뉴스레터

20 Years of My Relationship with Primorsky Krai

In the ancient history of Korea, Primorsky Krai is remembered in the realm of the histories of Koguryo and Balhae. After the fall of Balhae, Primorsky Krai was the place of diaspora for migrants from Balehae, until it was incorporated into the Qing Dynasty of China in modern history, and then into the Far East region of Russia in contemporary times. But the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and Russia came in first contact with the traditional culture of this region. Furthermore, the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty had kinship with Balhae, and Primorsky Krai became home to many ethnic Korean settlers scattered all over the region, the source of diaspora, as early as 150 years ago. The first things you will see in the Kraskino site as soon as the topsoil is removed are the remaining sites and relics of the ethnic Korean settlers before they were deported to Central Asia in the 1930s. In the strata below, of course, are buried the layers of Balhae culture, preserved as it was a thousand years ago. I can say that the Kraskino site is a precious time capsule of the Korean diaspora.

The excavation project resumed this year, but the preparatory steps hadn't been smooth because of so much paperwork required to be done beforehand by the Russian authorities. When I was finally on a flight from Incheon to Vladivostok, I hardly had the time to wonder how far I had flown over Yanji (延吉) before I heard the in-flight announcement of arrival. I remembered it was 1992 when I had first come here. Time has passed so fast since that I wonder where those years went. In 1990, Korea officially restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, about a century after the severance of diplomatic relations with the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. And it was the history of Balhae that has allowed me to visit such a country for the last two decades or so.

Upon arrival at the Vladivostok airport, the NAHF excavation team immediately went to the Kraskino site excavation camp where we set about preparing for excavation by setting up tents and excavation equipment. Since the goal of our project this year was to confirm the inner fortress, we had decided to focus on excavation more than ever. The next day, however, it rained all day long, prefiguring the weather conditions for the rest of our schedule. Although it stopped raining two days later, the Kraskino River had risen so high and was running so fast that it was impossible to cross it by raft to get to the site. On the fourth day, on July 18, Thursday, the members of the excavation teams from the two countries finally decided to bypass the river and use a higher path to get to the site. Getting to the site would normally have taken half an hour had we crossed the river by raft and walked. But it took up to an hour instead, because we had to use a 4 kilometer-long detour each way, crossing the railroad stretching from Kraskino Station toward Khasan Station. This railroad extends to the iron bridge over the Duman River, a border with North Korea. Throughout the project period, the river remained so high that we were forced to use this detour frequently. This essay is a look back on this year's excavation project of the Kraskino site, which could perhaps have been a long fruitless observation of the water and rains, and an outlook of future projects.

Yeomju Fortress of Balhae, a Memory of a Thousand Years

If you simply cross the iron bridge across the Duman River in North Hamgyeong Province in North Korea, you will get to Khasan Station in Russia. And if you head north from there, you will get to Kraskino Town, where in 1909 Ahn Jung-geun, along with eleven comrades, cut a finger to confirm his resolution to assassinate Ito Hirobumi. Kraskino is a geographical name that has become well known for the Balhae fortress site there which the Northeast Asian History Foundation has excavated and published reports on since its inception. Kraskino was named after a Russian war hero. But it used to be called Yenchu (煙秋) in Russian style, which is also the name of the river that runs into the sea next to the Balhae fortress. It all traces back to 'Yeomju (鹽州),' one of the sixty-two states set up a thousand years ago during the Balhae period. Yenchu is the modern-style pronunciation of the name 'Yeomju' from the Balhae period. Around the 1860s, our ancestors crossed the Duman River and then, one after another, settled down in Yenchu, turning the town into their second home. At one point, Yenchu developed into the largest Korean town in southern Primorsky Krai. A hundred and fifty years later, Yenchu today has become a link to the ethnic Koreans in Russia, the Korean diaspora. Kraskino (Yenchu) is the first destination in journeys from Khasan to Vladivostok, and it was Yeomju Town during the Balhae period. The Kraskino fortress that Korea and Russia have jointly excavated for twenty years was none other than the Yeomju fortress from the Balhae period.

During the Balhae period, this fortress was a hub that connected the continent to the ocean. It was by way of this fortress that people and goods from the Sangyeong fortress, the center of Balhae, reached Silla to the south and Japan through the East Sea. That is why Balhae was even called the road to Silla, or the road to Japan.

Rising Above the Challenge of the Flood to Produce Results, and Hope

The Kraskino (Yenchu, Yeomju) railroad extends east and west through this town. I cannot talk about this excavation project without talking about this railroad, because it exposed us to the most unforgettable natural environment we'd ever had. Our joint excavation of the Balhae fortress located in Kraskino, Primorsky Krai lasted for exactly one month beginning on July 15. Because of the rain that came every three to four days, the excavation process was extremely slow this year. Especially on the first weekend, the Yenchu River (Chukanovka River) overflowed, flooding the excavation camp thigh-deep in water. To ensure their safety, the members of the excavation team were evacuated to the elementary school in Kraskino Town, carrying nothing but essential equipment. Despite our efforts and attempts to go to the excavation site and back through a detour, the downpour and the flood over the weekend forced us to leave the camp and evacuate ourselves to the high land of the town. The flood was exceptional, the first in twenty-three years since 1990, and baffled everyone. As I would learn later back in Korea after the project, the flood damage was so severe that the Russian government even declared a state of emergency across Primorsky Krai beginning in mid-July.

The next day, however, like magic, the river sank back to normal, and the soil was restored in the Kranoski site, where we dug up the first bronze mirror ever in Primorsky Krai. That was an achievement great enough to attract media attention. When our project period was approaching an end, a TV reporter from Vladivostok came to the excavation site for coverage. And the report was broadcast on August 13.

The excavation of the bronze mirror in complete form and the re-excavation of road sites were the results of the excavation team's endeavor under the harsh conditions. They allowed us to have more expectations of the next year's project. The NAHF's excavation projects couldn't have borne such fruit without the Russian scholars who have been our friends for twenty years. The commitment and the sense of duty shown by all the members of the excavation team, who went to the excavation site as soon as it stopped raining to bail out water with buckets and pumps, were pointing in the direction of the Balhae diaspora that the people of Balhae had been already telling us about. Friends are more than just acquaintances. They not so much know me as understand me. Maybe it was because of the flood, but it occurred to me how wonderful it would be if we could come to Kraskino Station for excavation directly from South Korea, passing through North Korea, crossing the Duman River and by way Khasan. I cannot wait for the day when we go to Kraskino and back by taking the roads and railways along the east coast of North Korea and crossing the Duman River.