That new bridge is named after a Soviet officer called Yakov Novichenko, who threw himself at a grenade thrown at Kim Il Sung during one of his speeches (he survived, but lost a hand and an eye).
He has an interesting biography, and even though he was very highly awarded by the DPRK and was invited to yearly free holidays in the country, he is one of those Soviet figures who played a prominent role in the very formation of the DPRK who are rarely remembered now (the first constitution of the DPRK was actually proofread by Stalin himself before being passed).
Anyway, I'm writing all this because there's actually a quite entertaining Soviet-Korean movie about this man called "Секунда на подвиг" (One Second for a Feat). I say "entertaining" for a reason, because it's really worth watching as kind of a blockbuster. The plot itself is not super historically accurate, and everything that relates to Kim Il Sung in the movie is highly mythologised, as you would expect. But I did enjoy it when I watched it many years ago, so there you go.
It's easy to find in Russian, but there should also be a translated or at least subtitled version somewhere out there.
Post #86
200
- 👍 4
- ❤ 1