Terenty Fomich Shtykov (
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: Терентий Фомич Штыков; – 25 October 1964) was a Soviet general who supervised the liberation of
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
, as the ''de facto'' head of its 1945-1948 military occupation and the first
Soviet Ambassador to North Korea from 1948 until 1950. Shtykov's support for
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...
was crucial in Kim's rise to power, and the two persuaded Stalin to allow the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
to begin in June 1950.
A protégé of the influential politician
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов, p=ɐnˈdrej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐdanəf, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. After World War ...
, General Shtykov served as a
political commissar during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, ending up on the
Military Council
A military council is an approach to organization by a council with representatives from various bodies.
The term "military council" applied to organisational groupings of senior ranking officers in the European armies of the 19th century during o ...
of the
Primorskiy Military District.
Through direct access to
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
, Shtykov became the "real supreme ruler of North Korea, the principal supervisor of both the Soviet military and the local authorities."
Shtykov conceived of the
Soviet Civil Administration
The Soviet Civil Administration (SCA) was the government of the northern half of Korea from 24 August 1945 to 9 September 1948 though governed concurrently after the setup of the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea in 1946. Even thoug ...
, supported Kim's appointment as head of the
North Korean provisional government, and assisted Stalin with editing the first
North Korean constitution
The Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea () is the constitution of North Korea. It was approved by the 6th Supreme People's Assembly at its first session on 27 December 1972, and has been amended and supplemented ...
.
As the preeminent representative of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's political authority over the nascent
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
from October 1945 until December 1950, Shtykov's legacy was to aid the Kim family's rise to power. The war they started freed Kim from Soviet domination;
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
intervened following North Korea's poor military performance in the early autumn. Shtykov was fired as ambassador in December and demoted to major general the following month. He later served as the Soviet ambassador to
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
from 1959 to 1960.
Andrei Lankov
Andrei Nikolaevich Lankov (russian: Андрей Николаевич Ланьков; born 26 July 1963) is a Russian scholar of Asia and a specialist in Korean studies and Director of Korea Risk Group, the parent company of NK News and NK Pro ...
asserts that Shtykov made more impact on
Korean history
The Lower Paleolithic era in the Korea, Korean Peninsula and Manchuria began roughly half a million years ago.
Christopher J. Norton, "The Current State of Korean Paleoanthropology", (2000), ''Journal of Human Evolution'', 38: 803–825.
The e ...
than any foreigner other than
Japanese colonial politicians, and that he was "the actual architect of the North Korean state as it emerged in 1945-50." Several of Shtykov's policies, most notably North Korean land reform, are today credited to Kim Il-sung by official North Korean media.
Early life
Shtykov was born in 1907 to a family of farmers in eastern
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
. In 1929 he joined the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and became a
Komsomol
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...
activist. In 1938 Shtykov became the
Second Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee, where he became the protege of First Secretary Andrei Zhdanov. Zhdanov's support allowed Shtykov to rise rapidly: he even briefly held a leading role in the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
that September.
World War II
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Shtykov served as a political commissar in several fronts near
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. By the end of the war he was one of only three
Colonel general
Colonel general is a three- or four-star military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, and was a ra ...
political commissars (the highest rank allowed for political commissars in the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
). As political commissar of the
Far Eastern Front
The Far Eastern Front (Russian: Дальневосточный фронт) was a front — a level of military formation that is equivalent to army group — of the Red Army during the Second World War.
Early war service
Тhe Far Eastern Front was ...
, Shtykov assisted Marshal
Kirill Meretskov
Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov (russian: Кири́лл Афана́сьевич Мерецко́в; – 30 December 1968) was a Soviet military commander. Having joined the Communist Party in 1917, he served in the Red Army from 1920. During th ...
in accepting the
surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...
in northern Korea on August 19, 1945. After the war, he was made deputy commander of the
Primorskiy Military District.
Supreme Leader of North Korea
![Shtykov and Lebedev in 1940's](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Shtykov_and_Lebedev_in_1940%27s.jpg)
Following the
division of Korea
The division of Korea began with the defeat of Empire of Japan, Japan in World War II. During the war, the Allies of World War II, Allied leaders considered the question of Korea's future after Japan's surrender in the war. The leaders reached ...
,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
sought to turn northern Korea into a socialist
buffer state
A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between t ...
between the
Soviet bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
and the
American occupation in the southern half of the peninsula. Shtykov's influence rose in tandem with the rise of his mentor Andrei Zhdanov, who was thought to be Stalin's most likely successor after the war. As member of the Military Council for the Primorskiy District, Shtykov frequently visited
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
and communicated to Zhdanov and Stalin about developments on the
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
. Shtykov "exercised extremely close supervision over political events in North Korea" on Stalin's behalf.
Shtykov also headed the Soviet delegation to the
Joint Soviet-American Commission on Korea. The Americans thought Shtykov was a "hot-tempered authoritarian," and the two governments failed to negotiate a unified government for the Korean peninsula.
As the most powerful man in the northern occupation zone of Korea, Shtykov personally selected the composition of the Soviet Civil Administration, and its second leader would comment that “there was not an event
n North Korea
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
in which Shtykov was not involved.”
Shtykov's strong support of
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...
was decisive in Kim's rise to power. Shtykov continued to be the preeminent power in the North after Kim was made chairman of the
Provisional People's Committee for North Korea
The Provisional People's Committee of North Korea was the provisional government of North Korea.
The committee was established on 8 February 1946 in response for the need of the Soviet Civil Administration and the communists to have centralizatio ...
.
