<P> Between 1937 and 1939, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin deported over 200,000 Koreans to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, fearing that the Koreans might act as spies for Japan . Many Koreans died on the way in cattle trains due to starvation, illness, or freezing conditions . Many community leaders were purged and executed, Koryo - saram were not allowed to travel outside of Central Asia for the next 15 years . Koreans were also not allowed to use the Korean language and its use began to become lost with the involvement of Koryo - mar and the use of Russian . </P> <P> Development of numerous remote locations relied on GULAG labour camps during Stalin's rule, especially in the region's northern half . After that, the large - scale use of forced labour waned and was superseded by volunteer employees attracted by relatively high wages . </P> <P> During the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Soviets occupied Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, Yinlong Island, and several adjacent islets to separate the city of Khabarovsk from the territory controlled by a possibly hostile power . </P> <P> Indeed, Japan turned its military interests to Soviet territories . Conflicts between the Japanese and the Soviets frequently happened on the border of Manchuria between 1938 and 1945 . The first confrontation occurred in Primorsky Krai, the Battle of Lake Khasan was an attempted military incursion of Manchukuo (Japanese) into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union . This incursion was founded in the beliefs of the Japanese side that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia and Manchu China . Primorsky Krai was always threatened by a Japanese invasion despite the fact that most of the remaining clashes occurred in Manchukuo . </P>

Cities in the remote far eastern region grew in population during the soviet years because