thumb|right|Headstone for Manya Reiss at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing '''Manya Reiss''' (also known as Maria Aerova, sometimes spelled Ayerova, {{zh|c={{linktext|马|尼|娅}}|p=Mǎníyà}}, 1900–1962) was an American Marxist–Leninist and a founding member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Hongshan |title=Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231207058 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=203}}
==Biography== [[File:SECRETARIES OF I. L. D. FROM COAST TO COAST 1926.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Reiss (far right) among regional secretaries of the International Labor Defense, September 5–6, 1926]] Manya Reiss was born in China to a family of Russian-Jewish origin and then immigrated to the United States in 1912.<ref name=klehr1998>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, Kirill Mikhailovich Anderson (1998): The Soviet world of American communism, Yale University Press</ref> In the United States, she was a garment worker as well as a communist activist.<ref name=Chinareconstructs1-12>China reconstructs, Issues 1-12, page 13</ref> In 1931, she attended the International Lenin School.<ref name=klehr1998/> After this, she worked for the Eastern Secretariat of the Comintern and was later sent on missions to Germany and France.<ref name=klehr1998/> 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.<ref name=klehr1998/> By 1940, she had returned to Moscow.<ref name=klehr1998/>
In 1957, Reiss moved to China to work for Xinhua News Agency<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=203}} and the Beijing Daily.<ref name="leder2011">Mary M. Leder, Laurie Bernstein (2001): My life in Stalinist Russia: an American woman looks back, Indiana University Press</ref>
When Reiss became ill with cancer, she was visited in the hospital by Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi, and Lu Dingyi.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=203}} Reiss died of cancer in Beijing<ref name="brady2003">Anne-Marie Brady (2003): Making the foreign serve China: managing foreigners in the People's Republic, Rowman & Littlefield</ref> and was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=203}} Wu Lengxi, director of the New China News Agency and Sidney Rittenberg delivered eulogies.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=203}} ''People's Daily'' reported on her death and memorial service.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=203}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Manya}} Category:1900 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Members of the Communist Party USA Category:American expatriates in China Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish Chinese history Category:Chinese Jews Category:Chinese people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:International Lenin School alumni Category:Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery Category:American expatriates in the Soviet Union Category:Xinhua News Agency people