Li Dazhao

Li Dazhao (simplified Chinese: 李大钊; traditional Chinese: 李大釗; pinyin: Lǐ Dàzhāo; Wade–Giles: Li Ta-chao; 29 October 1889 – 28 April 1927) was a Chinese intellectual, revolutionary, and political activist who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Chen Duxiu in 1921. He was one of the first Chinese intellectuals to publicly support Bolshevism and the October Revolution, and his writings and mentorship inspired a generation of young radicals, including Mao Zedong.

Born to a peasant family in Hebei province, Li was educated in modern schools in China and later at Waseda University in Japan. He rose to prominence during the New Culture Movement as the chief librarian and a professor of history at Peking University. In this role, he influenced many student activists and transformed his office into a hub for Marxist discussion. After the May Fourth Movement of 1919, he helped organize some of China's first communist study groups.

Li adapted Marxism to the Chinese context, emphasizing the revolutionary potential of the peasantry and developing a voluntaristic interpretation that stressed the role of conscious political action over strict economic determinism. He theorized that China, as a nation oppressed by imperialism, constituted a "proletarian nation" capable of bypassing a full capitalist stage of development. An ardent nationalist, Li was a key architect of the First United Front between the CCP and Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang (KMT), arguing that a cross-class national revolution was necessary to defeat imperialism and warlordism.

As the political situation in northern China deteriorated, Li's focus shifted decisively to armed peasant revolt. After the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin seized Beijing, Li took refuge in the Soviet embassy. In a raid on the embassy in April 1927, he was captured by Zhang's forces and executed by hanging. He is honored in CCP historiography as one of the party's founders and a principal revolutionary martyr.