1937년 고려인 강제이주의 원인 및 과정*

It is well known that the Soviet-Koreans called Goryeo People(Soviet koreans) were deported from Far East of Russia to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other areas by Stalin regime in 1937. However, there is little studied on the major reasons for such deportation of Koreans in Russian Far East region to central Asia. The current academic views on the major reasons for the deportation of Koreans by Stalin regime include ‘distrust of Stalin regime in minorities’, ‘autocratic Stalin regime’, ‘demand for autonomous region by Korean’ and ‘skills of Koreans in rice farming’. However, the present author has the opinion that the major reason for the deportation of Koreans by the autocratic Stalin regime having biased socialism and nationalism was its thorough pursuit of utilitarian policy. From Stalin regime's perspective, the full-scale nationalization and collectivization between 1930 and 1936 led to chaotic heart in Soviet people, new economic system was not yet established and the war preparation against Fascism was not insufficient. On the other hand, the Japanese imperialism felt burden by Koreans who had the strong anti-Japan attitude and the tendency to move into the boundary area between Korea and Manchu region which was not under Japanese control. Under such circumstance, Stalin regime deported Koreans in Russian Far East area to central Asia to express their unwillingness to have a war against Japan. Stalin regime also tried to stabilize Far east region by signing 'Mutual Nonaggression Treaty' with the Chinese Nationalist Party in August 21, 1937. In other words, Stalin regime tried to get Japanese imperialism relieved to maintain the peace in Russian Far East region by deporting Koreans and save time to prepare the war by signing the ‘Nonaggression Treaty’ with German in the west region. In addition, the false charge of spying on the minorities at boundary areas including Koreans was a part of Stalin regime's governing policy to unify Soviet people. That is, they sacrificed minorities with the false charge of spying on them as a ‘useful tool’ to alleviate the dissatisfaction of Russian people due to the full-scale nationalization, increase the will to protect socialism and to unify their people by increasing the awareness of and anxiety against the fascist countries trying to invade the Soviet Union.