One of the oldest theoretical concepts about the earlier history of North Korea is the division of its politicians into four factions.

The Soviet faction was composed of Koreans who lived in the USSR, so the theory goes, the Yan’an faction of those from China, the internal faction of Communists of colonial Korea, and the partisan one: members of Kim Il Sung’s unit.

While, as it always is, life has proven itself to be more complex than any scheme – and there were people who eventually defied their supposed allegiance –  this framing was remarkably accurate. In most cases, members of each faction had a common background and indeed supported each other.

There is just one more thing which should be noted about the eventually victorious partisan faction: most of these people served in the Red Army in the very same unit, the 88th brigade, and this service bonded them together as much as their partisan past did.

As of the 1970s, the academic community only knew that Kim Il Sung had been in the USSR in the 1940s. The first man to announce that he had served in the 88th brigade was the North Korean student Ho Ung Bae, who fled to the Soviet Union. In the early 1980s, he had his book manuscript smuggled into Japan, where it was published under a pseudonym Lim Un.

The book was named “The secret history of the North Korean royal dynasty” (北朝鮮王朝成立秘史) and although it may have been mostly superseded by the subsequent research and the opening of the Russian archives, it remains somewhat valuable.

Interestingly, there have been only a few scholars who studied the 88th Brigade in depth. Fortunately, normally these were and are really good specialists, like the late Georgiy Plotnikov, Russian scholars Andrei Pochtaryov and Valeriy Vartanov, and Korean scholar Ki Kwang-so.

As a significant number of NK News readers read Korean, I can recommend Prof. Ki’s article “The tendencies in the Kim Il Sung group in the 88 independent brigade of the Soviet Army” (1940년대 전반 소련군 88독립보병여단 내 김일성 그룹 동향) for those who want to read more on this issue. 

This service bonded them together as much as their partisan past did

THE RED ARMY’S FOREIGN LEGION?

The first thing that needs to be clarified about the brigade is its proper name. It was the 88th Independent Infantry Brigade (восемьдесят восьмая отдельная стрелковая бригада).

In the USSR, and also in later in the DPRK, “independent” was the term for a unit outside of the proper chain of command. For example, a platoon which is part of a company was just a platoon, but a platoon which was attached directly to a division would have been an “independent platoon”.

The brigade was established on July 21, 1942. The man who gave the order was General Iosif Apanasenko, tasked with overseeing the eastern borders of the Soviet Union during the war with Germany.

In 1939-41, Soviet officials in the Far East found themselves in an unusual situation: hundreds of partisans and marauders were fleeing the Japanese puppter state of Manchukuo, fearing for their lives. The USSR decided to give these people a proper check, and those who passed were eventually recruited into the 88th Brigade – seemingly the only unit composed of foreigners in the entire Red Army.

Apanasenko’s decision looked quite logical. The partisans could have been used to do intelligence tasks, and some were (notably, not Kim Il Sung). In case of a war, the Red Army could use them for diversions,  and later, as administrators of an occupied territory. And, of course, by keeping them in the Soviet Union, the authorities would have been sure about their loyalties.

Zhou Baozhong, a notable commander of the partisan movement in Manchukuo, was given a rank of Lieutenant Colonel and appointed the brigade’s commanding officer.

From 1942 to 1945, the brigade lived the life of a rear unit of the Red Army, with a a lot of political training sessions going on. Some crossed the border and scouted the situation in Korea and Manchukuo. All Chinese and Korean personnel learned Russian – and the commanding officer of the first battalion, Captain Kim Il Sung – was an exemplary student.

The partisans took their wives with them and children were born. One of them was Yuri Kim, who became known as Kim Jong Il, yet at the time his father probably believed they would never return to Korea.

Everything changed for the brigade after the Soviet-Japanese war. The unit was disbanded and the servicemen were sent to Korea and Manchuria to assist the Red Army. A new history began – for them and for the whole of East Asia.

From 1942 to 1945, the brigade lived the life of a rear unit of the Red Army

Finally, there is one more historical problem which needs to be addressed here. There are some occasional claims that the 88th brigade was somehow stationed not only near Khabarovsk, but also in Central Asia.

This is completely false and the reason for this misunderstanding was that the USSR actually had two units called the 88th Independent Infantry Brigade. One was the one this piece is dedicated to, and the second was composed of Turkmen personnel, attached to the Central Asian Military District, and completely unrelated to Kim Il Sung or any of his men.

THE CRADE OF THE ELITE

In the table below, one can see a partial list of North Korean officials coming from the 88th brigade:

*This Lieutenant General Kang Sang Ho was not the same Lieutenant General Kang Sang Ho mentioned here. The fact that the DPRK had two generals with the same name and rank has long cause confusion among historians.

As one can see from the table, the ascension of the 88th brigade began in the late 1950s, when Kim Il Sung broke free from the Soviet control, solidifying his control over the country. Some were purged — like Kim Kwang Hyop — but the overwhelming majority were not.

