Stalinism refers to the policies and governmental philosophy of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953. When used in its broadest sense, the term "Stalinist" refers to socialist states comparable to the Stalin-era Soviet Union (i.e., those characterized by a high degree of centralization, totalitarianism, the use of a secret police, propaganda, and especially brutal tactics of political coercion). According to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "Stalinism is associated with a regime of terror and totalitarian rule."

The term came into prominence during the mid-1930s, when Lazar Kaganovich, a Soviet politician and associate of Stalin, reportedly declared, "Let's replace Long Live Leninism with Long Live Stalinism!" Stalin initially met this usage with hesitancy, dismissing it as excessively praiseful and contributing to a cult of personality. In the Cold War-era United States, Stalinism took on a decidedly more negative meaning, akin to what the ''New York Times'' dubbed "red fascism."

Critics of Stalinism consider it a caricature of socialism and a deviation from the original philosophy of Marxism–Leninism.

Stalinist policies

Stalinism usually denotes a style of a government rather than an ideology. The ideology was Marxism-Leninism; this reflected the fact that Stalin himself was not a Communist theoretician, in contrast to Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and that he prided himself on maintaining the legacy of Lenin as a founding father for the Soviet Union and the future Communist world.

Stalinism is an interpretation of the ideas of Marx and Lenin, and a certain political regime claiming to apply those ideas in ways fitting the changing needs of society, as with the transition from "socialism at a snail's pace" in the mid-1920s to the rapid industrialization of the Five-Year Plans. Sometimes, although rarely, the compound terms "Marxism–Leninism–Stalinism" (used by the Brazilian MR-8), or ''teachings of Marx/Engels/Lenin/Stalin'', are used to show the alleged heritage and succession.

|thumb|left|250px|Poster "Study the great path of the Lenin-Stalin Party"Simultaneously, however, many people who profess Marxism or Leninism view Stalinism as a perversion of their ideas; Trotskyists, in particular, are virulently anti-Stalinist, considering Stalinism a counter-revolutionary style of governance that used vaguely Marxist-sounding rhetoric to achieve power.

From 1917 to 1924, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin often appeared united, but their ideological differences never disappeared. In his dispute with Leon Trotsky, Stalin de-emphasized the role of workers in advanced capitalist countries (for example, he considered the U.S. working class as bourgeoisified labour aristocracy). Also, Stalin polemicized against Trotsky on the role of peasants, as in China, whereas Trotsky's position was in favor of urban insurrection over peasant-based guerrilla warfare.

The main contributions of Stalin to communist theory were: The groundwork for the Soviet policy concerning nationalities, laid in Stalin's 1913 work ''Marxism and the National Question'', praised by Lenin.

'Socialism in One Country'

The theory of aggravation of the class struggle along with the development of socialism, a theoretical base supporting the repression of political opponents as necessary.

Stalinism has been described as being synonymous with totalitarianism, or a tyrannical regime. The term has been used to describe regimes that fight political dissent through violence, imprisonment, and killings. However, given that fascist, theocratic, and otherwise anti-communist governments have used these methods to curb dissent just as much as pro-communist governments have, the term "Stalinism" may only really be accurate when describing a government that is pro-Stalin or that proclaims itself to be a socialist state while taking the above measures. Personality cults are also common to all Stalinist regimes. Nicolae Ceaușescu, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung and Stalin constructed cults of personality that use propaganda to identify the current regime as heroic or benevolent.

Soviet puppet Sheng Shicai extended Stalinist rule in Xinjiang province in the 1930s. Stalin opposed the Chinese Communist Party, and Sheng conducted a purge similar to Stalin's Great Purge in 1937.

Stalinist economic policy

At the start of the 1930s Stalin launched a wave of radical economic policies, which completely overhauled the industrial and agricultural face of the Soviet Union. This came to be known as the 'Great Turn' as Russia turned away from the near-capitalist New Economic Policy. The NEP had been implemented by Lenin in order to ensure the survival of the Communist state following seven years of war (1914–1921, World War I from 1914 to 1917, and the subsequent Civil War) and had rebuilt Soviet production to its 1913 levels. However, Russia still lagged far behind the West, and the NEP was felt by Stalin and the majority of the Communist party, not only to be compromising Communist ideals, but also not delivering sufficient economic performance, as well as not creating the envisaged Socialist society. It was therefore felt necessary to increase the pace of industrialisation in order to catch up with the West.

Fredric Jameson has said that "Stalinism was [...] a success and fulfilled its historic mission, socially as well as economically" given that it "modernised the Soviet Union, transforming a peasant society into an industrial state with a literate population and a remarkable scientific superstructure." Robert Conquest disputed such a conclusion and noted that "Russia had already been fourth to fifth among industrial economies before World War I" and that Russian industrial advances could have been achieved without collectivisation, famine or terror. The industrial successes were far less than claimed, and the Soviet-style industrialisation was "an anti-innovative dead-end", according to him.

According to several Western historians, Stalinist agricultural policies were a key factor in causing the Soviet famine of 1932–1933, which the Ukrainian government now calls ''the Holodomor'', recognizing it as an act of genocide. However, there is still considerable debate in other countries as to whether or not the famine can be recognized as genocide.

Legacy

After Stalin's death in 1953, his successor Nikita Khrushchev repudiated his policies, condemned Stalin's cult of personality in his Secret Speech to the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956, and instituted destalinisation and relative liberalisation (within the same political framework). Consequently, most of the world's Communist parties, who previously adhered to Stalinism, abandoned it and, to a greater or lesser degree, adopted the positions of Khrushchev.

A few of the notable exceptions were North Korea under Kim Il-sung, the People's Republic of China, under Mao Zedong, the Albanian Party of Labour under Enver Hoxha, the Communist Party of Indonesia, certain sections of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the Communist Party of New Zealand. In countries where the local Communist Party sided with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) under the leadership of Khrushchev, various groupings of dissident party members left to begin pre-party formations based on their specific interpretations of Marxism-Leninism. This process accelerated as the 1960s progressed into the 1970s, eventually leading to what was called the New Communist Movement in various countries.

For example, in the United States the New Communist Movement led to a plethora of formations, among them the Progressive Labour Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the October League, amongst others. Kim simply purged the North Korean Communist party of de-Stalinisation advocates, either executing them or forcing them into exile or labour camps. Under Mao, the People's Republic grew antagonistic towards what they saw as the new Soviet leadership's "revisionism", resulting in the Sino-Soviet Split in 1960. Subsequently, China independently pursued the ideology of Maoism, which still largely supported the legacy of Stalin and his policies.

