He was born on April 15, 1912 - exactly on the day when the Titanic sank in the Atlantic waters. His parents named him Song Ju (Become a Support). In the future, the newborn had many pseudonyms: Han Ber (Morning Star), Chansung (Elder Grandson), Dong Men (Light from the East). He went down in history as Kim Il Sung (Rising Sun).

The native village of the future national leader Mangyonde (Ten thousand landscapes) was located 12 kilometers from Pyongyang. The boy's father, Kim Hyun Jik, tried many things: he was a teacher, was engaged in herbal medicine, collaborated with Protestant missions. The boy's mother, Kang Bang Sok, belonged to a fairly intelligent family (maternal grandfather, Kang Dong Wook, even founded a high school and was a priest in a local Protestant church).

The young Kim family lived with their parents in poverty and need. The native home of the Rising Sun has survived to this day - it is a modest thatched hut.

Partizan

After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Korea was annexed by Japan. Foreigners diligently suppressed all attempts by the inhabitants of the peninsula to achieve, if not independence, then at least improve their difficult position within the empire. A new round of confrontation came in 1919. Thousands of Korean protesters were imprisoned or killed. The Kim family, fearing reprisals, went abroad to Chinese Manchuria.

As a teenager, Kim Song-chou joined an underground Marxist circle. This organization was quickly uncovered. In 1929, the 17-year-old revolutionary was imprisoned, but six months later he was released.

Monument. (pinsterest.com)

Kim then began to participate in the anti-Japanese guerrilla movement (Japanese aggression now threatened China directly). Then the Korean began to use the pseudonym of Kim Il Sung. The partisan was successfully promoted in the service. In 1936, he led his own detachment, and in 1937, together with his “division”, attacked the Japanese-controlled town of Pochonbo. The battle was notable in that it ended with the first victory for the Korean independence fighters on the territory of the Korean Peninsula itself, and not in neighboring Manchuria.

Rise to power

Kim Il Sung's periodic successes propelled him to the leadership of the rebels, but could not turn the tide of the entire war. By the beginning of World War II, the Japanese had defeated most of the Korean troops. Under the circumstances, Kim, in response to an invitation from a representative of the Soviet Far Eastern Front, went to Khabarovsk. The rebels enlisted the support of the Comintern and received their own base near Ussuriysk. There Kim Il Sung met his wife Kim Jong Suk. In 1941, the couple had a son, Kim Jong Il, who succeeded his father and led the DPRK in 1994-2011.

In 1942, the partisan joined the Red Army. Together with his associates, he was preparing for a full-scale war with Japan, but the quick surrender of the empire after the defeat of Germany allowed the Soviet troops to occupy Pyongyang unhindered. Kim Il Sung returned to his homeland as the owner of the Order of the Red Banner and the captain of the Red Army.

Under Soviet patronage, a rapid ascent of the military to power began. In 1948, when the Red Army left Korea, Kim became chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the newly proclaimed DPRK, and a year later he headed the new Workers' Party of Korea.

Korean War

After the end of World War II, the victorious countries divided the Korean Peninsula into zones of occupation, as was done in Germany. The south became American, the north became Soviet. In Seoul, Lee Syngman came to power. Each regime considered itself the only legitimate one and prepared for open confrontation with its neighbor. Lee Syngman, for example, considered the campaign against Pyongyang "a crusade against the Reds." And in the DPRK, according to the constitution, Seoul was the capital, while Pyongyang was called the "temporary capital."

The civil war between north and south began in 1950 after a surprise attack by the North Korean army on enemy positions. Because of the dispute between the two political systems, 19 states joined the conflict. The DPRK was supported by the USSR and China, South Korea by the United States and their European allies. So the confrontation between Pyongyang and Seoul almost escalated into the Third World War. Kim Il Sung led the North Korean army and was considered its commander in chief.

Kim Il Sung. (pinsterest.com)

The first offensive of the KPA (Korean People's Army) was successful, but after taking Seoul, the communists quickly ran into serious problems. The command staff turned out to be insufficiently experienced, artillery was poorly used. A nationwide uprising against Syngman Rhee's regime never began. Gradually, the situation for the KPA only got worse. The Americans landed troops on the peninsula and, together with the allies, liberated Seoul.

The intervention of the superpowers made the conflict intractable. The war ended in 1953: territorial changes turned out to be insignificant, the status quo was actually maintained, and Korea remained a divided country.

Leader

After the ceasefire (the DPRK refused to comply with it in 2013), Kim Il Sung's position within his country was strengthened to the maximum. The “crackdown” began, the economy became rigidly centralized and militarized. Market trade and private household plots were banned. As a result of all this, an economic decline began in North Korea, which turned the DPRK into a mirror image of a prosperous southern neighbor.

The stronger the stagnation of society and economy became, the more power passed directly to Kim Il Sung. In 1972, he was elected the first president of the DPRK. The post of chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers was abolished, which symbolized the final rejection of the model of collective management within the party.

In contrast to "imported Marxism", the DPRK developed its own national communist ideology, Juche (Kimersinism). It became the formal justification for Kim Il Sung's personality cult. The head of state received the chieftain titles of the Sun of the Nation, Marshal of the Mighty Republic, Iron All-Conquering Commander, etc. His portraits became an obligatory attribute of any service and living quarters.

