In this year's hit TV series "The Age of Awakening", the brothers Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian left a deep impression on the audience, they loved the motherland and had lofty aspirations, but they had a different tendency in politics from their father Chen Duxiu, although Chen Duxiu was the main disseminator of Marxism in China, the most attractive to the two brothers was the anarchist trend imported from Europe.
But the two brothers eventually accepted Marxism and fought with their father from then on, why did they have this change?
The answer is that the three years of work-study in France have completely changed their worldview and made them staunch Marxists.
At that time, Wu Zhihui was a famous representative of anarchism in Chinese society, and he was also a good friend of Chen Duxiu, and it was under his influence that the Chen Yannian brothers gradually became fascinated with anarchism, and in 1919, they participated in the work-study activities organized by him.
At the end of December 1919, Chen Yannian, Chen Qiaonian and more than 100 other young people set off from the Huangpu River on a French cruise ship and arrived in Marseille, France in early February 1920 after a voyage of more than 40 days. On February 3, the brothers arrived in Paris, France.
The brothers then studied literature, history, geography, erudition, and the history of French civilization at the Arionian school near the University of Paris, while maintaining contact with the anarchists who remained in the country at the time.
Together with Li Zhuo and others, they also founded the China Book Newspaper in Paris, which sold books on anarchism and new culture, and edited and published the magazine "Gongyu" to promote anarchism among work-study students. The anarchist ideas advocated by the Chen Yannian brothers soon gained considerable influence among the work-study students studying in France.
At this time, their father, Chen Duxiu, was making various preparations for the establishment of the Communist Party of China, but they were quite dissatisfied, and in the autumn of 1920, when Chen Gongpei, a member of the Shanghai Communist Group, and others arrived in France, they showed Chen Yannian Chen Duxiu's handwritten introduction letter
But he smiled and said, "He's the one, you ignore him." ”
But then several things happened that made the worldview of the Chen Yannian brothers begin to change.
At the beginning of 1921, the "Huafa Education Association" led by Wu Zhihui and others suddenly announced that it had broken off its economic relations with the students studying in France and work-study students, and embezzled a large amount of student relief funds remitted from China, making the lives of international students very embarrassing. In February, French authorities forced students to withdraw from school on the grounds that they were in arrears in tuition fees.
So on February 28, more than 400 work-study students, under the leadership of Cai Hesen, Zhou Enlai, and Zhao Shiyan, came to the Chinese Embassy in Paris to petition and demonstrate in front of the Chinese Embassy in France, shouting the slogan "Struggle for the right to survive and study", but their reasonable demands were rejected, and they were beaten and dispersed by the long-awaited French police.
The Chen Yannian brothers did not directly participate in the petition, but this incident made them deeply feel that several revolutionary forces among the work-study students should have the need to eliminate estrangement and unite. Soon, Zhao Shiyan, Li Lisan and others initiated the establishment of the "Work-study Society", and the brothers both signed up for this society.
After the failure of the "228" study movement, the work-study students have been asking to return to the Sino-French University of Lyon, whose president is also Wu Zhihui, but on the eve of the opening of the school on September 24, he issued such a notice: Only students with diplomas and need to continue their studies can study in universities, and each student must bring enough living expenses when registering, and must pass the entrance examination...
This trick twice provoked the anger of the students, who held large-scale demonstrations but were suppressed by the French authorities, and Wu Zhihui also joined forces with the French authorities to forcibly deport 104 students, including Cai Hesen, Chen Yi, and Li Lisan.
The Chen Yannian brothers went through the whole process of this incident, and they thoroughly saw Wu Zhihui's ugly face and the deceptive and reactionary nature of anarchism, and resolutely decided to break with Wu Zhihui and others and join the ranks of the struggle.
At that time, Cai Hesen, Zhao Shiyan, Zhou Enlai and others were also working and studying in France, and they had always advocated Marxism, and the Chen Yannian brothers would often argue with them about some social issues. After gradually understanding the nature of anarchism, the brothers are also rethinking Marxism. During a debate between the two sides, Cai and Sen proposed that taking the road of the October Revolution was the only way to save China, and the brothers were inspired, and they began to read Marxist works such as "The Communist Manifesto" and "Socialism from Utopia to the Development of Science", and gradually gained a deeper understanding of Marxist doctrine.
Zhao Shiyan soon discovered the transformation of Chen Yannian's brothers, and he wrote to Chen Gongpei many times, asking him to actively fight for it, and under their struggle for unity, the brothers' faith finally underwent a fundamental change and accepted Marxism.
In June 1922, the brothers, together with Zhou Enlai, Zhao Shiyan and others, organized the establishment of the Communist Organization in Europe, the Young Communist Party of China, and Chen Yannian was also elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Young Communist Party and the director of propaganda, responsible for editing the monthly magazine "Teenager", the organ of the Young Communist Party.
In August 1922, the brothers joined the French Communist Party under the introduction of Ho Chi Minh, and soon after, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China recognized them as members of the Communist Party of China and formed the European Branch of the Communist Party of China, and Chen Yannian, Zhao Shiyan and Zhou Enlai were elected as the leading members of the branch.
Chen Duxiu, who was the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee at that time, was also very happy after learning about the situation of his two sons. At the beginning of 1923, Chen Duxiu led a delegation of the Communist Party of China to Moscow to attend the "Four Congresses" of the Comintern, and when he learned that many comrades in Europe were having difficulties in studying and living, he decided to send comrades in Europe to study at the Oriental University in Moscow in batches.
With the consent of the Soviet government, Chen Yannian, Chen Qiaonian and 12 other people left Paris on March 18, 1923, went to the Soviet Union via Belgium and Germany, and finally arrived at Moscow, the cradle of the revolution, after more than ten days of wandering.
Since then, the brothers Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian have ended their three-year study in France, begun to step onto the stage of Chinese history as professional revolutionaries, and sacrificed their precious lives for the liberation of the Chinese people.