At the beginning of the founding of our party, talent was very scarce, and Chen Yannian, as the eldest son of Chen Duxiu, did not rely on his father's strength, relied on his own talent and investment in the revolutionary cause, became one of the earliest leaders of our party, and made a non-negligible contribution to the founding and development of our party. Chairman Mao once commented: "Like Chen Yannian, he is indeed a rare talent. ”
Pictured| Chen Yannian
It is in this way that the patriotic hero who thinks that he has a heart for the great righteousness of the nation is persecuted by the Kuomintang reactionaries because of the high density of the villain.
I still remember the day Chen Yannian was sacrificed, he was brought out of prison and taken to the execution ground, surrounded by several handmaidens. Before the execution, a servant came forward to force him to kneel, with the great national righteousness in mind, how could Chen Yannian, who was revolutionizing for the motherland and the people, do as he wished, straightened his spine and shouted loudly: "It is you sinners who should kneel." One day, you will be cast to the gallows of the people and put on a just trial. ”
In 1898, Chen Yannian was born as the eldest son, his childhood almost did not enjoy the love of his father, his father Chen Duxiu was not by his side since he was a child, and he was wandering for the revolution outside for many years, chen Yannian when he was a child was raised by his mother, and his impression of his father was known from other people.
Pictured| Chen Duxiu
When he was young, Chen Yannian was very intelligent, not only could quickly understand the knowledge taught by the teacher, but also often borrowed books from others, and it was this quality of studiousness that laid the foundation for him to broaden his horizons and devote himself to the revolution in the future.
The lack of his father's company since he was a child made Chen Yannian's personality very independent, and when he was a child, he had dark skin, an introverted and resolute personality, and did not look like a student at all to others. However, his mother's teaching and his father's excellent genes made him far ahead of his peers on the road to study, and an old gentleman once said bluntly after reading his article: "If there is still a examination, Chen Yannian must have taken the exam." ”
Unfortunately, years of labor and his father's perennial absence caused his mother to deteriorate and fall ill, and soon after she left him and her brother in a hurry. The death of his beloved mother in his youth made him more independent, Chen Duxiu considered that the child still needed to be taken care of, and after the death of his wife, he married his second wife, Chen Yannian's aunt Gao Junman, in this way, the brothers grew up with their aunt.
When Chen Yannian was 15 years old, because of the influence of his father, Yuan Shikai sent people to arrest them, but fortunately he learned the news in advance and fled to the countryside to escape the disaster. An excellent father did not bring Chen Yannian a sense of superiority, on the contrary, his childhood experience made Chen Yannian's feelings for his father more indifferent. At the same time, Chen Yannian also slowly showed the same stubborn personality as his father, and later became a handle against Chen Duxiu under the use of people with hearts.
In 1915, Chen Duxiu, who fled from Japan, founded the "Youth Magazine" in Shanghai, which we know as "New Youth", which was founded successfully, and soon became an influential magazine and a bellwether leading the "New Culture" movement.
As a progressive intellectual, Chen Yannian was of course also very concerned about relevant information, and after learning about his father's deeds in Shanghai, he wrote to his father to express his desire to go to Shanghai to see and learn. After getting their father's reply, the two brothers soon set off for Shanghai, Shanghai is worthy of being the largest city in Asia, full of opportunities, chen Yannian brothers since they arrived in Shanghai, not only broadened their horizons, but also met more like-minded comrades, which can not happen in their hometown.
When they first entered Shanghai, the two lived with their father, but Chen Duxiu soon asked the brothers to move out and find a way to make a living in Shanghai, perhaps this is the way Chen Duxiu educates his children, and it is precisely because of this that Chen Yannian will be so excellent and make great contributions to the beginning of the establishment of our party.
At their father's request, the brothers could only move to the Yadong Library, and although their father would sponsor a fee every month, there was little left to pay the tuition. During this time, the two worked outside the home to earn a living, and at night they went to school to learn French. During this time, the brothers and the two brothers can be said to be very hard, the father did not interfere too much in their life and study, sometimes there is no money, hungry they can only drink water to fill their hunger.
