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Rating: 
Summary: A Must read
Review: Renewed interest in Pre-communist china ahs brought this wonderful book to us along with other reads on Chang-Kai Shek among others. This is a needed contribution to the scholarship. Li Lisan was co-founder of the Communist party and went on to study in France and then settle in Russia. Although this book focuses on his love affair with Elizabeth Kushkin, it also tells a weaving fascinating story of the links between international communism and cracks within it. Excellent portraits are given of the mercurial Stalin, who jailed Lisan along with many international communists who didn't toe the party line. In the end Lisan returned to China, saw the civil war to communist victory and then was finally killed in 1967 in the cultural revolution, just prior to the large scale military skirmishes on the China-Russia border that showed the final split between Moscow and Beijing. A wonderful book. A must read for any Chinese or communist enthusiast. This book brings back to life the heady days of warlords, Sun Yet Sun and the birth of communism in China during the chaos of the early 20th century. Seth J. Frantzman
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