조소앙의 삼균주의와 민족혁명론

Abstract

Normally when we define the Principle of Three Equalities we focus on the meaning of the three components as in the equalities among political groups, economic and educational classes, or the equalities among individuals, nations, and states. While this understanding is a reasonable interpretation of his theory, what is evident is the realization that his Principle was foremost a practical theory, a prescription for the nation’s political and economic groups or classes to emerge after Korea’s independence from the Japanese colonial rule. In other words, ‘Three Equalities’ were concerned with the society that would emerge after completing a ‘National Revolution’ that would destroy the colonial pillagers of the Japanese Empire and fully restore the land and the sovereignty to the nation of Korea. In order to achieve the Principle of Three Equalities in a peaceful way, a national revolution or a mission to ‘restore the nation’ must be carried out thoroughly. In this sense, Jo So Ang’s ‘Theory of National Revolution’ is a premise and a prerequisite to the Principle of Three Equalities and constitutes an integral part of the theoretical structure of the latter. Jo So Ang, like others, considered that the primary task of a national revolution was to oust the Japanese colonial power by force and to restore full sovereignty to ethnic Koreans. But his Theory of National Revolution incorporated a deeper content: it was a concept that, as an integral part of the Korean revolution, clearly systemized not only the target and the aim of the revolution but also a methodology concerning the motive, its driving power and the leadership. Because Jo So Ang did not favor a social revolution within the ethnic Koreans nor abandon the sovereignty asthe ethnic Korean people, he could not surrender the hegemony in the national movement and nation-building efforts to the communists who pursued a social revolution and internationalism. To Jo So Ang, the driving force of a national revolution did not lie in a certain class but in the whole nation that included farmers, laborers, small and medium merchants, and intellectuals with the Korean Independence Party as the leader. This understanding gave substance to the logic that, while the Provisional Government must come to power to lead the process of restoration and nation-building, the established nation should be governed by one party rule of the Korean Independence Party. Jo So Ang’s Theory of National Revolution resulted in an idea of one party rule based on the claim of the Korean Independence Party to succeed the legacy of the March 1st Movement and the legitimacy of the Korean Provisional Government. In this sense, his Theory of National Revolution was a hegemony theory that traversed the whole period from the ejection of the Japanese to the establishment of a formal government of new democratic republic at the conclusion of the Provisional Government’s mission.