On May 22, 1976, a man who had been imprisoned for 25 years died of illness in prison, and his death marked the final conclusion of what he had done, this person involved a period of history, and in the Red Army period this person was very famous, originally had a great future, but at a critical moment betrayed the revolution, caused great losses to the revolution, and he was also a traitor.
He is a famous talent during the Red Army period, known as Xu Mengqiu, the "Red Historian"!
Xu Mengqiu, a native of ShouXian County, Anhui Province, was born in 1895 and joined Shanghai University in 1925, joining the Communist Party of China in the same year, in Shanghai University, Xu Mengqiu came into contact with many leaders of the Ccp at that time, such as Qu Qiubai, Cai Hesen, Zhang Tailei, Yun Daiying, etc. Under their teachings Xu Mengqiu made great progress, and he was also widely exposed to Marxist-Leninist books.
Why Xu Mengqiu is called a "red historian", of course, there are certain reasons, after Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup, Xu Mengqiu went into hiding, and later was protected by Wang Yaqiao to survive, and later he hid his name in anonymity for his livelihood, he assumed the pseudonym "Meng Ming", worked as a proofreader and editor at the Commercial Press, during which he wrote and published several popular books, such as "Zhu Yuanzhang's Commentary" published by Dafu Company, "History of Southern Ming Lamentations", "History of China's Resistance to the Wu" and "Qi Jiguang" published by Guangyi Bookstore.
Moreover, Xu Mengqiu was a famous pen holder in the Soviet Union at that time, and Xu Mengqiu also founded the literary and art supplement of the CENTRAL Central Committee organ newspaper "Red China" together with Ding Ling and others; on December 12, 1933, "Red China", he published a long feature he wrote in a prominent position, "The Warm Celebration of Victory", which was written by Xu Mengqiu. In Yan'an, he was also interviewed by foreign journalists, so he left a precious "Self-Statement", which recalled his participation in the revolution. This was a rarity at the time. At that time, he was called a red talent, a red historian, and his salary was higher than that of ordinary high-ranking cadres.
Xu Mengqiu's achievements were not only in the literary history, at that time he was also a senior cadre of the Red Army, in 1930, Xu Mengqiu returned from the Soviet Union and entered the Central Soviet Region, Xu Mengqiu served as secretary general of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet Republic, director of the Political Department of the Red Army, director of the Propaganda Department of the General Political Department of the Red Army, and member of the Pension Committee of the Central Military Commission, so Xu Mengqiu's position was very high at that time.
Not only that, in October 1933, Xu Mengqiu became the acting political commissar of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army University and the director of the political department. At that time, Xu Mengqiu was mainly responsible for political classes, and the political classes were mainly to study Materials on Leninism and Political Work, and the lecturers were mainly Xu Mengqiu, director of the Political Department.
At that time, this Red Army university had more than 100 students, divided into advanced classes and upper classes. Most of the students in the senior class are cadres at or above the regimental level, including Cai Huiwen, Gong Chu, Deng Hua, and so on; the students in the higher class are mainly cadres at or above the battalion level, such as Wei Guoqing and Zhang Aiping. Su Zhenhua, Liu Zhen, Li Zhimin, Liu Yalou and other senior Red Army generals also listened to Xu Mengqiu's lessons, that is to say, these people were once Xu Mengqiu's students, which shows the high status of Xu Mengqiu at that time.
Xu Mengqiu's position at that time was very special, and people had high hopes for him, but they could not imagine that Xu Mengqiu betrayed the revolution and became a traitor soon after, bringing huge losses to the revolution, which many people did not expect.
At that time, when Xu Mengqiu went to the Soviet Union to heal his wounds and passed through Dihua in Xinjiang, he heard that the Soviet Union was in a state of repression, and the situation was very complicated, so Xu Mengqiu dispelled the idea of going to the Soviet Union to heal his legs and stayed in Xinjiang. It was not until April 1941 that Xu Mengqiu finally decided to go to the Soviet Union to install a prosthesis. However, after arriving in the Soviet Union, because the leg injuries were too serious, they planned to go to Germany to prepare for the installation of prosthetics. Unexpectedly, when they reached the Soviet border, the Soviet-German War broke out. In the winter of 1941, Xu Mengqiu and his wife had to return to China through Kazakhstan and remained in Dihua.
During this period, he and some party members who were stranded here, such as Mao Zemin and Chen Tanqiu, actively carried out work, established an anti-Japanese national united front in Xinjiang, developed education, and made great contributions, which were also affirmed by Yan'an. But that soon changed.
On April 12, 1942, at the behest of Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman of Xinjiang Province Sheng Shicai arrested chen Tanqiu, Mao Zemin, Lin Jilu, and more than 140 other people and put them in prison. During this period, Sheng Shicai fabricated the so-called "Communist April 12 Conspiracy Riot Case" in which the CPC "under the planning and command of Chen Tanqiu and Mao Zemin, Li Yiou held several secret meetings to discuss and decide with Xu Mengqiu and others to overthrow the government and establish a new Xinjiang government, and to assassinate Sheng Shicai and other military and political leaders at a mass meeting on April 12, 32 of the Republic of China", and to exert high pressure and torture on the communists who were arrested and imprisoned.
The following year, Mao Zemin and others were killed, and at that time Yan'an thought that Xu Mengqiu was also killed. After Xu Mengqiu's defection, he was appointed head of the special research group with the rank of major general of the military command (first, it is said that he was the director of the political research office of the "military unification" of the Northwest Camp of the Kuomintang), and later the leader of the special research group of the technical research group of the Kuomintang Secrecy Bureau. But he did not really get away with it, and when the Kuomintang collapsed, he was abandoned.
As for him, there are different theories, one of which is that in June 1949, Xu Mengqiu went to Nanjing to turn himself in, but was rejected by Commander Liu Bocheng. Xuan was detained by the political and legal organs of the Nanjing Municipal People's Government in Laohuqiao Prison in accordance with the law, and was later sentenced to life imprisonment. In any case, Xu Mengqiu is being held in prison anyway, which is a fact. On May 22, 1976, Xu Mengqiu died of illness in prison, ending his life.
Xu Mengqiu was a staunch revolutionary in the first half of his life, once losing his legs in the Long March, but at the last moment he rebelled against the revolution, and finally had to die in prison.