Although there was no father's education guidance, but with his own solid knowledge accumulation, and diligent study in Shanghai, Chen Yannian was still admitted to Shanghai Aurora University with extremely excellent results, during the school, Chen Yannian's revolutionary ideas began to drift away from his father Chen Duxiu, at this time he believed in Western "anarchism" and advocated "individual freedom".
In 1919, the May Fourth Movement broke out, and various ideologies and cultures blossomed, during which Chen Duxiu's arrest also made Chen Yannian realize that reform could not rely solely on freedom and slogans. Faced with the chaotic situation at that time, many progressive young people began to study abroad to learn advanced ideas and science and technology, so as to help the motherland become strong and prosperous.
It was also at this time that a great conflict broke out between his and his father's ideas, and he joined the anarchist organization "Evolution Society". Here, he met Wu Zhihui, who also had different political views from his father, but unfortunately he did not know that Wu Zhihui was different from his freedom, and that he was a person with ulterior motives, and under Wu Zhihui's ulterior motives, Chen Yannian was sponsored to study in France.
In December 1919, Chen Yannian embarked on the road of seeking knowledge in France, when France was the most open city of ideas in the world, where various schools of thought gathered, Chen Yannian naturally joined the "Workers' Union Society" that advocated anarchism. At that time, there were many Chinese students studying in France, because most of them were work-study, they were gathered in France for the sake of national righteousness and to save decadent China, so they naturally gathered together and formed many associations, the most active of which were Zhou Enlai, Zhao Shiyan and others, who constantly actively promoted Marxist theory in the Chinese study group.
The Marx they preached greatly shocked Chen Yannian, and in the discussion with Zhou Enlai and others, he, who has always advocated anarcho-liberalism, seemed to see a new way to save the country. And what made him really make a choice was in 1921, when the students who were working and studying in France launched three more influential struggle movements, in which the shortcomings of the freedom and anarchy advocated by the West were undoubtedly revealed, most of whom were people at the upper echelons of society, trying to monopolize the people's lifeline in order to exploit the common people, which was contrary to his concept of national salvation. Soon after, Chen Yannian completely broke away from this kind of thinking and began to study marxism, and as his understanding deepened, he gradually felt that in the face of today's motherland with internal and external troubles, Marxism is the real idea of saving the country.
It also formalized his ideological change, which made him and Wu Zhihui, who funded his study abroad, at that time, Wu Zhihui wanted Chen Yannian to lead the domestic "anarchism" to compete with Chen Duxiu after returning from his studies in France, but Chen Yannian's behavior made him extremely angry, and he also deeply hated Chen Yannian from then on.
In fact, soon after Chen Yannian came to France, he received the attention of major international students, after all, his father Chen Duxiu was famous and was a figure they admired, and naturally Chen Yannian in France received great attention.
When Chen Yannian's thinking changed, he was quickly noticed by Chen Shiyan, who decided to invite Chen Yannian to join the Chinese Communist Party. In April 1922, in a letter to Chen Gongpei, he wrote: "There is a part of Ana's tendencies that have changed quite a bit, and its author, Chen Yannian, tends to be extremely cute. In the same month, he wrote again to inform Chen Gongpei that Chen Yannian's thinking had changed dramatically, hoping that he would be able to invite Chen Yannian to join the communist road despite writing a letter.
In 1922, with the joint efforts of many parties, the Chen Yannian brothers joined the "Young Communist Party of China" in France, and because of their great influence among international students, they were elected as the propaganda minister. At this time, the two brothers, who have been wandering, have found a new direction in life and found the faith to give everything for it.
When the news of Chen Yannian's joining the Communist Party returned to China, Chen Duxiu, as a father, was very pleased, but there was one person who was very secretly hated, that is, Wu Zhihui, and despite his previous feelings, he broke with Chen Yannian.
