Introduction: Li Dazhdao and Bolshevism + The Victory of Bolshevism

Li Dazhao (1888-1927) was a central figure in both before he was thirty. He was among the leading contributors to the journal and one of the most active and popular professors at Beida, where he also held the post of head librarian. Li was influential in introducing Mao to Marxism when the latter attended his acclaimed seminar on the subject in spring 1919 and later worked as assistant librarian for a few months. Together with Mao and Chen Duxiu, Li was among the founders of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, and one of the first to advocate the central role of the peasantry in Chinese politics. In this essay written towards the end of 1918, Li explores the political lessons of the October Revolution for China. Some years earlier he had developed an original theory of subjectivity he called “The spring Ego.” When it appeared in New Youth as “The Victory of Bolshevism,” it had a seminal impact on Chinese political thought of the Twentieth Century, starting with Mao. While Marx and Engels had already received mention in China, their writings remained unexplored.“The Victory of Bolshevism” Li Dazhao wrote a huge number of long and short articles about the Revolution in Russia. The first “俄国革命之远因近因 Eguo gemingzhi yuanyinjinyin”,[‘The Russian Revolution, remote and proxi mate causes’], written just after the February revolution and published in April 1917 in the journal “ 甲寅 Jiayin” [name of a 60-year cycle), was a detailed study of the multiple causes of the situation in Russia. Other articles on the issue appeared in many other journals, but the one presented here in unexpurgated version appeared in New Youth and was more influential. Founded in 1915 青年杂志 qingnian zazhi(‘Youth), the journal became 新青年Xinqingnian (‘New Youth’) the following year with the French subtitle La Jeunesse.The first mention of Marx appeared in the journal Wangguo gongbao (World Survey) in 1899; Engels’s name was cited three months later in a translation of the British social Darwinist Benjamin Kidd’s, "The Social Evolution". See Pantsov 2000. Liang Qichao also made passing reference to Marx in 1902 citing Kidd’s book, which he likely read in Japanese translation. By 1905 the exiled followers of Sun Yat-sen began drawing parallels between inwould herald the change. Li’s essay was the result of a close reading of Marxist revolutionary theories, a detailed exercise that within a year would lead to a systematic analysis based on notes and exchanges from the Beida seminar in his lengthy article “My View of Marxism".