The Socialist People's Republic of Albania took the Chinese party's side in the Sino-Soviet Split and remained committed, at least theoretically, to Hoxhaism, its brand of Stalinism, for decades thereafter, under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. Despite their initial cooperation against "revisionism," Hoxha denounced Mao as a revisionist, along with almost every other self-identified Communist organization in the world. This had the effect of isolating Albania from the rest of the world, as Hoxha was hostile to both the pro-USA and pro-Soviet spheres of influence, as well as the Non-Aligned Movement under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, whom Hoxha had also denounced.

The ousting of Khrushchev in 1964 by his former party-state allies has been described as a Stalinist restoration by some, epitomised by the Brezhnev Doctrine and the apparatchik/nomenklatura "stability of cadres," lasting until the period of glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Some historians and writers (like German Dietrich Schwanitz) draw parallels between Stalinism and the economic policy of Tsar Peter the Great, although Schwanitz in particular views Stalin as "a monstrous reincarnation" of him. Both men wanted Russia to leave the western European states far behind in terms of development. Both largely succeeded, turning Russia into Europe's leading power. Others compare Stalin with Ivan the Terrible because of his policies of oprichnina and restriction of the liberties of common people.

Some analysts like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in ''The Mortal Danger: Misconceptions about Soviet Russia and the Threat to America'' consider the use of the term "Stalinism" is an excuse to hide the inevitable effects of communism as a whole on human liberties. He writes that the concept of Stalinism was developed after 1956 by western intellectuals so as to be able to keep alive the communist ideal. The term "Stalinism" however was in use as early as 1937 when Leon Trotsky wrote his pamphlet "Stalinism and Bolshevism". The relevance of Solzhenitsyn's statement can be further called into question as the term Bonapartism was used prior to 1937 to describe all the phenomena that later became known as "Stalinism."

Criticism

Trotskyism

Trotskyists argue that the "Stalinist USSR" was not socialist (and not communist), but a bureaucratised degenerated workers' state — that is, a non-capitalist state in which exploitation is controlled by a ruling caste which, although not owning the means of production and not constituting a social class in its own right, accrued benefits and privileges at the expense of the working class. Some in the Third Camp use bureaucratic collectivism as a theory to critique Stalinist forms of government.

Council Communism

Although worker's councils were politically significant in the earliest stages of the Soviet Union, they soon lost their power and significance as political power was concentrated in the hands of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The operation of the Soviet Union under Stalinism was almost entirely undemocratic, vesting absolute power into unelected bureaucrats. This was abhorent to council communists, who believe that workers' councils, or communes, embody the fundamental principles of socialism, such as workers' control over production and distribution. Indeed, some have described council communism as "socialism from below," which they counterpose against what they see as the "socialism from above" that was endorsed by Stalinism. According to this view, socialism from above is carried out by a centralized state run by an elite bureaucratic apparatus, whereas socialism from below represents the self-administration and self-rule of the working class.

Council communists described the Soviet Union as a capitalist state, believing that the Bolshevik revolution in Russia became a "bourgeois revolution" when a party bureaucracy replaced the old feudal aristocracy. Although most council communists felt the Russian Revolution was working class in character, they believed that the Soviet Union was a state capitalist country, with the state replacing the individual capitalists (an additional argument in favour of that was the continued existence of capitalist relations, as manifested e.g. in the New Economic Policy).

The core principle of council communism is that the government and the economy should be managed by workers' councils composed of delegates elected at workplaces and recallable at any moment. As such, council communists oppose the idea of an authoritarian "State socialist"/"State capitalist" planned economy such as in the Soviet Union. They also oppose the idea of a "revolutionary party", since council communists believe that a revolution led by a party will necessarily produce a party dictatorship. Council communists support a worker's democracy, which they want to produce through a federation of workers' councils. Left communists like C. L. R. James and the Italian autonomists, as well as unorthodox Trotskyists like Tony Cliff, described Stalinism as "state capitalism"i.e., a form of capitalism where the state takes over the role of capital. Milovan Đilas argues that a New Class arose under Stalinism, a theory also put forward by various liberal theorists.

''Socialisme ou Barbarie''

Socialisme ou Barbarie, led by philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis, was a radical Marxist and libertarian socialist group based in France that significantly developed the council communist tradition as well as laying the foundation for autonomism. Socialisme ou Barbarie harshly criticised the communist regime in the USSR, which it considered a form of "bureaucratic capitalism" and not at all the socialism it claimed to be. Philosopher Jean-François Lyotard was also part of this movement.

Situationist International

The Situationist International was a group of strongly anti-authoritarian Marxist theorists, influenced by the early 20th century avant-garde art movements in Europe, chiefly led by Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. The Situationists were ruthlessly critical of Stalin and the Soviet Union, which they regarded as an oppressive undemocratic bureaucracy that was just as freedom-deprived as capitalist society, if not more so. The Situationists believed that Stalinist practices amounted to a complete rejection of Marxism, and that the hierarchy of power was identical in practice to capitalist society, arguing that a class of high-ranking bureaucrats and party officials had replaced the bourgeoisie. In contrast to Stalin's sprawling authoritarian and totalitarian state, the Situationists favored democratic workers' councils and workers' self-management intended to empower every individual equally and prevent anyone from centralizing power.

Anarchism

Anarchists like Emma Goldman were initially enthusiastic about the Bolsheviks, particularly after dissemination of Lenin's pamphlet ''State and Revolution'', which painted Bolshevism in a very libertarian light. However, the relations between the anarchists and the Bolsheviks soured in Soviet Russia (e.g., in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion and the Makhnovist movement). Anarchists and Stalinist Communists were also in armed conflict during the Spanish civil war. Anarchists are critical of the statist, totalitarian nature of Stalinism, as well as its cult of personality around Stalin (and subsequent leaders seen by anarchists as Stalinists, such as Mao).

Social anarchism sees "individual freedom as conceptually connected with social equality and emphasize community and mutual aid.". Social anarchists argue that this goal can be achieved through the decentralization of political and economic power, distributing power equally among all individuals, and finally abolishing authoritarian institutions which control certain means of production. Social anarchism rejects private property, seeing it as a source of social inequality. Social Anarchism political philosophies almost always share strong characteristics of anti-authoritarianism, anti-capitalism and anti-statism. As the Soviet Union under Stalin manifested itself as a strong centralized authoritarian state, Stalinism and libertarian socialism are almost directly opposed.

