Features of the Russian Koreans’ Collective Memory: The Trauma of Deportation

Аннотация

The article is about research into features of Russian Koreans’ collective memory of the 1937 deportation. The author’s aim has been to conduct a substantive analysis of semantic and sociopsychological aspects of memory of the deportation among different generations of Koreans, and to address the way they experience their history, the degree of reflection that they accord to it, and the influence of this memory on their social wellbeing and the definition of their identity. The methodological basis of the research is comprised by Jeffrey C. Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, Ron Eyerman’s theory of collective memory, Aleida Assmann’s theory of historical memory and Victor Shnirelman’s theory of the structure of ethnic identity. The method of empirical research is in-depth biographical interviews. As a result, various semantic aspects relating to memory of the deportation among different generations of Koreans have been identified: the trauma inflicted by captivity, the loss of identity, the decapitalisation of ancestral experience, a tendency towards conformism and loyalty to the powers that be, and an avoidance of critical evaluations of the deportation and its consequences. The necessity of a comprehensive working-through of their social and cultural trauma by the Korean community is established. The article is based on field material, namely interviews with representatives of three generations of Russian Koreans which the author conducted in 2020 in Yekaterinburg.