Korea. Power, Ideology, Culture

K.V. Asmolov – a Russian Orientalist, candidate of historical sciences, leading research associate at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the most well-known Korean studies experts in the Russian internet, a popularizer of Korean culture, runs a thematic blog on "Live Journal" and a Telegram channel "KoreaMeow". Asmolov's works are valuable in that they combine academic analysis with the direct observations of someone who has been on both sides of the 38th parallel. The contrast in perception of North and South Korea is closely related to the stereotypes that have formed in global consciousness over decades of division of the Korean Peninsula. The media imbalance in the representation of the images of the two states traps the average person in a black-and-white thinking, where North Korea is a "tyrannical regime" and South Korea is a "paradise of globalization". However, behind the clichéd stamps lies the living and contradictory history of the two countries. This book serves as a kind of tutorial aimed at debunking the myths around the two Koreas in mass consciousness. You will find an essay on the history of the Korean Peninsula, a narrative about ideological foundations and their transformations, as well as about the paradoxical similarities of the North and the South. You will learn how a common past breaks through the cracks of ideological confrontation and where the path of dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang leads when the whole world is waiting for an "explosion". The book will be interesting to both the scientific audience (historians, political scientists, orientalists) and a wide range of readers who wish to break through the clichés and begin their journey in understanding the rich history and complex political palette of Korea.