Thakin Soe (, ; 1906 – 6 May 1989) was a founding member of the

Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is an underground communist party in Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fo ...

and a leader of the

Anti-Fascist Organisation The Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) was a resistance movement against the Japanese occupation of Burma and independence of Burma during World War II. It was the forerunner of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League. History The AFO was formed ...

. He is regarded as one of Burma's most prominent communist leaders.

Early life

Soe was an ethnic

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

and was born in

Moulmein Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; ; , ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' southeast of Yangon and south of Thaton, at the mouth of Thanlwin (Salween) River. Mawlamyine was an ancien ...

(present-day Mawlamyine). He worked for the

Burmah Oil Company The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil company which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 1966, Castrol was acquired by Burmah, which was renamed Burmah-Castrol. BP Amoco purchased the company in 2000. History The c ...

Movement

Before independence

Soe joined the nationalist ''

Dobama Asiayone Dobama Asiayone ( , ; ), better known as Thakins ( , ; ), was a Burmese nationalist group formed around the 1930s and composed of young, disgruntled intellectuals. Drawing their name from the way in which the British were addressed during colon ...

'' ("Our Burma" Association) in 1930s. Soe together with Thakin Ba Tin and other nationalists founded the Communist Party of Burma in 1939. Communist leaders

Thakin Than Tun Thakin Than Tun (; 1911 – 24 September 1968) was a Burmese politician and leader of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) from 1945 until his assassination in 1968. He was the brother-in-law of Myanmar's independence leader Aung San and the ...

and Thakin Soe, and Socialist leaders

Ba Swe Ba Swe (, ; 17 October 1915 – 6 December 1987) was the second Prime Minister of Burma. He was a leading Burmese politician during the decade after the country gained its independence from Britain in 1948. He held the position of prime minist ...

and

Kyaw Nyein Kyaw Nyein (; ; 19 January 1913 – 29 June 1986), called honorifically U Kyaw Nyein (;), was a Burmese lawyer and anti-colonial revolutionary, a leader in Burma’s struggle for independence and prominent politician in the first decade after t ...

and the

Burma National Army The Burma Independence Army (BIA), was a pro-Japanese and revolutionary army that fought for the end of British rule in Burma by assisting the Japanese in their conquest of the country in 1942 during World War II. It was the first post-col ...

(BNA) led by General

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947), known honorifically as '' Bogyoke'' Aung San, was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he w ...

founded the

(AFO) in August 1944 at a secret meeting of the CPB, the PRP and the BNA in

Pegu Bago (formerly spelled Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon lang ...

. The AFO was later renamed the

Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) was a broad popular front that ruled Burma (now Myanmar) between 1947 and 1958. It included both political parties and trade unions as members. The league evolved out of the anti-Japanese res ...

(AFPFL). Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe, while in Insein prison in July 1941, had co-authored the ''Insein Manifesto'' which, against the prevailing opinion in the Dobama movement, identified world fascism as the main enemy in the coming war and called for temporary co-operation with the British in a broad allied coalition which should include the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Soe had already gone underground to organise resistance against the Japanese occupation, and

Than Tun Than Tun (, ; 6 April 1923 – 30 November 2005) was an influential Burmese historian as well as an outspoken critic of the military junta of Burma. For his lifelong contributions to the development of worldwide study of Burmese history and cu ...

was able to pass on Japanese intelligence to Soe, while other communist leaders

Thakin Thein Pe Thein Pe Myint ( ; also ''Thakin'' Thein Pe ( ); 10 July 1914 – 15 January 1978) was a Burmese politician, writer, and journalist. He wrote several politically and socially prominent books and founded the influential newspaper, ''The Botataung. ...

and

Tin Shwe Sayawun Tin Shwe (; died December 2000) was a prominent physician and author in Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in north ...

made contact with the exiled colonial government in

Simla Shimla, also known as Simla (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summe ...

, India.

Post-independence

Thakin Soe spent most of his life underground and for a time led the Red Flag Communist Party. He was captured by government forces in November 1970 near the

Arakan Yoma The Arakan Mountains, natively referred as Rakhine Yoma () and technically known as the Southern Indo-Burman Range, are a mountain range in western Myanmar, between the coast of Rakhine State and the Central Myanmar Basin, in which flows the Irra ...

but released in a 1980 amnesty by the socialist government. After nationwide demonstrations against Ne Win's government in 1988, Soe re-entered the politics in August 1988 and became the patron of the Unity and Peace Party in September 1988, which he hoped would contest in the 1990 elections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soe, Thakin Burmese communists Burmese revolutionaries Resistance members against Imperial Japan Communist Party of Burma politicians Communist Party (Burma) politicians 1989 deaths 1906 births Burmese people of World War II People from Mawlamyine Burmese Mon people