Zhang Tailei, the outstanding leader of the youth movement

"When the youth are prosperous, the country is prosperous, and when the youth are strong, the country is strong." If the younger generation has ideals, skills, and responsibilities, the country will have a future and the nation will have hope." Looking back at the cpc's century-long course of struggle, there have been outstanding contributions of young people at every stage, and being good at educating, mobilizing, and organizing young people is the fine work style and glorious tradition of the proletarian revolutionaries of the older generation. Zhang Tailei is a model in this regard.

Zhang Tailei (1898-1927), a native of Wujin County (now Changzhou City), Jiangsu Province. He was one of the important leaders of the early days of the Communist Party of China, one of the founders of the Communist Youth League of China, the outstanding leader of the youth movement, and one of the 100 heroic and exemplary figures who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China. In 1927 he was killed in command of the Guangzhou Uprising.

Zhang Tailei received a traditional private school education in his childhood, and later entered the primary school in the western suburbs of Changzhou. In 1911, he was admitted to Changzhou Fu Middle School (now Changzhou Senior High School in Jiangsu Province), and during his school years, he achieved excellent results in various subjects, especially in English, and often discussed current politics and state affairs with his classmate Qu Qiubai. In 1915, he was admitted to the preparatory class of law department of Beiyang University and graduated in 1920. During his studies at Beiyang University, Zhang Tailei served as an English translator for Bolivi, a secret member of the Russian Communist Party (Brazzaville), came into contact with many progressive documents and theories of the Soviet Union, and used his leisure time to secretly translate some articles introducing Marxism and the general situation of the Russian Revolution, and began to accept Marxism and move toward communism. After graduating from university, Zhang Tailei began systematic and in-depth revolutionary thinking and practice, of which mobilizing young students to join the revolution was one of the important contents of his revolutionary thinking.

Propose a youth mission to determine the guiding ideology of the youth movement

Zhang Tailei deeply analyzed the young students and the youth movement, and scientifically positioned the role of young students in the revolution. He believes that young students are often more revolutionary and "gradually tend to the road of revolution." Zhang Tailei was very positive about the contribution of Chinese youth to the revolution. He believes that the success of the Xinhai Revolution depends on the alliance of young people, the initiators and moderators of the May Fourth Movement are the youth, all kinds of patriotic movements after May Fourth are the work of the youth, and the Youth Movement in China "from the early days of the revolution to the present, is a thing that is in the same vein and continues unceasingly." Therefore, Zhang Tailei concluded that young students can play an important role in the proletarian revolutionary movement, which shoulders the great mission of fulfilling the Chinese revolution.

Zhang Tailei identified Marxism as the guiding ideology of the youth movement. He came into contact with Marxism in his early days and was deeply influenced by Li Dazhao. In 1920, Li Dazhao secretly established the "Marxist Theory Research Society" at Peking University, which attracted Zhang Tailei, Deng Zhongxia and other students to join and explain to them the basic principles of Marxism. Through his translation work and contacts with the Members of the Communist Party of Russia, Zhang Tailei also broadened his ideological horizons, deepened his understanding of Marxism, and strengthened his belief in Marxism. He believed that the youth movement must take Marxism as its guiding ideology, and although some young students have embarked on the revolutionary road, they still have many old ideas in their minds, and they must be correctly guided by new scientific ideas to avoid blind obedience or even going astray. It is proposed to spread Marxism widely among the youth, "to prove our doctrine by all kinds of facts that they can see, so that they can understand our doctrine", and only by constantly instilling socialism and communism in them can the broad masses of young students abandon bourgeois ideas, unite them under the banner of the revolution, and give play to their role in the Chinese revolution.

