MOSCOW -- At the heart of this sprawling city, a storied cemetery enshrines a once high-flying Korean independence fighter alongside late Russian President Boris Yelchin, novelist Anton Chekhov, composer Dmitri Shostakovich and other luminaries: Gen. Kim Kyu-myun. 

Kim and his wife Nadezhda are known to be the sole Koreans venerated at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Though the site is a major tourist destination in Moscow, the presence of his memorial came to light only in 2002. He died in 1969.

“He fought in the war in Far East,” reads a stone plaque that also carries his pen name, Baek-chu, in both Korean and Russian, as well as the couple’s portraits.

Born in 1880 in North Hamgyong Province in the North, Kim joined anti-Japanese guerrillas in 1908 while working for Sin Min Hoe (the New People’s Association), an independence army.

He rose to fame after winning big in a showdown around the Yalu and Tumen River areas in 1920 -- the Bongoh-dong Battle -- prompting Japanese forces to sharply up the offensive, and leading Kim and his colleagues to relocate their base to Russia, subsequently. He took various leading roles in the militia and became transportation chief for the provisional government in Shanghai.

Following his return to Maritime Province, Russia, in the wake of Chiang Kai-shek’s coup against the communists in 1927, Kim led a tough life working as the clerk of a bookstore in Vladivostok and translating Korean texts for local publishers.

“While eking out most of his last years on a meager pension at an inn in Moscow, he actively supported other independence fighters and their offspring,” his daughter, Emilia Kim, said in a media interview in 2003.

Kim and his crusade had been long forgotten -- he wasn’t formally recognized as a patriot by the South Korean government until 2002.

With lifelong nostalgia and longing for his home, the late warrior might have felt contrite having been buried on foreign soil, but he is apparently still being remembered and missed by many. On an ordinary weekday morning, a few fresh carnations, coupled with a piece of chocolate, were laying before the memorial, located just some 20 meters away from that of Yelchin.

“We were indeed late in honoring him -- far too late compared with Russia, which acknowledged and appreciated his contribution, conferring medals,” a diplomatic source here told The Korea Herald on the customary condition of anonymity.

By Shin Hyon-hee, Korea Herald correspondent (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)