Meeting. (pinsterest.com)

Kim actively traveled around the country. It is believed that every month he spent 20 days on the road. At least once a year, he visited every province in small North Korea. The leader controlled literally everything in the country. Only he decided how to properly use the smoke factory, whether to open a new duck farm and which street to build in a provincial town. This method of personal control helped shape his image of a living deity.

At the end of his life, the elder Kim actively promoted his son. In 1980, Chen Il was announced as the official successor to his father. A kind of communist monarchy has developed in North Korea.

Kim Il Sung died in 1994, and in 1998 he was proclaimed Eternal President of the DPRK. The paradox of this decision lies in the fact that the late head of state de jure remains in power today.

Kim Il Sung (Korean 김일성, according to Kontsevich - Kim Ilson, born Kim Song-ju, April 15, 1912, Mangyongdae - July 8, 1994, Pyongyang) is the founder of the North Korean state and its first ruler from 1948 to 1994 (head of state since 1972). Developed the Korean version of Marxism - Juche.

There is little exact information about Kim Il Sung, and all because of the secrecy surrounding his biography. His name is not what he received at birth. Kim Il Sung was born in 1912 in a suburb of Pyongyang. The family moved to Manchuria in 1925 to escape the Japanese occupation. In Manchuria, Kim Il Sung became a member of the Communist Party in 1931. The military authorities from the Soviet Union drew attention to him. There was a second world war, and Kim Il Sung lived in the USSR. He claimed to have fought in the Red Army. It is most likely that he was engaged in politics, and did not fight. He adopted the pseudonym Kim Il Sung, in honor of the famous Korean patriot who died fighting the Japanese.

World War II ended. US troops occupied the South of Korea, and the USSR - the North. They announced that they would create a single state. Meanwhile, Kim Il Sung and other communists from Korea returned from the USSR to their homeland to lead the country. Many Koreans have heard of Kim Il Sung. They waited for his return, but they saw a young "new Kim" and not a war veteran. It is not known for sure whether this misunderstanding was resolved. In 1948, the Korean occupation of the USSR ended. Kim Il Sung concentrated power over North Korea in his hands. He became the prime minister of North Korea. The US and the USSR were never able to unite Korea peacefully. Kim Il Sung took advantage of the support of the USSR and the opportunity, and therefore invaded South Korea in order to annex it by force to the northern part. Resistance was weak, even after the arrival of additional UN forces. However, Kim Il Sung's army was unable to cope with Douglas MacArthur's army, which landed at Inchon. Kim Il Sung's troops were defeated and retreated. The war in the region of the 38th parallel lasted for another two years.

In 1953, the long-awaited peace was signed. For over forty years now, the troops of the South and the North have been occupying positions opposite each other along the demarcation line, which runs along the 38th parallel. Kim Il Sung after the truce was still able to strengthen his power. In 1956, the last opposition forces inside the country were suppressed. In 1972, he became president, while he retained full military and civilian power. Time passed, and the DPRK moved away from both China and the USSR. Kim Il Sung planted a cult of his personality in the country. His country lagged behind in development from its southern neighbors. Quite often, Kim Il Sung had difficulties in supplying the country with food. In the 1980s, the son of Kim Il Sung became the successor to his father. In 1994, Kim Il Sung died, and power was concentrated in the hands of Kim Jong Il. Kim Il Sung was far from being a great leader and commander, he depended on China and the Soviet Union. However, we must remember that North Korea is hostile towards South Korea, Japan, the United States, and the regime established in the country by Kim Il Sung still exists.

(real name is Kim Soon-joo)

(1912-1994) Korean politician, President of North Korea

Kim Il Sung turned out to be one of the last communist dictators of the 20th century, but the state he created is still the most isolated and ideological country in the world today.

Kim was born into a peasant family in the small village of Man Chong Da, located near Pyongyang, and was the eldest of three sons, so his parents began to teach him to read and write.

In 1925, my father moved the family north to Manchuria and got a job as a worker in a factory in the city of Jilin. Now his eldest son was able to go to school.

In 1929, Kim joined the Komsomol and was engaged in propaganda work. The Japanese authorities soon arrest the young man and sentence him to several months in prison. After his release, Kim goes into hiding. For several months, he hides in the villages, and then joins the Korean Independence Army, where he undergoes initial military training, and soon becomes a fighter in one of the guerrilla groups.

At the end of the thirties, Kim Il Sung illegally crossed into Korea and continued to fight against the Japanese invaders. His actions are distinguished by sophisticated cruelty. He does not leave living witnesses and tortures those who refuse to provide the necessary information. But Kim Il Sung's popularity among the Korean population continues to grow in less than a year, his squad already includes 350 people.

However, the harsh actions of the Japanese authorities lead to the defeat of the partisans. In June 1937, Kim Il Sung was arrested, but he soon managed to escape from prison. In 1941, he became the leader of all partisan forces consisting of ethnic Koreans. After the outbreak of World War II, he withdraws his troops to the north, and they join the People's Liberation Army of China. Kim Il Sung himself, with a small group of twenty-five people, leaves for the territory of the USSR.

The Soviet leadership notices his organizational skills. Under his leadership, a combat-ready detachment is formed, the number of which gradually reaches 200 people. Making armed raids in Manchuria, the detachment then returned to the territory of the USSR.

