Korean Korenizatsiia and Its Socialist Construction 53“everyday utopianism” for the common citizen, because as a Korean one
could see Koreans of every stripe, whether rice farmer or bureaucrat, on the
local radio and in the newspapers. Neighbors and friends were also state of-
ficials, bureaucrats, and members of the po liti cal police such as the NKVD.
This program summed up the allure of Bolshevism, because the repre sen ta-
tion of one’s nationality among the Soviet leadership meant that there was a
high degree of social mobility and the feeling of access to Soviet leaders,
media, arts, and institutions.^3
This was the positive side of korenizatsiia. On the other hand, Soviet
indigenization offered a somewhat orientalized, ascriptive view of the vari-
ous nationalities as seen through a Rus sian lens.^4 This was to embellish the
image of the USSR as a “state of nations” rather than a “state of Russified-
nationalities.” In the following pages, we shall examine the construction of
the Korean nationality and the coverage of korenizatsiia programs through the
lens of Soviet media such as Krasnoe znamia and oral history (interviews with
deportees). Koreans still had difficulty obtaining land, agricultural equip-
ment, and citizenship despite the Bolshevik proclamations of a “dictator-
ship of the proletariat.” This treatment as a colonizing ele ment, which was
prevalent during tsarism, was particularly evident when one examines the
relationship of the state with Koreans vis- à- is Rus v s ian peasants and Red
Army settlers (OKDVA collectives).^5 The following section examines the par-
ticipation of Koreans in the CP, Komsomol, and other CP organ izations.
In April 1923, there was a Communist Party purge (chistka) in which
CP members who were found to lack diligence or an adequate understand-
ing of Bolshevism were expelled from the Party. This purge was divided
evenly between Rus sians and Koreans.^6 In 1924, at a guberniia Korean Sec-
tion meeting, Chairman Nikolai Kigai and Secretary Lavrentii Kan stated:
“Korean cells among the Pioneers and youth are doing very well. In the
Vladivostok uezd [administrative area], we have unofficially 31 branches of
pioneers totalling 605 members. In the Spassk Uezd, we have 7 branches
with 140 total Pioneers. In Nikolsk- Ussuriisk, we have 14 branches with
261 Pioneer members.”^7 The census of 1924 revealed 114,000 Koreans, with
only one- third having Soviet citizenship.^8 In December 1924, the GorSoviet
(city council CP leadership) in the city of Vladivostok held elections and
brought in 290 members: 19 women, 271 men. Of these new members, 40
were Chinese, 14 Korean, and 235 Rus sian. Of the 271 new members,
36.4 percent (106) did not belong to the CP. On the Presidium (leadership)
of the GorSoviet was one woman, Nina Van, a Chinese worker, while the
remainder were Rus sians.^9 In September 1924, a Gubkom meeting reor ga-
nized the Korean section to become a Korean department, which consisted
of 92 cells and 1,539 Komsomol (Youth Communist) members.^10