V. E. KudiminDirector,Russian Institute of Kimilsungism-KimjongilismWhenever I paid visit to Pyongyang, the heart of the Korean revolution and the mental heart of the Juche idea followers of the whole world, I used to visit the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the peerlessly great persons who illuminated the path towards independence with the immortal ideology, lie in state in this sacred place.Visiting the supreme temple of Juche, I used to recollect the life of Comrade Kim Il Sung and everything achieved for the DPRK and mankind.I would like to briefly explain the environments in which Comrade Kim Il Sung grew to be an indomitable fighter, a great activist in modern times.Needlessly to say, home environment in which man receives in the first period after his birth is important in making his personality.Comrade Kim Il Sung was born into a family, that was patriotic and revolutionary through generations.Comrade Kim Il Sung was born in the most arduous and tragic period in 5 000-year long history of Korea. A few years before his birth, Korea, the land of morning calm, was deprived of her independence.This was a result of shortsighted policy of the feudal Joson dynasty that had ruled the country for 500 years. The policy of relying on outside forces and making use of contradictions between major great powers ended in failure. As a result of flunkeyism, “Ulsa Five-Point Treaty” (1905) was fabricated and thus Korea was reduced to a colony of Japan, the suzerain state.The Korean feudal rulers did not build factories and enterprises while building up the army and enforcing a full-scale modernization but resorted to diplomatic plots and endeavored to make use of contradictions between big powers like US, Czarist Russia, China and Japan.However, after defeating Qing in the 1894-1895 war and Czarist Russia in the 1904-1905 war, Japan concluded the “Katsura-Taft Agreement” (July 29, 1905) with the US easily and realized free annexation to Korea in exchange for the approval of the US occupation of the Philippines.Korea had been under the Japanese colonial rule for 40 years. This brought innumerable disasters to the Korean people. The Japanese imperialists obliterated culture peculiar to Korea and forced the Korean people to change their names into Japanese ones. They gave orders of the compulsory conscription and labor to the army and mines and forced sex slavery to the Korea women.Comrade Kim Il Sung spent his childhood in such environments. He witnessed severe oppression of the March First Popular Uprising. The Japanese imperialists executed and imprisoned hundreds and thousands of hot-blooded patriots.It is necessary to mention about Comrade Kim Il Sung’s family. It is because that his family was not a common one but an example of a patriotic family whose members were faithful to the people and defended the people’s interests through generations.Kim Ung U, great grandfather of Comrade Kim Il Sung led the struggle of the Mangyongdae villagers against the US pirate ship General Sherman sailed up through the Taedong River for the purport of colonial plunder in 1866. At that time patriots, led by Kim Ung U, floated down the firing rafts towards the ship so that it was burnt, thus making the unwelcome guests never intrude again into Korea for a long time.Comrade Kim Il Sung’s grandfather Kim Po Hyon and grandmother Ri Po Ik, the next generation of the Mangyongdae family, were patriots who were possessed of noble moral trait throughout their lives and handed it down to their posterities. Under their influence, the family produced distinguished patriots and revolutionaries with firm principles of life.Comrade Kim Il Sung’s uncle Kim Hyong Gwon was known over Korea as a revolutionary, a man strong in communist faith. Leading a small guerilla unit of the Korean revolutionary Army in July 1930, he made political and military activities to have a revolutionary influence on the people and employed bold and flexible tactics to deal a heavy blow to the enemy.Kim Hyong Gwon was arrested and imprisoned in Seoul prison by a traitor. Torture, ridicule and hunger failed to force Kim Hyong Gwon to abandon his belief. Though he died in prison, Kim Hyong Gwon was a paragon of an indomitable revolutionary fighter who was aware of a strong sense of mission to serve the people till the last of his life.Kim Hyong Jik, father of Comrade Kim Il Sung carried forward such excellent tradition of Mangyongdae family as the idea of patriotism, the strong sense of mission to serve the people and the fidelity to great aim. Kim Hyong Jik advanced the idea “Aim High” that means one should have high aim.He said that, in order to win victory in the cause for justice and happiness, it was imperative to achieve the idea of “Aim High” from generation to generation of the revolution, even though one had failed to attain the aim in his lifetime.Kim Hyong Jik passed away at the young age of 31, wishing that his sons would win back the country at all costs. Kang Pan Sok, Comrade Kim Il Sung’s mother, also covered the road of revolution invariably. She was born into a fine educator’s family in Chilgol, possessed of the idea of patriotism and the spirit of devoted service for the people. She was an initiator of the Korean women’s movement. She united women into an organization and made political activities among them. She passed away at her young age, wishing that her sons would achieve independence of the country and bring happiness to the country. Kang Pan Sok handed two pistols over to her son, Comrade Kim Il Sung, true to Kim Hyong Jik’s wish that one must hold arms in hands to win back independence of Korea. Being desirous of founding the Anti-Japanese Guerilla Army as early as possible, she devoted her all for its realization.These are about the family of Comrade Kim Il Sung and the environments when he grew up. It is of no doubt that the revolutionary and patriotic tradition of the Mangyongdae family will be inherited by the rising generations of the revolution. We witnessed that, as the ideal of the Mangyongdae family was translated into reality, an unprecedented victory was achieved in the cause of national liberation, the Japanese and US imperialists defeated in the grim and bloody struggles and everything rehabilitated on debris. We also witnessed that the DPRK concluded the Arduous March with success under leadership of Chairman Kim Jong Il and the gate to a powerful country, suited to all requirements of a powerful nation in the 21st century, was opened.The patriotic spirit of the Mangyongdae family, ideas of “Aim High” and “The people are God” are being carried forward by Comrade Kim Jong Un standing in the van of the revolution. As long as the tradition is alive, the present and future of the Korean revolution is bright and rosy.