Koryo-Saram

Koryo Saram - Descendants of Stalin's deported Koreans in Uzbekistan​

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The “Koryo-saram” are the descendants of ethnic Koreans forcibly deported to Uzbekistan in 1937 by Joseph Stalin, and today they form the largest Korean community outside the Korean peninsula. More than 170,000 Koreans were removed from Russia’s Far East and sent in freight trains to Uzbekistan, accused of potential collaboration with Japan as spies. Thousands died along the way, while those who survived rebuilt their lives in collective farms scattered across the country in extreme conditions of poverty.

Over the decades, their descendants became an integral part of Uzbek society. They built schools, ran collective farms, and helped modernize the country’s agriculture. Yet, as the Soviet years passed, their connection to Korea gradually faded. The language of their ancestors, Koryo-mar, survived only among the elderly, while younger generations grew up speaking Russian or Uzbek. By the 1990s, few could read or write Korean, and many felt caught between worlds — not entirely Uzbek, not entirely Korean.

At home, most families still speak Russian, cook plov (the national Uzbek dish) and kimchi (the Korean one) side by side, and identify primarily as Uzbek citizens. And when some young Koryo-saram travel to South Korea, they often face a new form of distance: there, they are seen as outsiders — Wea-gug, “foreign Koreans” — unfamiliar with modern Korean life or language.

Today, however, a new generation is quietly re-discovering their roots thanks to the Korean Wave, a social phenomenon that has spread South Korean popular culture, including K-pop music, TV dramas, films, and fashion.

In Tashkent, cultural revival is emerging, led by young Koryo-saram aged 18 to 30. Their rediscovery of “Koreanness” is happening not through political or religious means, but through music, film, and food.

In dance studios across Tashkent, young people rehearse the choreographies of BTS and Blackpink. Fan clubs organize K-pop nights, dance contests and Korean language exchanges. At Bucheon University, a Korean branch campus in the capital, students immerse themselves in language programs and cultural activities that bring together Koryo-saram and Uzbek classmates.

Young Uzbeks are also increasingly engaging with Korean culture. Institutions like the King Sejong Institute in Tashkent report that approximately 40% of their students are ethnic Uzbeks, drawn by a fascination with Korean music and film, or the allure of emigrating to South Korea for work or education.