At various times, these Koreans of the former Soviet Union were identified by names such as ``Hanin,'' ``Chosonin,'' ``Soviet Koryo minjok,'' ``Koryo saram'' or ``Koryoin,'' each with different historical, political and cultural implications.

However, now ``Koryoin'' is widely used by Koreans in South Korea and throughout the CIS.

This year major cities in the CIS, including Moscow, Novosibirisk, Vladivostok and Rostov, are planning a variety of events to officially commemorate the 140th anniversary of the first Korean migration to Russia.

In fact, historical documents show that in the winter of 1863, thirteen Korean peasant families crossed the Tuman (Tumen) River into Russia, leaving their ancestors' tombs and home villages behind. So strictly speaking, this year's commemoration in the CIS should have occurred last year.

In contrast to overseas Koreans in other countries, painful memories mark the experience of Koreans in Russia and the CIS. Since 1863, Koreans in the former Russian Empire have suffered wars, revolution, counterrevolution, political purges, collectivization, mass arrests, suppression, forced deportation, forced labor, drastic political changes and the rise of exclusive nationalism.

Even today, instability and insecurity continue to haunt Koreans in the CIS. Although 12 years have already passed since the Central Asian republics gained independence, the future of the Koreans there remains especially unpromising.

Distinct from the majority of Koreans in the CIS, Koreans who migrated to the southern part of Sakhalin Island under Japanese control from the late 1930s to 1945 represent a unique historical legacy.

All of a sudden, these Koreans became Soviet citizens when Japan lost its territory on Sakhalin to advancing Soviet troops in 1945. Unlike the majority of ``Koryoin,'' whose grandparents and parents departed from Hamgyong Provinces, these Sakhalin Koreans came mostly from the southern Korean provinces of Kyongsang and Cholla.

They spoke their own dialect, and as Japanese subjects, they escaped Stalin's forced deportation of Koreans from the Far East in 1937.

As a result, these Sakhalin Koreans reportedly experienced a kind of discrimination from their compatriot Koreans in Central Asia, whom they called ``kunttang baeggi'' (``continental people¡¯¡¯ or ``big land people''). The different historical and regional experience of the Sakhalin and Central Asian Koreans continue to shape their separate, often conflicting views on political, social, and cultural issues related to society in the CIS, as well as toward the two Koreas.

Stalin's forced deportation of Koreans from the Russian Far East to Central Asia devastated the achievements of Korean communities. For almost 70 years prior to the deportations, Korean communities overcame the challenges posed by ethnic discrimination under the Tsars, violent revolution and brutal civil war.

Nevertheless, early Tsarist officials recognized the Korean immigrant's great contribution to economic development in the Russian Far East, which Imperial Russia had obtained from Qing China.

During the 1917-1922 Russian Civil War, anti-Japanese Korean patriots fought together with Russian revolutionary forces to ``liberate'' the Far East from the ``white guards'' and foreign occupation forces that included Japanese ``expeditionary forces.'' But then Stalin's execution of at least 2,500 Korean leaders before and after the forced deportations of 1937 seriously damaged the political, social, cultural and educational cohesion of the Korean communities.

After the deportation, the Soviet government broke its promise to reimburse all livestock, crops and properties. Even today, the governments of Russia and other Central Asian states show no signs of keeping that promise in the near future.

The Soviet government dispersed about 200,000 Koreans in Central Asia, an area about 20 times larger than the Maritime Province where Koreans lived before 1937.

Koreans could migrate outside Central Asia after 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev repudiated Stalin at the 20th Communist Party Congress. For a long time, it was taboo for Koreans to talk about the forced deportation and Stalin's suppression.

Despite such political restrictions and hardship, Koreans cultivated wild lands, establishing 57 kolkhozes (collective farms) in Kazakhstan and 48 in Uzbekistan. As part of the Soviet Union, Korean farmers contributed to the economy of both Central Asia and Russia by greatly increasing the production of rice and cotton. Some Korean kolkhozes obtained a famous reputation throughout the Soviet Union. Compared with other ethnic groups, Koreans in the former Soviet Union achieved a higher and more stable political and educational status.

However, the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Central Asian republics undermined the successful ``sovietization'' of Koreans. The creation of new states separated Korean families between new borders against their will, as living standards plummeted in the economic transition from socialism.

More than a decade after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian government and the successor states in Central Asia still hesitate to resolve the ongoing issues confronting Koreans throughout the CIS.

In 1993 the Russian Federal Supreme Soviet issued ``a law concerning the rehabilitation of Russian Koreans'' that allowed for Koreans in Russia to advance their social, economic and cultural development.

However, this law does not provide any substantial or realistic solutions for Koreans. Due to their own difficulties, Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan also do not demonstrate any efforts to find concrete solutions for the problems of Koreans.

In particular, all the CIS governments need to cooperate on the question of compensation for the Koreans who lost property in the forced deportation to Central Asia. Since these issues originated in the Soviet period, the Russian government must bring attention to the difficult situation of Koreans in the former Soviet Union by initiating cooperation among the CIS member states.

The Republic of Korea should also ask Russia and the other CIS governments to take positive action on the various problems facing Koreans in the CIS.

In looking back at the history of Koreans in Russia we must confront the truth about its ``dark side,'' the enduring challenges of discrimination and suppression. However, in retrospect, we must balance that experience against the ``bright side'' of over 140 years that also demonstrate true cooperation and friendship between Russians and Koreans.