Democratic socialism

Peter Hain defines democratic socialism as a form of anti-authoritarian "socialism from below". in contrast to Stalinism and social democracy, variants of authoritarian state socialism. A significant current of the democratic socialist movement has defined itself in opposition to Stalinism. This includes George Orwell and the Independent Labour Party in Britain (particularly after World War II), the group around Marceau Pivert in France and, in America, the New York Intellectuals around the ''Partisan Review''. These democratic socialists saw Stalinism as a form of totalitarianism in some ways mirroring fascism.

Hillel Ticktin / ''Critique''

In the journal ''Critique (Journal of Socialist Theory)'', Hillel H. Ticktin argues that the new Soviet rulers found themselves unable to use the market to control and exploit the peasantry and workers. So, instead, they used vaste coercion, in the form of forced collectivisation, enabling them to both control the peasantry and to create an influx of new labour for rapid industrial expansion. Unprecedented levels of repression prevented any collective resistance. But, with little fear of unemployment and little monetary incentive to work harder, individual workers were still able to resist management interference. Workers also indulged in less-productive working, absenteeism and alcoholism.

This Stalinist system was neither socialist nor capitalist. Neither workers nor managers really controlled the work process and this created enormous inefficiencies and waste. As long as industry kept expanding by using new labour from the countryside, these inefficiencies could be covered up. But - Ticktin says - once this labour source "dried up, as it did in the mid-1970s, the regime was doomed". Ticktin also argues that the problems of post-Soviet Russia - which are exacerbated by the continuing decline of capitalism - show that Russia is still, essentially, a "disintegrating Stalinism".

Relationship to Leninism

The historiography of Stalin is diverse, with many different aspects of continuity and discontinuity between the regimes of Stalin and Lenin proposed. Totalitarian historians such as Richard Pipes tend to see Stalinism as the natural consequence of Leninism, that Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programmes". More nuanced versions of this general view are to be found in the works of other Western historians, such as Robert Service, who notes that "institutionally and ideologically, Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin... but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism was not smooth and inevitable." Likewise, historian Edvard Radzinsky believes that Stalin was a real follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed himself.

Proponents of continuity cite a variety of contributory factors: it is argued that it was Lenin, rather than Stalin, whose civil war measures introduced the Red Terror with its hostage taking and internment camps, that it was Lenin who developed the infamous Article 58, and who established the autocratic system within the Communist Party. They also note that Lenin put a ban on factions within the Russian Communist Party and introduced the one-party state in 1921 - a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death, and cite Felix Dzerzhinsky, who, during the Bolshevik struggle against opponents in the Russian Civil War, exclaimed "We stand for organised terror – this should be frankly stated".

Opponents of this view include revisionist historians and a number of post–Cold War and otherwise dissident Soviet historians including Roy Medvedev, who argues that although "one could list the various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin... in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them". In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism in order to undermine the Totalitarian view that the negative facets of Stalin (terror, etc.) were inherent in Communism from the start. Critics of this kind include anti-Stalinist communists such as Leon Trotsky, who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade the CPSU] to remove Stalin from his post as its General Secretary. Lenin's Testament, the document which contained this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. British historian Isaac Deutscher, in his biography of Trotsky, says that on being faced with the evidence "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism". A similar analysis is present in more recent works, such as those of Graeme Gill, who argues that "[Stalinism was] not a natural flow-on of earlier developments; [it formed a] sharp break resulting from conscious decisions by leading political actors."

See also

Anti-Revisionism

Anti-Stalinist left

Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism

Cult of personality

Joseph Stalin

Maoism

Neo-Stalinism

Stalin Society

Stalinist architecture

Totalitarianism

Further reading

''Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR'', written in 1951

Vincent Barnett, "Understanding Stalinism: The 'Orwellian Discrepancy' and the 'Rational Choice Dictator'," Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 58, no. 3, May 2006 (online abstract).

Alan Bullock, ''Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives'', Goldmann

Isaac Deutscher, ''Stalin: A Political Biography'', Dietz, 1990

Philip Ingram, ''Russia and the USSR 1905–1991'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997

Lankov, Andrei N., ''Crisis in North Korea: The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956''. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press (2004)

Boris Souvarine, ''Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism'', Alliance Book, 1939

Robert Service, ''Lenin: A Biography'', Belknap Press, 2002 ISBN 0-330-49139-3

Robert Service. ''Stalin: A Biography'', Belknap Press, 2005 ISBN 0-674-01697-1

Allan Todd, ''The European Dictatorships: Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003

John Traynor, ''Challenging History: Europe 1890–1990'', Nelson Thornes Ltd, Cheltenham, 2002

C.L.R. James. ''State Capitalism and World Revolution''. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 1950.

References

External links

Stalin, Joseph V. Stalin Reference Archive at Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved May 11, 2005.

''Joseph Stalin'' on Spartacus Schoolnet

Joseph Stalin by the BBC

Basic Economic Precepts of Stalinist Socialism by Pedro Campos, ''Havana Times'', June 21, 2010

Category:Economy of the Soviet Union Category:Politics of the Soviet Union Category:Political philosophy by politician

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name	Jan Švankmajer
birth date	September 04, 1934
birth place	Prague, Czechoslovakia
occupation	Film director
spouse	Eva Švankmajerová }}

Jan Švankmajer (; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.

Life and career

Jan Švankmajer was born in Prague. An early influence on his later artistic development was a puppet theatre he was given for Christmas as a child. He studied at the College of Applied Arts in Prague and later in the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He contributed to Emil Radok's film ''Doktor Faust'' in 1958 and then began working for Prague's Semafor Theatre where he founded the Theatre of Masks. He then moved on to the Laterna Magika multimedia theatre, where he renewed his association with Radok. This theatrical experience is reflected in Švankmajer's first film ''The Last Trick'', which was released in 1964. Under the influence of theoretician Vratislav Effenberger Švankmajer moved from the mannerism of his early work to classic surrealism, first manifested in his film ''The Garden'' (1968), and joined the Czechoslovakian Surrealist Group.

He was married to Eva Švankmajerová, an internationally known surrealist painter, ceramicist, and writer until her death in October 2005. Švankmajerová collaborated on several of her husband's movies, including ''Alice'', ''Faust'', and ''Otesánek''. They had two children, Veronika (b. 1963) and Václav (b. 1975, an animator).

Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish, and yet somehow funny pictures. He continues to make films in Prague.

Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses fast-motion sequences when people walk or interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects being brought to life through stop-motion. Many of his films also include clay objects in stop-motion, otherwise known as clay animation. Food is a favourite subject and medium.

Stop-motion features in most of his work, though recently his feature films have included much more live action sequences than animation.

Many of his movies, like the short film ''Down to the Cellar'', are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were suppressed. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s.

Today Švankmajer is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. Among his best known works are the feature films ''Alice'' (1988), ''Faust'' (1994), ''Conspirators of Pleasure'' (1996), ''Little Otik'' (2000) and ''Lunacy'' (2005), a surreal comic horror based on two works of Edgar Allan Poe and the life of Marquis de Sade. The two stories by Poe, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and "The Premature Burial", provide ''Lunacy'' its thematic focus, whereas the life of Marquis de Sade provides the film's blasphemy. Also famous (and much imitated) is the short ''Dimensions of Dialogue'' (1982), selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time. His films have been called "as emotionally haunting as Kafka's stories. His latest film is ''Surviving Life'' from 2010.

His next project is called ''Insects'' (''Hmyz''). It has a projected budget of 40 million CZK and a preliminary release set to 2015. The film will be based on the play ''Pictures from the Insects' Life'' by Karel Čapek, which Švankmajer describes as following: "This Čapek´s play is a very misanthropic, and I always liked it — bugs behave as a human beings, and people behave as insects. It also reminds one a lot of Franz Kafka and his famous ''Metamorphosis''."

Filmography

Feature-length films

''Faust (1994 film) ''[[Conspirators of Pleasure'' ''Little Otik'' ''Lunacy (film) ''Surviving Life'' ''Insects''

Year !! English title !! Original title !! Source material
1988	Alice (1988 film)>Alice''	''Něco z Alenky''
1994	Faust'' ||	''Lekce Faust''	The Faust legend, Goethe's Faust
1996	|	''Spiklenci slasti''	Original story
2000	|	''Otesánek''	''Otesánek'' by Karel Jaromír Erben
2005	Lunacy'' ||	''Šílení''	"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and "The Premature Burial" by Edgar Allan Poe
2010	|	''Přežít svůj život''	Original story
2015	|	''Hmyz''	''Pictures from the Insects' Life'' by Karel Čapek and Josef Čapek

Short films

''Punch and Judy'' ''The Ossuary'' ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' ''The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope'' ''The Male Game''

Year !! English title !! Original title !! Notes
1964	''The Last Trick''	''Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara''
1965	''Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor''
1965	''A Game with Stones''
1966	|	''Rakvičkárna''	Also known as ''The Coffin Factory'' and ''The Lych House''
1966	''Et Cetera''
1967	''Historia Naturae, Suita''
1968	''The Garden''
1968	''The Flat''
1968	''Picnic with Weissmann''
1969	''A Quiet Week in the House''
1969	Don Juan (1969 film)>Don Juan''
1970	|	''Kostnice''	About the Sedlec Ossuary
1971	Jabberwocky (1971 film)>Jabberwocky''
1972	''Leonardo's Diary''
1977	''Castle of Otranto''
1980	|	''Zánik domu Usherů''	Based on "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
1982	''Dimensions of Dialogue''
1983	''Down to the Cellar''
1983	|	''Kyvadlo, jáma a naděje''	Based on "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe
1988	|	''Mužné hry''	Also known as ''Virile Games''
1988	''Another Kind of Love''
1988	''Meat Love''
1989	''Darkness/Light/Darkness''
1989	''Flora''
1989	''Animated Self-Portraits''
1990	''The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia''
1992	Food (film)>Food''

Animation and gadgets

''The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians'' ''Ferat Vampire'' ''Three Veterans''

Year !! English title !! Original title !! Director
1978	''Dinner for Adele''	''Adéla ještě nevečeřela''
1981	|	''Tajemství hradu v Karpatech ''	Oldřich Lipský
1982	|	''Upír z Feratu''	Juraj Herz
1984	|	''Tři veteráni ''	Oldřich Lipský

See also

Jiří Trnka, Czech animator and puppeteer

Karel Zeman, Czech animator and filmmaker

Jiří Barta, Czech stop-motion animator

Ladislaw Starewich, Polish animator and puppeteer

List of stop motion films

References

Further reading

Peter Hames: ''Dark Alchemy: The Films of Jan Svankmajer'', Praeger Paperback, 1995, ISBN 0275952991. Second updated edition published in 2007, ISBN 1905674457. Peter Hames is an expert on history of Central European cinema.

External links

Animation of Jan Svankmajer'' at Keyframe - the Animation Resource

Overview of his work

Jan Švankmajer - PL

On Svankmajer's Faust

The Works of Jan Svankmajer

Downing the Folk-Festive: Menacing Meals in the Films of Jan Svankmajer

Czech Animation, priv. blog

Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:People from Prague Category:Czech animators Category:Czech film directors Category:Czechoslovak film directors Category:Surrealist filmmakers Category:Stop motion animators

cs:Jan Švankmajer de:Jan Švankmajer es:Jan Švankmajer fa:یان اشونک‌مایر fr:Jan Švankmajer it:Jan Švankmajer hu:Jan Švankmajer ja:ヤン・シュヴァンクマイエル no:Jan Švankmajer pl:Jan Švankmajer pt:Jan Švankmajer ru:Шванкмайер, Ян sk:Jan Švankmajer fi:Jan Švankmajer sv:Jan Švankmajer tr:Jan Švankmajer uk:Ян Шванкмаєр

Name	Kim Jong-il
Office	Supreme Leader of North Korea
President	Kim Yong-nam
Premier	Hong Song-namPak Pong-juKim Yong-ilChoe Yong-rim
Term start	8 July 1994
Predecessor	Kim Il-sung
Office2	Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea
Deputy2	Jo Myong-rok (1993–2010) Chang Sung-taek (2010–)
Term start2	9 April 1993
Predecessor2	Position established
Office3	Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army
Term start3	24 December 1991
Predecessor3	Kim Il-sung
Office4	General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
Term start4	8 October 1997
Predecessor4	Kim Il-sung
Office5	Chairman of the Central Military Commission of Worker's Party of Korea
Term start5	8 October 1997
Predecessor5	Kim Il-sung
Birth date	February 16, 1941Vyatskoye, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (Soviet records)February 16, 1942Baekdu Mountain, Japanese Korea (North Korean records)
Party	Workers' Party of Korea
Spouse	Kim Young-sookSong Hye-rimKo Young-heeKim Ok
Children	Kim Sul-songKim Jong-namKim Jong-chulKim Jong-un
Relations	Kim Il-sung (father, deceased)Kim Jong-suk (mother, deceased)
Alma mater	Kim Il-sung UniversityUniversity of Malta
Signature	Kim Jong-il Signature.png }}

Context	north
Hangul	김정일
Hanja
Rr	Gim Jeong(-)il
Mr	Kim Chŏngil }}

Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, born 16 February 1941 (Soviet records) or 16 February 1942 (North Korean records), is the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). He is the Chairman of the National Defense Commission, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party since 1948, and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, the fourth largest standing army in the world. In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended and now implicitly refers to him as the "''Supreme Leader''". He is also referred to as the "''Dear Leader''", "''our Father''", "''the General''" and "''Generalissimo''". His son Kim Jong-un was promoted to a senior position in the ruling Worker's Party and is heir apparent.

