Abstract
As a multiethnic country, the early Soviet
regime had to create a transnational identity, and it did so by arming Soviet
citizens with socialism as a means to integrate the diverse ethnic groups in
the country. Physical cultural activities were used as one of the tools to
create this transnational identity. These early Soviet policies affected the
local ethnic minority of Soviet Korean people in Primorye, USSR. As a communist
party organ, the Soviet Korean newspaper Sunbong (Avant Garde) was the primary
source used to observe the Soviet Koreans' Sovietization from 1923 to 1937
(from the birth of the USSR to the Soviet Korean Deportation). According to
Sunbong, Soviet Korean physical cultural activities are classified into four
main types: (i) socialist education for youth; (ii) national defense; (iii)
health and hygiene; and (iv) presenting the new Soviet Korean Dano physical
culture day. Therefore, Soviet Koreans focused on physical cultural activities
to form a transnational identity – these activities served as a barometer of
Sovietization and internationalization while simultaneously presenting and
maintaining the Soviet Koreans' ethnic identity.