Soviet deportation of Koreans
| Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union | |
|---|---|
| Part of Genocides by the Soviet Union | |
Map of the deportation of Korean people from the Russian Far East to the Soviet Central Asia | |
| Location | Primorsky Krai |
| Date | September–October 1937 |
| Target | Koreans |
Attack type | Ethnic cleansing[1][2] |
| Deaths | Several estimates 1) 16,500[3] 2) 28,200[4] 3) 40,000[5] 4) 50,000[6] (16.3%–25% of Koreans in the Soviet Union)[7] |
| Victims | 172,000 Koreans deported to forced settlements in Soviet Central Asia |
| Perpetrators | NKVD |
| Motive | Ethnic cleansing and Russification[1][2] |
The Soviet deportation of Koreans[a] refers to the mass deportation of 172,000 Koreans from the Russian Far East to unpopulated areas of the Soviet-occupied Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan by the NKVD.[1][2]
Overview
The mass deportation was ordered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1878–1953), and Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986).[1][2] It happened between September and October 1937.[1][2]
The Korean deportees were transported 6,400 km to Soviet-occupied Central Asia under the pretext of "stem[ming] the infiltration of Japanese espionage into the Far Eastern Krai".[1][2] As many as 50,000 Korean deportees died as a result.[1][2]
In 1953, Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971), despite condemning the excess of Stalinism, did not condemn the deportation of Koreans during his attempted de-Stalinization.[1][8]
Casualties
As many as 50,000 Korean deportees are estimated to have died as a result of the deportation.[1][2] Common causes of death were hunger and sickness.[9] The death rate lied between 16.3% and 25%.[7]
Academic views
Despite not comparable to the Holocaust, some historians classify the Soviet deportation of Koreans as the first instance of Soviet deportation on the basis of ethnicity,[8] while some consider it one of the many Soviet crimes against humanity qualifiable as a genocide.[7]
Related pages
- Holodomor
- Soviet deportation of Greeks
- Soviet deportations of Chechens and Ingush
- Soviet persecution of Poles during World War II
- Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
Footnotes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Polian, Pavel (2004). Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR. Budapest; New York City: Central European University Press. ISBN 9789639241688. LCCN 2003019544.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Shafiyev, Farid (2018). Resettling the Borderlands: State Relocations and Ethnic Conflict in the South Caucasus. Montréal: McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 9780773553729. LCCN 2018379019.
- ↑ "Korea: In the World – Uzbekistan". Gwangju News. October 10, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ↑ D.M. Ediev (2004). "Demograficheskie poteri deportirovannykh narodov SSSR". Stavropol: Polit.ru. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
- ↑ Rywkin (1994), p. 67.
- ↑ Saul (2014), p. 105.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2
- Tolz, Vera (1993). "New Information about the Deportation of Ethnic Groups in the USSR during World War 2". In Garrard, John; Healicon, Alison (eds.). World War 2 and the Soviet People: Selected Papers from the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies. New York City: Springer. ISBN 9781349227969. LCCN 92010827.
- Chang, Jon K. (2014). "Tsarist continuities in Soviet nationalities policy: A case of Korean territorial autonomy in the Soviet Far East, 1923–1937". Eurasia Studies Society of Great Britain & Europe Journal. 3: 32–33.
- Wong, Tom (2015). Rights, Deportation, and Detention in the Age of Immigration Control. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804793063. LCCN 2014038930.
- Chang, Jon K. (2018a). Burnt by the Sun: The Koreans of the Russian Far East. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824876746. LCCN 2015046032.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ellman, Michael (2002). "Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments" (PDF). Europe-Asia Studies. 54 (7): 1151–1172. doi:10.1080/0966813022000017177. JSTOR 826310. S2CID 43510161. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 April 2018.
- ↑ Human Rights Watch (1991). "Punished Peoples" of the Soviet Union: The Continuing Legacy of Stalin's Deportations" (PDF). New York City. LCCN 91076226. OCLC 25705762.