Koreans Becoming a Soviet People 85Army soldiers. The working Korean population is proud that they are
manifestly free citizens and are prepared to stand in defense of their
Soviet power and law, which uses working Koreans as a defensive line for
this union. The working Korean population living in the Primore is mani-
festly a vanguard movement. Our task is to lead the Korean movement
under the experienced leadership of the proletariat of Soviet Rus sia, and
the more our fellow countrymen are oppressed [Koreans], the more dear
[becomes] Soviet power as our power and the more joyful is the arrival of
the head of the government.Then Kalinin spoke about Asia, and specifically about the growth of com-
munism in China and Japan and the concerns of Soviet workers towards
Asian labor.
As we know, goods from Irkutsk are hauled, not to the west, but to the
east.... In the Far East we have a hardworking population and this
hardworking population can prepare with the goal of exporting goods
necessary for manufacturing in Japan, China, and other countries....
Competition of “yellow” labor with Rus sian? “Yellow” labor—it needs to
be discarded from the lexicon. “Yellow” labor, like labor in general, has
no color. [Applause.] In a number of historical conditions, the “yellow”
population has become accustomed to a poorer living [standard] with fewer
requirements than the Rus sian population.^29 In relation to these require-
ments, the Japa nese working class is growing parallel with the increase in
capital.... Workers that come to us, we must consider as members with equal
rights, take into the unions, raise their pay to that of Rus sian workers, and
use all means to reinforce this, so that our Chinese workers are brought up
to the po l iti cal self- awareness of Rus sian workers. If we fulfill this, then our
worries will not come to pass [italics mine].^30Publicly, while representing Soviet power, Khan Myon She redefined
the Korean in de pen dence movement in terms of class, calling it a “workers’
movement” while omitting the word “in de pen dence.” This was done to avoid
arousing any conflict with Japan. Khan’s socialist aesthetics mirrored those
of Kalinin. Khan also omitted any mention of a Korean autonomous oblast.
The year 1923 represented the apex of Khan Myon She as the leader of the
RFE Koreans. As we shall see in Chapter 6, the speeches of Afanasii Kim
mirror those of Khan. Both men’s public speeches followed very closely the
“Party Line.” Privately however, Khan was still focused on obtaining full
territorial autonomy as part of Korean cultural construction. He presented