The present study proposes to explore the Russian public diplomacy on the Korean peninsula as an international actor’s attempt to influence the international environment through engagement with a foreign public. The trajectory of the Russian public diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula has been analyzed in relation to its historical development featuring three historical stages: 1) public diplomacy in colonial Korea 2) public diplomacy in the DPRK during the Cold War 3) Post-Cold War public diplomacy in the DPRK and in the Republic of Korea.
In the present talk I will focus on "mapping" Soviet public diplomacy in colonial Korea by looking at the extent to which the public diplomacy activities of the first socialist state were defined by the international context and also by the specific conditions of the targeted country – colonial Korea. The Soviet public diplomacy in colonial Korea reflected the multifaceted foreign policy of the USSR, which aimed at support of the communist movement on the one hand, and at the promotion of peaceful coexistence with countries of different political systems, on the other. The Soviet government conducted various public diplomacy activities such as distribution of Soviet literature, organization of exhibitions, maintaining contact with pro-Soviet organizations, and assistance to victims of 1925 flooding with the purpose to form a positive image of the first socialist state.
However from 1905 to 1945 Korean foreign affairs had been administrated by Japan and direct evidence of both official and unofficial contacts between Koreans and foreigners during that period are not easily obtained. The documents retained in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) provide new evidence of direct contacts between the first socialist state and Korean people, entrepreneurs and organizations in the 1920s - 1930s. The research suggests that the first Soviet Non-Government organizations such as VOKS (the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations Abroad), Russian Red Cross Society and Krestintern Peasant International were engaged in public diplomatic activities on the territory of colonial Korea. |