On March 1, 1946, a mass rally was held in Pyongyang, with Kim Il Sung present. During the rally, a member of a South Korean government-backed terrorist group – known as the White Shirt Society – tossed a grenade onto the stage near several Soviet and North Korean officials and the Great Leader himself.
Soviet officer Yakov Novichenko quickly jumped on the grenade and saved Kim Il Sung’s life. Thanks to a large book strapped underneath his belt, Novichenko survived the attack but suffered terrible injuries: He lost one of his arms and suffered severe damage to his eyes. However, he gained the lifelong friendship of the Kim family, and the only personality cult the North Korean state has ever devoted to a non-Korean.
On March 1, 1946, a mass rally was held in Pyongyang, with Kim Il Sung present. During the rally, a member of a South Korean government-backed terrorist group – known as the White Shirt Society – tossed a grenade onto the stage near several Soviet and North Korean officials and the Great Leader himself.
Soviet officer Yakov Novichenko quickly jumped on the grenade and saved Kim Il Sung’s life. Thanks to a large book strapped underneath his belt, Novichenko survived the attack but suffered terrible injuries: He lost one of his arms and suffered severe damage to his eyes. However, he gained the lifelong friendship of the Kim family, and the only personality cult the North Korean state has ever devoted to a non-Korean.
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Benjamin R. Young is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). He is the author of Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World (Stanford University Press, 2021). He received his Ph.D. from The George Washington University in 2018. He has previously taught at the U.S. Naval War College and Dakota State University. He has published peer-reviewed articles on North Korean history and politics in a number of scholarly journals and is a regular contributor to NK News.