On August 5, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, Kim Il Sung was thrown into Korea. With the support of the Soviet army, he achieves the subordination of all partisan forces to him. In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was created. In accordance with the agreement between the USSR and the USA, it is located in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, above the 37th parallel. After the departure of the Soviet troops, Kim Il Sung became first the military and then the civilian leader of the Republic of Korea. He creates the Korean People's Revolutionary Party, which he also heads.

Striving for sole domination of the Korean Peninsula, Kim Il Sung convinces Stalin to go to war with South Korea. He believed that the partisan detachments would illegally cross into the American zone and help units of the Korean and Soviet armies take power into their own hands.

However, despite military assistance from the USSR and the constant support of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, these plans were thwarted. The war became protracted. International public opinion was also opposed. The UN regarded the war as an act of aggression and authorized the dispatch of peacekeeping forces to Korea. After the landing of an international military contingent in the south of the peninsula, the situation changed. Under the blows of parts of the American army, the North Korean troops were forced to retreat. In 1953, the conflict ended with the division of the Korean Peninsula into two states. The war resulted in huge human losses: four million people died in battles.

After the defeat, Kim Il Sung focused on domestic politics, turning his state into a kind of paramilitary zone by the end of the fifties.

All aspects of life in Korea were subject to the Juche philosophical system, which is based on the transformation of the ideas of Buddhism and Confucianism. According to Juche, the power of Kim Il Sung and his heirs is declared the only possible form of government. All places associated with the life and work of Kim Il Sung become sacred and turn into objects of worship. The main goal of all domestic policy was declared to be "survival in conditions of almost complete isolation."

The Koreans are declared to be the highest people who do not need outside help for development. For several decades, North Korea has developed, separated by an "iron curtain" from the outside world. All material resources were spent mainly on military needs. At the same time, subversive activities against South Korea did not stop.

Repeated military incidents have turned the border between the two states into a zone of constant tension.

By the beginning of the nineties, the economic situation in the country was deteriorating sharply, residents were on the verge of starvation. Then Kim Il Sung decides to relax a little and agrees to accept the help of international organizations. At the same time, he begins negotiations on the possible unification of the two states into a single entity.

In 1992, the seriously ill Kim Il Sung gradually begins to transfer power to his son Kim Jong Il. In early 1994, he officially declares him his heir.

On August 29, the Yonhap agency, citing South Korean intelligence, announced a new addition to the family of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. On the eve of the birth of a child whose gender and name are unknown, representatives of the National Intelligence Service of South Korea announced at a briefing. According to them, the child was born in February.

According to media reports, this is the third heir to Kim Jong-un. It was reported that his two older children were born in 2010 and 2013. But there is no official confirmation of this information.

Little is known about the family of the North Korean leader and his close and distant relatives. The Kim dynasty is in the RBC photo gallery.

Kim Il Sung (1912–1994)

Eternal President and Founder of the DPRK. Generalissimo. Grandfather of the current head of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

Founder of the Juche ideology (Marxism based on national traditions).

He spent his childhood with his family in China, where he joined a Marxist circle, for which he was imprisoned at the age of 17. In 1945, he became chairman of the North Korean Organizing Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea (1945-1946). In 1948 he headed the country. In 1998, he was declared the eternal president of the DPRK.

Was married twice. The first wife died shortly after the birth of their son. The second wife was Kim Song Ae, who is believed to have previously been the secretary of Kim Il Sung's personal guard.

Since the mid-1950s, the DPRK began to tighten the regime. All North Korean students were required to return from Europe and complete an ideological refresher course. It was under Kim Il Sung that the entire economy of the country switched to strict central planning. Market trade was declared a bourgeois-feudal relic and liquidated.

Kim Jong-suk (1919–1949)

Mother of Kim Jong Il, wife of Kim Il Sung, grandmother of Kim Jong Un.

About Kim Jong Suk became known only a few years after her death. In 1972, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the DPRK, and then the titles of "heroine of the anti-Japanese war" and "great mother of the revolution." In addition, if the DPRK talks about the "three commanders", then everyone knows that we are talking about Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Suk.

Kim Jong Il (1941 (1942?) - 2011)

Great Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Generalissimo (posthumously). Eldest son of Kim Il Sung. Father of Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Il was born in 1941, although, as is customary in the DPRK, the official biography reduces the age of the ruler by a year. Like his father, he studied in China. Returning to his homeland, he began work in the party, initially considered the successor to Kim Il Sung.

After the death of his father, he led the country de facto for three years, without officially holding the highest leadership positions in the country. Thus, traditional Korean norms were observed, in particular the Confucian principle of filial piety, which prescribes the observance of a three-year mourning.

After Russia stopped cooperating with North Korea in the 1990s, the country was forced to look for new allies. In May 1999, Kim Jong Il traveled to China, and in 2000, a historic meeting of the leaders of the warring south and north of Korea took place. In October 2000, then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright flew to Pyongyang, after which preparations began for a visit to North Korea in late 2000 by US President Bill Clinton. However, it never took place, and the new US President George W. Bush was in no hurry to restore relations with the DPRK.

Kim Jong Il died on December 17, 2011. The funeral took place on December 28. According to the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo, they cost $40 million.

Ko Young-hee (1953–2004)

Mother of Kim Jong Un.