In March 1923, Chen Yannian and others, as representatives of the Communist Party of China, went to the Eastern Labor University in the Soviet Union to study under the arrangement of the Party Central Committee, and they also became the first batch of young people to systematically study the theory of the communist revolution. When he first arrived in the Soviet Union, because of the different languages, Chen Yannian also studied very hard, but fortunately, he developed a strong character from an early age so that he did not shrink back in the face of difficulties, and finally achieved excellent results through continuous diligence and hard work.
The experience he has cultivated since childhood makes Chen Yannian a person who does not talk so much, but whenever he meets to discuss issues, at this time he seems to have changed into a person, very passionate, and when he encounters a collision of ideas with others, he often argues with his face. This puzzled his friends, who replied to their questions: "Lenin is like a lion when arguing about principles, and we should learn from Lenin and not be sloppy on the question of principle." This sentence makes everyone know more about him as a person, and they also have more admiration for him, who can do this?
In September 1924, Chen Yannian ended a year of study in the Soviet Union and returned to his homeland with enthusiasm and yearning for the future. The following month, Chen Yannian, who had no time to repair, was sent to Guangzhou as a commissioner, and in November of the same year, Zhou Enlai was appointed chairman of the Guangdong District Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy, and Chen Yannian was the secretary of the district committee to assist Premier Zhou.
In 1925, because of the strong ability shown in his work, the party organization decided to take on more tasks on his shoulders, and appointed him as the secretary of the Guangdong District Party Committee, leading the party organizations in Guangdong, Guangxi, southwest Fujian, hong Kong, and Nanyang.
During those glorious years, Chen Yannian did not fail to live up to the expectations of the party and the people, and together with comrades Zhou Enlai, Peng Pan, Liu Ersong and other comrades, he always actively promoted communist ideas everywhere with Guangdong as the core. At the same time, under the active leadership of Chen Yannian, our party began to attach importance to the educational work of party organization building, and it can be said that he was one of the earliest figures in our party's party to propose party building work.
As our party's influence grew nationwide, more and more party members joined, and by 1927 there were more than 9,000 party members in Guangdong. In one fell swoop, Guangdong has become the party organization with the largest number of party members, the strongest cohesion and the most perfect, and Chen Yannian is also known as the "King of Liangguang". He highly praised his work ability Chairman Mao and Comrade Zhou Enlai.
Although Chen Yannian at this time also joined the revolution like his father and became a pivotal leader, the thinking of the two of them was still very different, and Chen Duxiu's "right-leaning" was different, Chen Duxiu because of his early study and many years of work experience, making him pay more attention to armament and the workers' and peasants' movement.
In his article "What We Should Do", he made it clear that more revolutionary youth should join this wave and have the courage to struggle. This also made the relationship between father and son very tense, I still remember once at a family meeting, when the two people talked from home to reform ideas, there was a fierce quarrel, both of them were stubborn tempers, and finally the family gathering broke up unhappily.
Chen Yannian's idea of arming was also recognized by many people, and under the guidance of him and Zhou Enlai, a large number of party members from our party entered the Whampoa Military Academy to study and reserve talents for the future armed revolution.
In 1926, although it was during the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, there was already a hidden danger inside, and a huge crisis against our Party was about to strike. At that time, The idea of Chen Yannian and Zhou Enlai and others to "crack down on the rightists, isolate the central factions, and expand the leftists" was violently counterattacked by his father, Chen Duxiu, who was still in the beautiful fantasy of "kuomintang-communist cooperation," and the purpose of the right faction headed by Chiang Kai-shek to "divide the communists" was already well known.
Chen Yannian's proposition this time was not only opposed, but also made the Kuomintang reactionaries feel threatened and brought himself the disaster of killing himself.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12 Counter-Revolution" incident, and the Kuomintang reactionaries headed by him wantonly arrested and killed our Party personnel. In June of the same year, the Party Central Committee decided to appoint Chen Yannian as the secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, leading the organization in Jiangsu to resist, but at a work conference, Chen Yannian was arrested.
