On March 16, 2016, the Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted a scientific and practical conference "Russia and Korea: Problems of Development and Formation of Relations. To the 85th anniversary of the birth of B. D. Park (1931-2010)", organized by the Department of Korea and Mongolia of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The first part of the conference was dedicated to the memory of the remarkable Korean scholar B. D. Park, and an assessment of his scientific and spiritual heritage. And the second - the actual historical problems of modern Russian Korean studies in all their complexity and diversity.

Despite the fact that, for objective reasons, not everyone was able to speak at the conference, the initial list of participants turned out to be quite extensive. Presentations were made by: B. B. Pak (Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) " Boris Dmitrievich Pak is a teacher, scientist and person. His contribution to Korean studies"; A.V. Vorontsov (Head of the Department). Department of Korea and Mongolia, Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Remembering Boris Dmitrievich Pak"; S. G. Luzyanin (Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Problems of International Relations in East Asia: History and Modernity"; Kim Yong Un (Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Scientist, Teacher-Boris Dmitrievich Pak"; N. N. Em (GBOU SOSH N 1086) "B. D. Pak-teacher and educator"; M. I. Kim (All-Russian Association of Koreans) "Boris Dmitrievich Pak-prominent public figure"; Yu. V. Piskulova (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation) "The role of B. D. Pak in the study of Lee Bomjin and his place in the history of Russian-Korean relations"; A.V. Pak (IB RAS) "The Religious Factor in Russian-Korean relations in the late XIX-early XX centuries"; Yu. V. Vanin (IB RAS) "B. D. Pak on the Korean liberation movement"; V. V. Choi (Society of Descendants of Fighters for Korean Independence) "He opened our eyes" (on the contribution of B. D. Pak). Park's contribution to the study of the history of the Korean national liberation movement); Ku-Dyagai (Poisk MAGAZINE) "About B. D. Park's book" The USSR, the Comintern and the Korean Liberation Movement"; R. L. Kazaryan (Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Treatise on Peace in the East of An Jung-sung"; A. I. Sharafetdinov (Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences) " US Paramilitary Expeditions to Korea in the 1860s-1870s. and the position of Russia"; V. S. Boyko (Alt. GPU/ASU, Barnaul) "Koreans of Western Siberia in the XX-early XXI century: features of socio-cultural appearance"; R. P. Lobov (IDV RAS) " Changes in the foreign policy course under President Park Chonkhi and the USSR (Was it possible to normalize relations with the socialist countries in general and the USSR in particular?)"; V. S. Chen (RUSKOR) "My meetings with B. D. Pak"; N. I. Ni (IB RAS) "Bamboo in the Snow" (about B. D. Pak).

In his opening speech, Yu. V. Vanin thanked Boris Dmitrievich's colleagues, friends and institute acquaintances for coming to celebrate the memorable date of B. D. Pak. Yu. V. Vanin noted the participation of B. D. Pak's students - R.N. Son, Ya. V. Pak and V. V. Lee, who in 1957-1958, being the first President of the USSR, were present at the meeting. students of a high school in the Korean collective farm "Polyarnaya Zvezda", preserved a grateful memory of B. D. Park.

After watching a video clip of B. D. Park's speech, B. B. Park's daughter, B. B. Park, spoke at an event dedicated to the memory of a prominent figure of the Korean National liberation movement Choi Jaehyun (Choi Pyotr Semyonovich). She noted that the main traits of her father's character were high demands on himself, professionalism, dedication and high moral qualities. Like most Soviet people, Boris Dmitrievich lived through the Stalin era, the Great Patriotic War, and the Khrushchev Thaw, but his fate was largely determined by his national origin. B. D. Park was born in Vladivostok to Korean immigrants Park Deng-yong and Choi Yun-yai. His father is from North Hamgyong Province, Noncheon County. His family moved to the Russian Far East in the early 1900s and settled in the Ussuri Region. His mother was born in Russia in the Posyet region, and her parents were also of Korean descent. In the 1930s, when B. D. Pak's family moved to Vladivostok, his father got a job as a carrier in a horse-drawn transport company, and on July 18, 1937, he was arrested on standard charges of spying for Japan. September 2, 1937 father

PAK Alexander Vadimovich-Candidate of Historical Sciences, Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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he was shot, but the family did not learn about this until 20 years later in 1957, and a year later he was posthumously rehabilitated.