Ko Yong Hee is one of Kim Jong Il's wives and the mother of his youngest son Kim Jong Un. Before meeting Kim Jong Il, she was a dancer. She died in 2004 in Paris from breast cancer. In recent years, before her death in the DPRK, she was called nothing more than "respected mother." ​

Kim Chen In

Youngest of three sons of Kim Jong Il, grandson of Kim Il Sung.

In January 2009, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that out of fear for his health, Kim Jong Il had appointed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his successor. He was educated in Bern (Switzerland), then studied at the military academy in Pyongyang. In 2010, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, became vice chairman of the Central Military Committee of the party.

After the death of his father in 2011, Kim Jong-un was declared the supreme leader of the party, army and people of the DPRK.

Very little is known about Kim Jong Un, and almost everything is from a book that was published in Tokyo in 2003. Its author was allegedly the chef Kim Jong Il. From the book, in particular, it became known that the mother of Kim Jong-un was one of the wives of Kim Jong Il, actress Ko Yong-hee.

Under Kim Jong-un, North Korea has pursued a course of economic development in parallel with the strengthening of nuclear arsenals. Several nuclear tests were carried out, an artificial earth satellite was launched.

Since 2016, Kim Jong-un has been subject to unilateral US sanctions imposed due to human rights violations in the country.

In 2012, it was announced that Kim Jong-un was married to Lee Sol-ju. According to various reports, the couple had a daughter, Kim Joo-ae, from 2010 to 2013.

Fourth wife of Kim Jong Il, stepmother of Kim Jong Un.

The last, fourth time, Kim Jong Il married in 2006. His wife was his former personal secretary Kim Ok. South Korean media reported that Kim Ok studied piano at the Pyongyang University of Music and Dance, and became the personal secretary of the DPRK leader in the early 1980s.

Lee Sol-ju

First Lady of the DPRK. Wife of Kim Jong Un.

On July 25, 2012, the Central News Agency announced the opening ceremony of the Rungna People's Amusement Park, where Kim Jong-un came with his wife, Lee Sol-ju. This was the first mention of the first lady as the wife of the leader of the DPRK.

Until now, almost nothing is known about her and her acquaintance with Kim Jong-un. Many observers point out that her name and appearance point to a resemblance to a young singer who performed at one of the New Year's Eve concerts in Pyongyang in 2010.

According to one version that was expressed in the South Korean media, Lee Sol Zhu graduated from Pyongyang University named after Kim Il Sung, studied natural sciences. Her father is a professor at the same university, and her mother is the administrator of a large Pyongyang clinic.

According to another version, Lee Sol Zhu did not study at the university, but received her musical education in Beijing.

Kim Jong Nam (1971–2017)

The eldest son of the Great Leader of the DPRK Kim Jong Il and the brother (by father) of the Chairman of the State Council of the DPRK Kim Jong Un.

Even less is known about the eldest son of Kim Jong Il than about the current head of the DPRK. His mother was actress Song Hye Rim. The media reported that as a child, like his brother, Kim Jong Nam studied in Switzerland. There is no official confirmation of this information.

In 2001, Kim Jong Nam was arrested while trying to enter Japan with a fake passport in order to visit Tokyo Disneyland. He was deported to China, where he lived all the time until his death. On February 14, 2017, the South Korean Yonhap agency, citing a source about the assassination of Kim Jong Nam at the Malaysian airport.

kim jong chul

Elder brother of Kim Jong-un.

Born in 1981. The media wrote that Kim Jong Chul, like his brother, studied at a Swiss school. For some time (from 2003 to 2009), it was believed that he could become his father's successor as the leader of the DPRK. In 2007, Kim Jong-chul was appointed to a position in the Workers' Party of Korea.

Known as a big fan of the work of guitarist and singer Eric Clapton: the media reported that he was seen at the latter's concerts in 2006, 2011 and 2015.

Kim Kyung Hee

Daughter of Kim Il Sung, younger sister of Kim Jong Il, aunt of Kim Jong Un.

In 2010, along with her husband Jang Song-taek, she was appointed executor of her brother and, in the event of his death, was to become the guardian of Kim Jong-un. In the government, Kim Jong Il was in charge of the light industry of the DPRK, and her husband was Kim Jong Il's deputy in the State Defense Committee. In 2013, Jang Song-taek was charged with treason and executed. Kim Kyung Hee's death has not been confirmed.

Jang Song-taek (1946–2013)

Uncle of Kim Jong Un.

In 2013, Jang Song-taek was accused of trying to seize supreme power in the party and the state, as well as selling national resources to foreigners at unreasonably low prices, and was executed. Prior to that, he was deputy head of the State Defense Committee, was a member of the Politburo and headed the organizational department of the Central Committee, which was in charge of personnel selection and oversaw the special services. Many experts called him the gray cardinal, the right hand and mentor of Kim Jong-un.

Kim Yo-jong

Younger sister of Kim Jong-un.

Born in 1987. She studied at an international school in Swiss Bern in 1996-2001 with her brother Kim Jong-un. Possibly also studied at the military academy in Pyongyang after returning.

In 2014, Kim Yo-jong was appointed as the deputy head of a department in the WPK Central Committee. Kim Yo-jong is the only relative of the leader of the DPRK who holds an officially confirmed post in the country. According to South Korean sources, she is responsible for personnel appointments, as well as for propaganda.