Approaching the struggle for youth to plan revolutionary tasks

In order to win over young students, Zhang Tailei advocated breaking the "two boundaries" between students: First, "students should not be divided into 'revolutionaries' and 'reactionaries'"; he advocated that the Chinese Communists should approach them with a "sincere attitude so that they can have the opportunity to accept revolutionary propaganda" and guide them to the revolutionary road; second, "there should be no distinction between church students and non-church students", and that religious students should not be treated passively, but should be approached to help them, "relieving their suffering and exposing the evils of the church and imperialism.". In terms of ideological guidance for young students, Zhang Tailei held that the first step in the work of the Chinese Communists is to "sweep away the students' old social concepts," sweep away their confrontational attitude toward "Western material civilization," and help them "establish a scientific outlook on life in the world" and a holistic outlook on world culture; the second step is to "sweep away the root nature of their inherent individualism" and, through systematic propaganda on the scientific and religious outlook, prevent students from straying into the trap of individualism, anarchism, and liberalism. The Chinese Communists must actively use all forms, such as student groups, publications, seminars, and lectures, to break down the old ideas of students and their superstitions about Western religions, expand the influence of Marxism among young students, and win the greatest majority of young students into the revolution.

Zhang Tailei made a master plan for the revolutionary tasks of young students. He proposed that "the duty of young Chinese students lies in the purpose of assembling under the Third International and the Young Communist International, which guide the world revolution, to awaken and organize the working people of China to help the revolution of the world and to achieve the goal of The complete liberation of China." The revolutionary task of the young students is to launch a revolution in the broad working and peasant strata from the ideological and organizational levels. Specifically, the practical work of the young students is to "go among the proletariat and the peasants to awaken them to struggle and organize", to raise the revolutionary consciousness of the workers and peasants and other low-level masses through the movement of "going to the people", and to expand the mass base of the national movement. Zhang Tailei's understanding and planning of young students is not only conducive to cultivating a large number of Marxist young theoretical backbones, but also plays an important role in expanding the influence of Marxism at the bottom of society, especially among the workers and peasant classes, and is of great historical significance for expanding the revolutionary contingent and mobilizing the broadest masses of the people to participate in the revolution.

Organize and mobilize young people to guide revolutionary practice

Zhang Tailei gave his profound thinking on young students and integrated this thinking into his practical activities to guide the revolution. As early as during his studies at Beiyang University, he actively participated in the youth student movement, such as the May Fourth Movement, the "Tianjin Students Federation" national salvation propaganda activities, patriotic speeches, etc., and had certain experience in organizing and mobilizing young students. In November 1920, Zhang Tailei renamed the Tianjin "Marxist Research Society" to the "Tianjin Socialist Youth League". The Youth League mainly absorbs progressive intellectuals from various schools in Tianjin, and Zhang Tailei serves as the secretary of the Youth League group. The Youth League Constitution clearly stipulates that the purpose of the League is to "study and realize socialism", and its methods are to "help the workers to organize and educate them", "to carry out basic propaganda and agitation", "to assist in the organization of strikes", etc. Under the guidance of the regimental chapter, Zhang Tailei led the league members to actively carry out propaganda work against the workers in Tianjin, Tangshan and other places, and they printed the monthly magazine of the Communist Party, the Communist Manifesto and Li Dazhao's articles into pamphlets and sent them to the workers and students, expanding the scope of marxism in Tianjin and surrounding areas, and enhancing the influence of Marxism among workers and students. In December 1920, in order to better and more widely propagate Marxism among workers, Zhang Tailei, together with Deng Zhongxia and others, opened a labor school in Changxindian, Beijing, to teach workers, and went deep among the workers to carry out investigations, cultivating a number of backbones for the workers' movement. The Youth League also founded a small red newspaper, Laobao (later renamed Laibao), which mainly promoted Marxism and introduced the general situation of the workers' movement in Tianjin and all over the country. Although the newspaper was eventually shut down by the Beiyang warlords due to its strong political overtones, it caused a lot of repercussions among the workers and students in the Beijing-Tianjin area at that time. In 1922, in order to further coordinate the strength of the National Youth League, Zhang Tailei, Deng Zhongxia, Yu Xiusong and others jointly created the nationwide "Chinese Socialist Youth League", which made important contributions to winning more young students to join the struggle against imperialism and feudal warlords, and also cultivated many young theoretical backbones for the Communist Party of China.

Source: The Masses, No. 18, 2021

Author:Li Chong(Author Affilications:Jiangsu Normal University)

Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Lilei