Source: Overseas Network
Portrait of Yang Mingzhai
In 1921, some members of the Marx Theory Research Society took a group photo.
Yang Mingzhai was born in March 1882 in Pingdu, Shandong. He dropped out of school to work as a farmer at the age of 16, broke into the Kanto at the age of 19, and then went to Russia. As a result of his diligence, he became proficient in Russian.
In 1908, Yang Mingzhai went to the Siberian mining area, participated in Bolshevik activities as an overseas Chinese worker, and officially joined the Bolshevik Party before the "October Revolution". After the October Revolution, thousands of Chinese workers in Russia joined the Soviet Red Army. Yang Mingzhai actively mobilized Chinese workers to join the Soviet Red Army and entered the Moscow Eastern University to study, and after graduation was assigned to Vladivostok to participate in revolutionary work. Yang Mingzhai became one of the earliest Communists (The Russian Communist Party) in the Chinese, and Li Dazhao called him "a thousand miles into the wilderness, full of guts." ”
In 1919, the "May Fourth Movement" in China broke out, which attracted the attention of the Comintern. The Comintern decided to send a working group to China. In early 1920, Yang Mingzhai came to China as a member of the working group, together with the representative of the Comintern, Vyingsky (pseudonym Wu Tingkang), to serve as an interpreter, staff officer and guide. Yang Mingzhai first arranged for Vyjingsky and Li Dazhao to meet alone to discuss the establishment of the party. Then, they took Li Dazhao's letter to Shanghai to contact Chen Duxiu and others. From May to August, on the basis of the "Marxist Theory Research Association" in Beijing, Yang Mingzhai assisted Chen Duxiu and others in initiating the establishment of the "Marxist Research Association" in Shanghai, and soon established the "Communist Party Shanghai Initiation Group" with Chen Duxiu, Li Hanjun, Li Da and others.
After the CCP established an early organization in Shanghai, it believed that it was necessary to cultivate reserve forces and organize more young people to participate in revolutionary activities, and decided to set up a youth league organization. Yang Mingzhai and Yu Xiusong jointly studied and determined the purpose, nature and organizational structure of the Youth League, and clarified the tasks and roles of the Youth League. On August 22, 1920, the Shanghai Socialist Youth League was proclaimed at Yang Mingzhai's residence, becoming an early organization of the Chinese Communist Youth League.
In September 1920, Yang Mingzhai rented Shikumen, No. 6 Yuyangli in the French Concession, opened the Foreign Chinese Society, and became the first school established by the Communist Party of China to train revolutionary cadres. Most of the school's teachers were members of the early organizations of the Shanghai Communist Party, and Yang Mingzhai served as the president and personally taught Russian, with the largest number of class hours, becoming a Russian teacher for many early CCP members.
In order to propagate Marxism and introduce the experience of the "October Revolution" in Russia, Yang Mingzhai also organized the establishment of the Sino-Russian News Agency and served as its president. This was an open activity body established by the Working Group of the Communist International and the earliest working body to propagate Marxism. The news agency translated and reported extensively on Soviet Russia and the Comintern. According to statistics, from 1920 to July 1921, there were more than 140 articles published in Shanghai newspapers and periodicals alone.
In the spring of 1921, Yang Mingzhai and Zhang Tailei jointly drafted the report "Establishment of the Chinese Branch of the Far East Bureau of the Communist International". As a representative of the Communist Party of China organization, Yang Mingzhai went to Irkutsk, Russia, where the Far East Secretariat of the Communist International is located, to make many reports and discussions on major issues such as the founding of the Communist Party of China and the relations between the Communist International and the Communist Party of China, and finally determined that the Communist Party of China belongs to the Communist International and is a branch of the Communist International. From June to July, as the CPC was preparing for the "First Congress," Yang Mingzhai participated in the "Three Congresses" of the Comintern as a representative of the Cpc organization, becoming one of the first people to participate in the Comintern Conference as a MEMBER of the Communist Party.
In 1924, the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began. In order to meet the needs of the training of cadres of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, in October 1925, the Comintern decided to establish Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow to train cadres for the Chinese Revolution and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Yang Mingzhai was responsible for the selection and recruitment of trainees in the Soviet Union in Shanghai, and successively selected and sent two groups of cadres to study in the Soviet Union, including Liu Shaoqi, Ren Bishi, Xiao Jinguang, Luo Yinong, Ren Weimin, Zhang Wentian, Wang Jiaxiang, Wu Lanfu, Wu Xiuquan and others. Among them, the second group of personnel was personally accompanied to the Soviet Union by Yang Mingzhai. After arriving in Moscow, Yang Mingzhai was appointed vice president of Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow by the Comintern.
In the eyes of the early CCP members, who were in the majority of middle-aged and young people, Yang Mingzhai was deeply respected. When Recalling the history of the party, Zhou Enlai once honored Yang Mingzhai as a "loyal elder." (Wu Shu)
People's Daily Overseas Edition ( 2021-06-07 Edition 06)
"The Centennial Voyage Has 'Overseas Chinese' Wonderful" series of reports