North Korea is devastation, Mordor and shootings from an anti-aircraft dog launcher, and South Korea is a paradise with K-pop and democracy. This is what the majority of modern people, taught by the long tradition of anti-North Korean propaganda, think about this. Meanwhile, the real story is much more complicated and interesting. Especially for this well-known Russian Koreanist wrote a series of articles about the history of the Korean Peninsula and the two states that are located on it. The first was about the founding of South Korea and the life of its first president, the legendary and stern Lee Syngman. The second material is devoted to the beginning of the most difficult struggle for power of the “Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung”, today continuing to rule North Korea even after death.

The life of Kim Il Sung is covered with legends. On the one hand, there is an official biography. True, it has changed, and today it is worth focusing not on the texts of the 1970s, but on the “autobiography” of the leader, which he began to write in the 1990s and managed to bring to 1945. On the other hand, there are numerous black legends up to the assertion of one Russian public figure (we will not point fingers) that there was no Korean leader, but there was an NKVD captain and a Russian half-breed Korean Kim Arsen, a sadist, decomposer and participant in Stalinist repressions.

However, the young years of the leader have been studied quite well. Kim was born on April 15, 1912 in the village of Mangyonde near Pyongyang, was the eldest child in the family - the future leader had two brothers and a sister. His name was then Kim Sung-ju.

Kim Il Sung's father, Kim Hyun Chjik, was a village teacher (according to some sources, a Methodist priest), taught classical Chinese literature and practiced traditional medicine. In addition, Kim Hyun-jik was a relatively well-known left-wing nationalist to whom the official historiography of the DPRK attributes a fair amount of achievement.

Mother Kang Bang Sok served as a deacon in a Protestant church, uncle Kim Hyun Gwon took part in the national liberation movement. According to one version, he belonged to the anarchists and was engaged in expropriations, according to another, he was a noble robber. Be that as it may, some traitor betrayed him to the Japanese - he received fifteen years, and at thirty-one he died in prison after police torture. Relatives did not even see his body - they could not get to the infamous Seodaemun prison, and the Japanese buried Kim Hyung Gwon in the prison cemetery.

Kim Il Sung's cousin, Kim Won-ju, died at the age of thirty, and also from the effects of torture: the Japanese law enforcement model assumed that the police, when considering petty cases, could themselves judge and carry out sentences. And then they were punished with bamboo sticks or batogs, which, if handled skillfully, could very seriously undermine the health of the offender.

Kim Il Sung's two younger brothers, Kim Chol-ju and Kim Yong-ju, also participated in the national liberation movement. Kim Chol-ju died at the age of 19 in battles with punishers, and Kim Yong-ju has safely survived to this day (prudently going into the shadows when Kim Il Sung made his son "crown prince").

So the official North Korean information that all his relatives up to the fourth generation were professional revolutionaries is partly true. It is no wonder that the boy received an appropriate upbringing, often fought with Japanese peers, shot at the police with a slingshot, and in his youth, together with a group of friends, he founded the Union for the Overthrow of Imperialism. The title is childish enough to be true.

Kim lived in Mangyongdae until 1919, where, according to the North Korean version, he took part in the March 1 independence movement. When the movement began to be crushed, Kim Hyun-chjik and his family moved to China, where Kim Il Sung graduated from elementary school and stayed until 1923. While his son was studying, his father enthusiastically "engaged in nationalism", and when he realized that the Japanese were already approaching him, he sent his son to his grandmother.

Thus began the very “thousand-li-long journey”, which played a very important role in the biography of the future leader: a twelve-year-old boy, without money and practically without equipment, walked about four hundred kilometers on a home-made map, almost froze on mountain passes, but in the end he safely reached home in Mangyongdae. Grandmother absolutely naturally met him with the phrase: "Your father is scarier than a tiger." It is said that Kim replied that he could walk two thousand li.

In 1926, when Kim Il Sung was 14 years old, Kim Hyun Jik was arrested. There was not enough evidence for the trial, and the police used their favorite preventive torture. The man died, and already relatively adult Kim decided to avenge his father.

He entered a military school run by Korean nationalists. In the same year, 1926, he created the so-called "Union for the overthrow of imperialism." From this date in the modern DPRK, it is customary to count the beginning of the modern history of Korea, and for the official ideology of the DPRK, it has approximately the same symbolic meaning as 1917 for the ideology of the USSR. And after that, Kim Il Sung met his grandmother only on October 14, 1945, and on this occasion there is a beautiful tracing of a Chinese legend about how the leader passed by three times, but could not turn back home, since state affairs are more important.

At the military school, however, they taught mainly how to work with wooden weapons and how to raise funds for the liberation of the country. Therefore, Kim studied there for six months and moved to Jilin, where he began to seriously absorb communist ideas. It was there that he read (in Chinese) not only Capital and the Communist Manifesto, but also Gorky's Mother and Serafimovich's Iron Stream.

Rise of the leader

In May 1929, still a schoolboy, Kim joined an underground Marxist circle, becoming the youngest member of the organization. The rest of his comrades were at least school graduates or students of various colleges, so the claims of official North Korean historiography that he was its creator and leader sound rather unconvincing.

