He met Lenin and Sun Yat-sen, then staked everything on left-right unity: the last Korean unificationist before partition
“A revolutionary does not die in bed. I will die in the street.” He said this to his children after surviving multiple assassination attempts. On 19 July 1947, at the Hyehwa-dong rotary, a bullet from the White Shirts Society found him.
In 1918 he founded the New Korean Youth League and sparked the March First Movement through the February 8 Declaration of Independence. He co-founded the Korean Provisional Government, met Lenin and Trotsky in Moscow (1922), and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party at Sun Yat-sen's invitation. In August 1945 he secured peaceful transfer of authority from Japan's governor-general, formed the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence, and became vice-chair of the People's Republic of Korea. In 1946–47 he led the left-right cooperation movement with Kim Kyu-sik, the last serious attempt at a unified Korea, before being assassinated by a right-wing terrorist. He is officially honored by both South and North Korea.
Career timeline
- 1918Founded New Korean Youth League in Shanghai; became its leader
- 1919Led the February 8 Declaration of Independence; Deputy Foreign Minister of the Korean Provisional Government
- 1920–1922Joined Koryŏ Communist Party (Shanghai faction); met Lenin and Trotsky at the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Moscow
- 1925–1929Joined Chinese Nationalist Party at Sun Yat-sen's invitation; participated in First United Front
- 1933–1936President of Chosun JoongAng Ilbo; Chairman of Joseon Sports Council
- 1944Founded the secret Korean Restoration Brotherhood; built nationwide network
- 1945.08–09Chairman, Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence; Vice-Chair, People's Republic of Korea
- 1946–1947Led left-right cooperation movement with Kim Kyu-sik; Chairman, Labor People's Party
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.
Career timeline
- 1917Co-founded the Socialist Party of Mexico, soon transformed into the Mexican Communist Party
- 1919Founded the Mexican Communist Party, the first communist party outside Russia
- 1920Presented supplementary theses on the colonial question at the 2nd Comintern Congress, debated Lenin
- 1920Founded the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) in exile
- 1922–1929Member of the Comintern Executive Committee and Presidium; secretary of the Chinese Commission
- 1929Expelled from the Comintern for siding with Bukharin's Right Opposition
- 1931–1936Arrested by British colonial authorities, imprisoned for 6 years on conspiracy charges
- 1940–1948Founded the Radical Democratic Party; supported the anti-fascist war effort
- 1947Published the New Humanism manifesto, articulating his Radical Humanist philosophy
Father of Central American communism, Sandino's colonel, martyr of La Matanza
As US planes bombed Sandino's camp, Martí pushed aside his typewriter and declared: "When history cannot be written by the pen, it must be written by the rifle." He then picked up a gun and fired at the planes.
Salvadoran Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and pioneer of Central American communism. In 1930 he co-founded the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCS) and in 1932 led a peasant-indigenous uprising amid the Depression; the Martínez military regime crushed it in the La Matanza massacre and had him executed by firing squad. His name was later adopted by the FMLN guerrilla coalition, making him an enduring symbol of Central American revolution.
Career timeline
- 1920Led student protest against Meléndez dictatorship; arrested and exiled to Guatemala
- 1925Co-founded Communist Party of Central America (Guatemala City)
- 1925–1928SRI representative for El Salvador; organizer, Regional Federation of Salvadoran Workers (FRTS)
- 1928–1929Sandino's secretary and EDSN colonel; guerrilla war against US Marines in Nicaragua
- 1930Co-founded Communist Party of El Salvador (PCS)
- 1931–1932Interim General Secretary of PCS; led peasant-indigenous uprising after Martínez coup
Heroic Corps founder who evolved from anarchist bombings to DPRK cabinet, lone figure spanning the Korean revolutionary spectrum
On first meeting Kim Ik-sang in Beijing, Kim Won-bong told him: 'Freedom is won by our strength and our blood… We must be the first to shed it.' Kim Ik-sang joined the Heroic Corps on the spot and weeks later walked into the Japanese Government-General building in Seoul and threw a bomb.
Anarchist militant who founded the Heroic Corps (Ŭiyŏltan) in 1919 and led a six-year campaign of bombings and assassinations against Japanese colonial authorities. After military training at the Whampoa Academy, he founded the Korean National Revolutionary Party (1935) to build a united front, commanded the Korean Volunteer Corps, and later joined the Provisional Government as Deputy Commander of the Korean Liberation Army and Minister of Military Affairs. Following liberation he pursued left-right cooperation, but after Yeo Un-hyeong's assassination he joined the 1948 North-South talks and remained in the DPRK as State Inspection Commissioner and Minister of Labor until his purge in 1958. His trajectory, from anarchist bombings to united-front politics to DPRK cabinet, makes him the only figure to span the entire Korean revolutionary spectrum.
