Terentii Fomich Shtykov (Russian: Тере́нтий Фоми́ч Шты́ков; 13 March[O.S. 28 February]1907– 25 October 1964) was a Soviet general who was the de facto head of the Soviet 1945–1948 military occupation of northern Korea and the first Soviet Ambassador to North Korea from 1948 until 1950. Shtykov's support for Kim Il Sung was crucial in his rise to power, and the two persuaded Stalin to allow the Korean War to begin in June 1950.
As the preeminent representative of the Soviet Union's political authority over the nascent North Korea 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 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 from 1959 to 1960.
Andrei Lankov asserts that Shtykov made more impact on Korean history 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.
Administrators of Soviet Civil Administration in Korea; Shtykov (left) and Nikolai Lebedev
Following the division of Korea, Joseph Stalin sought to turn northern Korea into a socialist buffer state between the Soviet bloc 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 and communicated to Zhdanov and Stalin about developments on the Korean Peninsula. Shtykov "exercised extremely close supervision over political events in North Korea" on Stalin's behalf.[6] In January 1946, Shtykov replaced Ivan Chistyakov as the senior officer in charge of North Korea.[7]:106 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 [in North Korea] in which Shtykov was not involved.”[8] Shtykov and his aides repeatedly urged the Soviet Union to send more aid to Korea. He became friends with Kim Il Sung, and Shtykov's strong support of Kim was decisive in his rise to power.[7]:108
Shtykov also headed the Soviet delegation to the Joint Soviet-American Commission on Korea[ko]. The Americans thought Shtykov was a "hot-tempered authoritarian," and the two governments failed to negotiate a unified government for the Korean peninsula.[5] In March 1946, Shtykov outlined his vision for a unified Korean Peninsula, in which the head of state would be Lyuh Woon-hyung. A communist would be appointed as one of the two deputy prime ministers, as well as holding positions as ministers of internal affairs, of foreign affairs, of industry, of education and of propaganda, as well as chairman of the Committee for Economic Planning. Kim Il Sung would be minister of internal affairs, while Pak Hon-yong would be a deputy prime minister. Shtykov shared his plans with Kim and Pak. Several amendments were made to the plan, including the creation of a ministry of the people's armed forces, to be given to Kim, while Choe Yong-gon would be minister of internal affairs. However, these proposals ultimately failed to make ground.[7]:114
Shtykov continued to be the preeminent power in the North after Kim was made chairman of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea.[5] 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."[9] The original 1948 North Korean constitution 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. On 10 July 1948, in response to elections in South Korea, the Soviet Politburo instructed Shtykov to implement the constitution, which the People’s Assembly of North Korea did so, leading to the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.[7]:121 On 27 August, Shtykov wrote a preliminary composition of the North Korean cabinet in his diary, as well as a final one on 30 August.[7]:122 Shtykov was later named the first Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK.[2]
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.[2] 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.[10]
Korean War
While Stalin intended to use North Korea as a buffer state to the Western-friendly South Korea and Japan, Shtykov was sympathetic to North Korean attempts to liberate the South through socialism. Shtykov supported Kim Il Sung and Pak Hon-yong's 31 May 1949 proposal to create a Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland to advocate for peaceful unification of North and South, noting that Syngman Rhee'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 Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War Kim persistently lobbied the Soviets to support a Northern-led violent unification of the peninsula.[11]
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 blitzkrieg "at almost no cost", and Shtykov predicted that it would not provoke a Western involvement. On 30 January 1950, Stalin telegraphed Shtykov to say that an invasion "would need extensive preparations" and that "it should be organised without taking too big a risk".[7]:126 On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded the South. Seoul fell rapidly, and by late July the DPRK controlled all of Korea except Busan and the surrounding area. But after the UN intervention at the Battle of Inchon, the military situation reversed. North Korea was only saved by Chinese intervention, but this was not enough to save Shtykov's diplomatic career. On 22 November 1950, Shtykov was dismissed from participating in all military affairs, which were to be now handled by Lieutenant General Vladimir Razuvayev. He was then recalled home, and never returned to Korea.[7]:133
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 occupation of the North, which provoked a backlash among Northern farmers.[12] 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.[2]
↑Centre for Preservation and Study of Documents for Contemporary History, fond 644, opis 2, delo 55, list 117.
1234Timothy Dowling (2011). "Terentii Shtykov". History and the Headlines. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
123Lankov, Andrei. "North Korea in 1945–48: The Soviet Occupation and the Birth of the State". From Stalin to Kim Il Sung – The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960. pp.2–3. ISBN9780813531175.
1234567Tertitskiy, Fyodor (2024). Accidental Tyrant: The Live of Kim Il-sung. Oxford University Press. ISBN9780197800881.
↑Armstrong, Charles (2013). The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950. Cornell University Press. Kindle Locations 1363–1367.
