Stalin Achieved His Goal - August 30th 2023

August 30th 2023

Yuriy recounts the story of a fellow soldier, Kim, a Ukrainian of Korean origin whose family was forcibly deported and suppressed by Stalin's regime, paralleling their experiences with the Russian tactics of erasing identities and cultural heritage in Ukraine, yet the resilience and determination to preserve Ukrainian identity remains despite ongoing attempts by the Russians to obliterate it.

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TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions)

It is 30th of August. 

At the very beginning of a full scale invasion, I served with a Korean guy. Even his last name was as Korean as possible, Kim. At the same time, he didn't speak Korean, had never been to his historical homeland, and in general knew very little about Korea. I will now tell a little about how it happened, and you will understand why this story is important in the context of our war. So our Kim was born in Ukraine, went to an ordinary Ukrainian kindergarten, went to school, spoke Ukrainian since childhood, did not hear Korean even at home because his parents were forbidden to speak their native language. His parents were born in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. 

Their families ended up there against their own will, they were exiles. They were forcibly deported from the native cities and villages where they lived for centuries. Thousands of Koreans came under Russian rule in 19th century when the Russians, concrete, large areas of Far East. Among these territories were those on which Koreans lived for a long time. For a while the Russian authorities paid almost no attention to them. They were allowed to have their own schools, their own newspapers, and celebrate Korean holidays. Even after the Bolsheviks came to power, Koreans maintained a certain level of autonomy. 

But when Stalin's dictatorship began. The tyrant very quickly quarreled with Japan, and even before the beginning of the Second World War, he managed to get into a short armed conflict with it.

At what time Koreans did not have their own state. Their lands were under Japanese occupation. So the inhabitants of these lands, mostly ethnic Koreans, were Japanese citizens. That is, in the eyes of Soviet authorities, they were enemies. And Stalin saw Soviet Koreans as, as potential traitors, the fifth column of the Japanese. He declared them enemies and began repression. Writers, teachers, priests were shot. All others, the entire nation, were sent into exile into Central Asia. 

They were forbidden to speak their native language even at home. They were forbidden to celebrate their holidays. They were ordered to forget that they are Koreans. Koreans were the first people to be deported from their native places .Then their faith was shared by Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars and others. Someone was more fortunate the Chechens were allowed to return home immediately after Stalin's death. Some less fortunate, the Crimean taters, for example, were never allowed to return. They did it themselves under the threat of new deportations and prison terms. 

The Koreans were allowed to return home, but it turned out that the farms were destroyed. Strangers were living in their homes and no one was waiting for them there. And these Koreans simply scattered around the Soviet Union in search of better faith. That's how my Kim's grandparents and their kids ended up in Ukraine. They no longer knew their native language, did not remember the tales and stories of their people they only had surnames from the Koreans. That is, Stalin achieved his goal. Koreans stopped being Koreans. They lost themselves. 

And this is almost exactly what the Russians did to the Koreans in the 1930s, they now trying to do to the Ukrainians. They want to physically destroy the bearers of Ukrainian consciousness as they once killed the Korean intelligentsia and make everyone else forget that they are Ukrainians. And Kim, with whom we fought together, said "The Russians took away from my parents the feeling that we're Koreans, and now they're trying to take away my pride in the fact that I'm Ukrainian of Korean origin, but they won't succeed.