People of the Revolution and the USSR

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Any Left critics of Bolshevism 1
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Any China 69 United States 2 Singapore 1
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Any United States 128 Russia 7 Germany 3 Armenia 2 China 2 India 2 Poland 2 Ukraine 2 United Kingdom 2 Cuba 1 Czechoslovakia 1 Finland 1 Japan 1 Romania 1
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The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 1 Scholars of this history1892–현재 1
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Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs
Left critics of Bolshevism United States China 1915–2015 ○ Natural causes

From first translator of Marx's 1844 Manuscripts to philosopher of Detroit's revolution

“We are the leaders we've been looking for.” — interviewed in her 90s in Detroit

Daughter of Chinese immigrants, she earned a PhD at Bryn Mawr but was barred from academia by racism and joined the Workers Party. With C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya she formed the Johnson–Forest Tendency triad, co-authoring State Capitalism and World Revolution and producing the first English translation of Marx's 1844 Manuscripts. In 1953 she married Black autoworker James Boggs, settled in Detroit, broke from Trotskyism, and turned toward community-based revolutionary praxis centered on Black liberation, writing into her 90s.

Career timeline
  • 1915Born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Chinese immigrant restaurateur Chin Lee; Chinese given name Yu Ping (玉平)
  • 1935Graduates from Barnard College, Columbia University
  • 1940Earns PhD in philosophy from Bryn Mawr College with dissertation on George Herbert Mead
  • 1940–1945Works as low-wage librarian at University of Chicago Philosophy Library; joins Workers Party through tenants' rights activism
  • 1945–1947Forms Johnson–Forest Tendency with C.L.R. James and Dunayevskaya; produces first English translation of Marx's 1844 Manuscripts
  • 1947Joins SWP with the tendency; writes under party pseudonym 'Ria Stone'
  • 1950Co-authors State Capitalism and World Revolution with James and Dunayevskaya
  • 1951Leaves SWP; helps form Correspondence Publishing Committee
  • 1953Marries Black autoworker and political activist James Boggs; moves to Detroit
  • 1962Breaks with C.L.R. James; leads Correspondence with James Boggs on independent Detroit-community orientation
  • 1964Attempts to persuade Malcolm X to run for US Senate, unsuccessfully
  • 1970Co-founds Detroit Asian Political Alliance
  • 1974Publishes Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century with James Boggs
  • 1979Co-founds National Organization for an American Revolution (NOAR)
  • 1992Founds Detroit Summer, a multicultural intergenerational youth program
  • 1998Publishes autobiography Living for Change
  • 2011At 95, publishes The Next American Revolution with Scott Kurashige
  • 2015Dies in Detroit at 100; President Obama issues statement mourning her passing

Nancy Qian

Nancy Qian
United States Chinese 1975–

An economist who traces state policy through historical data

“To us, that was amazing … In the beginning, we could not believe it, but that is what the data show.”

Nancy Qian is an economist whose work spans development economics, political economy, and economic history, using large datasets and rigorous empirical methods to study how institutions and policy shape people’s lives. Her research on China and autocratic states connects questions of gender inequality, education, and the political economy of famine. With Andrei Markevich and Natalya Naumenko, she coauthored a 2021 study that compared regional mortality and grain procurement, presenting quantitative evidence on ethnic bias and centrally planned procurement during the Ukrainian famine. The study contributes data to debates that treat the Holodomor not only as a problem of production, but also as an outcome of state allocation and coercive procurement.

Career timeline
  • 2001B.A., University of Texas at Austin
  • 2005Ph.D. in Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 2005–2009Assistant Professor of Economics, Brown University
  • 2007–2009Harvard Academy Fellow, Harvard University
  • 2009–2016Professor and Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University
  • 2017–presentJames J. O’Connor Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
  • 2021Coauthor of “The Causes of Ukrainian Famine Mortality, 1932–33”