Those path finders who have guided us through..some short portraits of International and National Communist Stalwarts. And links to sites relating to study on them. The archive is under developement and in no way complete. International Karl Marx, visit Internet Marx Archive Friedrich Angels, visit Angels Documents V I Lenin, visit Lenin Internet archive J Stalin, visit Internet Archive Mao Zedong Mao Documentation Project Ho Chi Minh Che Guevara Cyber Che Links National EMS Nambooridabad BT Ranadive MV Basavpunnaiah P Sundarayya AK Gopalan Muzaffar Ahmad Pramod Dasgupta Saroj Mukherjee Harekrishna Konar

NATIONAL
BT RANADIVE

One of the pioneers of the Communist Party and the trade union movement in India BTR’s revolutionary career, which spanned seven decades, was singular for his deep commitment to Marxism-Leninism and for his tireless struggle to develop the revolutionary working class movement.

After a brilliant academic record as a student, BTR joined the Communist Party in 1928. Having been steeled in the struggles of the working class in Bombay, BTR rose to be the General Secretary of the CPI at its Second Congress in 1948. He was one of the pioneers who worked from the Party centre when it was set up in Bombay in 1934-35. Elected to the Central Committee and Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) at the Seventh Congress, he remained in these leading position still his death, on April 6, 1990.

BTR played a crucial role in the fight against revisionism in the united party. He made a big contribution to foundation of the CPI(M) and its basic programmatic and ideological outlook.

BTR was the staunch defender of the Party’s ideological purity. He doggedly opposed both right revisionism and left sectarianism in the communist movement. He made a notable contribution in fighting the naxalites left-sectarian deviation in the sixties. In his last days, BTR took up the challenge of defending the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism against the aberrations and distortions of Marxist theory by the leadership of the CPSU.

In the trade union movement, BTR will occupy a special place. He was one of the prominent leaders of the AITUC from the late twenties. He was the initiator of the formation of the CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) and guided its growth as a militant trade union centre till his death. He constantly strove to take the Marxist ideology to the working class, build up class unity and develop the political consciousness of the workers.

BTR, as a true Marxist-Leninist, integrated theory and practice in his daily activities. He championed the causes of the worker-peasant alliance, women’s equality, and ending caste and social oppression. He was a gifted writer whose large number of books will continue to educate future generations of communists and progressives.

BTR was a unique leader who assisted the Party at every juncture and turn in the situation in formulating correct tactics and enunciating the Marxist class standpoint. He set a high personal example for the entire Party by his life of spartan simplicity and total unwavering dedication to the cause. He underwent nine years of imprisonment and spent four years underground. His wife Bimla Ranadive and his sister Ahilya Ranganekar are leaders of the CPI(M) by their own rights.