Soviet deportations of Chinese people

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet government forcibly transferred thousands of Chinese nationals and ethnic Chinese Soviet citizens^[1]^[2]^: 561^[3]^: 337 from the Russian Far East.^[4]^{: Dedication} Most of the deportees were relocated to the Chinese province of Xinjiang and Soviet-controlled Central Asia.^[5]^: 53 Although there were more than 70,000 Chinese living in the Russian Far East in 1926, the Chinese had become almost extinct in the region by the 1940s.^[6]^: 73^[7]^: 61 To date, the detailed history of the removal of Chinese diasporas in the region remains to be uncovered and deciphered from the Soviet records.^[7]^: 61

Often considered strangers to Soviet society, the Chinese were more prone to political repression, due to their lack of exposure to propaganda machines and their unwillingness to bear the hardship of socialist transformation.^[8]^: 75 From 1926 to 1937, at least 12,000 Chinese were deported from the Russian Far East to the Chinese province of Xinjiang,^[5]^: 53 around 5,500 Chinese settled down in Soviet-controlled Central Asia,^[5]^: 53 and 3,932 were killed.^[5]^: 54 In the meantime, at least 1,000 Chinese were jailed in forced penal labour camps in Komi and Arkhangelsk near the Arctic.^[5]^: 55 Even today, some villages in Komi are still called "Chinatown" because of the Chinese prisoners held in the 1940s and 1950s.^[2]^: 191 Unlike other deported peoples, the deportation of Chinese and Koreans was carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) members of their own nationalities.^[9]^: 5 While Koreans, Chinese and Japanese were forced to leave the Russian Far East, the Soviet government launched the Khetagurovite Campaign to encourage single female settlers in the Far East, which unwittingly replaced part of the deported Asian populations.^[10]^: 407

The human rights group Memorial International kept the records of over 2,000 Chinese victims of Soviet political repression, yet it has been almost impossible to recognise their original Chinese names from Russian scripts.^[1] On 30 April 2017, the Last Address set up an inscribed board in memory of Wang Xi Xiang, a Chinese victim of the Great Purge, at the Moscow Office of the International Committee of the Red Cross.^[11]

^ ^a ^b Chen, Qiming (2014). "旅苏华人遭受政治迫害史实" [The History of Political Persecution of Chinese in the Soviet Union]. Yanhuang Chunqiu (in Simplified Chinese) (3): 89-93.
^ ^a ^b Applebaum, Anne (2010). Gulag: A History. New York: Anchor eBooks. ISBN 978-0-307-42612-3. OCLC 681407459.
^ Martin, Terry (17 January 2017). The affirmative action empire : nations and nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Cornell University Press. doi:10.7591/9781501713323. ISBN 978-1-5017-1332-3.
^ Anča, Dmitrij Alekseevič; Mizʹ, Nelli (2015). Китайская диаспора во Владивостоке: страницы истории [Chinese diaspora in Vladivostok: pages of history] (in Russian). Vladivostok: Dal'nauka. ISBN 978-5-8044-1539-7. Archived from the original on 10 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Yin, Guangming (2016). "苏联处置远东华人问题的历史考察(1937—1938)" [A Historical Investigation of the Soviet Union's Handling of the Chinese Issue in the Far East (1937-1938)]. Modern Chinese History Studies (in Simplified Chinese) (2). Beijing: Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: 41. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022 – via Renmin University of China Library.
^ Borisovich, Fartusov Dmitry (2015). "Политические репрессии в СССР граждан Монголии и Китая на территории БМ АССР" [Political repressions in the USSR of citizens of Mongolia and China on the territory of the BM ASSR]. BSU Bulletin: Human Research of Inner Asia (in Russian) (1). Ulan-Ude: Buryat State University: 72–77. doi:10.18101/2306-753X-2015-1-72-77. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2019 – via Cyberleninka.
^ ^a ^b Liu, Tao; Pu, Junzhe (2010). "Development of the Far East of Russia and Overseas Chinese People" (PDF). Journal of Yanbian University (Social Sciences) (in Simplified Chinese). 43 (2). Yanbian: Yanbian University: 57–62. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via Institute of Migration Studies, Shandong University.
^ Andreevna, Malenkova Anastasia (2014). "Политика советских властей в отношении китайской диаспоры на Дальнем Востоке СССР в 1920— 1930 －Е ГГ" [The policy of the Soviet authorities towards the Chinese diaspora in the Far East of the USSR in 1920-1930s]. Far Eastern Studies (in Russian) (4). Moscow: Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences: 129. Archived from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via eLIBRARY.RU.
^ Chang, Jon K. (2016). Burnt by the sun : the Koreans of the Russian Far East. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824856786.001.0001. ISBN 9780824856786. JSTOR j.ctvvn2zf. OCLC 1017603651. Archived from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
^ Shulman, Elena (2003). "Soviet Maidens for the Socialist Fortress: The Khetagurovite Campaign to Settle the Far East, 1937-39". The Russian Review. 62 (3). Wiley-Blackwell for the University of Kansas: 387–410. doi:10.1111/1467-9434.00283. ISSN 0036-0341. JSTOR 3664463. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022 – via JSTOR.
^ "Грохольский переулок, 13, строение 1" [Building 1, Grokholsky Lane 13, Moscow] (in Russian). Last Address. 30 April 2017. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019. 30 апреля 2017 года по согласованию с МИД РФ, Росимуществом и ГлавУПДК «Последний адрес» установил на доме табличку в память о Ван Си Сяне. [On 30 April 2017, in coordination with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Property Management Agency, and the Chief Directorate of the Last Address installed a plaque on the house in memory of Wang Xi Xiang.]

