High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Russians in Korea do not form a very large population, but they have a history going back to before the era of Japanese colonialism in Korea. The community of Russian subjects/citizens in Korea has historically included not just ethnic Russians, but members of minority groups of Russia as well, such as Tatars, Poles, and, more recently, return migrants from among the Koryo-saram (ethnic Koreans whose ancestors migrated to the Russian Far East in the late 19th century) and Sakhalin Koreans. The earliest Russian subject in Korea is believed to have been Afanasy Ivanovich Seredin-Sabatin ( - ), an architect in a family who traced their roots to Switzerland; he was invited to Korea from Tianjin, China in 1884 by King Gojong. Karl Ivanovich Weber became the Russian Empire's official representative in Seoul in April 1885.