''Juche'' or ''Chuch'e'' () is a Korean word meaning "main subject." In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), "Juche" refers specifically to a political thesis of Kim Il-sung, the Juche Idea, that identifies the Korean masses as the masters of the country's development. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Kim elaborated the Juche Idea into a set of principles that the government uses to justify its policy decisions. Among these are independence from great powers, a strong military posture, and reliance on Korean national resources. "Juche" has sometimes been translated in North Korean sources as "independent stand" or "spirit of self-reliance", and has also been interpreted as "always putting Korean things first." According to Kim Il-sung, the Juche Idea is based on the belief that "man is the master of everything and decides everything."

Origin

North Korean sources trace the origins of Juche to the 1930s. According to these sources the earliest mention of Juche was in a June 30, 1930 speech by Kim Il-sung, who was then 18 years old. The authenticity of these early speeches, however, is disputed.

The first known reference to Juche was a speech given by Kim Il-sung on December 28, 1955, titled "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing ''Juche'' in Ideological Work." In this speech, Kim urged party propagandists not to import ideas and customs from the Soviet Union, but to portray Korea as a revolutionary nation in its own right. He stated, :To make revolution in Korea we must know Korean history and geography as well as the customs of the Korean people. Only then is it possible to educate our people in a way that suits them and to inspire in them an ardent love for their native place and their motherland. Kim focuses on the importance of education and learning Korean history. Through the education of Korean people's own history will it "stimulate their national pride and rouse the broad masses to revolutionary struggle". Kim talks throughout his speech bulleting monumental events of the past and how certain outcomes could have been prevented. He stresses the importance of remembering their struggle, and that not learning their past, or denying it would "mean that our people did nothing."

Hwang Jang-yeop, Kim's top adviser on ideology, discovered this speech later in the 1950s when Kim sought to develop his own version of Marxism–Leninism, which Juche was originally seen as a progression of, and began to craft the idea birthing it into the society-defining credo it became. By 1958, Kim Il-sung had established himself as "the unrivaled ruler in North Korea" and thus started the language used to reference the people's devotion to Kim. This resulted in building a personality cult around him to glorify Kim Il-sung and his family's history and legitimacy as leaders. Even following Kim Il-sung's death he remains the eternal president and even those critical of his son Kim Jung-il still passionately revere him. The rewritten history of Korea goes as far back as 1866 when the "heroic" Kim family and his great-grandfather had fought against American imperialism. This is an example of the way in which the North Korean political machine began to mythologize Kim's history and abilities. The cult of personality surrounding the Kim family has both legitimated and helped garner support for the Juche ideology. Kim Il-sung was revered as the "supreme leader and the sun" of all people.

The Juche Idea itself gradually emerged as a systematic ideological doctrine under the political pressures of the Sino-Soviet split. Development of an independent approach to Marxism-Leninism was necessary to remain neutral as the split intensified. After the ideology was pushed aside for almost a decade, in 1963 when Kim spoke of the ''chuch'e'' principles to the Korean People's Army, the idea emerged again. Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche in his April 14, 1965, speech "On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea": #Independence in political work [''chaju''] #Self-sustenance in economic endeavors [''charip''] #Self-reliance in national defense [''chawi'']

Current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il officially authored the definitive statement on Juche in a 1982 document titled ''On the Juche Idea''. He has final authority over the interpretation of the state ideology and incorporated the Songun (army-first) policy into it in 1996.

The idea of Juche was developed by Kim Il-sung as the guide and foundation of all conduct in North Korea. The meaning of Juche is "self-reliance" and "independence" in politics, economics, defense, and ideology. Juche emphasized independence in political work, self-sustenance in economic endeavors, and self-defense in national defense. ''Chajusong'' (self-reliance), ''minjok tongnip'' (national or ethnic independence), ''charip kyongje'' (independent economy), the common factors that all the colonized peoples wanted at mid-century, are the synonyms of Juche and can be the antonyms of ''sadaejuui'', which means serving and relying upon foreign power. The second character of Juche, ''che'', is found in the late-nineteenth century self-strengthening movement of Li Hung-chang’s term. Che of Juche is same as ti of ti-yung in Chinese learning and tai of kokutai in Japanese learning. The Koreans use Juche in their case with the goal of creating a subjective, solipsistic state of mind, the correct thought that must precede and that will then determine correct action but also as a means of defining what is simultaneously modern and Korean.

Ideology and practical application

According to Kim Jong-il's ''On the Juche Idea'', the application of Juche in state policy entails the following: # The people must have independence (''chajusong'') in thought and politics, economic self-sufficiency, and self-reliance in defense. # Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction. # Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country. # The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action. The Juche outlook requires absolute loyalty to the revolutionary party and leader. In North Korea, these are the Workers' Party of Korea and Kim Jong-il, respectively.

In official North Korean histories, one of the first purported applications of Juche was the Five-Year Plan of 1956-1961, also known as the Chollima Movement, which led to the Chongsan-ri Method and the Taean Work System. The Five-Year Plan involved rapid economic development of North Korea, with a focus on heavy industry, to ensure political independence from both the Soviet Union and China. The Chollima Movement, however, applied the same method of centralized state planning that began with the Soviet First Five-Year Plan in 1928. The campaign also coincided with and was partially based on Mao's First Five-Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward. North Korea was apparently able to avoid the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward.

Despite its aspirations to self-sufficiency, North Korea has continually relied on economic assistance from other countries. Historically, North Korea received most of its assistance from the USSR until its collapse in 1991. In the period after the Korean War, North Korea relied on economic assistance and loans from "fraternal" countries from 1953–1963 and also depended considerably on Soviet industrial aid from 1953 to 1976. Following the fall of the USSR, the North Korean economy went into a crisis, with consequent infrastructural failures contributing to the mass famine of the mid-1990s. After several years of starvation, the People's Republic of China agreed to be a substitute for the Soviet Union as a major aid provider, supplying over US$400 million per year in humanitarian assistance. Since 2007, North Korea also received large supplies of heavy fuel oil and technical assistance as scheduled in the six-party talks framework. North Korea was the second largest recipient of international food aid in 2005, and continues to suffer chronic food shortages.

