Tag Lankov

Dictators as young men

Stalin was a train and bank robber – for the sake of Revolution, of course. Lenin languished for twenty years in Europe, returning only briefly during the 1905—1907 revolution. Hitler plunged into fringe politics soon after WW1. Mussolini spent his…

Dictators as young men (continued)

For a long time, some Korea experts and Koreans gave credence to the rumor that the real Kim Il Sung – the Pochonbo hero – died around 1940, and another person assumed his name and identity. Given that a few…

Lankov on North Korea

Excellent pieces on North Korea by Dr. Andrei Lan’kov. He lived in Pyongyang in the mid-1980s as an exchange student. Being Soviet, not Western, and knowing Korean, he probably had a better insight into the real life of the incredibly…