Balagan (Central Asia)

Commentary

Balagan (Central Asia)

A balagan (or magy in the language of the local Korean community) was a temporary shelter made from whatever materials were to hand, such as wooden boards, roofing felt and sheets of thick polythene. Korean collective farm workers constructed these shacks to live in while they worked on fruit and vegetable plantations known as bakhchi. When the season was over the balagan was taken down and its constituent parts were used to build a new one in the following season.

In 1937, around 173,000 Koreans from the Far East of the USSR were deported to Central Asia. After the deportation very few Koreans remained in the areas where they had previously lived. The reasons for this first mass deportation of an ethnic group in the Soviet Union have never been definitively established. The official version during Soviet times was that it was believed large numbers of Japanese spies could be living among the Koreans. However, unlike other deported groups, the Koreans were never declared ‘enemies of the people’, they were provided with financial assistance to help them with resettlement and they were entitled to receive state awards for their work.

When the Koreans were deported, most of their property was seized. They were promised that they would be given new livestock in Central Asia to compensate for the homes they had lost, but in practice few of them ever received anything.

Mass repression in Central Asia in the 1930s had led to many people being killed or fleeing. The region’s economic base suffered severe losses and there was a shortage of large numbers of agricultural workers. The Korean deportation provided solutions to a whole range of problems, from the demographic to the economic. However, the Koreans were transported in ill-equipped trains and there was no housing for them in the new locations or other infrastructure (the local authorities were not prepared to receive the newcomers). Consequently, vast numbers of people died of starvation, cold or disease. Among those who died were many elderly people and children. And yet, within a couple of years many of the Koreans had managed to recover and adapt to life in Central Asia.

Initially, the balagan was used as one of several types of temporary accommodation by the settlers. However, as time went on, the Koreans in Central Asia adopted it for use as temporary shelter when they worked on collective farm plantations. These plantations were large cultivated areas of at least a few hectares which were tended by several families. They were located a long way from populated areas, so the balagan became a very important part of daily life. The plantations were used to grow a range of food crops, including melons, cucumbers, rice, onions and garlic. The cultivation of these crops was clearly very physically demanding work, although it also yielded plentiful harvests. Ultimately, the other agricultural method practised by the Koreans – plots in which a rotation of different crops were planted in the same bed at different times of the year – was replaced by the bakhcha plantation.

Before the deportation, the balagan was unknown in the Russian Far East. Balagan construction is very straightforward – the shelters can be quickly built and dismantled. The Koreans who worked on the plantations moved around a lot throughout the Central Asian republics because fertile land was relatively scarce in Central Asia and the plantations tended to be situated a long way from the larger population centres. The balagan was therefore the cheapest and most convenient form of temporary housing.

The Koreans’ agricultural ventures were highly successful and during the 1930s and 1940s many Koreans received the Hero of Socialist Labour award. This was the highest honour awarded in the USSR for achievements in agriculture. One recipient was Kim Pen Hwa who, among other accomplishments, was twice named Hero of Socialist Labour for rice and cotton cultivation. By virtue of the work of the Koreans, the economy of Central Asia quickly recovered. During the Second World War Korean collective farm workers made significant contributions to the frontline. After 1953, Koreans from Central Asia were able to move to any part of the country and the balagan and the bakhcha plantation method spread throughout most of the Soviet republics.

The picture shows a balagan in Anapa that is still being used by agricultural workers today. The photograph was provided by relatives of the balagan’s owner.
 
ALEXANDER KIM Associate Professor, Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, Institute of Law, Department of International Relations and Law

MARIIA SURZHIK Leading Engineer, Federal Scientific Center for East Asian Terrestrial Biodiversity (Institute of Biology and Soil Science), Vladivostok