Manya Reiss
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Manya Reiss (also known as Maria Aerova, sometimes spelled Ayerova, Chinese: 马尼娅; pinyin: Mǎníyà, 1900–1962) was an American Marxist–Leninist and a founding member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).[1]: 203
Biography
Manya Reiss was born in China to a family of Russian-Jewish origin and then immigrated to the United States in 1912.[2] In the United States, she was a garment worker as well as a communist activist.[3] In 1931, she attended the International Lenin School.[2] After this, she worked for the Eastern Secretariat of the Comintern and was later sent on missions to Germany and France.[2] She returned to the United States in the late 1930s to work for the propaganda department of the Communist Party USA and to teach at a party school.[2] By 1940, she had returned to Moscow.[2]
In 1957, Reiss moved to China to work for Xinhua News Agency[1]: 203 and the Beijing Daily.[4]
When Reiss became ill with cancer, she was visited in the hospital by Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi, and Lu Dingyi.[1]: 203
Reiss died of cancer in Beijing[5] and was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.[1]: 203 Wu Lengxi, director of the New China News Agency and Sidney Rittenberg delivered eulogies.[1]: 203 People's Daily reported on her death and memorial service.[1]: 203