Li Da

Communist Party of China Marxism–Leninism 1890–1966 ✕ Died after persecution

Shanghai delegate who convened the First Congress, the party’s first propaganda chief and a Marxist philosopher

From a tenant farmer’s family in Hunan, he studied mining at Tokyo Imperial University, turned to Marxism under Kawakami Hajime after the Russian Revolution and became one of the earliest translators of Kautsky and others into Chinese. Returning to Shanghai in 1920, he formed the communist group with Chen Duxiu and others and edited the monthly The Communist. In June 1921, at the urging of Maring and Nikolsky, he called the groups to the First National Congress, attended as a Shanghai delegate and became head of propaganda. He chaired the Second Congress in 1922 but, opposing the alliance with the Kuomintang, clashed with Chen Duxiu and left the party in late 1923. He went on teaching Marxism at universities. He rejoined the party in 1949, but was denounced and beaten at the start of the Cultural Revolution and died in 1966.

Also known as: Li Ta