Childhood

Birth

Soviet records show that Kim Jong-il was born in the village of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk, in 1941, where his father, Kim Il-sung, commanded the 1st Battalion of the Soviet 88th Brigade, made up of Chinese and Korean exiles. Kim Jong-il's mother, Kim Jong-suk, was Kim Il-sung's first wife.

Kim Jong-il's official biography states that he was born in a secret military camp on Baekdu Mountain in Japanese Korea on 16 February 1942. Official biographers claim that his birth at Baekdu Mountain was foretold by a swallow, and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens.

In 1945, Kim was three or four years old (depending on his birth year) when World War II ended and Korea regained independence from Japan. His father returned to Pyongyang that September, and in late November Kim returned to Korea via a Soviet ship, landing at Sonbong (선봉군, also Unggi). The family moved into a former Japanese officer's mansion in Pyongyang, with a garden and pool. Kim Jong-il's brother, "Shura" Kim (the first Kim Jong-il, but known by his Russian nickname), drowned there in 1948. Unconfirmed reports suggest that 5 year old Kim Jong-il might have caused the accident. In 1949, his mother died in childbirth. Unconfirmed reports suggest that his mother might have been shot and left to bleed to death.

Education

According to his official biography, Kim completed the course of general education between September 1950 and August 1960. He attended Primary School No. 4 and Middle School No. 1 (Namsan Higher Middle School) in Pyongyang This is contested by foreign academics, who believe he is more likely to have received his early education in the People's Republic of China as a precaution to ensure his safety during the Korean War.

Throughout his schooling, Kim was involved in politics. He was active in the Children's Union and the Democratic Youth League (DYL), taking part in study groups of Marxist political theory and other literature. In September 1957 he became vice-chairman of his middle school's DYL branch. He pursued a programme of anti-factionalism and attempted to encourage greater ideological education among his classmates.

Kim is also said to have received English language education at the University of Malta in the early 1970s, on his infrequent holidays in Malta as guest of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.

The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong-il (named after Kim Jong-il's drowned brother). Since 1988, Kim Pyong-il has served in a series of North Korean embassies in Europe and is currently the North Korean ambassador to Poland. Foreign commentators suspect that Kim Pyong-il was sent to these distant posts by his father in order to avoid a power struggle between his two sons.

Presidium member and party secretary (1980–1994)

By the time of the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim Jong-il's control of the Party operation was complete. He was given senior posts in the Politburo, the Military Commission and the party Secretariat. When he was made a member of the Seventh Supreme People's Assembly in February 1982, international observers deemed him the heir apparent of North Korea.

At this time Kim assumed the title "Dear Leader" (친애하는 지도자, ''chinaehaneun jidoja'') the government began building a personality cult around him patterned after that of his father, the "Great Leader". Kim Jong-il was regularly hailed by the media as the "fearless leader" and "the great successor to the revolutionary cause". He emerged as the most powerful figure behind his father in North Korea.

On 24 December 1991, Kim was also named supreme commander of the North Korean armed forces. Since the Army is the real foundation of power in North Korea, this was a vital step. Defense Minister Oh Jin-wu, one of Kim Il-sung's most loyal subordinates, engineered Kim Jong-il's acceptance by the Army as the next leader of North Korea, despite his lack of military service. The only other possible leadership candidate, Prime Minister Kim Il (no relation), was removed from his posts in 1976. In 1992, Kim Il-sung publicly stated that his son was in charge of all internal affairs in the Democratic People's Republic.

In 1992, radio broadcasts started referring to him as the "Dear Father", instead of the "Dear Leader", suggesting a promotion. His 50th birthday in February was the occasion for massive celebrations, exceeded only by those for the 80th birthday of Kim Il Sung himself on 15 April.

According to defector Hwang Jang-yop, the North Korean goverment system became even more centralized and autocratic during the 1980s and 1990s under Kim Jong-il than it had been under his father. In one example explained by Hwang, although Kim Il-sung required his ministers to be loyal to him, he nonetheless and frequently sought their advice during decision-making. In contrast, Kim Jong-il demands absolute obedience and agreement from his ministers and party officals with no advice or compromise, and he views any slight deviation from his thinking as a sign of disloyalty. According to Hwang, Kim Jong-il personally directs even minor details of state affairs, such as the size of houses for party secretaries and the delivery of gifts to his subordinates.

By the 1980s, North Korea began to experience severe economic stagnation. Kim Il-sung's policy of ''juche'' (self-reliance) cut the country off from almost all external trade, even with its traditional partners, the Soviet Union and China.

South Korea accused Kim of ordering the 1983 bombing in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), which killed 17 visiting South Korean officials, including four cabinet members, and another in 1987 which killed all 115 on board Korean Air Flight 858. A North Korean agent, Kim Hyon Hui, confessed to planting a bomb in the case of the second, saying the operation was ordered by Kim Jong-il personally.

In 1992, Kim Jong-il's voice was broadcast within North Korea for the first time during a military parade for the KPA's 60th year anniversary in Pyongyang's then Central Square (Kim Il-sung Square at present), in which Kim Il-sung attended with Kim Jong-il by his side. After Kim Il-sung's speech, his son approached the microphone at the grandstand and simply said: "Glory to the heroic soldiers of the Korean People's Army!" Everyone in the audience clapped and the parade participants at the square grounds (which included veteran soldiers and officers of the KPA) shouted "ten thousand years" three times after that.

Ruler of North Korea

On 8 July 1994, Kim Il-sung died, at the age of 82 from a heart attack. However, it took three years for Kim Jong-il to consolidate his power. He officially took the titles of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defense Commission on 8 October 1997. In 1998, his Defense Commission chairmanship was declared to be "the highest post of the state", so Kim may be regarded as North Korea's head of state from that date. Also in 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly wrote the president's post out of the constitution in memory of Kim Il-Sung, who was designated the country's "Eternal President". It can be argued, though, that he became the country's leader when he became leader of the Workers' Party; in most Communist countries the party leader is the most powerful person in the country.

Officially, Kim is part of a triumvirate heading the executive branch of the North Korean government along with Premier Choe Yong-rim and parliament chairman Kim Yong-nam (no relations). Each nominally has powers equivalent to a third of a president's powers in most other presidential systems. Kim Jong-il is commander of the armed forces, Choe Yong-rim heads the government and Kim Yong-nam handles foreign relations. In practice, however, Kim Jong-il exercises absolute control over the government and the country.

Although Kim is not required to stand for popular election to his key offices, he is unanimously elected to the Supreme People's Assembly every five years, representing a military constituency, due to his concurrent capacities as KPA Supreme Commander and Chairman of the DPRK NDC.

Economic policies

The state-controlled economy of North Korea struggled throughout the 1990s, primarily due to the loss of strategic trade arrangements with the Soviet Union and strained relations with China following China's normalization with South Korea in 1992. In addition, North Korea experienced record-breaking floods (1995 and 1996) followed by several years of equally severe drought beginning in 1997. This, compounded with only 18% arable land and an inability to import the goods necessary to sustain industry, led to an immense famine and left North Korea in economic shambles. Faced with a country in decay, Kim adopted a "Military-First" policy (선군정치, Sŏn'gun chŏngch'i) to strengthen the country and reinforce the regime. On the national scale, this policy has produced a positive growth rate for the country since 1996, and the implementation of "landmark socialist-type market economic practices" in 2002 kept the North afloat despite a continued dependency on foreign aid for food.

In the wake of the devastation of the 1990s, the government began formally approving some activity of small-scale bartering and trade. As observed by Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at the Stanford University Asia-Pacific Research Center, this flirtation with capitalism is "fairly limited, but — especially compared to the past — there are now remarkable markets that create the semblance of a free market system." In 2002, Kim Jong-il declared that "money should be capable of measuring the worth of all commodities." These gestures toward economic reform mirror similar actions taken by China's Deng Xiaoping in the late 1980s and early 90s. During a rare visit in 2006, Kim expressed admiration for China's rapid economic progress.

Foreign relations

In 1998, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung implemented the "Sunshine Policy" to improve North-South relations and to allow South Korean companies to start projects in the North. Kim Jong-il announced plans to import and develop new technologies to develop North Korea's fledgling software industry. As a result of the new policy, the Kaesong Industrial Park was constructed in 2003 just north of the de-militarized zone, with the planned participation of 250 South Korean companies, employing 100,000 North Koreans, by 2007. However, by March 2007, the Park contained only 21 companies — employing 12,000 North Korean workers. As of May 2010 the park employs over 40,000 North Korean workers.

In 1994, North Korea and the United States signed an Agreed Framework which was designed to freeze and eventually dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid in producing two power-generating nuclear reactors. In 2002, Kim Jong-il's government admitted to having produced nuclear weapons since the 1994 agreement. Kim's regime argued the secret production was necessary for security purposes — citing the presence of United States-owned nuclear weapons in South Korea and the new tensions with the US under President George W. Bush. On 9 October 2006, North Korea's Korean Central News Agency announced that it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test.

2008 health and waning power rumors

In an August 2008 issue of the Japanese newsweekly Shukan Gendai, Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura, an authority on the Korean Peninsula, claimed that Kim Jong-il died of diabetes in late 2003 and had been replaced in public appearances by one or more stand-ins previously employed to protect him from assassination attempts. In a subsequent best-selling book, ''The True Character of Kim Jong-il'', Shigemura cited apparently un-named people close to Kim's family along with Japanese and South Korean intelligence sources, claiming they confirmed Kim's diabetes took a turn for the worse early in 2000 and from then until his supposed death three and a half years later he was using a wheelchair. Shigemura moreover claimed a voiceprint analysis of Kim speaking in 2004 did not match a known earlier recording. It was also noted that Kim Jong-il did not appear in public for the Olympic torch relay in Pyongyang on 28 April 2008. The question had reportedly "baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years."

On 9 September 2008, various sources reported that after he did not show up that day for a military parade celebrating North Korea's 60th anniversary, US intelligence agencies believed Kim might be "gravely ill" after having suffered a stroke. He had last been seen in public a month earlier. A former CIA official said earlier reports of a health crisis were likely to be accurate. North Korean media remained silent on the issue. An Associated Press report said analysts believed Kim had been supporting moderates in the foreign ministry, while North Korea's powerful military was against so-called "Six-Party" negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States aimed towards ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons. Some US officials noted that soon after rumours about Kim's health were publicized a month before, North Korea had taken a "tougher line in nuclear negotiations." In late August North Korea's official news agency reported the government would "consider soon a step to restore the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to their original state as strongly requested by its relevant institutions." Analysts said this meant "the military may have taken the upper hand and that Kim might no longer be wielding absolute authority."

By 10 September there were conflicting reports. Unidentified South Korean government officials said Kim had undergone surgery after suffering a minor stroke and had apparently "intended to attend 9 September event in the afternoon but decided not to because of the aftermath of the surgery." High ranking North Korean official Kim Yong-nam said, "While we wanted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country with General Secretary Kim Jong-Il, we celebrated on our own." Song Il-Ho, North Korea's ambassador said, "We see such reports as not only worthless, but rather as a conspiracy plot." Seoul's ''Chosun Ilbo'' newspaper reported that "the South Korean embassy in Beijing had received an intelligence report that Kim collapsed on 22 August." The ''New York Times'' reported Kim was "very ill and most likely suffered a stroke a few weeks ago, but US intelligence authorities do not think his death is imminent." The BBC noted that the North Korean government denied these reports, stating that Kim's health problems were "not serious enough to threaten his life," although they did confirm that he had suffered from a stroke on 15 August.

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on 14 September that "Kim collapsed on 14 August due to stroke or a cerebral hemorrhage, and that Beijing dispatched five military doctors at the request of Pyongyang. Kim will require a long period of rest and rehabilitation before he fully recovers and has complete command of his limbs again, as with typical stroke victims." Japan's Mainichi Shimbun said Kim occasionally lost consciousness since April. Japan's ''Tokyo Shimbun'' on 15 September added that Kim was staying at the Bongwha State Guest House. He was apparently conscious "but he needs some time to recuperate from the recent stroke, with some parts of his hands and feet paralyzed". It cited Chinese sources which claimed that one cause for the stroke could have been stress brought about by the US delay to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

On 19 October, North Korea reportedly ordered its diplomats to stay near their embassies to await “an important message”, according to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, setting off renewed speculation about the health of the ailing leader.

By 29 October 2008, reports stated Kim suffered a serious setback and had been taken back to hospital. The New York Times reported that Taro Aso, on 28 October 2008, stated in a parliamentary session that Kim had been hospitalized: "His condition is not so good. However, I don't think he is totally incapable of making decisions." Aso further said a French neurosurgeon was aboard a plane for Beijing, en route to North Korea. Further, Kim Sung-ho, director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers in a closed parliamentary session in Seoul that "Kim appeared to be recovering quickly enough to start performing his daily duties." The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported "a serious problem" with Kim's health. Japan's Fuji Television Network reported that Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, traveled to Paris to hire a neurosurgeon for his father, and showed footage where the surgeon boarded flight CA121 bound for Pyongyang from Beijing on 24 October. The French weekly ''Le Point'' identified him as Francois-Xavier Roux, neurosurgery director of Paris' Sainte-Anne Hospital, but Roux himself stated he was in Beijing for several days and not North Korea.

On 5 November 2008, the North's Korean Central News Agency published 2 photos showing Kim posing with dozens of Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers on a visit to military Unit 2200 and sub-unit of Unit 534. Shown with his usual bouffant hairstyle, with his trademark sunglasses and a white winter parka, Kim stood in front of trees with autumn foliage and a red-and-white banner. ''The Times'' questioned the authenticity of at least one of these photos.

In November 2008, Japan's TBS TV network reported that Kim had suffered a second stroke in October, which "affected the movement of his left arm and leg and also his ability to speak." However, South Korea's intelligence agency rejected this report.

In response to the rumors regarding Kim's health and supposed loss of power, in April 2009, North Korea released a video showing Kim visiting factories and other places around the country between November and December 2008. In July 2009, it was reported that Kim may be suffering from pancreatic cancer.

In 2010, documents released by Wikileaks stated that Kim suffers from epilepsy.

Successor

Kim's three sons and his son-in-law, along with O Kuk-ryol, an army general, have been noted as possible successors, but the North Korean government has been wholly silent on this matter. Kim Yong Hyun, a political expert at the Institute for North Korean Studies at Seoul's Dongguk University, has said, "Even the North Korean establishment would not advocate a continuation of the family dynasty at this point." Kim's eldest son Kim Jong-nam was earlier believed to be the designated heir but he appears to have fallen out of favor after being arrested at Narita International Airport near Tokyo in 2001 while traveling on a forged passport.

On 2 June 2009, it was reported that Kim Jong Il's youngest son, Jong Un, was to be North Korea's next leader. Like his father and grandfather, he has also been given an official sobriquet, The Brilliant Comrade. It has been reported that Kim Jong Il is expected to officially designate the son as his successor in 2012. However, there are reports that if leadership passes to one of the sons, Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law, Chang Sung-taek, could attempt to take power from him.

Re-election as DPRK leader

On 9 April 2009, Kim was re-elected as chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, and made an appearance at the Supreme People's Assembly. This was the first time Kim was seen in public since August 2008. He was unanimously re-elected and given a standing ovation.

2009 imprisonment and pardoning of American journalists

In March 2009, the North Korean military detained two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were working for the US independent cable television network Current TV, after they allegedly crossed into North Korea from the People's Republic of China without a visa. The two reporters were found guilty of illegal entry and subsequently sentenced to twelve years of hard labor. Reporters Without Borders characterized the trial and sentencing as a "sham trial", and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton initially stated that the charges against the journalists were "baseless".

On 4 August 2009, former US President Bill Clinton met with Kim Jong-il during a "solely private mission to secure the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling." According to the KCNA, Clinton conveyed a verbal message to Kim from President Barack Obama, a claim denied by the Obama administration. Clinton and Kim had "an exhaustive conversation" that included "a wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern," KCNA reported. KCNA also reported that the National Defence Commission of North Korea, of which the Dear Leader is the Chairman, hosted a dinner in honor of Clinton, but did not go into detail about what was discussed at the reception. In the early morning hours (UTC+9) of 5 August, KCNA announced that Kim Jong-il had issued a pardon to Lee and Ling.

2010 and 2011 foreign visits

Kim was reported to have visited the People's Republic of China in May 2010. He entered the country by his personal train on 3 May, and stayed in a hotel in Dalian. Kim travelled to China again in August 2010, this time with his son, fueling speculation that he is ready to hand over power to son Kim Jong-un. He returned to China again in May 2011, marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between China and the DPRK. In late August 2011, he travelled by train to the Russian Far East to meet with President Dmitri Medvedev for unspecified talks.

Cult of personality

Kim Jong-il is the centre of an elaborate personality cult inherited from his father and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung. Defectors have been quoted as saying that North Korean schools deify both father and son. He is often the centre of attention throughout ordinary life in the DPRK. On his 60th birthday (based on his official date of birth), mass celebrations occurred throughout the country on the occasion of his Hwangap. Many North Koreans believe that he has the "magical" ability to "control the weather" based on his mood. In 2010, the North Korean media reported that Kim's distinctive clothing had set worldwide fashion trends.

One point of view is that Kim Jong Il's cult of personality is solely out of respect for Kim Il-sung or out of fear of punishment for failure to pay homage. Media and government sources from outside of North Korea generally support this view, while North Korean government sources say that it is genuine hero worship. The song "No Motherland Without You", sung by the KPA State Merited Choir, was created especially for Kim in 1992 and is frequently broadcasted on the radio and from loudspeakers on the streets of Pyongyang.

Personal life

Family

There is no official information available about Kim Jong-il's marital history, but he is believed to have been officially married once and to have had three mistresses. He has four known children:

Kim Sul-song (daughter)

Kim Jong-nam (son)

Kim Jong-chul (son)

Kim Jong-un (son)

Kim's first wife, Kim Young-sook, was the daughter of a high-ranking military official. His father Kim Il-Sung handpicked her to marry his son. They had one son, Kim Jong-nam (born 1971) who is Kim Jong-il's eldest son.

His second mistress, Ko Young-hee, was a Japanese-born ethnic Korean and a dancer. She had taken over the role of First Lady until her death — reportedly of cancer — in 2004. They had two sons, Kim Jong-chul, in 1981, and Kim Jong-un (also "Jong Woon" or "Jong Woong"), in 1983.

