Li Lisan
Lǐ Lìsān (李立三,
Wade-Giles: Li Li-san) (March
1899–
June 22,
1967) was an early leader of the
Chinese communists, and the top leader of the
Communist Party of China from 1928 to 1930.
Li was born in Liling,
Hunan province in
China in
1899, under the name of Li Rongzhi. His father, a Chinese traditional teacher, taught Li Chinese traditional poems and classics. In
1915 he arrived at
Changsha for high school and saw an advertisement in a newspaper written by a student from First Normal School of Changsha with the pen name 28 Strokes. Li met, and then became friends with, the young man who's real name was
Mao Zedong. Later Li joined the army of a local
warlord in
Hunan. One of the Division Commanders, Cheng Qian（程潜 in Chinese) who was both Li's father's townsman and alumni, sponsoried Li to study in
Beijing.
France
When Li reached Beijing, he applied to study in
France and arrived there in
1920. He worked part-time as assistant to a
boilermaker to earn his tuition. His boss was a member of
Communist Party, and Li was influenced in accepting
Communism, taking part actively in the struggles for Chinese labor rights in France. For his active and fearless revolutionary work, Li was labelled as a trouble-maker. In
1921, Li was expelled back to China with more than 100 other Chinese by the French authorities.
Back in China
When Li came back to
Shanghai, he was introduced by
Chen Duxiu to join the
Communist Party of China (CPC). The party assigned him to organize the labor activities in Anyuan Coal Mine. Being the most important labor work leader there, Li greatly increased the number of CPC members and perfected methods of organization. by the end of
1924, there were only 900 CPC members throughout China, 300 of whom came from Anyuan Coal Mine. It was at this time Li showed his great talent in labor work and organization, in conjunction with
Liu Shaoqi who later became his deputy.
In
1926 Li came to
Wuhan, the labor work center of China to lead the labor work. Although
Xiang Zhongfa who later became general secretary of the CPC, was the top leader at that time, Li was the man who made the decisions in actuality. In
1927 after the split of the alliance of
Kuomintang with the CPC, Li was the first one to propose the
Nanchang Uprising against the
KMT, and took the job as director of the security guards. Though this uprising was proved to be imprudent and planless, and its failure unavoidable, Li was thrust into the central stage of the CPC for his prominence in labor work and his courage under fire.
In the 6th National Congress of CPC held in
Moscow, Li's old friend
Xiang Zhongfa was elected as General Secretary with the support from
Comintern and
Soviet Union. During the reign of Xiang, Li Lisan played a gradually more important role. Xiang sacked Cai Hesen, the incumbent standing member of
Politburo of the CPC and
Minister of Propaganda Department of the CPC for Cai's extremist way in directing the
Sunzi Division of CPC, which resulted in extreme democracy and discontent at the CPC center. Xiang chose Li to replace Cai. Li became one of only 4 standing members of
politburo and
minister of
Propaganda Department of CPC in October of
1928.
When the Far East Bureau of
Comintern issued order for anti-rightism and blamed the CPC for not being active enough in
1929, Xiang protested this decision. He knew Li was an appropriate candidate for doing the communication work because of his eloquence and energy. Thus Li took the job of handling conflicts with Comintern. When Xiang sent
Zhou Enlai to
Moscow for further instruction, Li took on Zhou's work in organization too, which gave Li a large enough stage to prove his talent.
When Xiang learned of the Comintern's decision on anti-rightism, he claimed that the Chinese revolution was in its peak period. Li turned this blindness into extremism, which was later known as Lisan Route, calling for armed uprising in the cities and the extension of the revolution to the whole country.
From June
1930 Lisan Route became mature under the support from Xiang. The CPC gave over the daily operation from its headquarter to divisions in all provinces, setting up action committees in all provinces, preparing for the full-scale uprising in October. But Comintern expressed its discontent, stating that it was working out systemic policies for the Chinese revolution and the CPC should concentrate on the uprising in one or several provinces instead. Xiang supported Li and stood by his idea that it was the zero hour of the Chinese revolution. In several rounds of discussion, the tension between Xiang, Li and Conintern rose greatly. Suspicion and criticism of the CPC towards Comintern was the same as betrayal in the eyes of Comintern.
In July
1930, the
communist army under the leadership of Li Lisan captured Changsha in
Hunan province, but KMT troops defeated his forces just a few days later. The uprisings in other cities were put down by KMT forces quickly also. Furthermore, Li had turned many CPC members into his enemies by his authoritarian style. Some of these were old CPC members such as labor activists He Mengxiong and Luo Zhanglong who were blamed for their rightism only because they were against Li's extremism.
Wang Ming and his group of
28 Bolsheviks came back from Moscow, designated to take the leadership of CPC by their mentors in Moscow but they only received a cold shoulder from Li.
Doom
With so many opponents both inside and outside the CPC, Li's doom was sealed. Comintern sent
Qu Qiubai and
Zhou Enlai back to China to enforce its policy. And the 28 Bolsheviks took advantage of this opportunity to denounce Li. Xiang and Li still didn't realize the clear danger he was in and criticized these young immature students severely. Then Comintern sent a telegram to call Li to Moscow for repentance. Pavel Mif, president of
Moscow Sun Yat-sen University and mentor of the 28 Bolsheviks, went to
Shanghai as an envoy of Comintern too. Under Mif's direction, the 4th Plenary Meeting of 6th National Congress of the CPC was held. Li was replaced by Mif's protégé
Wang Ming, and his associates in the 28 Bolsheviks took other important jobs.
Punishment
Li went to Moscow for his confession and repentence. But he did not know it would be such a long time of redemption. In the next 15 years Li suffered from rounds of reprimand,
criticism and
purge. The Communist Party of Soviet Union even refuse to accept Li as a CP member for several years. Moreover, when Wang Ming and
Kang Sheng came back to Moscow as representatives of the CPC to Comintern, they persecuted Li by every means available. The only comfort was that in Soviet Union Li met his Russian wife who lived with him for the rest of his life.
But Li's old friend Mao did't forget about him. Li was elected as member of Central Committee of CPC in the 7th National Congress of the CPC held in
Yanan. In
1946 Li was sent back to China like a bird flying out of cage. Li first came to
Manchuria to work for the local division of the CPC as Minister of City Work Department. At the brink of the outbreak of
Chinese Civil War, Li was appointed as chief representative of the CPC part of military arbitration panel consisting of members from
KMT and
USA too.
People's Republic of China
After the establishment of
People's Republic of China in
1949, Li went back to the field which he was most expert in. Li was appointed as Minister of Labor to lead labor union. Li was dedicated to his old cause and brought forth some guidances on democractic management measures in the industry which was later called by Mao as the Constitution of Anshan Steel Mill.
Consequences of China-Soviet split
But with the Chinese-Soviet Union split in 1960's, Li 's life turned tougher and tougher again. Although his Russian wife, Lisa Kishkin, handed in her Russian passport and joined the Chinese nationality to show her loyalty to her husband and his country, there was still no way to ease the situation. Especially when the
Cultural Revolution came, Kang Sheng spared no effort to denounce his old rival. Li was labelled as Agent of Soviet Union and was tortured by
Red Guards from time to time both mentally and bodily.
Unable to face this humiliation any more, Li committed suicide by eating sleeping potions after he finished his posthumous writing to Mao. Li's biographer, Patrick Lescot, has cast doubt on the nature of Li's death.
