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ABSTRACT
The defection of Yi Sang-cho, the North Korean ambassador to Moscow, in 1956 was an event without precedent in the history of the communist bloc. This article deals with the background to the event, drawing on newly available archival documents and other sources. The study indicates that Ambassador Yi, deeply involved with intra-party opposition in North Korea, played a major role in the Mikoyan-Peng delegation’s trip to Pyongyang and subsequent events. It also traces why the Soviet authorities decided to grant asylum to Yi Sang-cho, and how Moscow’s attitude to his defection changed over time.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant NRF-2016S1A3A2925361.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 As cited in: János Rainer, The New Course in Hungary in 1953: Cold War International History Project, Working Paper #38 (Washington: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2002), 20.
2 For the background of the 1956 crisis, see: Andrei Lankov, Crisis in North Korea: the Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956 (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2005); James Person, ‘We Need Help from Outside’: The North Korean Opposition Movement of 1956: Cold War International History Project, Working Paper #52 (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, 2006).
3 There are a few short summaries of Yi Sang-cho’s early biography which differ in details, but agree on the general outline: Chŏng Pyŏng-il, Puk Chosŏn ch’eche sŏngril-kwa Yŏnganp’a yŏkhal [The founding of the North Korean system and the role of the Yanan faction] (Seoul: Sŏngin, 2010), 333; Yi Sang-cho, 1913. Hankuksa Sahoechuŭi undongka sachon (Dictonary of the Socailst activists in Korean history). http://www.laborsbook.org/dic/view.php?dic_part=dic07&idx=3790 Accessed 12 October 2018. This biography is detailed, but, being published on 'Notondcha cheak' (Worker's books) a website run by the South Korean radical Left, it tends to ignore facts the editors find uncomfortable. Another document is a hand-written biography of Yi Sang-cho, compiled in Korean, obviously, shortly after his death, in the late 1990s. The style of the text indicates that the biography was compiled by a fellow exile from North Korea, then living in one of the post-Soviet states. The text is available digitally on the website of the North Korean International Documentation Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. T’ŭkmyŏng chŏngkwŏn taesa Li San-cho changgun [General and Ambassador Li Sang-cho] http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112394 accessed October 12, 2018. Finally, there is a large dossier – collection of newspaper clippings, official memos, and so on – related to Yi Sang-cho and initially compiled by the Soviet authorities as reference material. The dossier of Yi Sang-cho. RGASPI, fond 495, opis 228, delo 1029, list 17.
4 T’ŭkmyŏng chŏngkwŏn taesa Li San-cho …, list 3–5.
5 Yŏm In-ho, Chosŏn Ŭiyongkun-ŭi tokrip untong [The independence activity of the Korean Volunteer Army] (Seoul: Nanam, 2001), 265.
6 Ibid., 6–7.
7 Ibid., 6–7.
8 Ibid., 21.
9 Pravda, 2 August 1955, 4 August 1955.
10 Benjamin Tromly, Making the Soviet Intelligentsia: Universities and Intellectual Life under Stalin and Khrushchev (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 189.
11 Memo of the Conversation of Samsonov G.Ie. (First Secretary of the Soviet Ministry for Foreign Affairs) with Ki Sŏk-pok (a referent in the Ministry of Culture), 31 May 1956. AVPRF (Moscow). Fond 0102, opis 12, delo 6, papka 68. In the footnotes the names of the North Koreans are transcribed according to the standard McCune-Reischauer Romanisation. Full English translation published by James Person, see: 'Memorandum of Conversation with Gi Seokbok, 31 May 1956,' Cold War History International Project Bulletin, #16 (2007), 472. In this James Person used the RGANI copy.
12 Memo of Conversation of N.T. Fedorenko, the head of the First Far Eastern Department, with Ambassador Yi Sang-jo, 29 May 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl[Classified files of the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang] CD-ROM (Seoul: Korea Content, 2002), file KM011101, 15–21. Full English translation published by James Person, see: Cold War History International Project Bulletin #16, 470–2. For publication James Person used the RGANI copy.
13 Record of Conversation of Petrov A.M. (Provisional chargé d’affaires) with Yi P’il-gyu (Head of the Department of Building Materials) on 20 July 1956. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 12, delo 6, papka 68; Full English translation published by James Person, see: Cold War History International Project Bulletin #16, 478–80. For publication James Person used the RGANI copy.
14 Nobuo Shimotomai, Kim Ir Sen i Kreml’: Severnaia Koreia epohi Holodnoi vojny, 1945–1961 [Kim Il Song and the Kremlin: North Korea of the cold war era, 1945–1961] (Moscow: MGIMO-Universitet, 2010), 283.
15 Record of Conversation of I.F. Kurdiukov (Head of the First Far Eastern Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry) with Yi Sang-jo (the DPRK ambassador to the USSR), 16 June 1956. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 12, delo 4, papka 68. Full English translation published by James Person, see: Cold War History International Project Bulletin #16, 477–8.
