The Soviet Civil Administration (SCA) was the government of the northern half of Korea from 24 August 1945 to 9 September 1948 though governed concurrently after the setup of the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea in 1946. Even though formally referred as civilian administration, it was originally a military organization that included civilians of different professions.[3]
In the postwar period between 1946–1949 the Sakhalin administration (Soviet Union) in anticipation of Japanese evacuation of Karafuto and the Kuril Islands had allegedly established a relationship with SCA in order to secure cheap Korean workforce to be used on Sakhalin fisheries that was about to evacuate from Islands along with Japanese civilians.[3] By 1950 the Korean workforce grew up to 10 thousands people on Sakhalin island only.[3]
During the Soviet occupation, Soviet soldiers committed rape against both Japanese and Korean women alike.[5][6] Soviet soldiers also looted the property of both Japanese and Koreans living in northern Korea.[5]
Even in North Korea, ‘Japanese enterprises of military and heavy industry’ were considered ‘trophies of the Red Army, since all these enterprises to one degree or another worked for the Japanese army’. These factories ‘must be transferred to the Soviet Union as partial payment of reparations’, as a December 1945 document put it.
The Soviets claimed Japanese enterprises in northern Korea and took valuable materials and industrial equipment.[5]
Under the Soviet Civil Administration from 1945 to 1948, North Korea was governed by a group of influential Soviet generals who played key roles in shaping the country's political landscape. Colonel General Ivan Mikhailovich Chistyakov, commanding officer of the 25th Army, played a critical role in deciding the location of the 25th Army headquarters, choosing Pyongyang as the capital of North Korea, a decision that continues to have a lasting impact to this day. Alongside him, Major General Nikolai Georgiyevich Lebedev, the political officer of the 25th Army, trained Kim Il Sung and coined the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, emphasizing the purported rule by the people.
However, the true architect of North Korea's early communist regime during this period was Colonel General Terentiy Fomich Shtykov, the political officer of the 1st Far Eastern Front. De facto leader of North Korea from 1945 to 1948, Shtykov shaped the nation's politics, economy, and education system. He edited the initial draft of North Korea's constitution, formed the first cabinet of ministers, and actively supported Kim Il Sung's invasion plans, which led to the outbreak of the Korean War. Despite being recalled to Moscow and demoted after the military disaster, Shtykov's impact on North Korea's governance was immense. His role in starting the Korean War and overseeing the Soviet influence in North Korean affairs remains a significant aspect of understanding the country's history during this critical period.
During the Soviet Civil Administration, Kim Il Sung, along with other North Korean politicians like Kim Tu Bong and Pak Hon Yong, followed the orders of Shtykov and the Soviet generals. The "Provisional People's Committee for North Korea," though officially presenting itself as the ruling government, had no autonomy and merely executed the decisions made by the Soviet Civil Administration. The generals, including Shtykov, played a decisive role in shaping North Korea's early communist regime, with their actions and decisions significantly influencing the nation's political landscape for years to come.[1][7][2]
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Armstrong, Charles K. (2013-04-15). The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University) (Kindle Location pp. 154–155, 1367). Cornell University Press. Kindle Edition.
^ abcEdele, Mark (2015), Maiolo, Joseph; Bosworth, Richard (eds.), "Soviet liberations and occupations, 1939–1949", The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2: Politics and Ideology, The Cambridge History of the Second World War, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 487–508, ISBN978-1-107-03407-5, retrieved 9 May 2021
In Korea, Red Army men also ‘committed depredations against the Japanese and Koreans, including rape and looting, on what appears to have been a wide scale and which went quite beyond taking revenge against the enemy and its Korean allies’
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