[:12-1] Chen, Qiming (2014). "旅苏华人遭受政治迫害史实" [The History of Political Persecution of Chinese in the Soviet Union]. Yanhuang Chunqiu (in Simplified Chinese) (3): 89-93.

[Applebaum2010-2] Applebaum, Anne (2010). Gulag: A History. New York: Anchor eBooks. ISBN 978-0-307-42612-3. OCLC 681407459.

[:2-3] Martin, Terry (17 January 2017). The affirmative action empire : nations and nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Cornell University Press. doi:10.7591/9781501713323. ISBN 978-1-5017-1332-3.

[:1-4] Anča, Dmitrij Alekseevič; Mizʹ, Nelli (2015). Китайская диаспора во Владивостоке: страницы истории [Chinese diaspora in Vladivostok: pages of history] (in Russian). Vladivostok: Dal'nauka. ISBN 978-5-8044-1539-7. Archived from the original on 10 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.

[Yin_2016-5] Yin, Guangming (2016). "苏联处置远东华人问题的历史考察(1937—1938)" [A Historical Investigation of the Soviet Union's Handling of the Chinese Issue in the Far East (1937-1938)]. Modern Chinese History Studies (in Simplified Chinese) (2). Beijing: Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: 41. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022 – via Renmin University of China Library.

[6] Borisovich, Fartusov Dmitry (2015). "Политические репрессии в СССР граждан Монголии и Китая на территории БМ АССР" [Political repressions in the USSR of citizens of Mongolia and China on the territory of the BM ASSR]. BSU Bulletin: Human Research of Inner Asia (in Russian) (1). Ulan-Ude: Buryat State University: 72–77. doi:10.18101/2306-753X-2015-1-72-77. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2019 – via Cyberleninka.

[Liu_and_Pu_2010-7] Liu, Tao; Pu, Junzhe (2010). "Development of the Far East of Russia and Overseas Chinese People" (PDF). Journal of Yanbian University (Social Sciences) (in Simplified Chinese). 43 (2). Yanbian: Yanbian University: 57–62. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via Institute of Migration Studies, Shandong University.

[Andreevna_2014-8] Andreevna, Malenkova Anastasia (2014). "Политика советских властей в отношении китайской диаспоры на Дальнем Востоке СССР в 1920— 1930 －Е ГГ" [The policy of the Soviet authorities towards the Chinese diaspora in the Far East of the USSR in 1920-1930s]. Far Eastern Studies (in Russian) (4). Moscow: Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences: 129. Archived from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via eLIBRARY.RU.

[Burnt_by_the_Sun-9] Chang, Jon K. (2016). Burnt by the sun : the Koreans of the Russian Far East. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824856786.001.0001. ISBN 9780824856786. JSTOR j.ctvvn2zf. OCLC 1017603651. Archived from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2022.

[10] Shulman, Elena (2003). "Soviet Maidens for the Socialist Fortress: The Khetagurovite Campaign to Settle the Far East, 1937-39". The Russian Review. 62 (3). Wiley-Blackwell for the University of Kansas: 387–410. doi:10.1111/1467-9434.00283. ISSN 0036-0341. JSTOR 3664463. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022 – via JSTOR.

[:110-11] "Грохольский переулок, 13, строение 1" [Building 1, Grokholsky Lane 13, Moscow] (in Russian). Last Address. 30 April 2017. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019. 30 апреля 2017 года по согласованию с МИД РФ, Росимуществом и ГлавУПДК «Последний адрес» установил на доме табличку в память о Ван Си Сяне. [On 30 April 2017, in coordination with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Property Management Agency, and the Chief Directorate of the Last Address installed a plaque on the house in memory of Wang Xi Xiang.]

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