It is believed that sometime since this time, Kim Song-ju begins to be called Kim Il-sung. Previously, he had the pseudonym Han Byul, which meant "(one) Star", but since there are many stars in the sky, he was offered to "become the Sun" ("ir sen", more precisely "Il Song", can be translated like this). Kim disapproved of this - he believed that he was too young for such a pretentious pseudonym - but the name stuck to him.

In 1929, seventeen-year-old Kim ended up in prison - but only for six months, because the prison was not under the jurisdiction of the Japanese, but of the local Chinese authorities (the annexation of Manchuria took place later, in 1931), and there was a much less harsh regime. In addition, comrades-in-arms helped to ensure that he did not live in poverty. At the first opportunity, he was released, where he began to take an active part in the anti-Japanese partisan movement in Manchuria. According to the official version, already in the 1930s he began to "set the right tasks" and engage in "important party work", but there is one important nuance.

As early as 1928, the Korean Communist Party was recognized as non-existent due to off-scale factionalism. During the three years of its existence (1925-1928), four Central Committees were replaced in it, which were completely or almost completely liquidated by the Japanese secret police. At the same time, none of the numerous factions had the opportunity to be called a party even on formal grounds (the presence of a program, a charter, the number of members, documented vigorous activity, etc.), and setting the authorities on their “ideological opponents” was perceived as a normal measure of intra-party struggle.

As a result, on December 10, 1928, the Political Secretariat of the Executive Committee of the Communist International decided "to refuse recognition for any of the disputing communist groups in Korea of ​​the right to represent the Korean section in the Comintern until the actual state of affairs is fully clarified." Therefore, all Korean communists who wanted to do something did so in the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as if they were Chinese communists of Korean nationality. In fact, no one created a separate Korean People's Revolutionary Army (according to the North Korean version, created in 1934, headed by Kim Il Sung). The Chinese communists did not try to single out Korean detachments on a national basis and create an analogue of the Polish Army, but Korean partisans made up a significant part of the fighters and commanders.

Now a few words about what the partisan movement in Manchuria was like, since it would be wrong to consider it an analogue of, say, Belarusian partisans. The main difference is the lack of a large land that could help with cartridges, products and specialists. And although the hard-to-reach terrain and large areas of compact residence of Koreans, where the partisans could count on the support of the population, helped in part, this was not enough.

Let's go back to Kim. Kim Il Sung organized his first detachment of 18 people in the spring of 1932, but no one knew his name until September 1933. At this time, he commanded two companies of Koreans, and obeying his Chinese commanders, took part in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city of Duning. Then, as a result of a Japanese counterattack, the partisans were surrounded, but Kim Il Sung managed to break through the enemy encirclement and save the famous partisan commander Shi Zhongheng.

Then, however, career growth ended. The fact is that since the autumn of 1931, the Japanese began to create their own organization called Minsendan (People's Life Corps), which served as a "fifth column" in the ranks of the Chinese Communists. Although his actions were more noise than good, pro-Japanese slogans and the activities of spies and provocateurs managed to undermine the credibility of ethnic Koreans. As a result, a purge began within the Chinese Communist Party, which was not inferior to the Soviet one of 1937-1939. From 500 to 2 thousand people were executed, more than a thousand were arrested, expelled from the party and sent under investigation.

The hunt for "Japanese spies" did not bypass the young commander: Kim Il Sung was arrested and expelled from the party as a potential pro-Japanese element, but managed to escape thanks to the intercession of Commander Shi, whom he saved from death during the Japanese encirclement. Upon learning that Kim was under investigation, he publicly declared: "Such an outstanding personality cannot be a Japanese dog," and that if Kim Il Sung is convicted, he will leave the ranks along with the entire army.

After rehabilitation, Kim Il Sung again began to be active, in fact becoming the commander of the penal battalion. His entire detachment consisted of former victims of the purge, and the first thing Kim Il Sung did was to collect all the documents certifying the pretrial status of his subordinates and burn them, giving people a chance to start a new life.

But life was hard. The guerrillas mainly fought near Mount Paektusan or the Kapsan region - one of the most sparsely populated, remote and provincial corners of Korea. During the Li dynasty, exiles were sent there, and in the 1930s it was inhabited by those who, for various reasons, were outlaws. The people there were mainly engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture or the cultivation of opium poppy. But the territory was outside the enemy's main communication lines, which is why the partisans somehow ended up in the status of "elusive Joe" - elusive simply because no one caught him as unnecessary.

The taiga period of Kim Il Sung's biography attracted the attention of a sufficient number of critics, whose task was to belittle his merits as much as possible and turn him from a guerrilla commander into a leader of a robber band who did not play any serious role in the anti-Japanese resistance. However, according to the official version of South Korea, these are generally two different people. There was some commander Kim Il Sung, but a man named Kim Song-ju has nothing to do with his activities.

Among the "black legends" are frequent descriptions of how Kim Il Sung's people abducted children and teenagers, forcibly joining the detachment in order to increase its numbers, engaged in racketeering against Koreans who grew ginseng and opium poppy, or took wealthy Koreans hostage . “If you have weapons, give weapons; if you have people, give people; if you have money, give money, and food, if you have food,” they allegedly demanded.

But very much of this is described in his memoirs by Kim Il Sung himself, and not only as "isolated cases of excesses." Such a solution to supply issues was characteristic of any guerrilla or insurgent movement that did not have a large land, and the nationalist guerrillas beloved by South Korean historians solved the financial problems of their units in the same way.

