Rodina: The Generational Difference of Identity Among Soviet Koreans, 1937-1956

• In Event: Homeland in Exile: Navigating Belonging in the Soviet Union

Abstract

After Stalin's Great Purge and deportation of ethnic Koreans in the Russian Far East in the mid- to late 1930s, there was major disruption and destruction of the Soviet Korean community and institutions. Drawing on her archival and fieldwork research across Eurasia, the author examines generational differences in identity and belonging among Soviet Koreans, focusing on the years following the deportation and resettlement to the years following the Korean War and Khrushchev's "Secret Speech." She analyzes how the changing geopolitics of the mid-1940s and ’50s led the Soviet government to adopt a new view of Soviet Koreans, from “enemies of the people” to convenient tools for indoctrinating parts of East Asia, with the findings revealing the changing sense of identity among Soviet Koreans and how they perceived themselves and their place in society during this chaotic (post)war period.

Author

• Kim Lacey, Washington U in St. Louis