Alexandra Petrovna Kim (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ; born Kim Aerim; February 22, 1885 – September 16, 1918) was a revolutionary political activist of Korean descent. Having joined the Bolsheviks in 1916, she is recognized as the first Korean

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Early life

Kim Aerim was born in Sinelnikovo, a Korean village in Siberia. At the time, the area was a hotbed of Korean

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

. In 1869, her father, Kim Du Suh, had emigrated to Russia, adopting the name Piotr Kim and converting to Orthodox Christianity. He worked as a translator. Later he went to

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

to work as an interpreter on the railway. In 1895, Alexandra joined him in China. Soon after her arrival in China, Kim Du Suh died. Alexandra was adopted by Jozef Stankevich, a Russian friend of her father. She attended a girls school in

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. After finishing her education, she began working as a teacher in a primary school. She married Stankevich's son.

Political activism

Kim gave up teaching and moved back to Vladivostok, where she took part in political activities for the cause of Korean migrants. Her marriage did not last long. She divorced her husband and shifted to the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

region. In the Urals she began political activism. In 1916, she joined the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

. In 1917,

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

sent her back to Siberia to mobilize Koreans there against the counter-revolutionary forces and the Allied Expeditionary Forces. In

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

she was in charge of external affairs at the Far-Eastern Department of the Party. There she met with Yi Dong-Wi, Kim Rip and other Korean independence fighters. Together they founded the Korean Socialist Party in Khabarovsk on April 28, 1918.

Capture

Kim was captured, along with many other Korean communists, by

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

forces and Japanese troops on September 4, 1918. She was executed on September 16, 1918. Reportedly, her last words were "Freedom and Independence for Korea!"

Bibliography

*Pan Pyong Yul. ''The Life and Activities of Kim Alexandra Petrovna (Stankevich): A Short Biography of the First Korean Communist'' Yun Pyong Sok Kyosu Hwangapkinyom Hanguk Kundaesa Nonchong,

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, 1990. *Pak Hwan. ''Kim Alexandra Petrovna (Stankevich), Leader of Korean Socialist Party'' Hanguksahan Nonchong,

, 1992. *Boris Pak, Bella Pak. Alexandra Petrovna Kim-Stankevich. Essays. Documents and materials. - Institute of Oriental Studies RAS, 2008. - 248 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89282-313-5 /Александра Петровна Ким-Станкевич. Очерки, документы и материалы. М. Институт востоковедения РАН, 2008/.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Alexandra 1885 births 1918 deaths 20th-century executions by Japan Foreign nationals imprisoned in Japan Executed Russian women Korean revolutionaries Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Old Bolsheviks People executed by Japanese occupation forces People from Primorsky Krai Russian communists Russian Marxists Russian politicians of Korean descent Russian revolutionaries Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Female revolutionaries Koryo-saram activists for Korean independence Korean women independence activists History of women in Korea Korean expatriates in Russia