Kim Chwa-chin

Kim Chwa-chin

Kim Chwa-Kinn or Kim Jwa-jin ( December 16, 1889 - January 24, 1930 ), sometimes known as the Korean Machno or under his pseudonym Baekya , played an important role in the attempt to develop anarchism in Korea.

Life

Kim was born into a wealthy Andong Kim Lineage family in Hongseong County , Chungcheong Province. His father was Kim Hyeong-Gyu. When Kim was 18 years old, he freed 50 families from slavery, he publicly burned the slave register and gave each family enough land to live on. This was the first slave liberation in modern Korea.

activities

Kim Chwa-chin recognized Japanese imperialism early on and fought against it. In 1919 he founded the Northern military administration office army (북로 군정 서군, 北路 軍政 署 軍). Kim led the Korean Righteous Armies in the Battle of Cheongsanni.

After that, Kim was appointed chairman of an executive committee and tried to integrate into the independence movement groups in China and Manchuria. When anarchists and nationalist groups formed a rebel community in Manchuria in Shinmin Province in 1929, Kim Jwa-jin was chosen to lead the armed forces. He was entrusted with the organization and led guerrilla attacks that heavily burdened the Japanese. Although the Japanese soldiers were far more experienced and better armed than Kim Jwa-jin, Kim's attacks were successful both in defending the young anarchist community in Shinmin and in promoting other groups in Northeast Asia and prevented the occupation .

Kim Chwa-chin was murdered by secret agents in 1930. Although his murderers were never found, the principal (officer in charge) of the attack could be determined and he was executed.

Shinmin after Kim Chwa-chin

After the murder of Kim Chwa-chin, the anarchist movement in Manchukuo and Korea came under massive pressure. Japan sent armies to Shinmin to attack the south, while the former allies, the Chinese Soviet Republic, invaded from the north. By the summer of 1932 the most prominent anarchists in Shinmin were dead and the two-front war became untenable. The remaining anarchists were pushed underground and the anarchist Shinmin no longer existed.

Kim is remembered as the leader of the Korean independence movement in North and South Korea. In 1991, the house where he was born in Hongseong was restored. A festival is held every year in his honor.

family

• Father: Kim Hyeong-Gyu
• 1st woman: Lady Oh (오씨 부인)
• 2nd wife: Lady Kim (김씨 부인)
• Son: Kim Du-han
• Granddaughter: Kim Eul-dong
• Great-grandson: Song Il-gook
• Great-great-grandchildren: Song Dae-Han, Song Min-Guk, Song Man-Se

literature

• Ha Ki-rak: History of the Korean Anarchist Movement. Anarchist Publishing Committee, Seoul 1986.