Relation to Marxism, Stalinism, and Maoism

In 1972, Juche replaced Marxism-Leninism in the revised North Korean constitution as the official state ideology, this being a response to the Sino-Soviet split. Juche was nonetheless defined as a creative application of Marxism-Leninism. Kim Il-sung also explained that Juche was not original to North Korea and that in formulating it he only laid stress on a programmatic orientation that is inherent to all Marxist-Leninist states.

After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, North Korea’s greatest economic benefactor, all reference to Marxism-Leninism was dropped in the revised 1998 constitution. But Marxist-Leninist phraseology remains in occasional use, for example, socialism and communism. The establishment of the Songun doctrine in the mid-1990s, however, has formally designated the military, not the proletariat or working class, as the main revolutionary force in North Korea.

Many commentators, journalists, and scholars outside North Korea equate Juche with Stalinism and call North Korea a Stalinist country. Some specialists have argued otherwise and have attempted to characterize the North Korean state as corporatist (Bruce Cumings), national socialist (Brian Myers), guerrillaist (Wada Haruki), monarchist (Dae Sook-suh), and theocratic (Han S. Park, Christopher Hitchens). Those who have made conditional arguments that North Korea is a Stalinist regime include Charles Armstrong, Adrian Buzo, Chong-sik Lee, and Robert Scalapino.

Kim Il-sung's policy statements and speeches from the 1940s and 1950s confirm that the North Korean government accepted Joseph Stalin's 1924 theory of ''socialism in one country'' and its model of centralized autarkic economic development. Following Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, the North Korean leader wrote an emotional obituary in his honor titled "Stalin Is the Inspiration for the Peoples Struggling for Their Freedom and Independence" in a special issue of the WPK newspaper ''Rodong Sinmun'' (March 10, 1953), the opening of which reads: :Stalin has died. The ardent heart of the great leader of progressive mankind has ceased to beat. This sad news has spread over Korean territory like lightning, inflicting a bitter blow to the hearts of millions of people. Korean People's Army soldiers, workers, farmers, and students, as well as all residents of both South and North Korea, have heard the sad news with profound grief. The very being of Korea has seemed to bow down, and mothers who had apparently exhausted their tears in weeping for the children they had lost in the bombing of the [American] air bandits sobbed again. Despite this, statements by Kim Il-sung concerning learning from Stalin and the Soviet experience were later removed from public record.

After Stalin's death, Stalin's cult of personality was denounced at the 1956 Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, North Korean state authorities ended overt adulation of the Soviet leader. But the regime refused to follow the example of Soviet political reform, which it decried as modern revisionism, or join the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), the major international trade organization of Marxist-Leninist states subordinated to the economic development of the Soviet Union. Presently, the North Korean government admits no connection between Juche and the ideas of Stalin, though occasional mention is made of his supposed political merits.

Political thinking from Maoist China has greatly influenced North Korea, such as the North's Chollima mass mobilization movements, which were based on China's Great Leap Forward. However, the ruling party in Pyongyang strongly denounces any Maoist influences on Juche in an attempt to appear independent. So even though the influence of Mao Zedong is also not formally acknowledged in North Korea, WPK ideologists and speech writers began to openly use Maoist ideas, such as the concept of self-regeneration, in the 1950s and 1960s. Maoist theories of art also began to influence North Korean musical theater during this time. These developments occurred as a result of the influence of the Chinese Army's involvement during the Korean War, as well as during the Sino-Soviet split when Kim Il-sung sided with Mao against Soviet de-Stalinization. Kim attended middle school in China, he was conversant in Chinese, and he had been a guerrilla partisan in the Communist Party of China from about 1931-1941. The postwar Kim Il-sung regime had also emulated Mao’s Great Leap Forward, his theory of the Mass line (''qunzhong luxian''), and the guerrilla tradition. Juche, however, does not exactly share the Maoist faith in the peasantry over the working class and the village over the city.

Post-Mao

After Mao's death, the policies of Maoist autarchic peasant-based socialism were phased out in China. Deng Xiaoping launched the Four Modernizations program in 1978 and opened China to sweeping economic reforms that incorporated elements of the market economy. Deng Xiaoping Theory was officially instituted in the 1980s. Despite relatively cordial Beijing-Pyongyang relations in this period, the North Korean regime was reluctant to adopt the Chinese open-door policy and model of economic modernization, because its leadership feared such reforms would compromise the Juche ideology and result in political destabilization and events similar to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (Lee, p. 1998, 1999 ). After the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc between 1989 and 1991, with the consequent loss of economic aid, North Korea began to undertake cautious, experimental, and selective emulation of the Chinese model.

The Joint Venture Law of 1984 was, however, among the first Deng-inspired North Korean attempts to attract foreign capital within the programmatic orientation of Juche doctrine. This was followed by emulation of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. North Korea established its first capitalist SEZ in 1991, the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone. The 1998 Juche constitution was also written with provisions to defend private property and joint venture enterprises with capitalist countries, making possible the establishment of the Pyongyang-based Research Institute on Capitalism in 2000, and allowing for the price and wage reforms of July 1, 2002. Deng Xiaoping Theory accepts marketization of the Chinese economy as "socialism with Chinese characteristics" or a "socialist market economy," and the North Korean Juche ideology rationalizes such reforms under the concept of "socialism of our style."

On the role of the nation-state in Juche, according to Kim Il-sung’s “On the Questions of the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” (1967) and Kim Jong-il’s “On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction” (1997), the goal of revolution and construction under Juche is the establishment of socialism and communism within the national borders of North Korea. Contrary to the perspectives of classical Marxism, Juche also maintains that Koreans are a blood-based national community, that the Korean nation-state will remain forever, and that Koreans will always live in Korea and speak Korean (The Khmer Rouge also incorporated Khmer Nationalism as an ideological platform, though Marx opposed identity politics).

