[4] Together with Lee Hoe-yeong (이회영; 李會榮), he is regarded as one of the key figures who established the anarchist ideology of the Korean independence movement.
[5] Yi participated in the February 8 Declaration of Independence in 1919 as a member of the Korean International Student Association (조선유학생학우회; 朝鮮留學生學友會).
[5] Drawn westward to join the Russian Revolution, he intended to attend the Far East University in late 1921, but fearing violence between Korean Communists, he remained in Beijing.
[5] The next two years in Beijing were formative for Yi, as was his pride in the fight for Korean independence, both of which helped to develop his personality and anarchist ideas.
[5] In Beijing, he also met Yu Ja-myeong [ko],[5] the Russian poet Vasili Eroshenko,[12] and other radicals: Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, and Fan Benliang.
[21] Because the creation of an anarchist society in Korea would require the end of Japanese imperial rule there, the commune experiment can additionally be seen as a part of the national liberation movement.
[23] In Nanjing around July 1928 [1][24] Yi Jeong-gyu was elected to serve as one of the secretaries of the Eastern Anarchist Federation (EAF, Dongfang wuzhengfu zhuyizhe lianmeng; 동방무정부주의자연맹; 東方無政府主義者聯盟), which was established by anarchists from various East Asian countries, Korea, China, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam (Annam; 安南) to strengthen international ties and build an ideal society that secures the independence of each nation and individual freedom.
[6][26][27] He died in 1984 and did not apply for the status of Korean independence fighter [ko] (대한민국 독립유공자; 大韓民國 獨立有功者) during his lifetime.