16 Memo of Conversation of I.F. Kurdiukov with Yi Sang-cho, 9 August 1956. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 12, delo 4, papka 68.
17 See, for example: Igor Selivanov. Sovetskii Soiuz i sentiabrskie sobytiia 1956 goda v Severnoi Koree [The Soviet Union and the 1956 September incident in North Korea] (Kursk: Kursk State University, 2015).
18 Memo of Conversation of N.T. Fedorenko (the Deputy Foreign Minister), with Ambassador Yi Sang-cho, 5 September 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl ..., file KM011101, 36–7. Since collections of the Soviet documents, published digitally in 2002, do not provide the exact archival call numbers of the original, we reference documents by citing the number of the relevant PDF file and page.
19 Memo of Conversation of S.P. Lazarev with Ko Hŭi-man (member of the North Korean delegation), 18 September 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011103, 5–8.
20 James Person, ‘We need help from Outside’: The North Korean Opposition Movement of 1956.
21 Letter to N.S. Khrushchev by Yi Sang-cho, 3 September 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011101, 38–9.
22 Prezidium T︠sK KPSS 1954–1964: chernovye protokolʹnye zapisi zasedaniii, stenogrammy, postanovlenia, tom 1[Presidium CPSU Central Committee, 1954–1964: drafts of the meetings notes, decisions, records, volume 1] (Moscow: Rosspen, 2004), 166–7.
23 Rossia i mezhkoreiskie otnosheniia, Glava 1–3[Russia and intra-Korean relations, Chapter 1–3] (Moscow, Gorbachev Foundation, 2003). Online file http://www.gorby.ru/activity/conference/show_70/view_13117. Accessed 16 September 2017.
24 Materials for A.I. Mikoyan’s trip to the CPR and the DPRK. GARF, fond r-5446, opis 98c, delo 721, list 69–8.
25 For newly available documents dealing with Mikoyan’s trip to Pyongyang and September Plenum, see a recent publication by Igor Selivanov, Sovetskii Soiuz i sentiabrskie sobytiia 1956 goda v Severnoi Koree [The Soviet Union and the 1956 September incident in North Korea] (Kursk: Kursk State University, 2015).
26 Memo of Conversation of B.N. Vereshchagin (Counsellor of the Far Eastern Department) with Yi Sang-cho (DPRK ambassador to the USSR), 20 October 1956. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 12, delo 4, papka 68.
27 Memo of Conversation of B.N. Vereshchagin (Counsellor of the Far Eastern Department) with Kim Hyŏn-mo (the consular official), 19 October 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011103, 9; Ibid., 10.
28 See biography of Raskolnikov in: Norman Saul and Fedor Raskolnikov, ‘Fedor Raskolnikov, a “secondary Bolshevik”,’ Russian Review 32, no. 4 (1973): 131–42.
29 Elaine McClarnand, ‘The Politics of History and Historical Revisionism: De-stalinization and the Search for Identity in Gorbachev’s Russia, 1985–1991,’ The History Teacher 31, no. 2 (1998): 153–79.
30 Paul Hollander, Political Will and Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 177–206.
31 Ibid., 178.
32 Song Hong-kŭn, ‘Yongch’ŏnyŏk Kim Chŏng-il amsal sito “p’okpal ttae meangwon 8 myŏng samang’ [Eight members of the group wet killed during the assassination attempt against Kim Jong Il at the Yongchon station],’ Sin Tong’a 12 (2015).
33 Letter by Yi Sang-cho to Kim Il Song, Russian translation, In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011103, 10–25.
34 Ibid., file KM011103, 11.
35 On the prominent role the former pro-Japanese collaborators played in the North Korean official culture bureaucracy, see: Brian Myers, Han Sŏrya and North Korean Literature: the Failure of Socialist Realism in the DPRK (Ithaca, NY: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1994), 38–9.
36 The only high-profile North Korean refugee who eventually went to the West was Pak Kap-tong who, after his initial defection to China, eventually resettled in Japan.
37 Memo of Conversation Councilor B.N. Vereshchagin with ‘Ho Do Din’ (the second secretary of the Korean embassy), 13 November 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso. Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl…, file KM011103, 30. The correct Korean spelling of a person called ‘Ho Do Din’ cannot be reconstructed on the basis of the available material.
38 For the details of this remarkable abduction incident, see: Lankov, Crisis in North Korea, 194–6.
39 Memo of Conversation of I.F. Kurdiukov (head of the Far Eastern Department) with Ambassador Yi Sang-cho, 28 November 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011103, 9, file KM011103, 35–7.
40 I.F. Kurdiukov’s biography, see: Diplomaticheskii slovar, tom 2[Dictionary of Diplomacy, volume 2] (Moscow: Nauka, 1985), 125.
41 Memo of Conversation of I.F. Kurdiukov (head of the Far Eastern Department) with ambassador Yi Sang-cho, 28 November 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011103, 9, file KM011103, 35–7.