Despite the nationalism of Juche, North Korean ideologists have argued that other countries can and should learn from Juche and adapt its principles to their national conditions. The North Korean government admits that Juche addresses questions previously considered in classical Marxism and its subsequent developments in Soviet Marxism-Leninism, but now distances itself from and even repudiates aspects of these political philosophies. The official position as maintained in Kim Jong-il’s “The Juche Philosophy Is an Original Revolutionary Philosophy” (1996) is that Juche is a completely new ideology created by Kim Il-sung, who does not depend on the Marxist classics. As a result, the North Korean Constitution has no mention of Marxism-Leninism, but rather occupies its entire preamble with statements about Kim Il-sung.

While advocating that Juche is tailored to the national peculiarities of North Korea, as opposed to conforming to the premises of classical Marxist international socialism (i.e., ''the workers of the world have no nation'' and ''workers of the world, unite''), the North Korean government does make some reference to the classical internationalists Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, their follower Vladimir Lenin, and his successor Joseph Stalin as creditable leaders of the socialist movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before the advent of Juche in 1955. By contrast, Maoism is rarely mentioned, and Deng Xiaoping's ideology for economic reform is basically suppressed in its entirety by the Kim Jong-Il regime. In addition, the writings of classical Marxism are generally forbidden for lay readers in North Korea. All references to communism have been removed from the 2009 constitution.

Effects on the economy

Economic basis of North Korea was “build a rich and strong state that can guarantee our nation’s chajusong.” Kim Il-sung guaranteed the chajusong of North Korea’s national economy claiming that North Korea must use their own domestic resources and their own strength to be independent of external sources from other countries. Even though the Juche Idea was not the ultimate cause of North Koreans’ famine and unstable economy, the idea had drastically reformed the country’s economic system. Since North Koreans with Juche idea of chaju (Independence in politics) and the charip (self-sustenance in the economy) principles, which are the two of the three fundamental principles that Kim Il-sung outlined in 1965, they isolated themselves from rest of the world and hardly opened up for diplomatic relationships with other countries until the pressure that came with the collapse of the Soviet bloc. The charip idea of self-contained economy was unlike other countries that withdrew themselves from the economy of the world. For example, "Albania in the socialist world and Burma in the capitalist world, two countries that "withdrew" to no apparent purpose as their economies idled along or got worse, North Korea never idled but always raced.".

The North Koreans withdrew for a purpose of development of their economy and country. By being able to sustain their own economy, they would be independent of other countries and would be self-reliable. However, they had to rely on USSR and China to sustain their livelihood. In 1986, Kim Il-sung set the goal of ten million tons of grain production. Yet the plan failed and they produced only four million tons of grain and the North Korea had to rely on foreign aid to provide them with two million tons of grain. The six million tons of grain they managed to get a hold of was the bare minimum of to feed their population. The economic crisis continued to be visible even in the 1990s. "Most of the blame was attributed not to North Korea's ponderous socialist system but to "the collapse of socialist countries and the socialist market of the world," which "shattered" many of P'yongyang's trade partners and agreements.". The fall of the socialist market and trade partner lead North Korea into a crisis that was not simply manageable with their current system. As result, paradoxical to the Juche philosophy of autarky, North Korea established the Najin-Sonbong free economic and tradezone during the mid-1990s.

Investors from firms in Hong Kong, Japan, France, South Korea, and the United States are some of the countries that opened manufacturing facilities in the DPRK. The Shell Oil Corporation (in 1995) is one example of the big firms that invested in this open trade area. Near the parallel, North Korea also opened the city of Kaesong for exports until 2010 when South Korea issued a economic sanction after the sunk South Korean warship incident.

The third principle of the Juche idea, chawi (self-defense in national defense), caused North Korea to spend much of its capitals for military purpose, thus decreasing the amount of capital that can be used for developing economy (it is estimated that 25 percent of the annual budget goes to the military). Kim Jong Il has explicitly expressed his "army first" policies since the mid-1990s.

Although in 1949 common objects such as a pen or a watch was rare in North Korea, by the mid 1960s North Korea's economy grew faster than the South. In 1957-1961, the five year plan placed reconstructing and developing the major industries destroyed by the war on the top of the priority list and placed consumer goods at the bottom of the priorities. This bias toward rebuilding major industries, "combined with unprecedentedly large amounts of aid from the Soviet bloc, pushed the economy forward at world-beating growth rates in the 1950s and 1960s".

Social class

Unlike the Choson dynasty where there was a huge gap between the upper and lower classes, North Korea had adopted a unified social mass, also known as the gathered-together "people". Instead of a strict social hierarchy or a class divided society, North Korea had divided the union into three classes-peasant, worker, and the samuwon where each sect is just as important as the other. The samuwon class consisted of clerks, small traders, bureaucrats, professors and writers. This was a unique class that was created in order to increase the education and literature of North Korea. Normally Communist nations would value only the farmers or laborers, thus in the USSR ''intelligentzia'' was not an independent class of its own, but an insertion between classes: proletariat and bourgeiouse. Yet, the overemphasize on education and literacy is akin to all Communist governments, thus language reforms followed revolutions more than once: simplification of hieroglyphics in China under Mao (the consequence being modern divide between Taiwan and Mainland China in hieroglyphics), simplification of Russian language after the 1917 revolution in Russia and consequent struggle against illiteracy, known in Soviet Russia as ''LikBez'' program (''Likvidaciya Bezgramotnosti'', liquidation of illiteracy).

One of the main reasons for that, was the fact, explained by Lenin, that an illiterate worker or peasant, couldn't become a subject of political struggle. It was also necessary to create a class of highly skilled workers, which was impossible without a pool of literate workers to draw from. North Korea, too, believed that promoting the education of the populace was as important as economic growth. These three sects are cherished and valued through the unique symbol or statue in North Korea of a writing brush across the hammer and sickle. North Korea also adopted a Soviet-style socialism approach. They believed in the rapid industrialization through labor and believed in subjecting nature to human will. By restructuring the social class into a mass of people who are theoretically all equal, the North Korean government claimed it would be able to attain self-reliance or Juche in the upcoming years. This is questionable, as the country suffers massive food shortages annually and is heavily dependent on foreign aid.

