Repressive Policy as a Tool of Resolving the “Chinese Issue” in the USSR in the 1930s

Abstract

The authors analyze the dynamics of repressions in the 1920-1930s towards Chinese people permanently residing on the territory of the USSR. There is illustrated the interdependence of the naturalization of the Chinese and the punitive policy. It is shown that in the period of 1929-1936 there were several anti-Chinese campaigns in the Far East and Siberia, and there is given an assessment of their consequences. The authors refute the hypothesis of conducting a special “Chinese” operation in the USSR during the Great Terror of 1937-1938. Based on the materials of extrajudicial bodies and reporting statistics of the NKVD, it is concluded that this category of the population was referred to two “national” categories, namely, “Harbin” and “mixed.” It is proved that from February 1938 terror against the Chinese was escalated, but only in September 1938 did an independent “Chinese” category appear in the statistics of the NKVD; in total, during the years of the Great Terror, about 18,000 Chinese underwent “national” punitive actions. Repressions against them were justified by a single logic implemented in relation to foreign nationals, which nevertheless allowed some regions to intensify repressions against certain ethnic groups. It is well documented that the expulsions of Chinese outside the country were widely used; they were organized repressive campaigns. It is concluded that the political repressions and state actions in the field of naturalization led to the reduction in the size of the Chinese diaspora and changed the geography of its settlement.

Keywords

• chinese migrants
• citizenship
• foreigners
• foreign ethnic community
• stalinism