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{{Short description|Burmese communist leader (1911–1968)}}
{{Burmese name|Thakin}}▼
{{Other people|Than Tun}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox
| honorific_prefix = [[Burmese honorifics|Thakin]]
| name = Than Tun
| native_name = {{lang|my|သန်းထွန်း}}
| image = ▼
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| order = Minister of Land and Agriculture
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| birth_date = 1911
| birth_place = [[Kanyutkwin]], [[Taungoo District]], [[British Burma]] | residence =
| death_date = {{death
| death_place = [[Burma]]
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| nationality = [[Demographics of Burma|Burmese]]
| party = [[Communist Party of Burma]]
| religion =
| known_for =
| occupation =
| relations = Pho Maung (father)<
| spouse = Khin Gyi
| children =
| relatives =
| alma_mater = [[Practising School Yangon Institute of Education|Teachers' Training School]]
| awards =
}}
[[Burmese name#Honorifics|Thakin]] '''Than Tun''' ({{
▲{{Burmese name|Thakin}}
==Early life==
▲[[Burmese name#Honorifics|Thakin]] '''Than Tun''' ({{lang-my|သခင် သန်းထွန်း}}) (1911–September 24, 1968) born in Kanyutkwin, [[Myanmar|British Burma]], was a [[Burma|Burmese]] politician and leader of the [[Communist Party of Burma]] (CPB) from 1945 until his murder at age 57.<ref name="ms">{{cite book|author=Martin Smith|year=1991|title=Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity |publisher=Zed Books|location=London and New Jersey|pages=55,61,56,58,68–69,106,208,234}}</ref>
Than Tun was born in 1911 in Kanyutkwin, [[Myanmar|British Burma]]. He married Khin Khin Gyi, the elder sister of [[Aung San Suu Kyi]]'s mother [[Khin Kyi]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Junta Watch: Coup Leader's Wife Draws Public Ire; Suu Kyi's New Charge and More |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/junta-watch-coup-leaders-wife-draws-public-ire-suu-kyis-new-charge-and-more.html/ |work=The Irrawaddy |date=4 December 2021}}</ref>
==Struggle for
Than Tun worked as a school teacher after qualifying from the Teachers' Training School, [[Yangon|Rangoon]], and was influenced by Marxist writings. He joined in 1936 the nationalist ''[[Dobama Asiayone]]'' (
While in Insein prison in July 1941, he co-authored with Thakin Soe the "Insein Manifesto" which identified world [[fascism]] as the major enemy in the coming war and called for temporary cooperation with the British and the establishment of a broad coalition alliance that should include the [[Soviet Union]]. The struggle for national liberation against [[imperialism]] would be resumed after the defeat of fascism. This was against the prevailing opinion of the Dobama movement including Thakin [[Aung San]] who had secretly left Burma with a group of young men subsequently known as the [[Thirty Comrades]] in order to receive military training from the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] and founded the [[Burma Independence Army]] (BIA).<ref name="ms"/><ref name="oh">{{cite book|url=http://www.smlc.leeds.ac.uk/eas/eas_content/resources/documents/67LEAP.pdf#search=%22%22Thakin%20Than%20Tun%22%22|title=The Burmese Communist Party and the State-to-State Relations between China and Burma|author=Oliver Hensengerth|year=2005|publisher=Leeds East Asia Papers|pages=10–11, 15–16, 29–30|access-date=2 October 2006|archive-date=28 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528034733/http://www.smlc.leeds.ac.uk/eas/eas_content/resources/documents/67LEAP.pdf#search=%22%22Thakin%20Than%20Tun%22%22|url-status=dead}}</ref>
When [[Ba Maw]]'s pro-Japanese government was established in 1942, Than Tun served as Minister of Land and Agriculture, and he met and married Khin Gyi, sister of [[Aung San Suu Kyi]]'s mother [[Khin Kyi]]. Aung San married Khin Kyi about the same time shortly after he became Minister of War; the BIA was renamed the Burma Defence Army (BDA). Than Tun could pass on Japanese intelligence to Thakin Soe who had gone underground in the Delta region in order to organise resistance against the Japanese Occupation. Thakins Thein Pe and Tin Shwe were sent to [[India]] to make contact with the British colonial government in exile at [[Shimla|Simla]].<ref name="ms"/><ref name="oh"/> At the end of [[World War II]], after the Japanese had been defeated and the British had returned, Than Tun became general secretary of the [[Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League]] (AFPFL) formed by the CPB, the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP, later renamed the Socialist Party) and the BDA, now renamed the Burma National Army (BNA) and led by his brother-in-law [[Aung San]]. Than Tun, unlike Aung San, was not among the six men who founded the CPB on
==Civil war==
When Thakin Soe's [[Communist Party (Burma)|Red Flag Communist Party (
Independence was declared on 4 January
