Chen Duxiu (1879-1942)

Original name Chen Qingtong, courtesy name Zhongfu, native of Anqing, Anhui, leader of the Communist Party of China in the early period. In his early years, he studied in Japan and participated in the struggle against the Qing Dynasty. After returning to China in 1903, he was the editor-in-chief of the National Daily News in Shanghai. In 1904, he founded the Anhui Vernacular News (Anhui Suhua Bao), and Yuewang Hui, a secret organization against the Qing Dynasty, in 1905. After the restoration of Anhui Province in 1912, he was appointed secretary general to the military governor of Anhui Province. Later, he participated in the struggle against Yuan Shikai's autocracy. In September 1915, he founded and was the editor-in-chief the Youth Magazine (later renamed New Youth) in Shanghai, holding high the banner of democracy and science, which became the symbol of the rise of the New Culture Movement. In early 1917, he was appointed dean of the School of Letters at Peking University (i.e., dean of the Faculty of Arts) and actively assisted Cai Yuanpei in his innovation of Peking University. At the end of 1918, he founded the political commentary magazine Weekly Critic with Li Dazhao, paid attention to the actual struggle and was one of the main leaders of the New Culture Movement. During the May Fourth Movement, the “Manifesto of the Citizens of Beijing” was drafted to call on the people to struggle. On June 11, 1919, he was arrested for distributing leaflets on the streets of Beijing and was released from prison after being rescued. After the May Fourth Patriotic Movement, he began to accept and propagate Marxism and he began to work with Li Dazhao to prepare for the establishment of a Chinese proletarian political party. In August 1920, the early organization of the CPC was first established in Shanghai, becoming the initiating group to liaise with communist groups all over the country and he was one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China. In July 1921, at the First National Congress of the CPC, he was elected member of the CPC Central Bureau and secretary of the CPC Central Bureau to preside over the work of the CPC Central Committee. Later, he was elected chairman of the Second and Third Central Executive Committees and General Secretary of the Fourth and Fifth Central Committees. In the late period of the Great Revolution, in the sharp struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat for leadership, serious right opportunism mistakes were made, concerning the peasants, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie. The armed forces were abandoned, and the right-wing attacks of the KMT were compromised and conceded. The result of these policies caused the revolution suffer a heavy defeat under the sudden attack of the enemy. In July 1927, when the Central Committee of the Communist Party was reorganized, he left the leading post of the Central Committee. At the emergency conference of the CPC Central Committee held on August 7, after re-election, he was no longer the General Secretary and ousted from other leading posts of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. From then on, he was pessimistic about the future of the revolution, disapproved of adhering to the revolutionary struggle in the countryside, derided the Red Army as "roving bandits", accepted the Trotskyist viewpoint and carried out non-organizational activities. In November 1929, he was expelled from the Party. In December, 81 people, such as Peng Shuzhi, jointly published "Our Political Views", publicly declaring that they would stand with Trotsky, oppose the CPC and the Red Army of Workers and Peasants. In Shanghai, he formed a small Trotskyist organization called Proletarian Society and published the organ’s paper The Proletarian. In May 1931, he was elected General Secretary by the "Left Opposition of the Communist Party of China" organized by the Trotskyist faction. In October 1932, he was arrested by the KMT government. In August 1937, he was released from prison. In his later years, he was in favor of the cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party in resisting Japan. In May 1942, he died in Jiangjin, Sichuan Province. His works are included in the Collected Works of Chen Duxiu.