In December 1946, Shtykov and two other Soviet generals
designed the election results of the Assembly for the Provisional Committee. Without any Korean input, the generals decided "the exact distribution of seats among the parties, the number of women members, and, more broadly, the precise social composition of the legislature."
The original 1948
North Korean constitution
The Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea () is the constitution of North Korea. It was approved by the 6th Supreme People's Assembly at its first session on 27 December 1972, and has been amended and supplemented ...
was primarily authored by Stalin and Shtykov in Moscow. The constitution only went into effect after the two had a lengthy discussion editing the draft, though some articles were later rewritten by Soviet supervisors. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1948, and Shtykov was named the first Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK.
Land reform
General Shtykov was the main instigator of North Korea's March 1946 land reform program, though Kim Il-sung usually gets the credit for it in both North and South Korea.
Originally, the Soviet blueprint for land reform had involved compensating the large landowners and selling the land to the farmers. Shtykov suggested that the land be confiscated from landowners and Japanese collaborators and distributed to poor and landless peasants without compensation. The nationwide land reform broke the feudal socioeconomic structure and proved highly popular with many North Korean peasants. Many rich landowners and collaborators fled South, allowing the reform to happen with little bloodshed.
Korean War
While Stalin intended to use North Korea as a buffer state to the Western-friendly
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, Shtykov was sympathetic to North Korean attempts to liberate the South through socialism. Shtykov supported Kim Il-sung and
Bak Heon-yong's 31 May 1949 proposal to create a
Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland
The Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, also known as the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF) or the Fatherland Front, is a North Korean popular front formed on 22 July 1946 and led by the Workers' Part ...
to advocate for peaceful unification of North and South, noting that
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960.
Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...
's likely refusal would damage his legitimacy among the Korean population. Shtykov suspected that Rhee would attack the North by June 1950, and backed the DFUF "to slow down southern aggression, cultivate alliances with anti-Rhee forces in the South, and make the West appear opposed to North-South unification." After the victory of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
Kim persistently lobbied the Soviets to support a Northern-led violent unification of the peninsula.
Shtykov was sympathetic to Kim's proposal and helped him persuade a reluctant Stalin to accept Kim's cause. Kim and Shtykov assured Stalin that the war would be a short victorious
blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') is a word used to describe a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with close air su ...
"at almost no cost", and Shtykov predicted that it would not provoke a Western involvement. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded the South. Seoul fell rapidly, and by late July the DPRK controlled all of Korea save
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
and the surrounding area. But after the UN intervention at the
Battle of Inchon
The Battle of Incheon (), also spelled Battle of Inchon, was an amphibious invasion and a battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations Command (UN). The operation involved so ...
, the military situation reversed. North Korea was only saved by Chinese intervention, but this was not enough to save Shtykov's diplomatic career.
Later career and death
After being fired, Shtykov was demoted to major general on 3 February 1951 and was appointed deputy chairman of
Kaluga Oblast
Kaluga Oblast (russian: Калу́жская о́бласть, translit=Kaluzhskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Kaluga. The 2021 Russian Census found a population of 1,069,904.
G ...
. He later served as First Secretary of Novgorod and Primorskiy Oblast, before being named Ambassador to Hungary in 1959. Shtykov's hardline Stalinism clashed with
János Kádár
János József Kádár (; ; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989), born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health le ...
's
Goulash Communism
Goulash Communism ( hu, gulyáskommunizmus), also commonly called Kádárism or the Hungarian Thaw, is the variety of socialism in Hungary following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. János Kádár and the Hungarian People's Republic imposed polic ...
policies, and he was recalled in 1960. He served as Chairman of the State Control Commission for the
Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federal Republic
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
before dying on vacation in 1964.
Historic significance
Shtykov's decisions proved highly consequential for the Korean Peninsula and the world. Although Shtykov was the preeminent leader of North Korea from 1945-1950, he allowed Koreans to take the credit for his policies. Shtykov's support of Kim Il-sung over other Korean communists such as Pak Hon-yong was a chief factor in the
Kim family's rise to power. Additionally, Shtykov masterminded the 1946 land reform in North Korea, which was arguably the most popular policy conducted in either Korea. South Korea reversed the land reform during the brief
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
occupation of the North, which provoked a backlash among Northern farmers.
Most significant was Shtykov's decision to support Kim's effort to violently reunite the peninsula, which ended his career. Had Shtykov been unsympathetic to Kim's expansionist aims, it is highly unlikely that Stalin would have authorized the Korean War. While the war did not end in the capitulation of the American-backed South, it did allow Kim Il-sung to secure effective North Korean independence from the Soviet Union. All of Shtykov's actions are today attributed to Kim Il-sung by North Korean official media, and even South Korean media assumes that Kim was the driving force behind land reform.
Awards and honors
A village in
Shkotovsky District
Shkotovsky District (russian: Шко́товский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #161-KZ and municipalLaw #192-KZ district (raion), one of the twenty-two in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is located in the south of the krai. The area of the ...
of
Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of the ...
was named in honor of him. An embankment in
Staraya Russa
Staraya Russa ( rus, Старая Русса, p=ˈstarəjə ˈrusːə) is a town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Polist River, south of Veliky Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Its population has steadily decreased ov ...
was also named after him. From 1967 to 1991, the in
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
was named in honor of Shytkov before its original name was returned.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shtykov, Terentii
1907 births
1964 deaths
People from Gorodoksky Uyezd
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
First convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Second convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Fourth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Fifth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to North Korea
Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Hungary
Anti-revisionists
Communist rulers
Kim Il-sung
Soviet colonel generals
Soviet military personnel of the Winter War
Soviet military personnel of World War II
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 1st class
Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 1st class
Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery