People of the Revolution and the USSR

Workers' Party of South Korea Communism 1885–1951 ✕ Drowned

From civil-rights lawyer of the March 1st Movement to first Chairman of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly: a progressive nationalist

When he submitted a motion of non-prosecution during the March 1st Movement trial, the Japanese courtroom erupted in protest — and the scene, reported nationwide, made Ho Hon the symbol of the anti-colonial lawyer.

One of colonial Korea's 'three great civil-rights lawyers,' he defended the 47 national representatives of the March 1st Movement and handled pro bono cases for workers and independence activists. Elected chairman of Singanhoe's Central Executive Committee in 1927, he led the united-front anti-Japanese struggle, and after liberation served as Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Korea and chairman of the South Korean Workers' Party before crossing north, becoming the bridge by which Korea's independence movement passed into socialism.

Comintern Communism 1887–1954 ○ Heart attack

The Indian Marxist who debated Lenin on colonial revolution

"You are so young! I expected a grey-bearded wise man from the East." — Lenin's first words to the 27-year-old Indian revolutionary upon meeting him at the Kremlin, 1920.

Bengali Marxist. He debated Lenin on the colonial question at the 1920 Comintern Congress and founded the Mexican Communist Party (the first outside Russia) as well as the CPI. Expelled from the Comintern, he served six years in British prisons before turning to Radical Humanism.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea state institutions Communism 1889–1958? ↓ Vanished after removal 1958

Independence activist, linguist, and Yan'an faction leader who served as the first head of state of the DPRK

On the day the People's Assembly adopted the new DPRK flag in July 1948, Kim Tu-bong personally lowered the Taegeukgi and raised its replacement. Barely a year earlier, he had been the man passionately explaining the old flag's philosophical meaning to a skeptical Soviet general.

A Hangul linguist trained under Chu Sigyŏng who led the Korean Independence League in Yan'an. Became the DPRK's first head of state in 1948, though real power lay with Kim Il Sung. Purged and vanished in the 1958 August Faction Incident.

Vietnam state institutions Communism 1890–1969 ○ Natural causes

He took on France, Japan and America in turn to win Vietnam's independence

“Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.” — wartime radio address, 1966

Vietnamese revolutionary. After three decades of exile, including helping found the French Communist Party and the Communist Party of Vietnam, he led the Viet Minh to declare Vietnam's independence in 1945. He led North Vietnam through wars against France and the United States, becoming the symbol of Vietnamese independence.

Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) Communism 1897–1949 ✕ Executed

Father of the Republic of Indonesia, the Marxist who fused communism with Islam

“If you think you can direct the Indonesian revolution from Moscow, you are no different from the colonialists.” — to Alimin, who came to Manila seeking approval for the 1926 uprising

Chairman of the Indonesian Communist Party and author of 'Towards the Republic of Indonesia.' He argued Marxism and Pan-Islamism must unite, broke with the Comintern, and after 1945 shook the fledgling republic with his demand for uncompromised independence.

Communist Party of Vietnam / Workers' Party of Vietnam Communism 1907–1986 ○ Natural causes

The longest-serving General Secretary who reunified Vietnam and invaded Cambodia in his 26-year rule

“Our party is the unique and single leader that organised… the entire struggle of the Vietnamese people from the first day of the revolution.” — reunification victory speech, 1976

A Vietnamese communist politician and theorist. A founding member of the Indochina Communist Party in 1930, he endured two French prison terms before earning Ho Chi Minh's trust and taking charge of the southern revolutionary apparatus. In 1956 he authored The Road to the South, providing the theoretical basis for the armed liberation struggle against the Saigon regime, and at the 3rd National Congress in 1960 he was elected First Secretary, becoming the party's supreme leader after Ho's death in 1969. He completed Vietnam's reunification in 1975, ordered the invasion of Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge in 1978, and held power through the Sino-Vietnamese War (1979) until his death in 1986.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea state institutions Communism 1912–1994 ○ Illness

The founder of North Korea returned from the Soviet Far East

On 14 October 1945, more than 100,000 gathered at Pyongyang's sports ground for a rally honouring the liberating Soviet army. A Soviet general introduced 'the national hero and famous partisan leader, comrade Kim Il Sung.' Onto the podium stepped a 33-year-old — the crowd stared in disbelief, having expected a legendary guerrilla in his fifties.

