Korean Korenizatsiia and Its Socialist Construction 57were not given any land. Instead, they were instructed to cut down uninhab-
ited taiga/forests to acquire the land. State investiture amounted to loans
for equipment and seeds (first loan 500 rubles, second loan 1,800 rubles) and
ten horses from the demobilized Army Staff. By autumn of 1924, the Red
Star sold over three thousands puds of rice, earning them 8,000 rubles. By
the beginning of 1925, the two artels were self- sufficient and earning profits;
they had also paid back their loans. At this point, the state incorporated and
renamed them the Red Star Kolkhoz. State taxation began immediately.^26
The second major agricultural industry in which Koreans were in-
volved was silk production and silkworm farming. I. I. An, a Soviet Korean
scientist, grew silkworms in the RFE, using those he had acquired from
Turkestan and the Caucasus in 1916–1917. In 1923, only some ten or so
companies were involved in silk breeding, with about two hundred esti-
mated silkworm trees. Dalkrai recognized that this silk production was
relatively new and allowed NEP mea sures to help build the industry. Korea
exported 130,000 silkworm trees to RFE in 1925 in a USSR– Korea joint
venture. After incurring some success and earnings, Korean firms increased
their exports of silk trees to 1.2m in 1926. In 1926, there were two hundred
small silk enterprises and eight silk artels, which encompassed from 3 to 40
desiatinas (43.7 hectares) of land. Each hectare of silk production produced
1,000–1,500 rubles of profit. In 1928, a total of 818,700 trees were planted
for silk production, one- seventh of which were for private enterprises. Korean
artels produced 1.6 tons of raw silk cocoons that year.^27
The third industry was the procurement and pro cessing of fish and
seafood. In 1923, the Soviet Dalkrai established the “Economic Organ for
the Management of Economic Unions and Artels” to provide equipment,
collect rents, and manage the administration of artels, communes, and
plantations. Typically, state rent was 30 percent of the harvest or catch, which
later increased to around 33 percent.^28 In 1924, t here were five Korean fish-
ing artels in the RFE.^29 In 1927, three thousand Koreans were estimated to
be working in fishing artels. Five thousand Koreans had joined by 1930.
Generally, it was reported that Koreans in fishing artels (fish and kelp) were
very poor. Koreans in these enterprises typically received inadequate or old
equipment and little or no training.^30
Fi nally, some Koreans survived in Rus sia and the Soviet Union by
growing opium. This segment on opium illustrates Koreans as “model mod-
erns” producing, selling, and distributing opium until state interdiction closed
this sector of the gray economy.^31 Despite the October Revolution, Koreans
still had a very difficult time acquiring citizenship and land. These prob-
lems persisted for a large number of them until 1928.^32 Even after 1928,
Koreans received much smaller land parcels than Slavic settlers. Prices for