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Abstract

The paper focuses on the issues of a linguistic loss, breakdown of cultural transmission and identity crisis among ethnic Koreans in Kazakhstan deported from the Far East in 1937 during the Soviet era. Drawing upon archival data from the Central State Archive and the Archive of the President of Kazakhstan, other historical accounts, memories, contemporary cultural discourses and narratives among the second and third generations of Koreans about their cultural heritage in Kazakhstan, the current study explores and analyzes the processes and outcomes of the linguistic loss and breakdown of cultural transmission among deported Koreans in Kazakhstan. The findings of the study have indicated that the breakdown of cultural transmission, linguistic loss, identity crisis, adaptation and integration of Korean communities into local socio-cultural environments were caused and facilitated by the top-down state-orchestrated forced uprooting and assimilationist practices and policies of the Soviet regime. The findings have also demonstrated that the cultural and linguistic losses within Korean communities in Kazakhstan were caused by the violent deportation of Koreans from their own cultural environment to unknown and inhospitable socio-cultural milieus, which brought about collective national trauma and breakdown of social cohesion within Korean communities in exile. The findings have also shown that due to the top-down state-inspired policies, the Soviet regime systematically suppressed the Korean language, restricted and eliminated it from education, reducing it to domestic usage, which gradually resulted in cultural erosion, language loss and assimilation of Koreans in Kazakhstan. The disruption of cultural transmission and language loss among Koreans in Kazakhstan was owing to the large-scale, long-term and sustained policies of the Soviet regime that facilitated and ensured their integration into the Russian-speaking Soviet culture. The current study contributes to a larger body of scholarly literature on lived experiences, collective national trauma, cultural and linguistic losses, disruption of social cohesion and breakdown of cultural transmission across generations among deported ethnic communities in exile in Kazakhstan in the Soviet era.

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This paper examines the little-studied presence of Jewish individuals and families in Kashgar from the late nineteenth century until the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. While Jewish history in Central Asia has often focused on major Bukharan communities, Kashgar remains largely absent from scholarship despite its role as a major commercial and cultural crossroads. Drawing on Russian consular documentation, Hebrew sources, European travel accounts, and regional historiography, the study reconstructs fragmentary evidence of Jewish merchants, local encounters, and religious initiatives in the city.

The paper approaches Kashgar not as a peripheral extension of Central Asian Jewish networks but as a distinct urban frontier shaped by imperial rivalry, caravan trade, and a multiethnic social environment. Microhistorical cases, including merchant biographies, episodes of violence, and references to a synagogue and ritual life, reveal how Jewish actors navigated Muslim and Chinese contexts while maintaining flexible social identities. Particular attention is given to the striking absence of Jewish voices in local Uyghur narratives. This silence suggests that small diasporic groups were embedded within the plural urban fabric and became visible primarily through external observers such as consuls, missionaries, and travelers.

Unexpected sources further illuminate the cultural perception of Jewish presence. Early ethnographic descriptions of healing rituals that categorized Jewish spirits alongside Muslim and Christian ones indicate that Jews formed part of the regional religious imagination even when their demographic footprint was minimal. These materials provide insight into how minority identities were recognized, translated, or reinterpreted within local cosmologies.

Methodologically, the paper combines archival reconstruction with historical anthropology to explore questions of minority visibility, mobility, and adaptation in a frontier city. By foregrounding Kashgar itself as the central analytical lens, the study argues that Jewish history in Xinjiang reveals a form of localized connectivity in which small communities mediated commercial and cultural exchange while leaving only faint traces in regional historical memory. The case of Kashgar, therefore, contributes to broader debates on urban borderlands, intercultural contact, and the historical dynamics of Central Eurasia.

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This paper traces the evolution of Korean identity in Kazakhstan from the late 1930s into the modern day. Drawing on a combination of primary and secondary sources, including personal testimonies, interviews, ethnographic data, and state policies, it argues that the formation and continuation of Koryo Saram identity is not a static preservation of traditional heritage but a dynamic and ever-evolving convergence of cultural fusion shaped by shifting trends in state policy, historical memory, international political tensions, and generational transmission. Uprooted and subjected to brutal conditions of deportation and resettlement, Korean people were forced to completely reconstruct their identity in the unfamiliar Kazakh steppes. With help from local Kazakh populations, these communities were eventually able to establish themselves as useful to the Soviet enterprise while adapting and evolving their linguistic, culinary, and communal traditions to work within Soviet cultural assimilation policies. Throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the second generation of Koryo Saram started to shift further away from their Korean roots, embracing a more Russified identity within Central Asia that reflected a broader historical suppression of collective memory and trauma. Tracing the generational transference of tradition and historical memory, the paper ultimately concludes with a reflection on Koryo Saram identity in the 21st century. With a renewed interest in Korean cultural practices brought on by the K-Wave and a rising trend of ethnic repatriation from Kazakhstan to South Korea, this paper offers an open ended interpretation of the legacy and potential of this ethnic evolution. As scholarship on the Koryo Saram remains relatively limited, this study contributes to the ongoing reconstruction of Korean history, culture, and identity in Central Asia. Moreover, it contributes to a broader understanding of diasporic identity formation in the Soviet and post-Soviet space.