Career timeline
- 1919Founded the Heroic Corps, became its leader (Ŭibaek)
- 1926Enrolled in Whampoa Military Academy, 4th class
- 1935Founded the Korean National Revolutionary Party
- 1938Organized the Korean Volunteer Corps, became commander
- 1944Minister of Military Affairs, Provisional Govt.; Deputy Commander, Korean Liberation Army
- 1948State Inspection Commissioner, DPRK
- 1952Minister of Labor, DPRK
- 1957Vice Chairman, SPA Standing Committee
From Comintern Negro Bureau chief to architect of Pan-African independence, the revolutionary journalist who broke with empire
"Pan-Africanism or Communism?" — rejecting Cold War binaries, his final book insisted African liberation must chart its own course
Trinidad-born Pan-Africanist theorist and journalist. Appointed head of the Profintern's Negro Bureau in Moscow in 1929, he led organising efforts among colonial workers. But he broke with the USSR in 1934 when Soviet diplomacy prioritised alliance with the colonial powers over liberation movements. From London he chaired the International African Service Bureau and organised the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress, setting the agenda for postwar decolonisation. As Kwame Nkrumah's closest advisor, he helped shape Ghana's independence and the vision of African unity.
Career timeline
- 1903Born in Arouca, Trinidad as Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse
- 1924–1927Studies at Fisk and Howard Universities; joins CPUSA (1927)
- 1929Reports to Comintern in Moscow; appointed head of Profintern's Negro Bureau; elected to Moscow City Soviet
- 1930Organises ITUCNW in Hamburg; edits monthly The Negro Worker
- 1933–1934Deported from Germany after Nazi takeover; breaks with Comintern over USSR's shift on colonial policy; expelled February 1934
- 1934–1945Settles in London; chairs IASB; organises 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress
- 1947–1957Advisor to Nkrumah; publishes The Gold Coast Revolution (1953); supports Ghana's independence
- 1957–1959Moves to Ghana as Nkrumah's advisor on African affairs; dies in London 1959; ashes interred at Christiansborg Castle
The investigative journalist who exposed apartheid, the communist revolutionary who endured 117 days of solitary confinement
“In prison you see only the moves of the enemy. Prison is the hardest place to fight a battle.” — 117 Days (1965)
White anti-apartheid activist and journalist who worked within the SACP and ANC. As editor-in-chief of the progressive Guardian, she exposed racial segregation and served on the Freedom Charter drafting committee. A Treason Trial defendant, she became the first white woman detained under the Ninety-Day Law; her solitary confinement produced the memoir 117 Days. In exile she became a scholar of African liberation movements and was assassinated in Maputo by an apartheid police parcel bomb.
Career timeline
- 1946BA Social Science, University of the Witwatersrand; co-founded Federation of Progressive Students
- 1946–1950sEditor-in-chief of The Guardian; after its banning, relaunched as Clarion, New Age, and others
- 1949Married Joe Slovo
- 1953Helped found the Congress of Democrats (COD), the Congress Alliance's white wing
- 1955Freedom Charter drafting committee member; banned from attending the Congress of the People at Kliptown
- 1955Editor of the radical political journal Fighting Talk
- 1956–1961Treason Trial defendant alongside 155 others; all acquitted
- 1963First white woman detained under the Ninety-Day Law; 117 days solitary confinement; later wrote 117 Days
- 1964Exiled to London; active in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement
- 1964–1970sEdited biographies of Mandela, Mbeki, and Odinga; researched African liberation movements
- 1970Published The Barrel of a Gun: Political Power in Africa and the Coup d'état
- 1972–1978Research Fellow at Manchester; lecturer in development studies at Durham
- 1978–1982Research director, Centre of African Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
- 1982.08.17Assassinated by a South African Police parcel bomb; presidents and ambassadors from 34 countries attended her funeral
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.
Career timeline
- 1957Joined ANC Youth League at age 15
- 1959–1961Studied English, Latin and classics at Fort Hare University
- 1961Joined the South African Communist Party
- 1962Joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)
- 1963Arrested; fled to Lesotho; adopted the name Chris
- 1967–1969Zimbabwean War of Liberation: joint MK-ZIPRA operations
- 1969Co-signed the 'Hani Memorandum' criticizing ANC/MK leadership
- 1974Elected to ANC National Executive Committee
- 1982MK Chief of Staff; directed guerrilla operations from Lusaka
- 1990Returned permanently to South Africa after ANC unbanning
- 1991.12Elected SACP General Secretary, succeeding Joe Slovo
- 1993.04.10Shot dead outside his Boksburg home by a far-right immigrant
