or Li Ta-chao
born Oct. 6, 1888, Hebei province, China
died April 28, 1927, Beijing
Cofounder with Chen Duxiu of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chief librarian and professor of history at Beijing University, Li became inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and began to study and lecture on Marxism. In 1921 the study groups Li had created formally became the CCP. Li helped the new party carry out the policy of the Communist International (see Comintern ) and cooperated with the Nationalist Party of Sun Yat-sen . His career was cut short when he was seized and hanged by the warlord Zhang Zuolin , but his ideas of a revolution of the impoverished peasantry were brought to fruition by Mao Zedong .