What is the Comintern? Meaning of the word. What role did the Comintern play in the history of the Soviet Union & nbsp The First Communist International

31.10.2019

The Comintern (III International) is an international organization that united the communist parties of different countries. The Communist International carried out its activities from 1919 to 1943. The founder and organizer of the Comintern was the RCP(b) party headed by V.I. Lenin.

The First International founded by Marx existed from 1864 to 1872. The defeat of the heroic Parisian workers, the famous Paris Commune, meant the end of this International. He laid the foundation for that building of the world socialist republic.

The Second International existed from 1889 to 1914, before the war. This time was the time of the most calm and peaceful development of capitalism, the time without great revolutions. The working-class movement has grown stronger and matured during this time in a number of countries. But the leaders of the workers in most parties, having become accustomed to peacetime, have lost the capacity for revolutionary struggle. When the war began in 1914, which bled the earth for four years, the war between the capitalists over the division of profits, over power over small and weak peoples, these socialists went over to the side of their governments. They betrayed the workers, they helped drag out the slaughter, they became enemies of socialism, they went over to the side of the capitalists.

The masses of workers turned away from these traitors to socialism. A turn to revolutionary struggle began throughout the world. The war showed that capitalism was dead. He is being replaced by a new order. The old word socialism has been disgraced by the traitors to socialism.

Now the workers who have remained loyal to the cause of overthrowing the yoke of capital call themselves communists. The alliance of communists is growing all over the world. In a number of countries, Soviet power has already won. It won't be long before we see the victory of communism all over the world, we will see the foundation of the World Federative Republic of Soviets.

The creation of the Comintern was preceded by a long struggle of the Bolshevik Party led by V. I. Lenin against the reformists and centrists in the 2nd International for the rallying of the left forces in the international labor movement. In 1914, the Bolsheviks declared a break with the 2nd International and began to gather forces to create the 3rd International.

The initiator of the organizational formation of the Comintern was the RCP (b). In January 1918, a meeting of representatives of leftist groups from a number of European and American countries was held in Petrograd. The meeting discussed the question of convening an international conference of socialist parties to organize the Third International. A year later, in Moscow, under the leadership of V. I. Lenin, a second international conference was held, which appealed to left-wing socialist organizations with an appeal to take part in the international socialist congress. On March 2, 1919, the 1st (constituent) Congress of the Communist International began its work in Moscow.There were 52 delegates from 35 parties and groups from 21 countries. The First Congress called on the workers of all countries to unite on the principles of proletarian internationalism in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, and to come out resolutely against the Second International, which was formally restored in February 1919 in Berne by its right-wing opportunist leaders.

Between the 1st and 2nd Congresses, the revolutionary upsurge continued to grow. In 1919, Soviet republics arose in Hungary (March 21), Bavaria (April 13), and Slovakia (June 16). In Great Britain, France, the USA, Italy and other countries, a movement developed in defense of Soviet Russia from the intervention of the imperialist powers. The formation of communist parties continued. In May 1919 the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party was renamed the Communist Party and joined the Communist International. From March 1919 to November 1920, communist parties were formed in Yugoslavia, the USA, Mexico, Denmark, Spain, Indonesia, Iran, Great Britain. The party of Argentina, Greece,

The 2nd Congress of the Communist International (opened on July 19, 1920 in Petrograd, continued and completed its work in Moscow on July 23-August 17), the 2nd Congress of the Communist International was more representative than the 1st: 217 delegates from 67 organizations (including those from 27 communist parties) from 37 countries. The French Socialist Party and the Independent Socialist-Dem Party of Germany were represented at the congress with an advisory vote. A number of decisions on strategy and tactics were adopted at the Congress communist movement, such as the forms of participation of communist parties in the national liberation movement, on the conditions for accepting the party into the Comintern, (these included: recognition by the parties entering the Comintern of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the main principle of the revolutionary struggle and the theory of Marxism; a complete break with the reformists and centrists and their expulsion from the ranks of the party; a combination of legal and illegal methods of struggle; the recognition of democratic centralism as the main organizational principle of the party, selfless loyalty to the principles of proletarian internationalism, etc.) were called upon to protect the communist parties from the penetration not only of open opportunists, but also of those elements whose inconsistency and gravitation compromise with the traitors to the proletarian cause ruled out the possibility of unity with them).
3rd Moscow, June 22 - July 12, 1921; 605 delegates from 103 parties and organizations participated. e The main task of the Communist Parties was to strengthen the positions of the working class, consolidate and expand the real results of the struggle in defense of everyday interests, combined with the preparation of the working masses for the struggle for the socialist revolution. The solution of this problem required the consistent implementation of the Leninist slogan: to work wherever there is a mass - in trade unions, youth and other organizations.

