Vol. 1. From ANCIENT TIMES TO 1904; Vol. 2. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY / KOREA. 1905-1945 (V. M. Tikhonov); SOUTH KOREA. 1945-1992 (Kang Mangil) / Ed., translated from cor., comp. cron. tab., edict by T. M. Simbirtseva, Moscow: Natalis, 2011. 533 p.; 499 p. (Orientalia et classica. Proceedings of the Institute of Oriental Studies. cultures and antiquity. Issue 41)

The two-volume history of Korea, recently published in Moscow, is a very interesting phenomenon. In the last decade, three general works on Korean history have appeared in Russian, two of which are textbooks: S. O. Kurbanov's book " A Course of lectures on the History of Korea: from Antiquity to the end of the XX century "(St. Petersburg, 2002; 2nd ed., supplement: "History of Korea from Antiquity until the beginning of the XXI century". St. Petersburg, 2009) and the MGIMO textbook edited by A.V. Torkunov "History of Korea (new reading)" (Moscow, 2003), and the third is a translation of the widely known book in the Republic of Korea by Han Yong-woo " History of Korea: a new view "(Moscow: East Lit-ra, 2010).

Against this background, the reviewed "History of Korea" stands out for its volume (more than 1 thousand pages); by the nature of the presentation, this is the most detailed work. Although the preface indicates that it can serve as a textbook of Korean history, it is still more of a conceptual work that examines the history of Korea from certain positions and is not tied, like the above-mentioned textbooks, to the specific program of the country's history taught at the university. The first volume and part of the second (before 1945) were written by V. M. Tikhonov, and the rest of the second volume is a translation of the section for 1945 - 1992 of Kang Mangil's book "Kochhe sun Hanguk Handesa" ("A New Look at the Modern History of Korea") made by T. M. Simbirtseva under the editorship of V. M. Tikhonov (1-ed., 1994). This structure of the publication, however, does not violate the conceptual unity of the entire work, since both authors belong to the extreme left-wing Marxist trend of modern South Korean historiography. This circumstance deserves special attention, since the Russian reader is practically unfamiliar with this direction, and over the past quarter of a century he has managed to get out of the habit of corresponding expressions and formulations of Soviet scientific literature. The ideological coloration of the work is relatively small in the first volume, but, quite naturally, it is clearly visible in the second.

In this regard, I would like to note the obvious drawback of the entire publication, which consists in the complete absence of the history of the DPRK, which, given the views of the authors, would be extremely interesting. Even if Kang Mangil's book was originally devoted only to the history of the Republic of Korea, then for this edition at least some attention should have been paid to North Korea. However, perhaps precisely because of their worldview, the authors experienced understandable difficulties in describing the DPRK.

However, the book under review also has something in common that is typical of South Korean historiography, in particular, its characteristic interpretation of concepts related to socio-political history, such as "aristocracy", "bureaucratic monarchy", "class system", etc.

The presentation of Korean history since ancient times is not "problematic", but strictly consistent and, as already mentioned, extremely detailed. The chronological division compared to the usual one is enlarged: the entire history of traditional Korea is divided into three large parts, with the first one covering the period up to the middle of the 7th century-before the unification of the peninsula

under the rule of Silla, the second is the Combined Silla and Goryeo periods, and the third is entirely devoted to the rule of the Li Dynasty. Although the society and state of the Unified Silla period were not very different from Silla before unification and were radically different from the Goryeo period, the author's logic can be understood: he attaches primary importance to the fact of the existence of a unified state on the Korean peninsula.

In the first volume, much attention is paid to early Korean Buddhism, and V. M. Tikhonov managed not only to show the nature of the creative contribution of Korean Buddhists to the development of Buddhist teaching, but also to draw a vivid picture of their life and activities. The political history of medieval Korea is also vividly, fascinatingly and at the same time quite detailed, and its leaders appear before readers in all the originality of the people of their era.

I note the correctness of the description of the socio-political and administrative system of traditional Korea, which is usually given little attention, and these rather special issues were not presented in a boring and understandable way for the general reader. The language of presentation is generally a strong point of the publication.

More than a hundred pages in the final part of the first volume are devoted to the last quarter of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century. (before the Russo-Japanese War), which should be considered quite justified, since we are talking about a crucial and extremely eventful period of Korean history. The description of these events makes a strong impression. This is the most detailed account of them that the reader can find at present in Russian. In this case, the detail of the presentation is especially important, because it allows the reader to understand the origins of many phenomena in modern Korea and the perception of modern South Korean historiography (and therefore Koreans) of Russia.

Especially interesting is the description of the activities of the Independence Society and its impact on the fate of Russian-Korean relations. Due to this, the well-known events of 1898, which marked the actual withdrawal of Russia from Korea and the elimination of Russian influence there, appear not only as a result of the corresponding Russian-Japanese agreements, but as a consequence of the development of the situation around issues of foreign policy orientation within Korea itself. It is obvious that the formation of Korean nationalism was initially anti-Russian in nature. In light of this, the generally extremely negative assessment that Russia and its policy towards Korea received at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the current South Korean historiography will not seem particularly strange - despite the obvious fact that it was not Russia, but Japan, that invaded Korea.

The second volume focuses heavily on the national liberation movement during the period of Japanese rule, and what distinguishes this edition from others is that it examines in detail the ideology of Korean nationalism, including such little-known aspects as the influence of social Darwinism.

The description of the political development of the Republic of Korea is generally characterized by an extremely negative attitude towards almost all existing regimes of the country. This is reflected, in particular, in the fact that the speeches of various political forces against the government and the activities of the opposition are given more space than the policies and actions of the South Korean governments. In some cases, the author's sense of proportion clearly fails: thus, one of the oldest leaders of the national movement and a protégé of the Americans, Lee Seung-man, looks almost like a patron of pro-Japanese elements (although there were simply no other carriers of administrative experience in the country after liberation).

The development of the South Korean economy until the early 1990s has not been given much space, and quite objective data describing this development are not adequately commented on. In any case, the reader does not have any impression of the South Korean "economic miracle" that brought the country to the list of the most developed economies in the world. In this sense, the subtitle of Kang Mangil's book ("a new view") is quite justified.

The last part of the second volume ("Society and Culture in the period of partition"), which covers more than 60 pages, is devoted partly to educational policy, but mainly to the labor movement. Only a few pages are devoted to literature, and only in the aspect of its influence on the ideological and social struggle; nothing is said about the visual arts, music, cinema, theater. The latter can only be regretted, because the author's view of contemporary art in the light of his political views would be interesting.

A great advantage of the publication is a detailed chronological index placed after each volume. The illustrative material is small, but well-chosen. The book as a whole is easy to read and not tedious for a layman.

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