This publication is both a textbook and a fascinating book to read. It presents the history of Korea from ancient times to 1945 as interpreted by a graduate of St. Petersburg University, now a professor at the University of Oslo (Norway) V. M. Tikhonov and is based on primary sources, using information and interpretations gleaned from South Korean and Western scientific literature. The book traces the patterns of the historical process on the Korean Peninsula, identifying its general and special features. Extensive material on the religion and ideology of traditional and modern Korea is presented. The first volume is a revised and expanded reissue of V. M. Tikhonov’s book “The History of Korea from Ancient Times to 1876” (M., 2003), the contents of which have now been brought up to 1904 and supplemented with chronological tables, maps and an index of names. The second volume is dedicated to the 20th century. Its peculiarity is that its final part is a translation of part of the famous book by the South Korean historian Kang Man-gil, “A New Look at the Recent History of Korea” (Gocho seung Hanguk Hyondaesa), which covers the history of South Korea for the period from 1945 to 1992.

The second volume of the textbook on the history of Korea is dedicated to the 20th century. In it V.M. Tikhonov completes the description of the era of New Time.u2028 Considering the period from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. before the liberation of Korea in 1945, it concentrates on social and ideological phenomena and their relationship to the dynamics of class and social interests. Era 1945-1992 in the south of the Korean Peninsula is presented through the vision of the patriarch of Marxist historiography of South Korea, Kang Man-gil. Chapters from his widely acclaimed book “A New Look at the Contemporary History of Korea” are published in Russian for the first time. Written from a critical perspective, this book does not divide historical figures into “heroes” and “villains”, but tries to identify the social conditioning and internal contradictions in the activities of each of them. Circulation of 300 copies. On the cover: Commemorative coin issued by the Bank of the Republic of Korea for the Seoul 1988 Olympics