Criticism

Human rights monitoring organizations and political analysts such as Brian Reynolds Myers continually report that the actual situation in North Korea bears no resemblance to Juche theory. Myers in fact goes so far as to propose Juche is nothing but a sham developed to establish Kim Il-sung as a political thinker alongside Mao Zedong. The country's economy has depended heavily on imports and foreign aid before and after the collapse of the Communist trading bloc. They also claim that the opinions of the people have no actual weight in decision-making, which is under Kim Jong-il's autocratic control. Leading Juche theorist Hwang Jang-yop joined these criticisms after defecting to South Korea, although he maintained his belief in the Juche Idea as he understood it. Political scientist Han S. Park in his book ''Juche: The Politics of Unconventional Wisdom'' (2002) and theologian Thomas J. Belke in ''Juche: A Christian Study of North Korea's State Religion'' (1999) liken Juche to a religious movement.

In the People's Republic of China and Vietnam, countries that have both moved away from personality-dominated autocratic institutions of state, Juche is characterized as a ridiculous idea by various internet communities, and has become the subject of satire by influential Chinese novelty film director Hu Ge. Juche is seen by some as a post-Maoist extreme that propels the Korean dictator to a god-like status, while others see it as a Maoist emulation. Because of the nature of Juche ideology and its incorporation of Korean nationalism, it has been reported that North Korea continues to ignore the contributions of China's People's Liberation Army in the Korean War.

Outside North Korea

During the Cold War, North Korea promoted Juche and the principle of "self-reliance" as a guide for other countries, particularly third world countries, to develop their economies. Indonesian president Sukarno visited North Korea in 1964 and attempted to implement the North Korean economic program in his country, but it resulted in a military coup. Romanian president Nicolae Ceauşescu was impressed by ideological mobilization and mass adulation in North Korea during his Asia visit in 1971, and began his systematization campaign shortly afterward with those features.

The North Korean government hosted its first international seminar on the Juche Idea in September 1977. Juche study groups might exist in several countries around the world. The Korean Central News Agency and the Voice of Korea sometimes refer to statements by these groups. However, since Juche study groups are seldom mentioned in reports other than those state-run agencies (KCNA and Voice of Korea), most Juche study groups are likely fabrications of North Korean propaganda. According to the North Korean-run website www.korea-dpr.com, two of the most prominent of these groups are International Institute of the Juche Idea in Japan and the Korean Friendship Association, an international organisation presided over by Spanish national Alejandro Cao de Benos de Les y Pérez. Similarly, a small stalinist-inclined organisation called ''Partei der Arbeit Deutschlands'' (PdAD, 'Labour Party of Germany') may have emerged in Germany. The party collaborated closely with ''Gesellschaft zum Studium und Verbreitung der Dschutsche-Ideologie in Deutschland'' ('Society of Studying and Disseminating the Juche Ideology in Germany'). Both were led by Michael Koth, who later moved towards neo-Nazi positions. The modern Communist Party of Germany has Juche influences. Kim Jong-il has emphasized that other countries should not apply Juche formulaically, but should use methods suitable to the situation, consistent with criticisms that Juche ideology is flawed.

A French Juche Communist party was formed in May 2009, according to a blog created for that purpose.

In January 2011, the Juche Movement Victoria was formed in the Australian state of Victoria. This incarnation of the ideology is unique in that it is very specific in its form. The movement blends a Marxist-Leninist Socialist structure with that of Environmentalism, Westminster-style Democracy and Economic Egalitarianism.

Calendar

The North Korean government and associated organizations use a variation of the Gregorian calendar with a Juche year based on April 15, 1912 CE (AD), the date of birth of Kim Il-sung, as year 1. The calendar was introduced in 1997. Months are unchanged from those in the standard Gregorian calendar. In many instances, the Juche year is given after the CE year, for example, ''27 June 2007 Juche 96''. But in North Korean publications, the Juche year is usually placed before the corresponding CE year, as in ''Juche 96 (2007)''. Calendar schemes based on political era are also found in the Japanese era name (''Nengo'') system and in the Minguo calendar used in the Republic of China (Taiwan), though these are not based on the birth of an individual as in the Gregorian and Juche calendars. Incidentally, the year numbers of the Juche calendar, Minguo calendar, and Japan's Taishō period correspond to each other even though they were not meant to be related.

In August 1997 the Central People's Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea promulgated regulations regarding use of the Juche Era calendar, according to which for dates occurring before 1912 the Gregorian calendar year is used exclusively, so that there is no "negative" Juche year, or "Before Juche" concept. For example, 1682 is rendered as "1682", while 2011 is rendered as "Juche 100, 2011" or as "Juche 100 (2011)." Critics of Juche charge that the "Juche dating system", as it is based on a person's birth date rather than a political era, reflects a dynastic tradition where era names are specified for ruling Emperors of Japan and China, as well as the Korean sovereigns.

See also

Political religion

List of Korea-related topics

Arirang Festival

Juche Tower

References

Bibliography

Baik, Bong. ''Kim Il Sung: Biography''. Tokyo: Miraisha, 1969–1970. 3 vols.

Belke, Thomas J. ''Juche: A Christian Study of North Korea's State Religion''. Bartlesville, OK: Living Sacrifice Book Company, 1999. ISBN 0-88264-329-0.

Cheong, Seong-Chang. "Stalinism and Kimilsungism: A Comparative Analysis of Ideology and Power". ''Asian Perspective'' 24.1 (2000): pp. 133–161.

Fendler, Karoly. "Economic Assistance and Loans from Socialist Countries to North Korea in the Postwar Years, 1953–1963". ''Asien'' 42 (Jan 1992): pp. 39–51.

Kang, Kwang-Shick. "Juche Idea and the Alteration Process in Kim Il Sung's Works: A Study on How to Read Kim Il-Sung's Works". Monash University: KSAA Conference 2001. 25 September 2001. pp. 363–374.

