Representations of Koreans in Russia in the Russian Press in the Second Half of the Nineteenth–Early Twentieth Centuries

The Korean diaspora has lived in the Russian Far East since the nineteenth century. The history of the Korean diaspora’s existence in the region was politicized for several reasons. Due to Chosŏn’s pursuit of an isolationist policy until the mid-nineteenth century, to the Russian population Koreans were almost unknown. Small groups of Koreans were located in the south of the Far East of Russia in the first half of the nineteenth century, but they rarely contacted the administration. The Russian population met with Koreans during the forced mass migration from the Korean peninsula in the second half of the nineteenth century. The attitude in Russia toward Koreans often changed and was based on the impressions and conclusions of those who met them or gathered information about them and subsequently published their notes in print. The description of these representations is limited to 1911—the beginning of the Amur expedition (1911–1912)—which changed not only the representation of the Koreans in the Russian Far East but also many other aspects of the region. The aim of this article is to consider and analyze representations of Koreans in Russian society before 1911. Elements of the sources and narratives for this piece are introduced to science and academia for the first time.