Comintern

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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).

Comintern [acronym for Communist International], name given to the Third International , founded at Moscow in 1919. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin feared a resurgence of the Second, or Socialist, International under non-Communist leadership. The Comintern was established to claim Communist leadership of the world socialist movement. The delegates to the first congress were mainly Russians, with some members of left-wing socialist splinter groups who happened to be in the Soviet Union and one German (who abstained on the crucial vote of establishing the organization). Gregory Zinoviev was the first president of the Comintern. The second congress laid down (1920) the "Twenty-one Conditions" for membership, firmly establishing a differentiation between the socialist parties and the Communist parties. The Comintern gained strength during the 1920s, but its efforts to foment revolution, notably in Germany, were unsuccessful. In 1935, the Comintern abandoned the membership policies established under the "Twenty-one Conditions" and began to form coalitions, or popular fronts, with bourgeois parties. In 1936, Germany and Japan concluded the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact, ostensibly to protect the world from the Third International. The pact was renewed in 1941 with 11 other countries as signatories. In order to allay the misgivings of its allies in World War II, the Soviet Union dissolved the Comintern in 1943.

Bibliography: See B. Lazitch and M. M. Drachkovitch, Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern (1973); study by J. Riddell (1986).

Comintern An acronym for the Communist International founded in March 1919 in Moscow, in an effort to coordinate the actions of the Communist Parties worldwide. Also known as the Third International, it followed the pattern established by the First (1864) and Second (1889) Internationals, which had sought to harmonize the working-class movements of Europe, increasingly in common opposition to imperialism and nationalism. With the Bolsheviks and then the Soviet Communist Party being by far the largest and most powerful Communist Party, Comintern was throughout dominated by the Soviet leadership. Especially during Stalin's time, it was used as an international arm of the Soviet Communist Party. Because of its intrinsic aggressiveness, Stalin was forced to abolish it in 1943 as a concession to the Allies during World War II. In 1947, it was revived as Cominform (Communist Bureau of Information), which was joined by the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia (until 1948), Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France, and Italy. Again, it was used mainly as an instrument to secure Stalin's control, and was dissolved in 1956 by Khrushchev as part of his campaign against Stalinism.

Comintern (Communist International) Organization of national communist parties for the propagation of communist doctrine with the aim of bringing about a world revolution. It was established by LENIN (1919) in Moscow at the Congress of the Third International with ZINOVIEV as its chairman. At its second meeting in Moscow (1920), delegates from 37 countries attended, and Lenin established the Twenty-One Points, which required all parties to model their structure on disciplined lines in conformity with the Soviet pattern, and to expel moderate ideologies. In 1943 STALIN dissolved the Comintern, though in 1947 it was revived in a modified form as the COMINFORM, to coordinate the activities of European communism. This, in turn, was dissolved in 1956.

Comintern See Communist International

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Comintern (ˈkɒmɪnˌtʔːn) Communist International