Interestingly, it does not seem that relations in the brigade affected the future careers of its members to any degree. For example, Kim Il Sung once criticized Kim Il during their service in the Red Army, and Kim Il later became one of the most prominent North Korean politicians. So Chol reportedly did not like battalion commander Kim Il Sung in the 1940s — and yet rose to the very top later.

The last one of the 88 brigade politicians to die was Lee Ul Sol, who passed away in 2015.

Yet the unit’s legacy lives on. One of the members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo is Choe Ryong Hae – son of Senior Lieutenant Choe Hyon. Until recently, the military department of the Central Committee was headed by O Il Jong – son of Private O Jin U. And of course, the young man who rules North Korea now is the grandson of Captain Kim Il Sung.

The commanding officer of the brigade was Zhou Baozhong. Interestingly, he was not Han Chinese. Rather, Zhou was one of the Bai people, who mostly live in the Yunnan province of China. A Bai man in Manchuria was an unusual thing in itself – and even more so, since, unlike, say, Kim Il Sung, Zhou was a very prominent man in the anti-Japanese resistance there.

The ascension of the 88th brigade began in the late 1950s, when Kim Il Sung broke free from the Soviet control

After the fall of the Empire of Japan and the collapse of Manchukuo, Zhou returned to Manchuria. With the Communist Party’s takeover of the mainland China, Zhou was sent to Yunnan to work there and he became the President of the Yunnan University. He died in 1964.

Unlike Kim Il Sung, Zhou never rose to real power in China. One can only wonder what would have happened if Stalin had chosen to create a separate state in Manchuria – as he did in North Korea. Perhaps, the world would have indeed seen Zhou Baozhong, the Great Leader of the Manchurian People’s Republic?

The fate of the other Chinese servicemen of the brigade was quite different. Wang Yizhi, Zhou’s wife, was one of those who suffered under the Culture Revolution, being labeled “pro-Soviet” during the Sino-Soviet split. Wang Xiaoming, who commanded the second battalion in the brigade, spent three years in prison. Others were more likely retained, two people even got a promotion to one-star generals.

There were also some Soviet Koreans in the brigade, sent there since they could easily communicate with other Korean members of the unit. The most important of them was probably Mun Il – Kim Il Sung’s personal assistant and confidant –  the man who was, perhaps, his most trusted man until he returned to the USSR.

Another person was Yu Song Chol. For some time considered by the Soviets to lead North Korea, Yu later became a Lieutenant General in the KPA. He later returned to the USSR, and in the 1990s, gave a lot of interviews on the early history of North Korea.

Next, there was Kim Pong Yul. Before he got into the Red Army, he was a director of a collective farm. One day, he was arrested for some financial machinations. The fact that the accusation was economy-related, not something about being a member of a Trotskyist group planning to wreck local farms, suggests that he may have actually been guilty.

However, after serving part of his term in a concentration camp, Kim’s case was reviewed, he was found not guilty, and he was released. Such things occasionally happened immediately after Lavrentiy Beria took over the Soviet secret police from Nikolai Yezhov, but still, Kim was very lucky to be one of the happy few.

After being released, Kim Pong Yul was sent to serve in the 88 brigade, where he served until 1945 as a private. Reportedly, he was good at driving tractors. After the war with Japan was over, Kim was sent to North Korea, where his career immediately skyrocketed. Appointed a deputy commander of artillery of the entire KPA, he got promoted to commander after his superior Mu Jong got removed.

During the Korean War, he received the title of a Hero, and in 1992 he was promoted to Vice-Marshal. After Kim Pong Yul passed away, the encyclopedia entry on him mentioned that “in November of the 31st year of the Juche era (1942) he joined the anti-Japanese struggle in the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army.” Of course, this army never existed and all that Kim joined was the 88th brigade.

In North Korea it came to form most of the political elite

Finally, there was Ivan Chen. He was the director of the Sixth School in Pyongyang for Soviet children. He had three daughters, and eventually one of them moved to Poland, one to Kazakhstan, and one – to Colombia, of all places.

There were also some Russians in the brigade, but none rose to any prominence. However, when it comes to other, smaller nationalities, it should be noted that the Nanai servicemen of the brigade are still well remembered in their small community.

In Soviet history, the 88th brigade was more of a peculiarity. Being staffed by foreigners was certainly very unique, but military-wise, the brigade’s usefulness was near meaningless.

It was only after World War II was over that the brigade’s legacy started to flourish, and in North Korea it came to form most of the political elite.

In China, the impact was not quite as substantial — though Major Generals Wang Mingui (王明贵) and Peng Shilu (彭施鲁) were former brigade servicemen.

Ironically, the country in which this Soviet unit had the least influence was the Soviet Union itself, as even its most high-ranking officers, such as Kim Il Sung’s deputy of political affairs Stepan Maltsev, or Brigade Deputy Commander Timofei Shirinskiy did not make any major impact on history.

A unit which became meaningful only after it was disbanded — the 88th Brigade was one of the very few which fit this definition.

Edited by Oliver Hotham

Featured image: SHEN ZHIHUA/public domain