Grigory Mekler

Grigory Konovich Mekler (; 26 June 1909 – 10 August 2005) was a Soviet military officer and linguist. Mekler served as an early advisor to Kim Il Sung, the first leader of North Korea, between 1945 and 1946.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Mekler gave a number of interviews about his first-hand experiences with Kim. These are now considered to be valuable evidence for historians of North Korea.

Early life and education Mekler was born on 26 June 1909 in , Belarus, Russian Empire. He was born into a large Jewish family. His father was a blacksmith.

Military career Mekler originally planned to continue onto graduate studies, but he instead attended the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the recommendation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. There, he studied German, English, and Japanese for a year, and received combat training. By the end of 1934, he had the rank of junior lieutenant . He was then sent as a military translator to the , and deployed to the Russian Far East. There, he participated in the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts. Commander of the Far East Front Kirill Meretskov tasked Mekler with cooperating closely with Kim, and focusing on improving Kim's domestic image and credibility. According to Mekler, Meretskov told him: He eventually recommended that Kim be the new leader; according to Mekler, he later learned that his recommendation was instrumental in the Soviet's decision to move forward with Kim. Mekler arrived shortly afterwards, and met Kim there. Mekler claims to have arranged and witnessed the first meeting between Kim and Cho Man-sik at 6 pm on 30 September 1945. Efn|The meeting was, on the surface, amicable. Cho did not drink, but Mekler became drunker than the others, to their amusement. Thus, Mekler, Kim, and Khan became a consistent trio.

In 1946, Mekler was reassigned to a position in Siberia. Before his departure, Kim asked him for a final piece of advice. He allegedly told Kim the English-language idiom: "Look before you leap".