There is a very interesting source about the life of the population of Kapsan - the memoirs of Kim Yong Sik (the son of a landowner, fled south during the Korean War, then was a translator), who, with all his dislike for the Reds, notes that Kim Il Sung's partisans rather found a common language with the peasants and defended the peasants from the arbitrariness of the landowners and Japanese agents, cracking down on them and their families for this.

In addition, they tried to "enforce civil rights" at least at the level of combating early marriage, opium smoking, gambling, illiteracy, superstition, and so on. No wonder the village youth often went with them. However, the person who found himself between two fires had no choice: the information that such and such communicated with the partisans quickly became known to everyone, including the Japanese.

Frame: EBS/YouTube

Separately, we note the topic of "child soldiers", because at the mention of this phrase, the reader's eyes are rather pictures of modern western or central Africa. Indeed, in Kim's partisan detachment, in addition to the fighters, several dozen children lived - basically, these were the children of the killed partisans or those whom the Japanese executed as their accomplices. On the other hand, the Japanese often created situations in which women and children fled to partisan detachments. According to the plan of the punishers, this, firstly, reduced the mobility of the detachment, and secondly, corroded its morale.

As a result, a “commandant's company” was created from children aged 12-14, which was on special allowance and acted as intelligence officers, messengers or bodyguards of Kim, who were devoted to his death. There is a rather touching moment in Kim's memoirs about how, in cold conditions, the guys slept under the same blanket with adults warming them with their bodies. There was some competition among the children for the right to sleep next to Kim, but he did not try to single out favorites, and everyone slept with him in turn.

On October 4, 1936, Kim Il Sung first appeared on the pages of the Joseon Ilbo newspaper, where an article was published about the raid of 40 "red bandits" led by Kim Il Sung into the village of Shilyudaogou in Manchuria. However, very soon Kim forced to talk about himself seriously.

On June 4, 1937, from 70 to 200 partisans (unofficial figures say that there were about a dozen) under the command of Kim crossed the Korean-Chinese border and early in the morning suddenly attacked the small town of Pochonbo, destroying the local gendarmerie post of nine people and some Japanese institutions.

Kim's detachment was in the captured town until the morning of the next day, "having carried out requisitions" in the amount of 44,000 yen and causing damage in a total of 16,000, moved in the opposite direction. The Japanese police, dumbfounded by such impudence, rushed in pursuit of the partisans and overtook Kim on the same day, but the battle ended in failure for them: 7 policemen, including the detachment commander, were killed.

Although the military-tactical benefit of the raid was minimal, this action turned out to be one of the few that took place on the territory of Korea itself, and not in the wilderness of the Kapsan mountains, which did not interest anyone, but in "cultivated regions." No one has done this before or after Kim.

It was because of this that rumors about the commander Kim Il Sung began to spread throughout the country, marking the beginning of the subsequent mythologization of his image. In the legends, he either turns into a tiger and kills 10 Japanese in one go, then he becomes a dragon and lives at the bottom of the lake, then he creates 100 of his doubles that attack the Japanese in a hundred different places at the same time. In other “guerrilla stories”, Kim Il Sung flies on clouds, extracts 4,000 sets of military uniforms from nothing, and can even, by writing something on a piece of paper and throwing this piece of paper into the river, turn it into a bridge over which partisans cross a turbulent stream. When the Japanese try to cross the bridge, it turns back into a piece of paper, and the enemies drown.

Photo: Korean Central News Agency / AP

The Japanese also reacted: to eliminate Kim Il Sung (and, to a lesser extent, other partisan commanders), a special unit was created under the command of Colonel Shotoku Nozoe, and if in 1936 the Japanese were ready to pay only 20 thousand for any information about his whereabouts yen, then by 1939 Kim Il Sung's head was given 10 times more.

In 1939-1940, Kim was already the commander of the operational area (more precisely, “the commander of the 6th division of the 2nd army of the 1st field army of the Northeast United Anti-Japanese Army”), but by this time the Japanese began to clear Manchuria and Kando in such a way as before Korea. The success of the actions of the Japanese punishers is evidenced by the fact that during the Great Patriotic War the Germans tried to study the Japanese experience, applying it against the partisans of Ukraine and Belarus. The enemy was worthy and terrible, and the name of the Korean revolutionary opera "Sea of ​​Blood" quite clearly reflects the scale of the repression.

In addition to the actual punitive expeditions, the Japanese strategy included sending provocateurs and spies to the partisans, forced relocation of the population from mountainous and forest regions to the so-called "united villages", the introduction of mutual responsibility, the passportization of the population and the introduction of a traveler system (at the same time, passports were replaced with photographs fingerprints). "Self-defense units" were used from among the pro-Japanese Koreans and Japanese settlers, whose settlements were supposed to repulse the partisans. Observation posts, defense lines and strategic roads were built, allowing for the rapid deployment of troops.

In addition to the economic war (the Japanese bought up all the surplus products so that the local population, giving food to the partisans, doomed themselves to starvation), ideological work was carried out. The leadership of the partisans was lured with high positions in the administration, ordinary partisans - with vodka and women, using young prostitutes for this, and if there were none - with pornographic postcards with inscriptions like "surrendered partisans are ready to serve for free."

