Abstract:

The paper explores one of the darkest pages of the history of the Polish and Korean peoples linked to their deportations from the Far East in 1937, from Ukraine in 1936, and in 1940-1941 to Kazakhstan. We critically analyze and compare the experiences of the uprooted Poles and Koreans in Kazakhstan, their marginalization, dehumanization, and cultural assimilation. The central argument of the study is that the deportation of Poles and Koreans from their historical homeland was carried out based exclusively on their ethnicity. The major goal of the current study is not the thorough historical analysis of the genesis, evolution, main stages, and outcome of the Polish and Korean deportation to Kazakhstan, but rather how those Poles and Koreans who were forcible removed from their homelands were subjected to dehumanization, marginalization, as well as how they experienced collective suffering, national trauma, identity crisis, cultural and linguistic loss, and cultural assimilation. We argue that the real intention of the Soviet regime’s genocidal policy was not confined only to the collective punishment and extermination of Poles and Koreans as a distinct ethnic group, but the regime also sought to subject the deported Poles and Koreans to slave labor exploitation for profit and to forced Russification. The assumption here is that Poles and Koreans were uprooted from their homelands not only for extermination, but also the Soviet regime considered Poles and Koreans to be an important component of its nation building project and their assimilation into Russian-dominated society was on the totalitarian regime’s agenda. We deploy the concepts of ethnicization and racialization as a theoretical underpinning of the study to further deepen our analysis and indicate how ethnic identities of Poles and Koreans were racialized. The study draws upon archival sources and the existing literature on the history of deportation in the Soviet Union, specifically we increasingly focus on Polish and Korean deportees’ collective and individual experiences who went through horrendous dehumanization and brutalization in exile in Kazakhstan.