▲When Thakin Soe's Red Flag Communist Party (''Alan Ni Party'') split from the Communist Party of Burma in early 1946, accusing it of [[Marxist revisionism|revisionism]]—"[[Browderism]]", named after [[Earl Browder]], leader of the [[Communist Party of the United States of America]]—and went underground, Than Tun and the majority of Communists continued to cooperate with the AFPFL.<ref name="oh"/> However, the rift over strategy, whether to negotiate with the postwar colonial administration or to continue with the threat of general strikes and armed rebellion till full independence was achieved, came to a head after Aung San and others accepted seats in the Executive Council. In July 1946, Than Tun was forced to resign as general secretary, and the CPB, now dubbed the "White Flag" faction, expelled from the AFPFL the following October, after the CPB had accused Aung San and others of selling out to the British and settling for a "sham" independence.<ref name="ms"/>
▲Independence was declared on January 4, 1948, with the AFPFL, now dominated by the Socialist Party, in power, and [[Thakin Nu|U Nu]] became prime minister, now that Aung San had been assassinated along with most of his cabinet on July 19, 1947, commemorated since as [[Burmese Martyrs' Day|Martyrs' Day]]. The CPB was charged with inciting revolt after organising a series of strikes and mass rallies, and orders were issued to arrest the leadership on March 28, 1948. Than Tun escaped and led his party underground in order to organize armed revolution, and established guerrilla bases in central Burma from the CPB stronghold at [[Pyinmana]].<ref name="ms"/> Than Tun, now Chairman of the CPB, sent a number of party members to China to be trained by Chinese revolutionaries.<ref name="oh"/> Some of them returned for the peace parley of 1963 when the CPB sent a delegation to [[Rangoon]] to negotiate with the Revolutionary Council government headed by General [[Ne Win]]. Than Tun himself remained in the jungle and was reunited with the so-called "[[Beijing|Peking]] returnees" after the peace talks broke down.<ref name="ms"/>
==Demise==
In 1967 he carried out his own [[cultural revolution]], purging the party of “revisionists”, and as in China things went out of control before he could finally pull the reins back. Great damage nonetheless had already been done to the CPB's image, particularly the killing of young student leaders who had joined the CPB after the failed peace parley.<ref name="ms"/> The country had experienced this kind of treatment of their young only recently in the hands of Ne Win's army in the 7 July
▲In 1967 he carried out his own [[cultural revolution]], purging the party of “revisionists”, and as in China things went out of control before he could finally pull the reins back. Great damage nonetheless had already been done to the CPB's image, particularly the killing of young student leaders who had joined the CPB after the failed peace parley.<ref name="ms"/> The country had experienced this kind of treatment of their young only recently in the hands of Ne Win's army in the July 7, 1962 massacre of [[Rangoon University]] students during a peaceful protest on campus shortly after the [[coup d'etat]] of March 2, 1962.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/article.php?art_id=683|title=Waging War against the Tyrants|month=June | year=1997|publisher=''[[The Irrawaddy]]'' News Magazine|accessdate=2006-10-16}}</ref> The next year, on September 24, 1968, whilst on the run from government troops, Than Tun was assassinated by a subordinate who later surrendered to General [[Ne Win]]'s government. The assassin had joined the Communists just two years before as an "army deserter".<ref name="ms"/>
==Legacy==
Than Tun was the only politician that nearly matched [[Aung San]] in status among his contemporaries and even the British noticed early on that he was the thinker behind Aung San. He first made his name as the schoolteacher who wrote powerful speeches in both Burmese and English. As a political organiser his skills were unequalled and he had played a pre-eminent role at every stage of Burma's struggle for independence. He was no mere ideologue but a man of extraordinary achievement and energy. Than Tun has come to be regarded as a fallen idol in the modern history of Burma.<ref name="ms"/>
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== External links ==
*[http://www.cpburma.org/ The Communist Party of Burma]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061104040802/http://www.myanmar-information.net/bcp/bcp.htm Burma Communist Party's Conspiracy to take over State Power and related information]
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{{Authority control
{{DEFAULTSORT:Than Tun, Thakin}}▼
▲| NAME = Than Tun
▲{{DEFAULTSORT:Than Tun}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Burma politicians]]
[[Category:Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League politicians]]
[[Category:State of Burma]]
[[Category:Burmese collaborators with Imperial Japan]]
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