People of the Revolution and the USSR

Kuomintang Nationalism 1866–1925 ○ Liver cancer

Founding father of the Republic of China who framed the Three Principles of the People and the first united front

Credited with leading the 1911 revolution that toppled the Qing and founded the Republic of China. In a deathbed testament he dictated himself, he reaffirmed friendship with the Soviet Union.

Born in Guangdong and educated in Hawaii and Hong Kong, he trained as a physician. He founded the Revive China Society in 1894 and the Tongmenghui in Tokyo in 1905 to overthrow the Qing and build a republic; after the 1911 revolution he became provisional president but soon yielded to Yuan Shikai. He formulated the Three Principles of the People (nationalism, democracy, people’s livelihood) and in 1923, after a joint statement with the Soviet envoy Joffe, accepted Soviet aid and Communist members joining the Kuomintang as individuals, opening the first united front. He died of liver cancer in Beijing in 1925; both Nationalists and Communists claimed his legacy.