During the meeting, a traffic officer was arrested by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and Chen Yannian, who had received the news, immediately decided to interrupt the meeting and dismiss the people. However, Chen Yannian, who had not seen any movement for a long time, returned here again because he was worried about the provincial party organs, and soon after he returned, he was surrounded by reactionary military police, and when organizing the retreat of comrades, Chen Yannian was finally arrested because of the large number of the other side.
After Chen Yannian was arrested, he did not reveal his identity at first, insisting that he was only a cook, did not participate in the revolution, and assumed the pseudonym Chen Yousheng, because he had always focused on his work, rarely appeared in outsiders, and repeatedly denied that he was not a communist, so although he was arrested, the reactionaries did not recognize him and treat him like this.
Although the enemy did not know that he was Chen Yannian, the arrest of such an important figure of our Party caused a great shock at that time, and soon the organization began to carry out chen Yannian's rescue. They found Wu Kaisheng, known as the "Grand Lawyer of the Republic of China", to mediate.
Wu Kaisheng also had great admiration for the Chinese Communist Party, so he did not say that the task of rescuing Chen Yannian should be brought down. After taking over the task, he constantly communicated with the police, claiming that Chen Yousheng was just a cook, not a Communist Party, and finally through his crowd and connections, the Kuomintang decided to release Chen Yannian, but because Chen Yannian showed some fierceness in the process of arrest, he injured several military policemen, so they were ready to detain him for a period of time to give him some bitter food before releasing Chen Yannian.
Chen Yannian, who thought that he would be released from prison after spending these few days safely, could not imagine that someone had done something bad to expose his identity.
After Chen Yannian was arrested, Chen Duxiu's old friend Wang Mengzou learned the news from the "Declaration" and learned that his good friend had been arrested by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and Wang Mengzou decided to use his connections to rescue him.
Figure | Wu Zhihui overview diagram
He first found Hu Shi to help, and Hu Shi found his old acquaintance Wu Zhihui to help, and at this time Wu Zhihui became a red person around Chiang Kai-shek because of the "division of the communists". What Hu Shiwan did not expect was that Wu Zhihui and Chen Yannian were also old acquaintances, and they already had a grudge against Chen Yannian.
After Wu Zhihui learned of Chen Yannian's arrest, he was very excited and said, "Okay, okay. Old Chen was useless, And Little Chen was terrible. Now that Xiao Chen has been caught, it is too peaceful. So he immediately reported the news of Chen Yannian's arrest to Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek was also very happy when he learned that his confidant had been arrested, and when he was about to publish the news: "Communist elements like Chen Yannian are a hundred times more arrogant and vicious than their father. Staying in the world is a curse. Getting to the hospital is eventful. Since he has been injured, it is better to kill him to avoid the consequences. ”
When the enemy confirmed Chen Yannian's identity, he thought of learning more information about our party through Chen Yannian and attacking more Communists, so as to make meritorious contributions. However, how can they understand how strong the heart of a staunch revolutionary is, and in the face of the enemy's coercion and temptation, all kinds of torture, he has not yielded at all, and has not revealed a word.
In the face of the enemy's severe torture, Chen Yannian replied: "Don't try to get a single bit of news from me, since I joined the Communist Party and participated in the revolution, I have dedicated my life to the party and the people, and you don't want to get even a little news from me." ”
Seeing that Chen Yannian's attitude was so resolute, the enemy could only continue to impose his punishment on him, in a vain attempt to make him open his mouth, but he was always unyielding and did not tell the secret of the organization, and chen Yannian did not have the attitude of giving in half a bit, and the enemy who had no way to do anything cruelly killed him. On July 4, 1927, Chen Yannian was brutally killed by an executioner with a knife and fell to the 29-year-old at the age of 29.
Although Chen Yannian left us early and stayed at the age of 29 at the last moment of his life, everything he did for the Communist Party and the spirit of dedication to the revolution will always stay in our hearts, and the country and the people will always remember him. Although his life was short, he left countless spiritual treasures for our descendants and constantly guided us forward.