42 Memo of conversation of B.N. Vereshchagin (Counsellor of the Far Eastern Department) with Kim Hyŏn-mo (the consular official), 19 October 1956. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011103, 9.
43 Shimotomai, Kim Ir Sen i Kreml’, 245–59.
44 Memo of Conversation of V.I. Pelishenko (chargé d’affairs) with Nam Il (Foreign Minister), 4 January 1957. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011501, 20.
45 Memo of Conversation of V.I. Pelishenko (chargé d’affairs) with Nam Il (Foreign Minister), 9 March 1957. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011502, 32–3.
46 For example, see: Memo of Conversation of N.M. Shesterikov (Counsellor of the Embassy) with Pak Kil-yong (head of the 1st Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), 17 February 1958. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 14, delo 8, papka 75.
47 Memo of Conversation of V.I. Pelishenko (chargé d’affaires) with Kim Il Song, 30 January 1957. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 13, delo 6, papka 72.
48 Memo of Conversation of B. K. Pimenov (First Secretary of the Embassy) with An Un-gyong (the former head of the First Department, DPRK Foreign Ministry), 30 January 1957. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 13, delo 6, papka 72 (the transcription of An Un-gyong’s name is not reliable – A.L.). In March 1959 Pak Kil-yong told a Soviet diplomat that almost all former staff members of the North Korean Embassy in Moscow had been fired from the Foreign Ministry after their return to Pyongyang (there was only one exception): Memo of Conversation of N.Ye. Torbenkov (Counsellor of the Embassy) with Pak Kil-yong (Deputy Minister for the Foreign Affairs), 15 March 1959. AVPRF, fond 0541, opis 15, delo 8, papka 81.
49 Diary of the Soviet Ambassador A.M.Puzanov, 1 October to 25 October 1959, entry 24 October. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011403, 46.
50 Diary of the Soviet Ambassador A.M. Puzanov, 1 October to 25 October 1959, entry 2 October. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011403, 5–6.
51 Peter Ward, ‘The First Party Conference of the KWP and intra-party conflicts in the 1950s’ (working title). Unpublished manuscript kindly provided by the author.
52 Memo of Conversation of V.I.Pelishenko (chargé d’affaires) with Kim Il Song, 30 January 1957. AVPRF, fond 0102, opis 13, delo 6, papka 72.
53 To the CPSU Central Committee, 14 March 1957. Memo signed by deputy head of the CPSU Central Committee Department for the liaison with overseas Communist parties I. Vinogradov and I. Shcherbakov, deputy sector head of the same department. RGANI, Opis 28, fond 5, delo 486, list 39–41.
54 Johanna Granville, ‘Hungary, 101: Seven Ways to Avoid a Revolution and Soviet Invasion of Romania,’ Cold War History 10, no. 1 (2010): 82.
55 To the CPSU Central Committee. March 14 1957 Memo …, RGANI, Opis 28, fond 5, delo 486, list 39–41.
56 Diary of the Soviet Ambassador A.M. Puzanov, 14 February to 1 March 1958, entry February 16. In: Chung’ang Ilpo t’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, Pyŏngyang chuchae Soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ŏl …, file KM011701, 25–6.
57 The dossier of Yi Sang-cho. RGASPI, fond 495, opis 228, delo 1029, list 1.
58 Lim Un. Kita Chosen ochoseiritsu hishi [A secret history of founding of North Korean dynasty] (Tokyo: Jiyu-sha, 1982).
59 Moskovskie Novosti, no. 27 (5 July 1992): 12.
60 Haewoe mangmyŏng chŏn pukan chidoch’ŭng ‘Pan Kim Ilsŏng t’uchaeng’ sŏnŏn [The exiled former North Korean leaders made a ‘Statement about struggle with Kim Il Song’], Seoul sinmun, 25 February 1992: 5.
61 Song Hong-kŭn, ‘Yongch’ŏnyŏk Kim Chŏng-il amsal sito “p’okpal ttae meangwon 8 myŏng samang” [Eight members of the group were killed during the assassination attempt against Kim Jong Il at the Yongchon station],’ Sin Tong’a 12 (2015).
62 On the Yugoslavian Cominformist exiles, see: Ivo Banac, With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist splits in Yugoslav Communism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988), 221–42, Geoffrey Swain, Tito: a Biography (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 96–7.
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Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov (born in 1963) graduated from the Leningrad State University (PhD in 1989). In 1996-2004 he taught Korean history at the Australian National University, and since 2004 he teaches at Kookmin University in 2004, Seoul. His major research interest is North Korean history and society. He published four books in English on North Korean history as well as books in Russian and Korean.
Igor Selivanov
Igor Selivanov (born in 1961) graduated from the Kursk State Pedagogical University (PhD in 1991). Teaches in the Kursk State University (Kursk, Russia). His major research interest is the history of the communist bloc and the history of the international relations in Asia after 1945. He published four books in Russian.