Koreans in Russia

Ethnic Korean Russians fall into one of two groups.

The first one is Far Eastern Koreans. There are about 150,000 of them. They are descendants of migrants from different northern provinces of Korea, who moved to the Russian Far East. Their parents and grandparents were brutally deported by the Communist dictator Stalin to Central Asia, mainly to Uzbekistan. The entire ethnicity of Koreans was accused of espionage in favor of Japan. In Central Asia, they lived in special settlements, as so-called "enemies of the people." After World War II, they dispersed across all of Russia and other regions of the USSR.

Mostly they didn't keep their language or ethnic traditions. Those who did keep the language, spoke a dialect that is very unlike modern Korean as spoken in South Korea. For example, they called kimchi chimchi, and prepared their famous Korean carrot salad, a dish unknown in actual Korea.

The other category of ethnic Korean Russians is the Karafuto Koreans of Sakhalin. Numbering about 30,000 people, they are descendants from South Koreans, many of whom have relatives in South Korea. They moved to Sakhalin, which was Japanese, and they became citizens of the USSR after World War II when the Japanese island was given to the Soviet Union. Most of them speak very good Korean and have kept up Korean traditions in their villages, families and society. However, they were isolated from either North or South Korea during several decades. After the normalization of South Korea-Russia ties, they can now visit their relatives in South Korea.

One of my Korean language teachers, Mrs. Kim, is a Karafuto Korean. She lives in a Moscow suburb, together with a large family, including children and grandchildren, and continues teaching Korean, despite of her very advanced age. Karafuto Koreans have both Korean and Russian names. Irina Sergeevna speaks excellent Korean, and was telling us many very interesting details about traditional Korean society and family life, time-honored customs and traditions. In Soviet times, she worked as a school teacher and a librarian. Mrs. Kim visited South Korea many times, as a guest of her relatives, as a tourist, as a teacher of Korean and as a translator.

The Far Eastern Koreans have Korean family names only, with corresponding Russian first and middle names. Their Korean names may have very strange forms, too, unknown in either North or South Korea. For example, a Korean woman from my students group has the family name I, the shortest family name ever! Tatiana I: she has that name written in her passport.

In the old Russian village of Grigorievskoye, "The Gregorian," lives a Korean family, Ann and Slava Lee, with their two sons. They take up a small apartment in an old double-storied, multi-apartment home, built under Khrushchev, with a gas heater and boiler. When I worked in their village with chimneys, Ann asked me to help repair their apartment’s flue. “When Slava returns home, he’ll help you.” Slava worked at a construction site in the neighboring village. Slava returned, and our work was done very quickly.

This happened in the 1990s, when in Russia most people simply did not receive their salaries. Making money for themselves and for their families was a real problem. However, Ann and Slava decided to show me thanks by sharing a delicious dinner with me. “Please take this meal. We bought it especially for you." "Please take this salad." We had a very interesting unhurried conversation. I saw that the apartment was very small, indeed. However, it was still a very clean and accurate one.

“You say that you were born in one town, and Slava in another. How did you ever meet?”

“How do you Koreans find each other?”

They are laughing.

“Here is the Korean savory meat you asked for. Please enjoy it."  I tried to taste it, but there was too much salt: pure salt and nothing else. 

On another day, I brought them some program pamphlets, papers and even a language course from Radio Korea. Throughout the year, I found Ann in that same apartment.

My dear Korean friends, where are you now?

By Vladimir Gudzenko

Korea.net Honorary Reporter

Photo:  Vladimir Gudzenko

Share this post