Kiernan, Ben. ''The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–79''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-300-09649-6.

Kim, Jong-il. ''On the Juche Idea''. 31 March 1982.

Christian Kracht, Eva Munz, Lukas Nikol, "The Ministry Of Truth. Kim Jong Ils North Korea", Feral House, Oct 2007, 132 pages, 88 color photographs, ISBN 978-932595-27-7

Lankov, Andrei. "The Official Propaganda in the DPRK: Ideas and Methods". ''North Korean Studies''. 2006.

Lee, Chae-Jin. "China and North Korea: An Uncertain Relationship". ''North Korea after Kim Il Sung''. Eds. Dae-Sook Suh and Chae-Jin Lee. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. pp. 193–209. ISBN 1-55587-763-X.

MacKerras, Colin. "The ''Juche'' Idea and the Thought of Kim Il Sung". ''Marxism in Asia.'' Eds. Colin MacKerras and Nick Knight. London: Croom Helm, 1985. ISBN 0-312-51852-8. pp. 151–175.

"NK 2nd Largest Food Aid Recipient". ''KBS Global''. 21 July 2006.

Park, Han S. ''North Korea: The Politics of Unconventional Wisdom''. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1-58826-050-X.

Short, Philip. ''Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare''. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004. ISBN 0-8050-6662-4.

Tolnay, Adam. "Ceausescu's Journey to the East". Georgetown University. ''Ceausescu.org''.

Van Ree, Erik. "The Limits of ''Juche'': North Korea's Dependence on Soviet Industrial Aid, 1953–76". ''Journal of Communist Studies'' 5 (Mar 1989): pp. 50–73.

External links

North Korea Uncovered, (North Korea Google Earth) See most of North Korea's monuments, political, cultural, economic and military infrastructure on Google Earth.

The International Institute of the Juche Idea

Juche Idea Study Group of England

Songun Politics Study Group USA

Revolutionary View of the Leader

''A State of Mind'' (Documentary about Mass Games in North Korea)

Communist Red Brigades Organization

The Juche Idea, Shine All Over The World! (Epitaph enshrined in the Tower of Juche Idea, Pyongyang)

Juche Category:Economic ideologies Category:Economy of North Korea Category:Politics of North Korea Category:Government of North Korea Category:Korean words and phrases Category:Political theories Category:Far-left politics Category:North Korean culture Category:Korean philosophy Category:Ideologies Category:Propaganda in North Korea Category:Nationalism Category:Kim Il-sung

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Pop31	3,158
Region32
Pop32	3,114
Region33
Pop33	2,365
Region34
Pop34	2,323
Region35
Pop35	2,249
Region36
Pop36	2,247
Region37
Pop37	2,141
Region38
Pop38	2,014
Region39
Pop39	1,780
Region40
Pop40	1,762
Region41
Pop41	1,722
Region42
Pop42	1,495
Region43
Pop43	1,434
Region44
Pop44	1,418
Region45
Pop45	1,396
Region46
Pop46	1,265
Region47
Pop47	1,146
Region48
Pop48	1,058
Region49
Pop49	1,053
Region50
Pop50	1,046
Region51
Pop51	1,034
Langs	Korean speakers: 78 million (1999 est.)
Rels	Korean Buddhism, Korean Christianity, Muism (Korean Shamanism), Cheondoism. Large non-religious and atheist segment. Background of Korean Confucianism.}}

The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.

Names

South Koreans call Koreans ''Han-guk-in'' (; )—or simply 한인/Han-in for South Koreans living abroad—or informally ''Hanguk saram'' (; ), while North Koreans call Koreans ''Chosŏn-in'' (; ) or ''Chosŏn saram'' (; ). See Names of Korea, Korean romanization, Hangul (한글) and Hanja (한자).

Origins

Linguistic and archaeological studies

Koreans are believed to be descendants of peoples of Manchuria, often said to be Altaic- or proto-Altaic-speaking tribes, linking them with Mongols, Turkic and Tungusic peoples. Archaeological evidence suggests proto-Koreans were migrants from south-central Siberia, who populated ancient Korea in successive waves from the Neolithic age to the Bronze Age.

Genetic studies

Studies of polymorphisms in the human Y-chromosome have so far produced evidence to suggest that the Korean people have a long history as a distinct, mostly endogamous ethnic group with successive waves of people moving to the peninsula and three major Y-chromosome haplogroups.

Y-DNA haplogroups

Korean males display a high frequency of Haplogroup O2b* (P49), a subclade of possibly Manchurian origin, and O3 (M122), a common Y-DNA haplogroup among East Asians in general. Haplogroup O2b* occurs approximately 14% to 33% of all Korean males, while haplogroup O3 has been found in approximately 40% of sampled Korean males. The origins of Korean Haplogroup O3 are thought to be diverse, with some of them having expanded from Manchuria with Haplogroup O2b and some of them having expanded from southern China with rice agriculturists such as the Hmong people.

Korean males also exhibit a moderate frequency of Haplogroup C3. Haplogroup C3 is thought to be the original inhabitants of the area related to the Nivkh people.

mtDNA haplogroups

Studies on Korean mtDNA lineages have shown that there is a high frequency of Haplogroup D4, which is the modal mtDNA haplogroup among Siberians. Haplogroup D4 is the modal mtDNA haplogroup among Koreans. Haplogroup A has been detected in approximately 10% of Koreans. Haplogroup A is otherwise the most common mtDNA haplogroup among the Chukchi, Eskimo and Na-Denes and many Amerind ethnic groups of North and Central America. Halogroup B is also found at moderate frequency, and is the modal in many populations of East Asia, including China and Japan. Other mtDNA haplgroups have a lower frequency among Koreans, including F, M, R, U and Z.

Autosomal studies

A population genetic study demonstrated DNA evidence of the origin of Koreans from the central Asian Mongolians. Furthermore, the Koreans are more closely related to the Japanese and quite distant from the Chinese.

