KEY PAGES OF THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN-KOREAN RELATIONS - AN ATTEMPT AT A NEW READING

The aim of this writing is not to retell once more the history of the former Soviet Union-Korea relations up to Gorbachev's perestroika time , though the task of producing monographs on this subject based on doc uments and materials that became recently known to research and genera l community is still awaiting hardworking laborer. More modest effort has been made: to concentrate research attention on the key, decisive events in the history of relations between the two countries that are seen in new perspective from a present-day ''height,'' and learn their lessons which may be relevant to diplomatic behavior of our time. The re is widespread understanding among the international academic commun ity that pictures former Soviet policy towards Korea in one color as m onotonous, following, mainly, the North Korean line. This overall pict ure is essentially true. But new documents and eyewitness testimonies of past events showed that within it there were turning points and cur ves which in a major way determined the character and development of S oviet-Korean encounters. Each of the post-war Soviet rulers - Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko voluntarily or involuntar ily introduced their own colors, tastes and inclinations to Korean pol icy, and tried to solve demanding Korean affairs and events in their o wn way. Often each period was colored by one or two major events that determined its political face. During Stalin's time it was the Korean War, and recently introduced documents add new shades to help understa nd his decision making on this tragedy. Recent new exposure of Pueblo crisis events shows the roots of a restrained, more pragmatic side of the Soviet attitude to North Korean foreign policy adventures, which w ere never publicized. Khrushchev made an attempt to formalize the two- Koreas status on the peninsula that was supported by neither side of t he Korean equation and finally ostracized in the Soviet Union. This in itiative, however, may have changed positively the course of interacti ons between North and South Korea and the character of the unification problem. This review of key past events will not only help to underst and better the dynamics and driving forces behind Russian-Korean relat ions, but assist in creating new, realistic guidelines for those of to day and further development of ties between the two countries.