In the autumn of 1937, like the entire Korean population living in the border regions of the Far East, B. D. Pak's family was forcibly deported first to Kazakhstan, and two years later moved to Uzbekistan. The children grew up in a harsh environment and were brought up in strictness. Idleness and laziness in the family were condemned. B. D. Pak's childhood was during the war years. Having lost his father, he learned early the hardships of labor and deprivation. After graduating from high school in 1950, he worked as a teacher for a year, and in 1952 entered the Eastern Faculty of the Central Asian State University in Tashkent. After graduating from the university in 1956, where he graduated with honors, he worked for six years at the Polyarnaya Zvezda collective farm, first as a history teacher and then as a director.

From 1962 to 1965, he studied at the postgraduate school of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V. I. Lenin, where he defended his PhD thesis on "The liberation struggle of the Korean people during the First World War". After completing postgraduate studies, B. D. Pak worked at the Irkutsk State Pedagogical Institute as a senior teacher, and then as a professor and head of the Department. department of World History. During his teaching, he trained not only specialists for Russian Orientalists, but also dozens of candidates and doctors of sciences, including those from the Republic of Korea. In 1994, B. D. Pak established the International Center for Asian Studies at the Irkutsk Pedagogical Institute. He put a lot of effort into establishing cooperation between scientists from Russia and South Korea, and was an active participant in many international conferences in Seoul, Osaka, and Tokyo.

In 1999, B. D. Pak became an employee of the Korea and Mongolia Department of the Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he worked fruitfully until his death in 2010. And despite the fact that B. D. Park's scientific heritage still needs to be studied, it is already clear that he became the founder of a new direction in the field of Russian-Korean relations. In his seminal work "Russia and Korea" (1979), B. D. Pak convincingly proved that the main leitmotif of Russia's policy was the preservation of Korean independence. This concept is generally recognized in Russian historiography. For outstanding achievements in science, he was awarded the title of "Honored Scientist", awarded medals of Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

A.V. Vorontsov noted that despite the fact that B. D. Pak came to the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences, being already a well-known scientist, he was distinguished by an amazing modesty and efficiency. Moreover, he worked without any discounts on his already middle-aged age and scientific titles. Dedication to science and fantastic efficiency were the main features of his character. B. D. Pak was distinguished by a special thoroughness in the preparation of scientific research, since in his research he always relied exclusively on historical facts, documents and materials from numerous Russian archives, in which he was guided like no one else.

In Kim Yong Un's speech, it was noted that in the history of Korean studies in Russia, there was a large galaxy of Korean-born scientists who actually created modern Russian Korean studies. Among them, B. D. Pak stands out. So why did B. D. Pak go to Irkutsk after completing his postgraduate studies at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and not return to Central Asia or stay to work in Moscow? The main reason, according to the speaker, was that B. D. Pak set himself the task of further studying the history of Russian-Korean relations and the fate of Koreans who lived in the Russian Empire and the USSR. To develop this topic, it was necessary to work in the archives. In Central Asia and Moscow, he would not have been able to do so. And in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk at that time there were unique archives, which contained a huge number of documents both on the history of relations between Russia and Korea, and on the history of Russian Koreans.

M. I. Kim emphasized that B. D. Pak was one of the founders of the book series "Russian Koreans", dedicated to the activities of Koreans who made a significant contribution both to the development of Russian culture and history, and to the liberation of the historical homeland from Japanese colonialists. He is the author-compiler and editor of many books in this series: "Kim Mangym", "Han Myunseh", "Lee Bomjin", " 140 years in Russia "(co-authored with N. F. Bugai), "Kim Pyong-hwa", "The Struggle of Russian Koreans for Korean independence 1905-1910", "Soviet Koreans-participants of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". In conclusion, M. I. Kim proposed to publish the unpublished works of the scientist in a separate edition.

