Russian Revolution and the Korean Partisan Movement in far East

Abstract

The Great Russian Revolution of 1917-1921 not only gave impetus to the movement for the liberation of Korea from the colonial rule of Japan, but also created a situation in which Koreans living on the territory of the former Russian Empire had to determine their side in the unfolding grandiose confrontation of the blazing civil war. Under these conditions, Korean partisan detachments of various ideological orientations appeared in the Russian Far East. Most of them took an active part in the fight against foreign invaders and White Guards. However, the vicissitudes of the development of the Korean partisan movement in the region turned out to be very tortuous and contradictory. They were influenced by both the situation and evolution of the Korean independence move-ment, as well as acute ideological and political contradictions within the emerging Korean leftist movement. The article examines the mutual influence of conflicts within the Russian and Korean leftist movements in 1918-1922.

Keywords

• anarchism
• bolshevism
• communists
• far east
• korea
• nationalists
• partisan movement
• russia