The North Korean revolution, 1945-1950 / Charles K. Armstrong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Armstrong, Charles K.

Series:

Studies of the East Asian Institute

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revolutions--Korea (North)--History--20th century.

Revolutions.

Korea (North)--History--20th century.

Korea (North).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (287 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

North Korea, despite a shattered economy and a populace suffering from widespread hunger, has outlived repeated forecasts of its imminent demise. Charles K. Armstrong contends that a major source of North Korea's strength and resiliency, as well as of its flaws and shortcomings, lies in the poorly understood origins of its system of government. He examines the genesis of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) both as an important yet rarely studied example of a communist state and as part of modern Korean history.North Korea is one of the last redoubts of "unreformed" Marxism-Leninism in the world. Yet it is not a Soviet satellite in the East European manner, nor is its government the result of a local revolution, as in Cuba and Vietnam. Instead, the DPRK represents a unique "indigenization" of Soviet Stalinism, Armstrong finds. The system that formed under the umbrella of the Soviet occupation quickly developed into a nationalist regime as programs initiated from above merged with distinctive local conditions. Armstrong's account is based on long-classified documents captured by U.S. forces during the Korean War. This enormous archive of over 1.6 million pages provides unprecedented insight into the making of the Pyongyang regime and fuels the author's argument that the North Korean state is likely to remain viable for some years to come.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Revolution on the Margins

2. Liberation, Occupation, and the Emerging New Order

3. Remaking the People

4. Coalition Politics and the United Front

5. Planning the Economy

6. Constructing Culture

7. A Regime of Surveillance

8. The People's State

Conclusion

Appendix A: A Note on Sources

Appendix B: Statements of General Chistiakov on the Soviet Occupation of North Korea, Fall 1945

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 16. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780801468797

0801468795

9780801468803

0801468809

OCLC:

605327300