The second part of the conference began with a speech by Y. V. Piskulova. In the report dedicated to the contribution of B. D. Park to the study of the activities of his famous ancestor Lee Bomjin , a well-known political figure, the first and plenipotentiary envoy of Korea to Russia

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The speaker emphasized that for the first time in Russian historiography, he conducted a detailed study of the biography and life path of this legendary Korean patriot. It was Lee Bomjin who organized the escape of the King (Wang)in 1896 Kojong from the power of pro-Japanese proteges to the building of the Russian diplomatic mission at a critical moment in Korean history. According to B. D. Park, Wang Kojong's one-year stay in the Russian consulate was a positive fact in the struggle for Korean independence. During Kojong's time in the Russian mission, he formed a new government, in which Lee Bomjin took pride of place.

A. V. Pak paid attention not to the diplomatic history of the two countries, but to the religious factor. In his opinion, in the late XIX-early XX centuries. Russia has missed a unique opportunity for missionary work in Korea. But despite the efforts of Russian diplomats and leading representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, the then leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church remained indifferent to the idea of promoting Orthodoxy in Korea, which Catholics and Protestants did not fail to take advantage of.

In the speech of Yu. V. Vanin, it was noted that the topic of the Korean national liberation movement was touched upon by scientists before B. D. Park. However, unlike these historians, who focused on the history of the Korean workers ' and communist movement, B. D. Park managed to move away from this tradition, focusing on the relations of the USSR with representatives of the provisional Korean government in Shanghai and the leaders of the religious and political organization Cheongdoge. The second area of his research was the Comintern and the Korean Liberation Movement. The theme of the Comintern is still important for researchers of Korean history today, if only because it is reflected in Kim Il Sung's Juche ideology.

V. V. Choi, who for many years successfully headed the public organization of Russian Koreans-descendants of Korean independence fighters, spoke about its activities (recently it turned 20 years old).

A. I. Sharafetdinova examined the political situation that developed in Korea at the end of the 19th century, when it became the scene of a fierce struggle between the imperialist powers. According to the author, Russia, due to its economic weakness, from the very beginning of establishing relations with Korea, took the side of Korean independence in the dispute between the powers, since it was interested in the security of its Far Eastern borders. Unlike Russia, the United States preferred to act in the Korean direction with more aggressive methods. So, in July 1866, the American schooner "General Sherman", violating the territorial border of Korea, entered the mouth of the Taedong River near Pyongyang. Since the purpose of the American ship's campaign was not only to establish trade relations with Korea, but also to plunder and plunder, the ship was destroyed.

The topic of Lobov's speech is the possibility of normalizing relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan during the reign of President Park Chon-hee with the USSR and the countries of the socialist bloc. The first signals for a review of Soviet relations with South Korea date back to the early 1960s. During this period, through a military coup, General Park Chon-hee came to power in the Republic of Kazakhstan, who set the task of reforming the country, radically revising the foreign policy doctrine. The main leitmotif in his policy was the deepening of Seoul's allied relations with the United States. At the same time, the South Korean government also announced a policy of intensifying economic diplomacy in order to expand the export of its goods and find access to new sales markets. Under these circumstances, the administration of President Park Chon-hee decided to expand the network of trade offices abroad, regardless of differences in political orientation. Therefore, by the early 1970s, the Park Chon-hee administration began to make attempts to establish contacts with states that were not hostile to the ROK - the Soviet Union, China, and the Eastern Bloc countries. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that during this period Seoul and Pyongyang were engaged in a tough diplomatic struggle, which negatively affected these contacts. However, R. N. Lobov considers the irreconcilable position of the DPRK to be the main obstacle to normal economic cooperation between the USSR and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The main outcome of the conference was not only a high assessment of the scientific heritage of B. D. Park, but also the solution of further study of problems in relations between Russia and Korea.

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