After guerrilla activity against Japanese rule, he served with the Soviet Far East’s 88th Separate Rifle Brigade in the 1940s and rose to the center of power in northern Korea under Soviet occupation authorities after 1945. Having founded the DPRK in 1948, he concentrated party, state, and military power over decades.

Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) Communism 1920–1969 ✕ Assassinated

From US-educated anthropologist to founder of Mozambique's liberation front

“Although I loved university life above all, I decided to devote the rest of my life to the war of liberation of my country, until it receives independence!”

A Mozambican anthropologist who earned his PhD in the United States, he gave up an academic career to fuse rival liberation groups into the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). As its first president he launched the 1964 armed struggle and set the movement toward a socialist line, leading it until his assassination in 1969, six years before independence.

Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) Communism 1922–1979 ○ Pancreatic cancer; hepatitis (liver cancer also)

Physician-poet who led Angola's liberation struggle and became its first president

"Our land, our mother / we shall return." Lines from the poem "Havemos de voltar" in the 1974 collection Sacred Hope (Sagrada Esperança).

Physician and poet who led Angola's independence struggle. He was president of the MPLA at its founding in December 1956 and, after imprisonment and exile, was elected its effective chairman at the December 1962 conference, leading the independence war until 1974. He became the first president of the People's Republic of Angola on 11 November 1975, building a one-party socialist state in close alignment with the USSR and Cuba while crushing a 1977 coup attempt and carrying out mass purges.

African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) Communism 1924–1973 ✕ Assassinated

From agronomist to master theorist of African liberation

“Tell no lies. Claim no easy victories.” — party watchword, 1965

Anti-colonial revolutionary of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and founder of the PAIGC. An agronomist who learned the colony by walking it village by village, he fused armed struggle with cultural liberation into an original strategy against Portuguese rule. Assassinated in 1973 on the eve of the independence he had made inevitable.

Angola state institutions Communism 1929–2016 ○ Died in Luanda in

Ideologue of Angolan liberation, MPLA founding member

In the 27 May 1977 Fractionism conflict, the Nitista faction's Thirteen Theses in my Defence accused Lara of being a 'social democrat' and leading the MPLA's alleged turn right. Responsibility for the ensuing mass purge is attributed to Lara and Iko Carreira under Neto's authority.

Full name Lúcio Rodrigo Leite Barreto de Lara, known by the war name Tchiweka; an Angolan revolutionary and physicist-mathematician, and a founding member and leader of the MPLA. He joined the Angolan Communist Party in 1955 and signed the MPLA's founding manifesto of December 1956, becoming its main ideologue and the figure credited with its Marxist-Leninist orientation. He was secretary of organisation and cadres from 1962 and secretary-general in 1964-65, promulgated the constitution and swore in Agostinho Neto as first president in November 1975, served as acting president of Angola from 10 to 20 September 1979 after Neto's death, and left public life in 2003 for health reasons. Historians and witnesses attribute responsibility for the mass purge that followed the 27 May 1977 Fractionism conflict to Lara and Iko Carreira under Neto's authority.

Mozambique state institutions Communism 1933–1986 ✕ Killed in crash

The Marxist revolutionary who overthrew Portuguese colonial rule and led Mozambique to independence

“The liberation of Africa is the liberation of the continent, or it is nothing.”

Mozambique's independence leader and first president. As FRELIMO chairman, he waged armed struggle to end Portuguese colonial rule and built a socialist state. A crucial ally of liberation movements against Rhodesia and South African apartheid.

South African Communist Party (SACP) Communism 1942–1993 ✕ Assassinated

The SACP leader who kept the revolutionary flame alive after laying down arms

“We are negotiating to create better conditions for socialism. I am a communist.” — Interview shortly before his assassination, 1993

General Secretary of the South African Communist Party and Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he led the left wing of the liberation movement from armed struggle through the turn to negotiations. His assassination by a far-right immigrant in 1993 nearly derailed South Africa's democratic transition, but instead galvanized the final agreement on the 1994 elections.