The Communist International made decisions on the national and colonial questions. Proceeding from the fact that in the new historical epoch the national liberation movement becomes an integral part of the world revolutionary process, congress set the task of merging the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat developed countries with the national liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples into a single anti-imperialist stream.

The 3rd Congress of the Comintern unanimously approved the theses on tactics developed under the leadership of V. I. Lenin. “A more thorough, more solid preparation for new, more and more decisive battles, both defensive and offensive, is the main and main thing in the decisions of the Congress”

4th November - December 1922; 408 delegates from 66 parties and organizations from 58 countries participated. By decision of the congress, the International Organization for Assistance to the Fighters of the Revolution was established. main idea- Creation of a "united working front".

The 4th Congress of the Communist International stressed that the main means of struggle against fascism is the tactics of the united workers' front. In order to rally in a united front the broad masses of working people, who are not yet ready to fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat, but are already capable of participating in the economic and political struggle against the bourgeoisie, the slogan "workers' government" was put forward (later expanded to the slogan "workers' and peasants' government"). The congress pointed to the need to fight for the unity of the trade union movement, which found itself in a state of deep split. The Congress clarified that a specific application of the united front tactic in the conditions of colonial and dependent countries is the united anti-imperialist front, which unites national patriotic forces capable of fighting against colonialism.
1923 was the year of major revolutionary uprisings that completed the post-war revolutionary upsurge. The protests of the proletariat that ended in defeat in Germany, Bulgaria and Poland revealed the weakness of the communist parties. The task of strengthening them on the basis of mastering Leninism, assimilating the international, generally significant in Bolshevism, arose to its full potential. This task, which was called the Bolshevization of the Communist Parties, had to be solved in a difficult situation. Both right-wing and leftist-sectarian, Trotskyist elements raised their heads in the communist parties.
5th June - July 1924 Decided on the Bolshevization of the national communist parties and their tactics in the light of the defeats of the revolutionary uprisings in Europe.

went down in history as a congress of the struggle for the Bolshevization of the Communist parties. The main document of the congress - theses emphasized that the forging of genuine Leninist parties is the central task of all activities. The Communist International Congress pointed out that the features of a truly Bolshevik party are: mass character (the slogan "To the masses!" put forward by the 3rd Congress remained in force); maneuverability, excluding any dogmatism and sectarianism in the methods and means of struggle; loyalty to the principles of revolutionary Marxism

The course of the Communist International made it possible for each Communist Party, using its own experience of practical struggle, to become a national political force capable of acting independently in the concrete conditions of its country, to become the real vanguard of the working-class movement there. But in their implementation, the Congress tried to formulate common methods for all parties to apply the tactics of the united front. unity of action only from below, negotiations at the top between parties and organizations were allowed only if initially unity was achieved at the bottom. this limited the initiative of the communist parties and prevented them from adapting their actions to the specific situation.

July 6 - September 1928. The Congress assessed the global political situation as a transition to a new stage, characterized by a world economic crisis and an increase in the class struggle, developed the thesis of social fascism.

The Congress noted the approach of a new, "third" period in the revolutionary development of the world after October 1917 - a period of sharp aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism, as evidenced by the signs of an impending world economic crisis, the growth of class battles and a new upsurge freedom movement in colonial and dependent countries. In this regard, Congress approved tactics, which were then expressed in the formula "class against class." This tactic provided for intensifying the struggle against the reformism of the Social Democracy and oriented the Communist Parties to prepare for the possible emergence of an acute socio-political crisis in the capitalist countries. However, it proceeded only from the perspective of the proletarian revolution as the immediate task of the day and underestimated the dangers of fascism, which could take advantage of the crisis for reactionary purposes. Congress called for the defense of the Chinese revolution against imperialist interventionists.

7th July 25 - August 20, 1935 The main topic of the meetings was the solution of the issue of consolidating forces in the fight against the growing fascist threat. The United Workers' Front was created as a body for coordinating the activities of workers of various political orientations.

=) In the initial period of the activities of the Comintern and the organizations adjoining it, when making decisions, a preliminary analysis of the situation was carried out, a desire was manifested to find answers to general issues taking into account national characteristics and traditions. Subsequently, the methods of work of the Comintern underwent serious changes: any dissent was regarded as aiding reaction and fascism. Dogmatism and sectarianism had a negative impact on the international communist and workers' movement.

In the 1st half of the 30s. there was a significant shift in the alignment of class forces on the world stage. It manifested itself in the onset of reaction, fascism, the growth military threat. The task of creating an anti-fascist, all-democratic union, primarily of communists and social democrats, came to the fore.

