Soviet deportation of Koreans

The Soviet deportation of Koreans 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. 

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). It happened between September and October 1937.

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". As many as 50,000 Korean deportees died as a result. 

In 1953, Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971), despite condemning the excess of Stalinism, did not condemn the deportation of Koreans during his attempted de-Stalinization.

Casualties

As many as 50,000 Korean deportees are estimated to have died as a result of the deportation. Common causes of death were hunger and sickness. The death rate lied between 16.3% and 25%.

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, while some consider it one of the many Soviet crimes against humanity qualifiable as a genocide. 




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

Category:Racism
Category:Communism
Category:Deportations
Category:20th century in Asia
Category:Soviet crimes against humanity