Yakov Novichenko

Yakov Tikhonovich Novichenko (Russian: Яков Тихонович Новиченко; 28 April 1914 – 8 December 1994) was a Soviet military officer. He notably protected Kim Il Sung, the first leader of North Korea, from an assassination attempt in 1946. He is considered the only non-Korean to have had a cult of personality in the country, and is the only non-Korean to have received the Hero of Labor award, the highest title in North Korea.

Novichenko served in the Red Army beginning in 1938, and participated in the Soviet liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule during the Soviet–Japanese War. After the end of World War II, he was stationed in Pyongyang.

During a rally in Pyongyang on 1 May 1946, Novichenko intercepted a grenade aimed at Kim Il Sung and other bystanders. The grenade was allegedly thrown by a member of the Korean anti-communist terrorist group the White Shirts Society. Novichenko narrowly survived, suffering severe wounds and the loss of his right hand and forearm. He was promised the prestigious Hero of the Soviet Union award by his commanding officer, but never ended up receiving it, which later caused him to be ridiculed by his neighbors. He was discharged from the army after his recovery, and returned home to a life of farming and skilled labor.

For the next nearly four decades, Kim sent Novichenko letters and gifts and spoke of Novichenko glowingly at his meetings with the Soviets. However, Novichenko was relatively unknown in both the Soviet Union and North Korea, possibly in part due to poor Soviet-North Korean relations. But in 1984, after Kim prominently visited Novichenko and presented him with the Hero of Labor award, he developed a cult of personality in North Korea. A statue of him was made and displayed in Pyongyang, and he even had a film made about him: One Second for a Feat. From that year onwards, Novichenko and his family were regularly invited to North Korea. Even after Novichenko's death in 1994, the Kim family continued paying their respects to him and inviting his descendants to the country.