFE as a Frontier Melting Pot 31supreme and comprehensive excuse for every thing.”^98 Why was this neces-
sary? The provision of timeworn and tangible scapegoats resuscitated
Tsar Nicholas II’s regime and the Pan- Slavic ideal that Rus sia was a “Third
Rome” despite temporary setbacks. Imperial Rus sia’s category of “internal
enemies” and their removal by deportation demonstrate strong parallels
with the Stalinist regime and its methods of repression. More importantly,
the category of “internal enemies” and the state policies that encouraged the
hysteria and belief in “wreckers, spies, diversionists and agents of cap i tal ist-
imperialist enemies from among us” would resurface during the 1930s.
In 1917, the Koreans of the RFE reacted immediately to the February
Revolution (overthrow of the tsar) by holding a conference on June 2, 1917,
called the First General Assembly of Korean Representatives. They wired a
tele gram to the Petrograd Soviet expressing the hope that “the princi ple of
national self- determination put forward by the Rus sian democracy should
also be applied to the oppressed nations of Asia.”^99 This aforementioned
First Assembly was dominated by naturalized and assimilated (that is, Rus-
sified) Koreans. Their main areas of concern were an autonomous region and
the necessary funds to create such a region. Some Koreans during and im-
mediately after the October Revolution had a “wait and see” attitude towards
the Bolsheviks.^100 However, there were already more than a few committed
Bolsheviks among them, such as Aleksandra Petrovna Kim and Pak Chin-
Sun. After the First World War, the four thousand Koreans who served in
the Rus sian Army returned home and helped turn many in their community
into staunch Bolsheviks (see Table 3 for Vladivostok’s Korean population
and their occupational data).^101
The Koreans dodged a bullet that struck other national groups.^102
Would they continue to be so fortunate? This will be answered in the coming
Table 3. Vladivostok’s Korean Population, January 1916
Men Women Total % in Each CategoryProfessionals, educated, specialists 673 139 812 (27.2% professionals)
Skilled l abor, craftsman, masters 610 150 760 (25.5% skilled labor)
Manual laborers 1,203 154 1.357 (45.5% manual labor)
House hold ser vice: servants,
drivers, etc.44 8 51 (1.7% house hold ser vice)TOTA LS 2,530 451 2,981 Total Koreans in
Vladivostok, Jan. 1916 Census
Source: able compiled from information in RGIA- T DV f.702, op.1, d.1275, l.25, as cited in
Habecker, “Ruling the East,” 271‒272.