If you’re a Korean history buff, check out Andrei Lankov’s piece in the KT on Soviet Colonel General Terenti Shtykov, the man who really gave birth to North Korea.
Read it on your own—here’s just a sample:
He also played a decisive role in the 1946 land reform, arguably the most popular of all the actions ever undertaken by the nascent North Korean regime. The present author is not amused when he reads the writings of South Korean left-wing historians who tend to describe North Korean land reform in great detail and usually attribute it to Kim Il-sung and Korean communists. Soviet military documents, long declassified and published, make a joke of this statement. From beginning to end, the 1946 land reform was planned and prepared by the Soviet military. It is often said that Kim Il-sung “gave the land to the North Korean farmers.” This is factually untrue. It was Shytkov, not Kim Il-sung, who destroyed the established privileges of the landowners of the Northern half of the Korean Peninsula and made the farmers there masters of their land.
With the exception of Japanese colonial politicians, no other foreigner has ever made such an impact on Korea’s destiny as Shytkov. Even though, this role will probably never be recognized by Koreans themselves, largely due to the complexities of Korea’s ideological politics and nationalist worldview. Shytkov was the actual architect of the North Korean state as it emerged in 1945-50. His individual imprint might have been small, since he implemented a fairly standard Soviet policy for that era. Nonetheless, the results of his actions were tremendous.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
What a load of Shyt…kov.
Thanks, Marmot, for posting this. Apart from the unfortunate misspellings of Shtykov’s name in the article, it was a great piece.
I would like to repeat Lankov’s sentence that “With the exception of Japanese colonial politicians, no other foreigner has ever made such an impact on Korea’s destiny as Shytkov.” Wow.
Certainly, this piece should lay to rest the claims of North Korean political “legitimacy” in the early years. At least in South Korea the Americans let the locals take part in writing their own constitution!
I was thinking the same thing. I wonder what Mr. Tilly has to say on the matter…
Fascinating stuff. I wonder if Shtykov believed that America wouldn’t bother to intercede on South Korea’s behalf, or that American help would come too little, too late.
As the article mentions it was pretty much the standard procedure of Soviet-occupied territories, it happened a lot in Eastern Europe too, even in scoieties who had up to that point a vibrant market economy like Czech.
It would be interesting though to read Shtykov diaries and see if he mentioned the brutal ethno-nationalism of the Korean variety of communism. Something Soviets had (to put it mildly) very little appetite for
No need to wonder, Mr. Hoju. With respect, but you can go back and read the relevant thread from way back.
As to Mr. Hamel’s statement that “this piece should lay to rest the claims of North Korean political ‘legitimacy’ in the early years,” I respectfully disagree. Frankly, neither Lankov, Myers, Cumings, Armstrong, or any other scholar/specialist is going to have the last word on this issue. At least in my lifetime. And I think that’s a good thing. I think there’s still a lot of questions that still need to be posed, looked into, and discussed.
Finally, as to Lankov’s assertion that it was Shytkov and other Soviet overlords who were most essential/instrumental in initiating land reform, I’ll just leave you with what I think is a more fairer assessment (Note: Apologies for not translating this, there are some things that I have to see to this morning. Perhaps either TK, yuna, Robert, belair, or cm could do the honors. Plus, they’d probably to a better job):
Dear Charles Tilly, Like you I am busy now, and away from Korea, but in regard to the land reform what you cite is a very typical piece of the pop-history writing by the South Korean Left. The problem in this particular case is that all relevant (Soviet) archival materials have been published by Chon Hyon-su some ten years ago. DR.Chon Hyon-su, a fluent speaker of Russian, in the 1990s made a great use from a brief opening of the Soviet archives, including the archives of the 25th army (where the land reform was actually planned). However, these archival materials clearly show that the land reform from the beginning to the end was a Soviet undertaking, so many historians of the leftist persuasion let their ideology control their writing, and the large article by Chon Hyon-su (some 60 pages as far as I remember) has been largely ignored by this powerful group. In the article you cite, Mr Yi Chol-su speculates that North Korean farmers and independence activists wanted a land reform since before 1945 (of course, they did) and hence Koreans must have played a decisive role in its planning and execution. May be, it is better for Mr.Li to do what a historian should do – read and analyze the sources and see what has happened, and now what is supposed to have happened. Once again: these sources have been published and even translated to Korean language, and the continuing tendency to ignore it is, frankly, somewhat scandalous. Sincerely, AL
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