Vempatapu Satyanarayana

Who was Vempatapu Satyanarayana?

Vempatapu Satyanarayana was a schoolteacher, member of several Indian Communist organizations, and a leader of the Srikakulam Peasant Uprising of 1967, along with Adibhatla Kailasam. They had started the "land to tiller" movement in Andhra Pradesh, which later spread to South Orissa.

Satyanarayana joined the Communist Party of India through the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. He became a member of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPI in 1969. Later, he became a member of the new Central Committee that was elected in the first party congress with Charu Majumdar as its General Secretary.

He was also the Secretary of the Srikakulam District Committee of the party. His small booklet on Srikakulam Peasant Armed Upsurge details the nature of Naxalite influence in the early phases of 1969 and 1970 in Andhra Pradesh.