A 2010 paper on Korean genetics found that, out of the East Asians, the Koreans are the most genetically distant to the Africans. In the same study, Koreans clustered mostly with the Japanese and Beijing/Jilin Chinese populations, however a significant number of Koreans were found to form a cluster away from the Chinese and Japanese. The authors suggested that this cluster were Koreans with significant Siberian admixture, and was observed mainly in Koreans from the Gyeongsang regions.

A genetic admixture model found that central Asian Altaic admixture was prevalent in Koreans, whereas it was relatively absent in Han Chinese from Beijing and the Japanese. This suggests that the main direction of Altaic gene flow into Northeast Asia was from Central Asia into the Korean peninsula via Manchuria. The lack of central Asian Altaic admixture in the Japanese suggests the existence of a founder effect, when migrants from Korea crossed to Japan. It is well documented that the main migrants from the Korean peninsula into Japan came from Baekje or Silla. Jongsun Jung ''et al.'' reported that the Koreans from central, west and east regions have the highest amount of central Asian Altaic admixture, whereas Koreans from the southwestern tip of Jeju Island reported the least. This is in concordance with the fact that the Korean kingdom of Koguryo was situated in the central and northern parts of the Korean peninsula and Manchuria.

Another recent paper done in 2009 found that the Koreans had the lowest percentage of Austronesian DNA among the East Asians, while the Han Chinese had the most. The Japanese were found to have slightly more Austronesian DNA than the Koreans.

Regional differences

Distinct regional differences, culturally and politically, exist among the Koreans, as they do among other ethnicities.

Within South Korea, the most important regional difference is between the Yeongnam region, embracing Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do provinces in the southeast, and the Honam region, embracing Jeollabuk-do and Jeollanam-do provinces in the southwest. The two regions, separated by the Sobaek Mountains, nurture a rivalry said to reach back to the Three Kingdoms Period, which lasted from the fourth century to the seventh century A.D., when the kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla struggled for control of the peninsula.

Observers noted that interregional marriages are rare, and that as of 1990, a new four-lane highway completed in 1984 between Gwangju and Daegu, the capitals of Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do, was unsuccessful in promoting travel between the two areas.

South Korea's political elite, including presidents Park Chung-hee, Chun Doo-hwan, and Roh Tae-woo, have come largely from the Yeongnam region. As a result, Yeongnam has been a special beneficiary of government development assistance. By contrast, historically the Honam region has remained comparatively rural and undeveloped. Regional social disturbances intensified in the May 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement or 5.18 Democratization Movement, in which about 200 and perhaps many more College students and citizens of the Gwangju were killed by Chun Doo-hwan's troops who were sent to quell demonstrations of students and citizens against the government and the military regime. And even Chun Doo-hwan made the Gwangju Democratization Movement distorted as if it had been the infiltration of communism by controlling the media. The demonstrations against the military regime occurred all over the country, but only Gwangju was heavily damaged. Because GNP (Grand National Party) stems from the military regime, the people of Honam don't vote for GNP in most elections.

Regional stereotypes, like regional dialects, have been breaking down under the influence of centralized education, nationwide media, and the several decades of population movement since the Korean War. Stereotypes remain important, however, in the eyes of many South Koreans. For example, the people of Gyeonggi-do, surrounding Seoul, are often described as being cultured, and Chungcheong people, inhabiting the region embracing Chungcheongbuk-do and Chungcheongnam-do provinces, are thought to be mild-mannered, manifesting true yangban virtues. The people of Gangwon-do in the northeast were viewed as farmers in a rural, countryside area, while Koreans from the northern provinces of Pyongan, Hwanghae, and Hamgyong, now in North Korea, are perceived as being diligent and aggressive. Jeju-do is known for its strong-minded and independent women.

Culture

North Korea and South Korea share a common heritage, but the political division since 1945 has resulted in some divergence of modern culture.

Language

The language of the Korean people is the Korean language, which uses Hangul as its main writing system. There are more than 78 million speakers of the Korean language worldwide.

North Korea data

Estimating the size, growth rate, sex ratio, and age structure of North Korea's population has been extremely difficult. Until release of official data in 1989, the 1963 edition of the North Korea Central Yearbook was the last official publication to disclose population figures. After 1963 demographers used varying methods to estimate the population. They either totaled the number of delegates elected to the Supreme People's Assembly (each delegate representing 50,000 people before 1962 and 30,000 people afterward) or relied on official statements that a certain number of persons, or percentage of the population, was engaged in a particular activity. Thus, on the basis of remarks made by President Kim Il Sung in 1977 concerning school attendance, the population that year was calculated at 17.2 million persons. During the 1980s, health statistics, including life expectancy and causes of mortality, were gradually made available to the outside world.

In 1989 the Central Statistics Bureau released demographic data to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in order to secure the UNFPA's assistance in holding North Korea's first nationwide census since the establishment of the state in 1948. Although the figures given to the United Nations might have been distorted, it appears that in line with other attempts to open itself to the outside world, the North Korean regime has also opened somewhat in the demographic realm. Although the country lacks trained demographers, accurate data on household registration, migration, and births and deaths are available to North Korean authorities. According to the United States scholar Nicholas Eberstadt and demographer Judith Banister, vital statistics and personal information on residents are kept by agencies on the ''ri'' (“village”, the local administrative unit) level in rural areas and the ''dong'' (“district” or “block”) level in urban areas.

Korean diaspora

Large-scale emigration from Korea began as early as the mid-1860s, mainly into the Russian Far East and Northeast China; these populations would later grow to nearly three million Koreans in China and several hundred thousand Koryo-saram (ethnic Koreans in Central Asia). During the Colonial Korea of 1910–1945, Koreans were often recruited and or forced into labour service to work in mainland Japan, Karafuto Prefecture, and Manchukuo; the ones who chose to remain in Japan at the end of the war became known as Zainichi Koreans, while the roughly 40 thousand who were trapped in Karafuto after the Soviet invasion are typically referred to as Sakhalin Koreans. Korean emigration to America was known to have begun as early as 1903, but the Korean American community did not grow to a significant size until after the passage of the Immigration Reform Act of 1965; as of 2007, roughly 2 million Koreans emigrants and people of Korean descent live in the United States.

