Presentation "Koryo-Saram - A missing meso-link?"
by Evgenia An (PhD Candidate, Goethe University, Frankfurt)
for the Conference "Strange Korean Parallels", Helsinki.
1. Koryo-Saram Diaspora â
A missing meso-link?
Evgenia An
PhD Candidate
Goethe University, Frankfurt
Department of Sociology
2. What is
Global
History? â
Competing
Approaches
⢠âŚTranscending narrowly national perspectives
and going beyond the interpretative
hegemony of the WestâŚ
⢠"I have to confess' admits C. A. Bayly, "that I
find 'transnational' a restrictive term for the
sort of work which I am interested in. Before I
850, large parts of the globe were not
dominated by nations so much as by empires,
city-states, diasporas, etc.â
3. Aim of the presentation
⢠Telling in short a long story of the koryo-saram diaspora â the
Koreans of the former Soviet Union
⢠Through this story, highlight the challenges of the current
interdisciplinary research of social phenomena and how diaspora
narratives can potentially resolve the challenges
⢠Showing how macro-level structures, such as empires and nation-
states, used the ethno-national and gender regimes/orders to gain
political and economic legitimacy through ethnic minorities, i.e.
koryo-saram diaspora.
4. Koryo-Saram Journey
⢠This journey is a long one both in terms of time (from 1860s to 2020s) and
in terms of space (from Amur Region to Central Asia to South Korea).
⢠In addition to the time and space dimensions, Koryo-Saram have crossed
several political borders throughout their journey. First, the border
between Joseon Dynasty Korea and Qing Empire and Russian Empire.
Through deportation, Koreans were forced to enter the freshly established
borders of the Soviet Socialist Republics in Central Asia, which all lied
within the bigger political entity â the USSR.
⢠Finally, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Koreans were crossing the
new national borders of Central Asia, and finally started crossing the South
Korean border as labor migrants.
6. Transnational Migration Studies
â[âŚ] even under the same macro-structural conditions, people
show different mobility behaviours [âŚ] In order to account for
such differences, we need to introduce the âmissing meso-linkâ of
migrant networks, migration networks and other elements of a
conducive migration infrastructureâ
(Faist 2000: 96, cursive by the author)
7. Gender Studies: Intersectional approach to
inequalities
âWe cannot study gender in isolation from other inequalities, nor
can we only study inequalitiesâ intersection and ignore historical
and contextual specificity that distinguishes the mechanisms that
produce inequality by different categorical division, whether
gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, or class.â
(Risman 2004: 443, cursive by the author)
8. Analytical level Social phenomena
(diaspora migration)
Source of data type of data and
tools f analysis
Macro level Nation-states, empires, political
entities
Labour market segments
Korenizatsiya
Labor law, visa regime, and
four types of social insurances
Documents/texts such as legal
acts, contracts, official policies
from Ministries.
Meso level Communities
Organisation of work
Diasporas, Migrant networks,
community organizations
Ethnic kolkhoses
Expert interviews, group
discussions, flyers from the
organizations
Micro level Individuals
Individual practices, identities,
positions
Autobiographical narrators,
families
Biographical interviews
9. What is diaspora?
⢠According to Safran (1991), one of the pioneers of diaspora studies,
based on the Jewish experience, the definition of diaspora is bound to
six core characteristics, which are interwoven with trauma, nostalgia
and aspirations to âreturnâ (pain).
⢠Yet, the definition of diaspora, proposed by Clifford (1997) offers an
alternative to the nation-centered, nostalgia-based diasporic identity,
which was earlier offered by Safran.
10. What is diaspora?
⢠Clifford in his turn considers diaspora as a new form of collective
solidarity and consciousness, that arises in the period of displacement
and destruction of previously established macro-level political and
territorial paradigms, while the micro- (individual) and meso-level
(community) consciousness persist irrespective of (or maybe even
due to) structural social destabilization.
⢠For the dissertation, I will use the definition of Clifford, which serves
one of the previously outlined purposes, namely, de-essentializing
the national.
11. What is diaspora? (etymology)
⢠The Greek word diaspora consists of two parts.
⢠ÎΚΏ (Dia) is a preposition which means âbetweenâ, âthroughâ or
âacrossâ, and, when used in compound words, gain a meaning of
division and dispersion.
⢠The word ĎĎξίĎĎ (speirĹ) literally translates as "I sowâ, or âI scatter
seeds".
