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This article deals with one of the central historical constructs of North Korean official historiography: the myth of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army. North Korea claims that this army, led by the first ruler of North Korea Kim Il-sung, defeated the Imperial Japan. This claim is duly reflected in North Korean official publications and is taught to its citizens. The author examines origins, evolution and implications of this historical myth.
Key Woids: North Korean historiography, Korean People's Revolutionary Army, DPRK, KPRA, Kim Il-sung
History is often used as a political tool, and Stalinist autocracies are notorious for such activities. In his thorough study Vadim Rogovin, a Russian historian of the Stalinist era, demonstrated how Stalin's regime systematically distorted recent historical events, aiming, above all, to aggrandize the role of Stalin in the communist revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, while simultaneously vilifying Stalin's political enemies (Rogovin 1994). Amy Knight's article, which analyses the role of Lavrentiy Beria in the rise of Stalin's cult, contains similar findings (Knight 1991).
North Korea adopted this Soviet practice. In the course of time, the presentation of historic events in the North Korean narrative has been systematically altered, in order to conform to the ever changing political demands of the era. In this article I will present a case study of how such changes have affected the presentation of the events of 1945 when the Japanese Empire was defeated and a new independent Korea was born. The events of that short period determined the subsequent course of Korean history, and as such the official presentation of this period is important for creating a desirable image of the past. The official description of events has changed at least three times, each time in order to justify changes in official policy. Thus, the study of these changing interpretations presents us with valuable insights into the way history has been manipulated and put into political use in North Korea.
Over the time, the DPRK started to claim that Japan had been defeated in 1945 by Kim Il-sung and his "Korean People's Revolutionary Army" (KPRA). Study of evolution of this politically motivated distortion of history is the topic of this article.
As of now, falsification of history in North Korea remains largely...