Qu Qiubai (1899-1935)

One of the main leaders of the Communist Party of China in the early period, a great Marxist; an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, theorist and propagandist; one of the important founders of the cause of the Chinese revolutionary literature. Original name Qu Maomiao, later renamed Qu Shuang, alias Xiongbo (or Xiongpo), native of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. In 1917, he was admitted to the Institute of Russian Language (tuition-free) under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1919, he participated in the May Fourth Movement and joined the Marxism Research Society initiated by Li Dazhao. In August 1920, he was hired by Beijing newspaper Morning News and Shanghai newspaper New Journal of Current Affairs as special correspondent to report from Moscow. In the autumn of 1921, the Oriental University in Moscow opened a Chinese class. Qu Qiubai entered the school as a translator and assistant teacher and began to be familiar with Marxist theoretical books. In 1922, Zhang Tailei proposed him to join the CPC in Moscow. In the summer of 1923, he returned home to serve as the dean of the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University and concurrently served as editor of New Youth. After the August Seventh Conference in 1927, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the provisional Political Bureau of the Central Committee and presided over the work of the Central Committee, becoming the second highest leader of the Communist Party of China after Chen Duxiu. During his chairmanship of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, the Party Central Committee made a “Left” blind move error. During the period when he presided over the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, a “Left” deviationist blind move error happened in the CPC Central Committee. In June 1928, he attended the Sixth National Congress of the CPC held in Moscow and served as the head of the delegation of the CPC to the Communist International. In the spring of 1930, he was dismissed from his post as the representative of the CPC in Moscow, left the Soviet Union and returned home with his wife. In January 1931, at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China under the control of Pavel Mif, Qu Qiubai was dismissed from the leadership post of the Central Committee. After that, he stayed in Shanghai to recover from tuberculosis, to make literary and artistic creation and translation, to lead the left-wing movement, and to make deep friendship with Mao Dun and Lu Xun. In February 1934, he was ordered to leave Shanghai and arrived at the Central Revolutionary Base Area in Ruijin, served as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic, member of the People's Education Committee and Minister of Education of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic. After the Long March of the Red Army, Qu Qiubai stayed in the south in spite of his disease. In February 1935, he was unfortunately arrested while transferring to Hong Kong. On May 9, he was escorted to Changting, Fujian Province. During this period, he wrote "Superfluous Words" to express his tortuous mental course due to entering politics as a literati. On June 18, he walked fearlessly toward the execution place, Zhongshan Park in Changting, when he was only 36 years old. Qu Qiubai's theoretical achievements in many fields such as politics, philosophy, literature, history and translation, have exerted far-reaching influence on the historical development. His main works are included in the Collected Works of Qu Qiubai.