12. Diaspora = communities of dispersion
(TĂślĂślyan)
⢠Dispersion (to sow) ⢠Settling down (Growing roots)
13. 1850s-60s
Crossing the borders of Qing
Empire and Russian Empire
1937 - Deportation to Central Asia (MASSIVE dispersion)
Cultural isolation in kolkhoses
Restricted mobility
Growing roots
1950s - death of Stalin; Khruschevâs speech on Cult of
Personality
Freedom to move â urbanization and seasonal migration
across the USSR
Growing roots
1990s - Collapse of the Soviet Union
New wave of dispersion
2000s - Migration to South Korea
Dispersion and Growing roots?
1920s â the USSR established
Korenizatsiya
Growing roots
14. Koryo-Saram diaspora â a missing meso-link?
Letâs take an example of the 1850s-60s when Koreans were crossing the
borders of Qing Empire and Russian Empire
In year 1858 the Treaty of Aigun and in 1860 Treaty of Beijing (Peking)
were signed between Tsarist Russia and Qing Dynasty represented by
Manchu rulers (Manchuria).
New territory - 600,000 square kilometres â started belonging to
Russian Empire (Far East of Russia)
This event thereby established a borderline not only between two geo-
political rivals in the Amur region â future China and Soviet Russia â but
also the Joseon Dynasty (future North Korea) in the Maritime region.
15.
16. Table 2: The Increase Rate of Koreans Living in the Maritime Province 1906-1910
YEAR RUSSIAN KOREANS FOREIGN KOREANS TOTAL
1906 16965 17434 34399
1907 16007 29907 45914
1908 16190 29307 45497
1909 14799 36,755 51,544
1910 17080 33885 50965
l Note: G.N. Kim made this table, based on the report of Unterberger, Governor General of
Priamurskii Krai.
17. Stalin in 1920s: The policy of korenizatsiya
(growing roots)
⢠De-Russification â Marxism and the National Question (Stalin 1913)
⢠National identity â support of the minorities (against âthe Great-Russian
Chauvinism and Imperialismâ)
⢠105 Korean village soviets (councils) in mixed-nationality raion (district)
⢠An entire raion for the ethnic Koreans - the Pos'et Korean National Raion
(activities conducted entirely in the Korean language)
⢠380 Korean schools, two teachers' colleges, one pedagogical school, three
hospitals, a theatre, six journals, and seven newspapers (the largest of
which, Vanguard, had a circulation of 10,000).
⢠The 1937 Census showed 168,259 Koreans in the Far East of the Soviet
Union.
18. Stalin, Ezhov and Molotov â The Great Purge
1930-40s (dispersion)
⢠Re-Russification and assimmilation of minorities
⢠Ethnic minorities are increasingly seen as vulnerable to influence from
across the border
⢠âFifth columns" for expansionist states seeking to acquire Soviet
territory inhabited by their own ethnic group
⢠The Far-Eastern Koreans fell under this category of âunreliable
peopleâ and âenemies of the stateâ (Gelb 1995).
19.
20. To sum up
⢠Diasporas, as meso-level communities, are unique, but comparable;
they go beyond the national (macro-level) but are grounded in the
diverse narratives.
⢠While macro-level context constitutes the general dynamics of the
global history, the meso-level is filling the fundamental content of
how this dynamic is expressed in the real communities and
represented in the life stories.
21. âThe heart of diaspora is pain. The idea that you canât live in your ancestral
homeland, that you canât be where you want to be, that perhaps you canât practice
your religion or culture you otherwise would. But what results from the pain is
innovation, that you can change some of the traditions, and adopt them, and
modernise them, and make them relevant wherever you are.â
- Rabbi Joshua Stranton, from the documentary âJeronimoâ by Stephen
Juhn, November, 2019.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Faist, T. (2000). The volume and dynamics of international migration and transnational social spaces.
Faist, T. (2000). The volume and dynamics of international migration and transnational social spaces.
Risman, B. J. (2004). Gender as a social structure: Theory wrestling with activism. Gender & society, 18(4), 429-450.
The term was originally used in the two books of the Old Testament, the fifth book of Moses â Deuteronomy, and the book of Psalms. In both cases, the word was used in relation to Jewish people, dispersed in different Kingdoms, and through the verses were given hope to be regathered in Jerusalem.
Needless to say: during that time there were no nation-states in the modern sense.
The term originated in the Septuagint (Deuteronomy 28:25) in the phrase esÄ diaspora en pasais basileias tÄs gÄs âthou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earthâ.
The term in a way gives a command to a community to disperse, and yet settle down. As TĂślĂślyan calls it âcommunities of dispersionâ, let us define the main characteristics of the term diaspora, that I use in this work. These characteristics are the following:
It is a community with a shared identity (seeds)
It is dispersed (i.e. the element of the shared ancestral homeland, whether it exists or not anymore; important, not a nation-state, but a land that used to be a home for the original group that then got dispersed)
It settles down (the seeds were sown and have grown roots in the new land, but they still are the seeds of the original homeland).