The Los Angeles and New York City metropolitan areas in the United States contain the largest populations of ethnic Koreans outside of Korea. Significant Korean populations are present in China, Japan, and Canada as well. There are also Korean communities in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. During the 1990s and 2000s, the number of Koreans in the Philippines and Koreans in Vietnam have also grown significantly. Koreans in the United Kingdom now form Western Europe's largest Korean community, albeit still relatively small; Koreans in Germany used to outnumber those in the UK until the late 1990s.

The Korean population in the United States is a small share of the US economy, but it has a disproportionately favorable impact. Korean Americans have a savings rate double that of the average American and also graduate from college at a rate double that of the average American, providing a highly skilled and educated addition to the U.S. workforce. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Census 2000 data, mean household earnings for Koreans in the U.S. were $59,981, approximately 5.1% higher than the U.S. average of $56,604.

Gallery

See also

Demographics of North Korea

Demographics of South Korea

Korean diaspora

Koreatown

List of Korea-related topics

Notes

References

서의식 and 강봉룡. ''뿌리 깊은 한국사, 샘이 깊은 이야기: 고조선, 삼국'', ISBN 89-8133-536-2

Barnes, Gina. ''The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: the Archaeology of China, Korea and Japan'', ISBN 05-0027-974-8

External links

Korean American Museum

Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan)

Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:Ethnic groups in Asia * * *

ar:كوريون az:Koreyalılar be:Карэйцы bg:Корейци ca:Coreans cs:Korejci de:Koreaner et:Korealased es:Etnia coreana eo:Koreoj fr:Coréens hak:Tsêu-siên-tshu̍k ko:한민족 hr:Korejci id:Bangsa Korea os:Корейаг адæм it:Coreani ka:კორეელები csb:Kòrejanë kk:Кәрістер lt:Korėjiečiai ms:Bangsa Korea mn:Солонгос үндэстэн nl:Koreanen ja:朝鮮民族 no:Koreanere pl:Koreańczycy ro:Coreeni ru:Корейцы sah:Кэриэйдэр sk:Kórejčania sh:Korejci fi:Korealaiset sv:Koreaner th:ชาวเกาหลี tr:Koreliler uk:Корейці vi:Người Triều Tiên wuu:朝鲜族 zh:朝鲜族

This is a list of people whose names in English are commonly appended with the phrase "''the Great''", or who were called that or an equivalent phrase in their own language. Other languages have their own suffixes such as ''e Bozorg'' and ''e azam'' in Persian and Urdu respectively.

In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to be a colloquial version of the Old Persian title "Great King". This title was first used by the conqueror Cyrus II of Persia.

The Persian title was inherited by Alexander III of Macedon (336–323 BC) when he conquered the Persian Empire, and the epithet "Great" eventually became personally associated with him. The first reference (in a comedy by Plautus) assumes that everyone knew who "Alexander the Great" was; however, there is no earlier evidence that Alexander III of Macedon was called "''the Great''".

The early Seleucid kings, who succeeded Alexander in Persia, used "Great King" in local documents, but the title was most notably used for Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC).

Later rulers and commanders began to use the epithet "the Great" as a personal name, like the Roman general Pompey. Others received the surname retrospectively, like the Carthaginian Hanno and the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great. Once the surname gained currency, it was also used as an honorific surname for people without political careers, like the philosopher Albert the Great.

As there are no objective criteria for "greatness", the persistence of later generations in using the designation greatly varies. For example, Louis XIV of France was often referred to as "The Great" in his lifetime but is rarely called such nowadays, while Frederick II of Prussia is still called "The Great". A later Hohenzollern - Wilhelm I - was often called "The Great" in the time of his grandson Wilhelm II, but rarely later.

Rulers

Abbas I of Persia (1571–1629), Shah of Iran

Akbar (1542–1605), ruler of the Mughal Empire of South Asia, mainly India

Alain I of Albret (1440–1522), French aristocrat

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), King of Macedonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, and all of Mesopotamia

Alexander I of Georgia (1386–1446), King of Georgia

Alfonso III of León (c. 848-910), King of León, Galicia and Asturias

Alfred the Great (848/849-899), King of Wessex

Antiochus III the Great (c. 241–187 BC), ruler of the Seleucid Empire

Ashoka the Great (c. 304–232 BC), Indian emperor of the Maurya dynasty

Ashot I of Iberia “the Great”(died 826/830), presiding prince of Iberia (modern Georgia),

Askia Mohammad I (c. 1442–1538), ruler of the Songhai Empire

Bhumibol Adulyadej (born 1927), King of Thailand

Bolesław I Chrobry (967-1025), sometimes called "the Great", first King of Poland

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the following section)

Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (1736–1809), founder and ruler of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (in what is now Thailand)

Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995-1035), King of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden

Casimir III the Great (1310–1370), King of Poland

Catherine the Great (1729–1796), Empress of Russia

Chandragupta II (reigned 375-413/415), also known as Vikramaditya, ruler of the Gupta empire in India

Charlemagne (died 814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans

Chulalongkorn (1853–1910), King of Siam (now Thailand)

Chlothar II (584-629), King of Neustria and King of the Franks

Conrad, Margrave of Meissen (c. 1097-1157), Margrave of Meissen

Constantine I (c. 272-337), Roman emperor

Cyaxares the Great (c. 625-585 BC), third king of Media

Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), founder and ruler of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire

Darius the Great (550 – 486 BC), third ruler of the Persian Empire

Devapala (died 850), ruler of the Pala Empire in the Indian subcontinent

Dionysius I, Greek tyrant of Syracuse

Ferdinand I of León and Castile (c. 1015–1065), King of León and Count of Castile

Frederick the Great (1712–1786), King of Prussia

Genghis Khan (1162?-1227), founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire

Gero (c. 900–965), ruler of Marca Geronis, a very large march in Europe

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594–1632), King of Sweden, founder of the Swedish Empire, and noted military leader

