Burnt by the Sun. The Koreans of the Russian Far East - Jon K. Chang

92 Chapter 5

in 1920. In 1920, Khan worked as an intermediary between Korean parti-

sans and the Soviet Red Army, arranging for the partisans to obtain arms,

munitions, provisions and other support from the Soviets. Khan worked

under Sergei Lazo until April 4–5 when Lazo was captured by Japa nese

forces who retook Nikolsk- Ussuriisk from the Soviets. Khan escaped to

Blagoveshchensk.

During this time, Khan was one of the leaders and found ers of the

Irkutsk Faction, which also saw itself as the Irkutsk Korean government in

exile. In 1922, Khan was chosen as a member of the Korean Bureau of the

Far East. He continued to advocate for Koreans in the RFE to support So-

viet power first, which, as he explained, would take care of the issue of Ko-

rean ind e pen dence. Li Donkhvi (the more common En glish transliteration

is Yi Tongwhi) of the former Shanghai- Chita Korean faction, supported the

opposite view, which was that the first priority for Koreans should be the

in d e pend ence for Korea, not socialism. This put the two at loggerheads,

causing some friction within the Korean Bureau.^58 Khan was also an out-

spoken critic of great Rus sian chauvinism. In response to the December

1922– January 1923 Dalbureau Resolution (to deport all Koreans from the

Primore), Khan Myon She immediately sent a letter to the deputy secretary

of Narkomnats, Broido. Khan requested that Broido forward the letter to

Stalin. Khan waited, but neither Broido nor Stalin responded. Therefore, on

August 12, 1923, Khan wrote this report addressed to the Far Eastern Ex-

ecutive Committee of the Comintern (chaired by G. N. Voitinskii) on “The

Activities of the Korean Bureau in the Rus sia Far East”:

Point G: Work in the Rus sian Far East during the extreme blossoming of

Great Rus sian chauvinism.... But, as to carry on in full mea sure the

Korean nationality issues [national construction] in accordance with the

12th resolution of the Party Congress in order to settle such complex issues

such as land or citizenship, it is necessary above all to eliminate from the

Rus s ian Far East, Great Rus sian chauvinism which has penetrated from

top to bottom.... Meanwhile, the task at hand for the Soviet organs and

Party is to continue onwards towards the union and the mutual understand-

ing between the Soviet organs and the workers of the Korean population which is

practically non- existent. Between them, in our observation, is a complete rupture

[italics mine].^59

I wish to reiterate that Khan was judging the local Dalbureau and its poli-
cies by Soviet and Rus sian definitions of chauvinism. Khan was a native of
Rus sia, not Korea. He was born Andrei Abramovich Khan, but during ko-
renizatsiia underwent the change to Khan Myon She as part of the USSR’s