In parallel, actions of intimidation were carried out. To intimidate the guerrillas and their sympathetic population, the Japanese beheaded Korean guerrilla leaders and put their heads on display. Villages were often burned along with the inhabitants, and the torture used would have done honor to the Middle Ages. And although the stories of North Korean propaganda about how the punishers boiled the accomplices of the partisans alive in boilers, and then forced the rest of the villagers to eat this boiled meat, these are most likely fantasies, there were less terrible options for demonstrative executions.

Also, Japanese interrogators were able to stop the pain shock during torture, and therefore their “shoulder masters” were very effective. There is a legend that what is mentioned in "It's hard to be a god" "and if the tortured one comes to unconsciousness ..." is a real piece of trophy instructions on the interrogation technique turned over by the Japonist Strugatsky. And therefore, it was easier for those who were captured by them to immediately bite off their tongue, as Ma Dong Hee, one of Kim's associates, did.

This tactic paid off. If in the most active period of its activity, Kim Il Sung's detachment reached a strength of 300 people, then from May 1939 it begins to decline. Some of his confidants turn out to be traitors, and a year before the defeat of the United Army, Kim often had to act with less than fifty fighters under his command.

The partisans operated in the forests in conditions of shortage of everything - even the head of the food service of Kim's detachment died of starvation. But even in this situation, the partisans continued to fight. It is no coincidence that the author considers the most important event of the guerrilla war with the participation of Kim not the raid on Pochonbo, but the battle of March 13-25, 1940 at Daimalugou, when 250 Kim Il Sung partisans utterly defeated the Takashi Maeda special police detachment pursuing them, consisting of 150 people. The two-week pursuit of the Japanese "jagdkommando" behind the partisan detachment through the taiga, off-road and deep snow could become the plot of a good action movie. During the battle, Maeda himself and 58 members of his detachment were killed, and the partisans received a large amount of weapons and ammunition.

On April 6, 1940, the Nozoe detachment captured five wounded Korean partisans, among whom was Kim Hye-song, who pretended to be Kim Il Sung's wife. They tried to use her as bait to lure Kim Il Sung into a trap, but failed. Kim Hye-sun was executed.

Kim Il Sung himself was also "killed" several times, which was solemnly reported in the media. Just as they were killed several times - not so much for the sake of propaganda, but because of military confusion. From the memoirs of Kim himself, it also follows that sometimes the Japanese mistook for him one of the killed comrades-in-arms when the partisan detachment had to split up, and sometimes the captured partisan pretended to be the commander so that the rest of the detachment could leave more calmly.

But time worked for the Japanese. By the end of the spring of 1941, most of the Manchurian partisan detachments either died, or retreated deep into China, or were forced to cross the border of the USSR. Kim was one of the last to cross the Amur, but how the partisan commander became the leader of the DPRK is in the next article.

I would like to end the conversation with two remarks. First, no matter what they say in South Korea, Kim Il Sung took part in the guerrilla struggle and gave the Japanese more trouble than other guerrilla commanders, although the official propaganda of the DPRK distorts the picture no less strongly. Kim's taiga past is recognized even by anti-communist historians: he was not killed, was not betrayed, and was not flattered by favorable conditions for surrender - but was offered him the post of governor of the province in which he operated towards the end of his career.

Secondly, Kim should be called a communist with some caution, as, in general, the whole group of his associates. Yes, they themselves called themselves communists and considered themselves communists. The Japanese called them communists, although they had any leftists who set foot on the path of armed struggle as communists. But from the point of view of dogmatics, there was still some mess in their heads, and it is easier to talk about them as very left-wing nationalists. Kim did not have a serious theoretical education, and, looking ahead, we note that 90 percent of his entire collection of works consists of speeches and speeches. Even a work on the Juche idea was eventually written not by him, but by his son Kim Jong Il.

This is due to the fact that the leadership of a partisan detachment (especially under such conditions) has a number of characteristic features that manifested themselves when Kim Il Sung and his comrades began to lead not a partisan detachment, but a country.

Firstly, the commander of the partisan detachment decides all pressing issues - both military, and administrative, and domestic. But military issues are in the foreground for him, since it is success in military operations and evasion of enemy attacks for partisans that is the main thing.

Secondly, the partisan detachment exists in a situation of chronic shortage of resources - both material and human. Hence - a certain readiness for hardships, which are perceived as a kind of norm. Hence the ability to squeeze out all available resources to the end, to maintain in working condition those items (from weapons to shoes) that in a normal situation would most likely be thrown away or destroyed. Hence the very high cost of error. When resources are scarce, "bird in hand" is preferable to "pie in the sky."

Thirdly, the partisan detachment exists in a constant hostile environment, when even from the local population, which seems loyal, one can expect a dirty trick. This not only nurtures and reinforces the image of the fiery ring of enemies, but also creates a situation in which a certain distrust of the external environment is combined with the suppression of internal squabbles and any germs of factionalism in the team. An unusually harsh reaction to betrayal has the same roots.

Fourthly, the war of a partisan detachment is always a war against an enemy with superior military and economic potential. This gives rise to the need for an asymmetric response, cultivates the ability to evade and maneuver, avoiding direct confrontation and being able to use some external forces against others. Such extreme conditions of life are a very good subject lesson - the one who does not behave according to the rules of his existence dies, and the one who survives remembers them for the rest of his life.