The Lost Heritage of Koryoin: Citizen or Outcast?

Abstract

The icy winds of the Baltic bite deep into the bones of barely-clothed prisoners of an unnamed war camp. The cold is unbearable in the frigid Prussian hinterlands, the chatter minimal, and everyone is huddling to survive. Amidst the stale air of death and starvation, small clouds of melodic choir powerfully pierce through the hushed chill: “Ari-rang, ar-ri-rang, ara-ri-yo...”1 From the bellies of a group of Koryo Saram, the Korean folk anthem wistfully winds its way through the barbed wires, straining to reach back home. In a curious, seeming oddity, ethnic Koreans, Koryoin, found themselves conscripted from the Far Eastern regions to fight for the Russian Empire thousands of miles away on the Eastern Front of World War I. During a particularly brutal beatdown at the Battle of Tannenberg, a lethal saber thrust into the heart of Russian Northwest forces, 4,000 ethnic Koreans2 were among the 90,000 Russian soldiers taken as prisoners of war. A small minority of these Koryo Saram, or Koryoin, would soon be afforded some warmth at Humboldt University, where German linguist Dr. Wilhelm Albert Döggen studied their language and music.