Koryo-saram

Koryo-saram (Koryo-mar: 고려사람 / Корё сарам; Russian: Корё сарам; Ukrainian: Корьо-сарам; Uzbek: Корё-сарам / Koryo-saram) or Koryoin (Korean: 고려인) are ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states that descend from Koreans who were living in the Russian Far East during the late 19th century.

Approximately 500,000 ethnic Koreans reside in the former Soviet Union, primarily in the now-independent states of Central Asia. There are also large Korean communities in Southern Russia (around Volgograd), Russian Far East (around Vladivostok), the Caucasus and southern Ukraine.

A number of early Koryo-saram were significant Korean independence activists during the Japanese colonial period, such as Hong Beom-do and Chŏng Sang-chin. While the ability to speak Korean has become increasingly rare amongst current Koryo-saram, they have retained some elements of Korean culture, including Korean names. Koryo-saram cuisine has become popular throughout the former Soviet Union, with the dish morkovcha now widely available in grocery stores there. A significant number of Koryo-saram have either moved temporarily or permanently to South Korea for economic or cultural reasons. The Russo-Ukrainian War, especially the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, has motivated several thousand Koryo-saram to move to South Korea for safety.

There is also a separate ethnic Korean community on the island of Sakhalin, typically referred to as Sakhalin Koreans. Some may identify as Koryo-saram, but many do not. This has led to the term materikovye (материковые) for Koryo-saram, meaning "continental Koreans". Unlike the communities on the Russian mainland primarily descended from Koreans who arrived in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the ancestors of the Sakhalin Koreans were immigrants from Japanese Korea, mostly from the southern provinces, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They were forced into service by the Japanese government to work in coal mines in what was then Karafuto Prefecture, in order to fill labor shortages caused by the Pacific War.