Intervention 39nationalities, including Soviet Koreans. This depiction carries on the tsarist
tradition of portraying its minorities as a weak link in the empire.
On the other hand, some remembered the fidelity of the Soviet Ko-
reans and the Chinese to Bolshevism during the Siege of Nikolaevsk
(February– March 1920). Of par tic u lar note was “Who were the collabora-
tors in this battle and region?” Yakov Triapitsyn led a large force of two
thousand Red partisans among whom were two hundred Koreans and three
hundred Chinese. They fought back and forth against the Whites and the
Japa nese Army, who held the city of Nikolaevsk. However, on March 15,
1920, they defeated the Whites/Japa nese and set up a short- lived Soviet
administration there. Nikolaevsk is better remembered for the massacre of
Japa nese and Rus sian civilians in the aftermath of the “siege.” The city was
a large fishing port that exported considerable amounts of fish and other
products to Japan. Many of the Rus sian businessmen and man ag ers there
were considered collaborators with the Japa nese. After the victory, Triapit-
syn’s forces massacred many of the residents of Nikolaev, in par tic u lar the
Rus sians and the Japa nese.^34 John Albert White noted the loyalty of the
Chinese and Korean partisans to the Red cause, stating:
One of the in ter est ing features of the partisan strug gle was the partici-
pation in it of non- Russian peoples. Many of the natives as well as the
Chinese living in Eastern Siberia whose part in the Rus sian life of the area
had been tenuous before this time joined the [Red/Bolshevik] forces or
aided them with food, clothing, and shelter. The Koreans in par tic u lar were
strong supporters of the movement.^35Varneck and Fisher’s The Testimony of Kolchak contained reprinted con-
temporary Japa nese documents that demonstrate Chinese and Korean Red
partisan loyalties during the Siege of Nikolaevsk (March– April 1920). For
example, “The Bolsheviks secured the ser vices of malcontent Chinese and
Koreans in assassinating the White Guards [Nikolaevsk].” The Japa nese
documents repeatedly refer to the Koreans as “malcontents,”^36 because, in
general, Koreans and especially Korean partisans (including those from the
RFE) fought and resisted Japa nese expansion.
Koreans (albeit Koreans from the Japa nese Empire) even fought for
the Whites. In Semyonov’s Special Manchurian Detachment (OMO, anti-
Bolshevik), 140 Koreans fought as a pioneer com pany along with 190
Serbian cavalrymen as well as several Chinese regiments. The Chinese and
Mongols made up a large number of the soldier corps, while Cossacks and
Rus sians formed much of the officer corps, numbering 5,000 in total.^37
Koreans formed “Red brigades” throughout Siberia and the remote areas of