1950~1960년대 북한의 ‘혁명전통’ 확립과정과 역사인식의 변화

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to historically analyze how North Korea’s ‘revolutionary tradition’ was ‘discovered’ and settled in the 1950s and 1960s, when the anti-Japanese armed struggle began to be deified as the ‘revolutionary tradition’ in North Korea.<BR> In order to restore Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese armed struggle as the only ‘revolutionary tradition’ North Korea sent investigation teams to investigate and collect related relics and artifacts while traveling to sites where Kim Il Sung staged the anti-Japanese armed struggle. In particular, in May 1959, a research team visited Yanbain, which was the main stage of Kim Il Sung’s activities, and explored more than 200 historic sites over a long period of five months. The performance of the team was actively promoted to North Koreans through exhibitions and publications of records on the expeditions. The restoration of North Korea’s domestic revolutionary sites and museums was also carried out, making the Bochonbo and Yanggang areas where Kim Il Sung’s actual combat activities took place a place of ‘revolutionary tradition,’ while the Bochonbo Museum and other museums served as schools of ‘revolutionary tradition’ culture.<BR> As invention of the history and creation of spatial sculptures were the contents of the ‘revolutionary tradition,’ these had to be used to promote the ‘revolutionary tradition.’ North Korea organized field trips and marches to anti-Japanese war sites with students and young people in order to promote them as part of sports activities focused on ‘playfulness’. Encouraging North Korean people to study Memoir and commemorate ‘revolutionary tradition,’ which had swept the entire North Korean society since 1959, played a crucial role in the everyday of people.<BR> As North Korea attached the meaning of ‘revolutionary tradition’ to Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese armed struggle from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, the direction of history description and education was bound to change accordingly. History of Korean National Liberation Struggle (1958) and History of Korean Modern Revolution Movement (1961) that were written based on ‘revolutionary tradition’ defined Kim Il Sung’s armed struggle against Japan as the only ‘revolutionary tradition.’ Such changes in history description were reflected in history education in schools. Teachers had to educate their students that all the anti-Japanese armed struggles were done to prepare for founding the Party after liberation. In addition, from a much earlier period than other units, ‘Research Group for Educating People about Kim Il Sung’s Revolutionary Activities’ was established in education field to train students into human being that embodied the ‘revolutionary tradition.’