Zhang Tailei (1898-1927)

Chinese proletarian revolutionary, political activist and propagandist; one of the important leaders of the Communist Party of China in the early period; one of the founders of the Communist Youth League of China. Original name Zhang Zengrang, courtesy name Zhang Tailai, scientist name Zhang Fu, after joining the revolution, he was also named Zhang Chunnian and Zhang Chunmu, and later renamed Zhang Tailei. Native of Wujin County (now Changzhou), Jiangsu Province. In 1915, he was admitted to Tianjin Beiyang University, Law and Political Science Department. In 1919, he joined the May Fourth Movement. In 1920, he joined the Communist Group in Beijing and then went to Tianjin to organize and construct a Socialist Youth League group and served as its secretary. In early 1921, he was sent to Soviet Russia as secretary of the Chinese Section of the Far East Secretariat of the Communist International and become the first Chinese Communist to work in the Communist International. On many occasions, he accompanied representatives of the Communist International to China to meet with Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and others, and participated in the activities of founding the Communist Party of China. In May 1922, the First National Congress of the Chinese Socialist Youth League was held in Guangzhou, and the establishment of the Chinese Socialist Youth League was unanimously adopted. In January 1925, he presided over the Third National Congress of the Chinese Socialist Youth League in Shanghai, and decided to change the Chinese Socialist Youth League into the Chinese Communist Youth League and was elected General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Youth League. During the first cooperation of KMT and the Communist Party, he participated in many important talks between the leaders of the Communist Party of China, representatives of the Communist International, envoys of the Soviet Union and important KMT figures such as Sun Yat-sen, and as the main member of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s delegation appointed by Sun Yat-sen, he accomplished the mission of investigation to the Soviet Union. In response to the Zhongshan Ship incident by Chiang Kai-shek in March 1926, he firmly advocated that the armed workers and peasants should fight back. In 1927, he participated in the August Seventh Conference and firmly criticized the right deviation opportunistic error within the Party. He was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Provisional Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. In November, he went to the CPC Central Committee in Shanghai to participate in the formulation of the Guangzhou Uprising plan and returned to Guangzhou in the latter part of the month to preside over the preparations for the armed uprising. He served as secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee. He also served as secretary of the Military Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. On December 11, 1927, he led the Guangzhou Uprising and established the Soviet government in Guangzhou, serving as the acting chairman and member of the People’s Navy and Army. On the December 12, the second day of the Guangzhou Uprising, he was shot and killed by the enemy. He was 29 years old. He was the first member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee to die on the battle front. His main works are included in the Collected Works of Zhang Tailei.