The failure of Korean sericulture in Russian and Soviet Primorye

Abstract

In the 19th century, in the Russian Empire sericulture developed in Kuban, Northern Caucasus, Stavropol, Turkestan and Far Eastern Primorye. In Korea, neighboring the Russian Far East, sericulture was borrowed from ancient China: some Korean settlers were skilled in sericulture - from growing mulberry trees to producing silk fabric. Although the main economic activity of Korean peasants was agriculture, in Russia they continued some other traditional activities. With the establishment of the Bolshevik power, sericulture became a collective-farm production in the mainstream of agricultural collectivization. However, sericulture ceased to exist for the following objective reasons: climate in Primorye, remoteness from silk-spinning centers, lack of infrastructure for producing silk fabric and, most importantly, the Communist Party and Soviet government directives for the development of sericulture in southern regions and the deportation of Koreans to Kazakhstan and Central Asia in 1937. Nevertheless, the history of Korean sericulture in Primorye deserves special study. The article is based on archival documents, published materials, newspapers in Russian and Korean, and studies of the history of Koreans in the Russian Far East: localization of mulberry plantations; methods and economy of sericulture (production and trade) in the domestic and foreign markets; reasons for failure of sericulture in Soviet Primorye.