The Korean War is considered to be the first episode of conflict in the Cold War and therefore its causes are of particular interest in understanding the interaction between Russia and the West during the period. The debate as to whether Stalin was responsible for the Korean War concentrates on the significance of several main issues, such as: the role of the United States, the aggression of Kim il Sung and the division of the Peninsula in 1945. To some contemporary historians, such as Steven Hugh Lee, Stalin was the crucial cause of the War, because of the aid he provided to North Korea. Yet perhaps the focus should be on other factors, as it seems it is not possible to classify this episode as a simple case of Soviet expansionism. Nonetheless, with the release of the top secret Soviet-era archives in the early 1990's, it has become more evident that although Stalin was not the immediate cause of the War, he enabled the conflict to occur through his support of Kim.
             With this in mind, it would seem that Stalin's material support of Kim il Sung was a central cause of the war. Therefore, Hugh Lee shrewdly states that the "Soviet decision [to provide North Korea with arms and munitions] escalated the 1949 border war into a full-scale international conflict".
            
             Indeed, the North Korean army had been trained by a cadre of Russian advisers and was the beneficiary of large amounts of Soviet equipment, such as tanks, aircraft and guns. This is confirmed by a telegram, from the Russian ambassador in North Korea (Shtykov), which tells how "Lieutenant-General Vasiliev has arrived [in North Korea] and has taken over the responsibility of main military adviser to the Korean People's Army"2. Moreover, such military assistance helps to explain North Korea's rapid advance in the early weeks of the War. Therefore, it seems that Stalin was the enabler, with North Korea largely reliant on Russian advice and aid. This allowed Kim il Sung to pursue his am...