Since Ko's death, Kim has been living with Kim Ok, his third mistress, who had served as his personal secretary since the 1980s. She "virtually acts as North Korea's first lady" and frequently accompanies Kim on his visits to military bases and in meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries. She traveled with Kim Jong Il on a secretive trip to China in January 2006, where she was received by Chinese officials as Kim's wife.

Kim Jong-il is also reported to have a younger sister, Kim Kyong-Hui (김경희).

Personality

Like his father, Kim has a fear of flying, and has always traveled by private armored train for state visits to Russia and China. The BBC reported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Kim across Russia by train, told reporters that Kim had live lobsters air-lifted to the train every day.

Kim is said to be a huge film fan, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes and DVDs. His reported favorite movie franchises include ''Friday the 13th'', ''Rambo'', ''Godzilla'', and Hong Kong action cinema, and any movie starring Elizabeth Taylor. He is the author of the book ''On the Art of the Cinema''. In 1978, on Kim's orders, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche-based movie ''Diary of a Girl Student'' – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production".

Although Kim enjoys many foreign forms of entertainment, according to former bodyguard Lee Young Kuk, he refused to consume any food or drink not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France. His former sushi chef Kenji Fujimoto, however, has stated that Kim has sometimes sent him around the world to purchase a variety of foreign delicacies.

Kim reportedly also enjoys basketball. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by NBA legend Michael Jordan. Also an apparent golfer, North Korean state media reports that Kim routinely shoots three or four holes-in-one per round. His official biography also claims Kim has composed six operas and enjoys staging elaborate musicals. Kim also refers to himself as an Internet expert.

US Special Envoy for the Korean Peace Talks, Charles Kartman, who was involved in the 2000 Madeleine Albright summit with Kim, characterised Kim Jong-il as a reasonable man in negotiations, to the point, but with a sense of humor and personally attentive to the people he was hosting. However, psychological evaluations conclude that Kim Jong-il's antisocial features, such as his fearlessness in the face of sanctions and punishment, serve to make negotiations extraordinarily difficult.

The field of psychology has long been fascinated with the personality assessment of dictators, a notion that resulted in an extensive personality evaluation of Kim Jong-il. The report, compiled by Frederick L. Coolidge and Daniel L. Segal (with the assistance of a South Korean psychiatrist considered an expert on Kim Jong-il's behavior), concluded that the “big six” group of personality disorders shared by dictators Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Saddam Hussein (sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal) were also shared by Kim Jong-il—coinciding primarily with the profile of Saddam Hussein. The evaluation also finds that Kim Jong-il appears to pride himself on North Korea's independence, despite the extreme hardships it appears to place on the North Korean people—an attribute appearing to emanate from his antisocial personality pattern. This notion also encourages other cognitive issues, such as self-deception, as subsidiary components to Kim Jong-il's personality. Many of the stories about Kim Jong Il's eccentricities and decadent life-style are exaggerated, possibly circulated by South Korean intelligence to discredit the Northern regime. Defectors claim that Kim has 17 different palaces and residences all over North Korea, including a private resort near Baekdu Mountain, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded with multiple fence lines, bunkers and anti-aircraft batteries.

Finances

According to the ''Sunday Telegraph'', Kim has US$4 billion on deposit in European banks in case he ever needs to flee North Korea. The Sunday Telegraph reported that most of the money was in banks in Luxembourg.

Official titles

Party Center of the WPK (1970's)

Vice-Chairman, WPK Central Committee (1972–80)

Dear Leader (''Chinaehanuen Jidoja'') (late 1970s-1994)

Intelligent Leader (1973–84)

Member, Presidum of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK

Secretary of the Worker's Party of Korea (1980–94)

Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (25 December 1991-)

Marshal of the DPRK (1993-)

Chairman, National Defense Commission of North Korea (born 1993)

Great Leader (''Widehan Ryongdoja'') (July 1994-)

General Secretary, Workers Party of Korea (born 1997)

Supreme Leader of the Republic (born 2009)

See also

List of Korea-related topics

Sinuiju North Korean Leader's Residence

North Korea

Notes and references

Further reading

Jasper Becker, "Rogue Regime: Kim John Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea", Oxford University Press (October 2006), Softcover, 328 pages, ISBN 0-19-530891-3

Michael Breen, ''Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader'', John Wiley and Sons (January 2004), hardcover, 228 pages, ISBN 0-470-82131-0

Bradley Martin, ''Under The Loving Care Of The Fatherly Leader: North Korea And The Kim Dynasty'', St. Martins (October 2004), hardcover, 868 pages, ISBN 0-312-32221-6

Kim Chol U, ''Army-Centred Politics Of Kim Jong Il'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 2002, Softcover, 98 pages

Kim Jong Il Brief History, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1998, Hardcover, 149 pages

Kim Jong Il Short Biography, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 2001, Hardcover, 215 pages

Pae Kyong Su, Kim Jong Il The Individual Thoughts And Leadership Vol. 1, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1993, Softcover, 225 pages

Pae Kyong Su, Kim Jong Il The Individual Thoughts And Leadership Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1995, Softcover, 164 pages

Nada Takashi, Korea In Kim Jong Il's Era, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 2000, Softcover, 163 pages

Li Il Bok, The Great Man Kim Jong Il, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1989, Softcover, 167 pages

Ri Il Bok, The Great Man Kim Jong Il Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1995, Softcover, 84 pages

Jo Song Baek, The Leadership Philosophy Of Kim Jong Il, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1999, Softcover, 261 pages

Guiding Light General Kim Jong Il, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, North Korea, 1997, Softcover, 357 pages

External links

 – Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang DPR Korea (1998)

Born in the USSR – Kim Jong-il's childhood.

The many family secrets of Kim Jong Il

(also includes photos of Kim during his youth)

Kim's family tree

BBC, North Korea's secretive 'first family'

BBC, Profile: Kim Jong-il

BBC, Who will succeed N Korea's Kim Jong-il?

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Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Malta Category:Anti-Revisionists Category:Communist rulers Category:Current national leaders Category:Heads of state of North Korea Category:Leaders of political parties in North Korea Category:Members of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea Category:Military brats Category:North Korean billionaires Category:People from Khabarovsk Krai Category:People with epilepsy Category:Stroke survivors Category:Workers' Party of Korea politicians Category:Marxist theorists Category:Kim Il-sung family

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