Great Purge - Deportation of 1937 â from Amur Region to Central Asia
Till now there is no unanimity among historians about the real motives and reasons behind the mass terror, also called âGreat Purgeâ, âGreat Terrorâ or âEzhovshchinaâ, initiated by the Bolshevik leaders - Stalin, Ezhov and Molotov - between 1936 and 1938.
The dominant interpretation of motivation behind is two-fold: on one hand Stalin was losing his political legitimacy among the party members, so he needed a mass campaign, that would reclaim his political authority. At the same time, due to a worsening geopolitical situation, he needed to either physically eliminate (through mass execution) or disempower (through repressions and deportations) the âthreatsâ to his partyâs political legitimacy under his authority within it, which included local elites and generally groups of people who were allegedly disloyal to the regime. Stalin did not bother to choose so he did both.
Starting from 1930s the geopolitical situation grew tense, particularly exacerbated by the remilitarization of the Rhine zone, the war in Spain (where the concept of âfifth columnâ appeared first), and Hitlerâs rising militaristic aggressiveness. The threat of a full-fledged war and a potential menace of âinternal enemiesâ in case of WWII was much discussed in the mid-1930s by the party leadership. The hasty fears of the leadership resulted in the mass political campaign, also called Ezhovshchina, that aimed at putatively suspect of disloyalties among certain ethnic minorities, such as Germans, Uighurs, Koreans, at the borders with the political rivals of the communist state.
Deportation of the ethnic minorities was a key part of this mass political campaign. It became a horrifyingly impressive decision-making and executing mechanism for processing large numbers of repressed persons.
The Far-Eastern Koreans fell under this category of âunreliable peopleâ and âenemies of the stateâ (Gelb 1995). Korean peninsula by that time was under the military and political control of Japanese Empire (1910-1945), which was an ally of the Third Reich and a recent military competitor and war enemy of the Russian Empire in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). For that reason, Korean settlements in the border zone were seen as Japanese subjects and posed a threat to the regime as potential spies of the enemies (Lee, W. 2012:iv). All the accusations were annulled and Soviet Koreans were rehabilitated later after the death of Stalin, but in that historical context Bolsheviks did not pay much attention to âfine detailsâ and instead chose to eliminate the presumed threats with force and terror. By that time the number of Korean settlers in Primosrkiy Krai and Amur region reached approximately 180 000 to 200,000 people.
In 1937, as a part of the Great Purge, massive forced resettlements of different âunreliableâ ethnic groups, including ethnic Koreans, took place. During September and November of that year all Koreans living in the Far East were displaced and forcefully transported to Central Asia, primarily Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (G.N.Kim).
Stalin, Molotov and Ezhov - heads, respectively, of the party, state and security police
Previous Bolshevik ideological and political leader â Vladimir Lenin â died in 1924
https://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/articles/2017/06/29/701835-fenomen-terrora
The Soviet policy of korenizatsiya (indigenisation) resulted in the creation of 105 Korean village soviets (councils) in mixed-nationality raion, as well as an entire raion for the Korean nationality, the Pos'et Korean National Raion; these conducted their activities entirely in the Korean language. The Soviet Koreans had a large number of their own official institutions, including 380 Korean schools, two teachers' colleges, one pedagogical school, three hospitals, a theatre, six journals, and seven newspapers (the largest of which, Vanguard, had a circulation of 10,000). The 1937 Census showed 168,259 Koreans in the Soviet Union. However, officials in the Russian Far East viewed the Koreans' ethnic and family ties to the Japanese Empire with suspicion, which would soon set the stage for the deportation of the whole population.
Till now there is no unanimity among historians about the real motives and reasons behind the mass terror, also called âGreat Purgeâ, âGreat Terrorâ or âEzhovshchinaâ, initiated by the Bolshevik leaders - Stalin, Ezhov and Molotov - between 1936 and 1938.
The dominant interpretation of motivation behind is two-fold: on one hand Stalin was losing his political legitimacy among the party members, so he needed a mass campaign, that would reclaim his political authority. At the same time, due to a worsening geopolitical situation, he needed to either physically eliminate (through mass execution) or disempower (through repressions and deportations) the âthreatsâ to his partyâs political legitimacy under his authority within it, which included local elites and generally groups of people who were allegedly disloyal to the regime. Stalin did not bother to choose so he did both. Stalin, Molotov and Ezhov - heads, respectively, of the party, state and security police
Previous Bolshevik ideological and political leader â Vladimir Lenin â died in 1924
