Andrei Lankov

All students of North Korean history are aware of the important influence of Soviet patterns on institutions in the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (hereafter, the DPRK). In particular, this influence is evident to a Russian who has spent the greater part of his life as a citizen of the Soviet Union and who is familiar with Soviet institutions; this experience is especially useful for understanding the historical roots of many North Korean traditions. However, these historical roots are sometimes overlooked by Western and South Korean scholars. Historians in every country have their own favourite topics which for some reason a.re especially popular in their particular historical tradition. The history of education happened to be one such favourite topic among Korean scholars. Though until recently South Korean academics had not paid much attention to many aspects of North Korea.'1 history, education is an obvious exception and one can find a number of Korean-language studies dedicated to history and the present position of education in the DPRK. However, the task of this article is not to outline the history or theory of North Korean education, but to investigate which features and traditions were borrowed by the North Koreans from the Soviet Union. South Korean scholars have also attempted to identify such features, but, not being familiar with Soviet educational practice, their studies have been limited to the impact of Soviet and Russian pedagogy on North Korea. In contrast, I focus on the more practical aspects of this influence. Therefore, this article is mostly of an expository and descriptive nature. The North Korean educational system has been heavily influenced by Soviet (or, more generally, Russian) patterns. This is hardly surprising; it is yet another example of the remarkable strength of Soviet influence on North Korea society in earlier periods of its history. However, what is worth is the uneven nature of this influence. In fields where North Koreans already had their own established traditions (namely, in primary and, to a lesser degree, in secondary education), some of these earlier traditions were retained, while in entirely new fields, like tertiary2 education or ideological indoctrination, Soviet influence was more profound. In the period after 1960 when the DPRK ceased to be a Soviet satellite state, North Korean authorities attempted to discard Soviet practice across the board. Aspects of the education system were reformed, and those patterns which were considered to be too distinctly Soviet were changed. However, these reforms were often superficial, and North Korean educational practice is still very much in the Soviet mold. This article is based mainly on South Korean materials related to the North Korean educational system, books and articles written by North Korean defectors, and my personal experiences living in both North Korea (as a foreign student) and the USSR. I also use some Western publications dealing with Soviet education in the 1950s and 1960s. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Han Man-gil of the Korean Educational Academy, Dr. Kim Sok-hyang of the Research Centre for National Unification, and Dr. Caiger of Australian National University, whose help and co-operation was vital for my work. While this is only an initial study, I hope that this article may be useful for students of North Korean history and society.