Gwanggaeto the Great, King of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea

Hanno the Great, the name of three leaders of Carthage, in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd centuries BC

Henry I, Duke of Burgundy (946–1002)

Henry IV of France (1553–1610), King of France and King of Navarre

Herod the Great (73/74 BC-4 BC), King of Judea

Hugh the Great (898-956), Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris

Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France

Hugh I, Count of Vermandois (1057–1101)

Humphrey I de Bohun (died c. 1123), Anglo-Norman aristocrat

Ivan III of Russia (1440–1505), Tsar of Russia

John I of Portugal (1358–1433), King of Portugal and the Algarve

John II of Aragon (1398–1479), King of Aragon and, through his wife, King of Navarre

Justinian I (483-565), Byzantine Emperor

Kamehameha I (c. 1758-1819), first King of Hawai'i

Kanishka (died c. 127), ruler of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia and parts of India

Kvirike III of Kakheti (1010–1029), King of Kakheti in eastern Georgia

Kublai Khan (1215–1294), Mongol ruler in the 13th century and Emperor of China; founder of the Yuan Dynasty

Llywelyn the Great (c. 1172–1240), Prince of Gwynedd and de facto ruler of most of Wales

Louis I of Hungary (1326–1382), King of Hungary, Croatia and Poland

Mangrai the Great (1238–1317), Lanna, northern Thailand

Emperor Meiji (1852–1912), Emperor of Japan

Mircea I of Wallachia (1355–1418)

Mithridates II of Parthia (died 88 BC), ruler of the Parthian Empire (in present day Iran)

Mithridates VI of Pontus (134 BC–63 BC), ruler of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom

Mstislav I of Kiev (1076–1132), Grand Prince of Kievan Rus

Narai (1633–1688), King of Ayutthaya (in what is now modern Thailand)

Naresuan (1555–1605), King of Ayutthaya

Odo the Great (died c. 735), Duke of Aquitaine

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912-973)

K'inich Janaab' Pakal (603-683), ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque

Parakramabahu I of Polonnaruwa (1123–1186), King of Sri Lanka

Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (died 1075), King of Croatia

Peter the Great (1672–1725), Tsar of Russia

Peter III of Aragon (1239–1285), King of Aragon and King of Sicily

Pompey (106 BC-48 BC), military and political leader of the late Roman Republic, rival of Julius Caesar

Radama I (1793–1828), first king of greater Madagascar

Raja Raja Chola I (c. 947-1014), Indian emperor of the Cholas.

Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014–1044), Tamil King of India

Ramesses II (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC), considered the greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt

Ram Khamhaeng (around 1237 to 1247-1298), King of Sukhothai (in present day Thailand)

Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona (1082–1131), also Count of Provence and various other counties

Rhodri the Great (c. 820–878), King of Gwynedd (in present day Wales)

Roman the Great (after 1160-1205), Grand Prince of Kiev

Saladin (c. 1138-1193), Kurdish Sultan of Egypt and Syria, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, and victor over the Crusaders

Samudragupta (c. 335–375), ruler of the Gupta empire in the Indian subcontinent

Sancho III of Navarre (c. 992-1035), King of Kingdom of Navarre

Sargon of Akkad (died c. 2215 BC), ruler of the Akkadian Empire

Sejong the Great (1397–1450), Korean king

Shapur II (309-379), king of the Sassanid Empire, Persia

Simeon I of Bulgaria (864/865-927), ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire

Stephen III of Moldavia (1433–1504), Prince of Moldavia (Romania)

Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia (c. 1308-1355), King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks

Taksin (1734–1782), King of the Thonburi Kingdom (Thailand)

Timur (1336–1405), better known as Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Dynasty

Theobald II, Count of Champagne (1090–1151), Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV, Count of Champagne and of Brie

Theodoric the Great (454-526), King of the Ostrogoths, regent of the Visigoths and a viceroy of the Byzantine Empire

Theodosius I (347-395), Roman emperor

Tigranes the Great (140-55 BC), Emperor of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia (285-339), King of Armenia

Umar (c. 586 to 590–644), second caliph of the Muslim Empire

Valdemar I of Denmark (1131–1182), King of Denmark

Valentinian I (364-375), Roman Emperor

Vladimir I of Kiev (c. 958-1015), ruler of Kievan Rus

Vytautas (c. 1350-1430), archduke of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy

William I, Count of Burgundy (1020–1087), Count of Burgandy and Mâcon

William V, Duke of Aquitaine (969-1030), also Count of Poitou

Xerxes I (519-465 BC), King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia)

Yu the Great (c. 2200-2100 BC), legendary ruler in ancient China

Religious figures

Abraham the Great of Kashkar (ca. 492-586), monk and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East

Abraham Kidunaia (died c. 366, hermit, priest, and Christian saint of Mesopotamia

Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280), medieval German philosopher and theologian

Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), early Christian saint of Egypt

Babai the Great (c. 551–628), Assyrian church leader

Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Greek bishop and theologian

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the previous section)

Euthymius the Great (377-473), abbot and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint

Gertrude the Great (1256-c. 1302), German Benedictine, mystic, theologian and Roman Catholic saint

Pope Gregory I (c. 540-604)

Hiyya the Great, 3rd-century rabbi, Palestine

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)

Pope Leo I (c. 391 or 400-461)

Macarius of Egypt (c. 300-391), Egyptian hermit

Pope Nicholas I (c. 800-867)

Photius I of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893), Eastern Orthodox saint and Patriarch of Constantinople

William of Maleval (died 1157), founder of the Catholic congregation of Williamites

Other

Beli Mawr, a figure in medieval Welsh literature and genealogies

Emmy the Great, folk singer

Matteo Rosso the Great, Roman politician and father of Pope Nicholas III

Prokop the Great, Hussite general in Bohemia

See also

Epithet

List of monarchs by nickname

List of nicknames of European Royalty and Nobility: G-I

James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus

Ajax (mythology), called Ajax the Greater

Notes

Category:Monarchs Great, List of people known as The Category:Greatest Nationals Category:Epithets

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