Introduction
During the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945), Korea, Russia (USSR) and Japan shared a turbulent time due to war, revolution, colonial rule, and anti-Japanese movements. At the time, many Koreans resisted the Japanese imperialist regime's socioeconomic exploitation and attempts to obliterate the Korean people. They carried out an active anti-Japanese movements beyond the Korean Peninsula, like in the region of Russian Far East, either as passive or as active participants in the movement, while frequently turning into victims of Japanese suppression. Koreans in Russian Far East also participated both in the Russian revolutionary movement in 1917 and in anti-Japanese partisan activities in the 1920s. During the 1930s, The Soviet Koreans. as farmers and industrial workers, in the Far East also participated in agricultural collectivization and industrialization while they carried out their duties as Soviet citizens during World War II. During the period of Japanese colonization of Korea, the Soviet Union kept a close eye on Japan, which was trying to expand its territory to the Soviet Far East. Throughout the Japanese colonial period, the Russian/Soviet government produced a large amount of reports and official documents on Soviet Koreans living in the Far East as it had to control, monitor, and sometimes mobilize for political, economic, as well as security purposes. Until now, many Korean researchers collected a large amount of those documents from Russian archives since the early 1990s, when the archives were opened to the public. However, many problems have persisted in using the documents because they were not systematically organized. In order to solve these problems, we built a database that help researchers have access to the precious archival materials in a highly systematical way.
Expect Effect / Research Utilization
The Database for Russian Archival Documents(DRAD) we created will fulfil the following academic, social, and educational goals. ? Accessibility to the data will be enhanced as experts in Russian history analyzed, annotated, and sorted out Russian documents. ? DRAD will contribute to the establishment of an academic research data hub as scholars and researchers in research institutes and organizations will continually reference and use the data. ③ DRAD will make compilation of Korea-related materials, related to the Japanese colonial period, possible. These data from the Russian archives are currently scattered thoughout many countries, including Russia, Japan, and China. Collected data are often duplicated and scattered across various institutions, without being systematically classified and analyzed. Therefore, the DRAD will laid the foundation for the systematical collection of related documents in the future. ④ By using DRAD, researchers can analyzes a large amount of data during a short period of time. This will help them expand and deepen their research topics in various fields such as politics, society, and cultural history. DRAD will ultimately diversification, expansion, and elaboration of research topics possible. ⑤ DRAD will play a socially significant role in increasing popular knowledge of Russia, one of the countries for Korean diaspora, and its history as public can have an easy access to historical documents through the database ⑥ DRAD will also contribute to nurturing next-generation young researchers who are interested in this topic as it provides convenient access to primary sources on Russia-Korea relations. ⑦ DRAD will help policy-makers as it provides reliable grounds for establishing government policies related to the investigation of historic events during the Japanese colonial era, such as anti-Japanese independence movements by Korean socialists in Russian Far East.
Project Name : Basic Research Support for Foundational Human/Social Science Researches
Chief of Research : Song Jun-seo
Research Institution : Hankuk University of Foreign Studies(Global Campus)
Research Period : 5 Years (SEPTEMBER 01, 2017 - AUGUST 31, 2022)
