Comintern

Comintern, the Communist International, founded in 1919. During the Second World War the veteran Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov was secretary general to its Executive Committee. The Nazi–Soviet Pact of 23 August 1939 imposed on it a change of policy so revolutionary that it called into question its very basis. Its role as the representative of world communist parties, who in their turn were supposed to represent a sophisticated and class-conscious proletariat, sharply declined.

For a short time after the outbreak of war, the Comintern sections, that is the communist parties, like those of France, the UK, and Germany, maintained their anti-fascist policy. Soon, however, they were forced to adopt a new approach when the non-aggression pact resulted in co-operation between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Comintern, for so long subjected to the interests of Soviet policy, followed suit. While in the first weeks of war communists argued that both belligerent camps pursued imperialist aims and that there was nothing to chose between them, by early October 1939 the Comintern was echoing Molotov's and Ribbentrop's call for a negotiated peace and blaming the UK and France for the continuation of the war. Other Soviet moves were also approved: in a statement on 11 November 1939 the Comintern applauded the annexation of eastern Poland. Also the Comintern's hatred of the social democratic parties could now be openly ventilated. The Soviet secretary of the Comintern, Dimitry Manuilsky, wrote in the spring of 1940 that never before had the liquidation of social democracy ‘been so acute an immediate practical task as it is at the present time’. Although there is some indication that after the fall of France in June 1940 the Comintern became more critical of Germany, speaking of Hitler as the new Barbarossa, it had, by then virtually ceased activity. On 1 May 1941 it no longer issued its customary May Day manifesto.

It was not until the Germans attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 (see BARBAROSSA) that the Comintern reversed its policy of the past two years and called for a united front against German fascism. It thus resurrected the Popular Front policies of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern of 1935. Under the new circumstances of Soviet participation in the Grand Alliance against Germany the existence of the Comintern was no longer necessary. But it was not until 15 May 1943, after the fortunes of war had changed decisively in favour of the Allies, that the Comintern was dissolved. The resolution of the presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern gave as the reason for this move the increasing divergence and even contradictions in individual societies, and the differences in the degrees of consciousness and organization of the working class in various countries. Moreover communist parties were now expected to act as the dynamic elements in broadly based anti-fascist coalitions. The decision was to be ratified by the individual sections, a foregone conclusion; even before such ratification, Stalin, in an interview with Reuter's correspondent on 28 May, stated that the dissolution strengthened the unification of all freedom-loving nations against Hitlerism and exposed the lie that ‘Moscow’ wanted to intervene in other nations and to ‘Bolshevize’ them. The formal dissolution took place on 8 June 1943, after 31 replies had been received approving the decision. These included the replies of the most important parties and no objections were received from the other 35 member sections of the Comintern. The statement was signed by Dimitrov on behalf of the presidium of the Executive Committee. The measure was purely cosmetic; Moscow continued for many years yet to direct the policies of communist parties outside the USSR.

H. Hanak

Bibliography

Braunthal, J. , History of the International, 1919–1943. Vol. 2 (London, 1967).
Claudin, F. , The Communist Movement From Comintern to Cominform (London, 1975).
Degras. J. (ed.), The Communist International, 1919–1943. Documents. Vol. 3, 1929–1943 (London, 1971).