Zhu De （1886—1976）

Zhu De was a great Marxist; the great proletarian revolutionary, statesman-politician, and strategist; one of the main founders of the Chinese People's Liberation Army; the founding father of the PRC, the important member of first generation of the collective central leadership of the party with Comrade Mao Zedong at the core. Zhu De, was formerly known as Zhu Daizhen, and Zhu Jiande was used as the courtesy name. Zhu De was born on December 1, 1886 in Yilong County, Nanchong City, located in northern Sichuan province. He was admitted to the Yunnan Military Academy in 1909 and joined the Tong Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League) in the same year. In October 1911, he participated in the armed uprising against the Qing Dynasty in Yunnan. In August 1922, he went to Germany to study in Berlin and at the University of Göttingen. While he was in Europe he met Zhou Enlai and other communists and joined the CPC. In July 1925, he went to the Soviet Union to study military affairs. After returning to China in the summer of 1926, he was appointed by the Central Committee of the CPC to carry out revolutionary work in the warlord troops of Sichuan Province. In 1927, he participated in the leadership of the August 1 Nanchang Uprising and then served as the deputy commander of ninth Corps army. After the Nanchang uprising army headed southward to Guangdong, but the main force of the Uprising Army encountered a defeat in the Chaoshan area, and Zhu De courageously led the remaining forces to the Jiangxi border area, Guangdong and Hunan. During this period, he led a Rectification Movement in the demoralized army in the spheres of ideology, organization, and discipline, thus the enthusiasm of the army to continue the guerrilla warfare was greatly enhanced, the revolutionary spirit of the army was restored. In January 1928, he participated in the leadership of the Southern Hunan Uprising and six county-level revolutionary base areas were established. In April 1928, he led the 10,000 uprising troops to the Jinggang Mountains to join forces with those led by Mao Zedong, thus established the fourth Army of the Chinese Worker's and Peasant's Revolutionary Army. Together with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, they commanded the Red Army to defeat four large-scale military "encirclement and suppression" campaigns carried out by the KMT army against the Central Revolutionary Base Areas and established the Jinggang Mountains revolutionary base area. Since August 1930, Zhu De served as commander of the First Army Group, commander-in-chief of the First Front Army and commander-in-chief of the Chinese Worker's and Peasant's Red Army and chairman of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. In October 1934, he took part in the Long March. In January 1935, at the Zunyi Conference held by the CPC Central Committee, Zhu De solemnly criticized the error of the “Left” dogmatism and adventurist polices, gave complete support to Mao Zedong's leading position in the whole Party. During the Long March, he was strongly rejected and carried out resolute struggle against the activities of breaking up the Red Army and betraying the Party which was headed by Zhang Guotao. Later, Zhang Guotao was severely criticized and expelled from the CPC. During the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission and the Commander-in-Chief of the Eighth Route Army (later renamed the 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army. He led the Eighth Route Army to march to the anti-Japanese frontline in north China where they teamed up with the KMT forces to fight against Japanese invasion troops. Under the right command of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters with Zhu De as the leader, the Eighth Route Army won victory one after another in battles in Pingxingguan and so on. Then he commanded the Eighth Route Army to penetrate deeply into the areas behind the enemy line where the Eighth Route Army troops carried out guerrilla warfare and built up and expanded many anti-Japanese base areas. In the period of the Liberation War, he served asVice-Chairmen of the Central Military Commission and Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese PLA. Zhu De assisted Mao Zedong in organizing the three key Campaigns of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin. In April 1949, Mao Zedong and the PLA issued an order to for the campaign of “Crossing the Yangtze River”, this was done in two provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu, and Nanjing was liberated, thus CPC finally overthrew the rule of the KMT in mainland of China.

After the founding of New China, Zhu De was successively Vice-Chairman of the Central People's Government, Vice-Chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the CPC, Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army, Vice-Chairman of the People's Republic of China and Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission. From November 1949 to May 1955, he served concurrently as Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. From April 1959, he had served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Second, Third and Fourth National People's Congress. In 1955, he was conferred the military rank of Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He participated in the formulation of the Party's various lines, principles and policies, cared about and actively advocated strengthening the modernization and regularization of the PLA, put forward a series of correct guidelines and principles for the establishment of the PLA in a timely manner, built and developed the army, sea, air and armored forces, artillery and other arms, and worked and trained military academies. On behalf of military personnel and other work devoted a lot of effort. On July 6, 1976, he died in Beijing. His main works are included in the Selected Works of Zhu De.