False Narratives and the Reality of History: The Deportation of Soviet Koreans in 1937

This working paper highlights the relatively unknown deportation of Soviet Koreans, the first of several state deportations based on ethnicity carried out by the Soviet Union. The forced displacement, mainly to Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, was highly classified during Soviet times, leading to misunderstandings and subsequent misrepresentations of the event by Western scholars and the creation of multiple inaccurate narratives, including that of ethnic cleansing. By conducting an interdisciplinary study, the author critically analyses widespread misconceptions about the deportation of the Soviet Koreans and provides objective data on the issue and its long-lasting effects on the Soviet Koreans who survived deportation and their descendants.

Published on June 4, 2026

German Kim, Ekaterina Pesegova (transl.) | all, IDPs, Ethnicity, Politics

Rural Uzbekistan. Photo by w0zny is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

KEYWORDS: Soviet Koreans, USSR, Deportation, Exile, Displacement

Dr. German Kim, a descendant of Koreans who began settling in the Russian Far East in the late 19th century and were deported to the Central Asian republics under Stalinism in 1937, is one of the most internationally renowned scholars to have studied the Koryo-Saram community. Dr. Kim is the director of the Institute of Asian Studies at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Kazakhstan and Professor of the Department for Far East Studies, Faculty for Oriental Studies. He is the author of more than 70 articles and books, including three volumes of the History of Korean Immigration.

Ekaterina Pesegova (translator) is a graduate of the master’s programme in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies from the University of London and a professor at Free U (Latvia). Her academic pursuits revolve around temporary protection policies provided worldwide for Ukrainians after the full-scale Russian invasion. As an editor of the Researching Internal Displacement platform, Ekaterina focuses on informing audiences about forced displacement caused by active and frozen armed conflicts on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

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Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

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