Nikolai Georgiyevich Lebedev

Lebedev was born on 1901 at the Buda village in Kaluga Governorate, to a peasant family. Until 1916, he studied at a Zemstvo and later attended a teacher's seminary in Kozelsk till 1918. On 1920, he joined the Communist Party of Soviet Union and began serving in the Red Army.

Kim Il-sung (front, right) during his first appearence in front of the public on October 14, 1945 at the Pyongyang City People's Congress. Major General Lebedev is at the far right, behind

On 1924, he graduated from the Higher Military Pedagogical School and on the same year, he was appointed as a teacher of social studies at the Tver Cavalry School of the Comintern named after L. D. Trotsky. On December 1927, he completed his post-graduate courses in social studies. Lebedev was appointed as an assistant to the head of the educational unit for party political work at the school of anti-aircraft artillery. On March 1934, he served as political commissar to the commander of the 45th Artillery Regiment. Lebdev served as the head of the propaganda, agitation and press department of the political department of the Kiev Military District on November 1936. From 1939, he served as the head of the Military-Political School at the Kiev Military District.

On August 1939, Lebedev was appointed head of the political department of the 49th Rifle Corps. As part of the unit, he participated in the Soviet Invasion of Poland and Winter War. For this, he received the Order of Lenin. In 1940, Lebedev was awarded the title of brigade commissar.

Administrators of Soviet Civil Administration in Korea; Terenty Shtykov (left) and Lebedev (right)

On June 15, 1941, he was appointed a member of the Military Council of the 25th Army. Following the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Lebdev was promoted to Major General in 1942. In 1944, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for good combat and political training of military units transferred from the 25th Army to the Western Front. In August 1945, Lebedev was one of the commanders of military operations of the 25th Army of the Far Eastern Front during the Soviet-Japanese War, which led to the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese rule.

Following the liberation of Korean Peninsula and the subsequent Soviet occupation of the northern part of Korean Peninsula, Lebedev was appointed as the head of the Soviet Civil Administration. He was in charge of carrying out the instructions from the top officials, such as Terenty Shtykov in Pyongyang.

Kim Il-sung decorating Lebedev before his return to Soviet Union at the end of 1948 following the establishment of the North Korean government

During his time as the head of Soviet civil administration in Korea, Lebedev directed several political initiatives to make Kim Il-sung, who was an unknown person at home, the leader of North Korea. Il-Sung Park, who taught Marxist-Leninist ideology to Kim at that time, testified that Lebedev was the first person to initiate the idolization and cult of personality of Kim Il-sung.[1]

For his efforts, Lebedev is considered as one of the founders of the Workers' Party of Korea. On September 10, 1948, he returned to the Soviet Union after the official establishment of the North Korean government. Kim has invited him to North Korea every year since then.[2]

Following his return to Soviet Union, Lebedev served as the Deputy Commander for Political Affairs of the Don Military District from August 1949 to July 1950. He served in numerous positions and assignments untill his retirement from military on 1966.

After his retirement, he lived a relatively long life. On 1988, he was involved and appeared in the Korean War documentary Korea: The Unknown War by Thames Television. Lebedev gave a lot of testimony to the interview team of South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, who visited his home in Moscow in 1991.

Andrei Lankov, a Russian scholar and specialist in Korean studies, writes in his book The DPRK Yesterday and Today: An Unofficial History of North Korea about his meeting with Lebedev:

"I had a chance to meet with N. G. Lebedev in 1989 and 1990. During these conversations, I was amazed that, despite extreme old age, N. G. Lebedev retained a brilliant memory and a sharp, somewhat ironic mind, which contrasted sharply with his extreme physical decrepitude".

Lebedev died on May 10, 1992, at Moscow. He is buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.

USSR

	Order of Lenin (three times)
	Order of the Red Banner (three times)
	Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class
	Order of the Red Star
	Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
	Medal "For the Victory over Japan"
	Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
	Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
	Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
	Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
	Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
	Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
	Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
	Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
	Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
	Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
	Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"

Foreign

	Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (East Germany)
	Distinguished Service Medal of the National People's Army, Gold (East Germany)
	Order of the National Flag, 1st class (North Korea)
	Order of the National Flag, 2nd class (North Korea)
	Medal for the Liberation of Korea (North Korea)

• Lankov, Andrei (October 2003). From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3117-9.
• — (2005). КНДР вчера и сегодня: Неформальная история Северной Кореи [The DPRK Yesterday and Today: An Unofficial History of North Korea] (in Russian). Vostok-Zapad. p. 291. ISBN 5-478-00060-4.
• Pak, V.P.; Suslina, S.S. (1976). Освобождение Кореи: Воспоминания и статьи [Liberation of Korea: Memories and Articles] (in Russian). Nauka. p. 336. ISBN 5-478-00060-4.
• Лебедев Николай Георгиевич
• Командный и начальствующий состав Красной Армии в 1940—1941 гг. Структура и кадры центрального аппарата HКО СССР, военных округов и общевойсковых армий. Документы и материалы. [Command and control personnel of the Red Army in 1940-1941. The structure and personnel of the central apparatus of the USSR NKO, military districts and combined arms armies. Documents and materials] (in Russian). Letniy Sad. 2005. p. 272. ISBN 5-94381-137-0.