The creation of the Communist International was conditioned by objective historical factors, prepared by the entire course of development of the workers' and socialist movement. The Second International, betrayed by the opportunist leaders, collapsed in August 1914. Having split the working class, the social-chauvinists called on the workers of the belligerent countries to mutual extermination on the fronts of the imperialist war and, at the same time, to “civil peace” within their own countries, to cooperate with “their own” bourgeoisie, to the renunciation of the struggle for the economic and political interests of the proletariat. An urgent task arose before the international socialist movement - to achieve a truly international unity of the proletariat on the basis of a decisive break with opportunism, to form a new international organization of revolutionaries to replace the bankrupt Second International. At that time, the only consistently internationalist major organization in the international labor movement was the Bolshevik Party, headed by V. I. Lenin. She took the initiative in the struggle for the creation of the Third International.

The struggle of the Bolsheviks for the creation of the Communist International

From the first days of the war, the Bolshevik Party, along with a call to turn the imperialist war into a civil war, proclaimed the slogans: "Long live the international brotherhood of the workers against the chauvinism and patriotism of the bourgeoisie of all countries!", "Long live the proletarian International, liberated from opportunism!" ( See V. I. Lenin, War and Russian Social Democracy, Soch., vol. 21, p. 18.) In his works “War and Russian Social Democracy”, “Socialism and War”, “The Collapse of the Second International”, “The Situation and Tasks of the Socialist International”, “Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism” and many others, V. I. Lenin formulated ideological and organizational foundations on which the new International was to be built. Despite the enormous difficulties generated by the war and rampant chauvinism, V. I. Lenin succeeded at the Zimmerwald (1915) and Kienthal (1916) conferences to achieve a demarcation between the revolutionary internationalists and the social chauvinists and lay the foundations for an internationalist association under the leadership of the Zimmerwald Left ". However, it was not possible to solve the problem of creating a new International with the help of the Zimmerwald Association. The Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences did not accept the slogans of the Bolsheviks about turning the imperialist war into a civil war and about creating the Third International; in the Zimmerwald Association, the majority were centrists, supporters of reconciliation with the social chauvinists and the restoration of the bankrupt opportunist Second International. The left in the socialist parties of the West and the "Zimmerwald Left" were still very weak.

In April 1917, V. I. Lenin raised the question of a complete rupture of the left with the Zimmerwald association - a rupture not only with the social chauvinists, but also with the centrists, who covered up their opportunism with pacifist phrases. V. I. Lenin wrote: “It is for us, right now, without delay, that a new, revolutionary, proletarian International must be founded ...” ( V. I. Lenin, The tasks of the proletariat in our revolution, Soch., vol. 24, p. 60.)

The Seventh (April) Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) noted in its resolution that “the task of our party, operating in a country where the revolution began earlier than in other countries, is to take the initiative in creating the Third International, finally breaking with the "defencists" and resolutely fighting also against the intermediate policy of the "centre".

The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution hastened the solution of the question of a new International. It clearly showed the working people of the whole world, and above all the advanced part of the working class, the correctness of Lenin's ideas, raised high the banner of internationalism, inspired the proletariat of the capitalist countries and the oppressed peoples of the colonies and semi-colonies to a determined struggle for their emancipation. Under its direct influence, the general crisis of capitalism deepened and developed, and, as an integral part of it, the crisis of the imperialist colonial system. The revolutionary upsurge swept the whole world. The masses of the people have moved considerably to the left, and the consciousness of the working class has risen. Marxism-Leninism became more and more popular. The best representatives of workers' parties and organizations passed to his positions. A vivid expression of this was the strengthening of the left elements in the ranks of the Social Democratic parties.

In January 1918, the first practical steps after October were taken towards the creation of the Third International. A meeting of representatives of socialist parties and groups held in Petrograd on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party decided to convene an international conference on the following basis: the parties that have expressed their consent to join the new International must recognize the need for a revolutionary struggle against "their" governments, for the immediate signing of a democratic peace; they must express readiness to support the October Revolution and Soviet power in Russia.

Simultaneously with the adoption of this decision, the Bolsheviks intensified their efforts to organize the forces of the left in the international working-class movement and to educate new cadres. Even in the first months after the October Revolution, the foreign left socialists who were in Russia began to create their own revolutionary, communist organizations, mainly among prisoners of war. In early December, they were already publishing newspapers in German, Hungarian, Romanian and other languages. To improve the leadership of foreign communist groups and to help them, foreign sections were formed in March 1918 under the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which in May of the same year merged into the Federation of Foreign Groups under the Central Committee of the RCP (b); The Hungarian revolutionary Bela Kun was elected its chairman. The federation created the first Moscow communist detachment of internationalists from former prisoners of war to fight the counter-revolution, published appeals, brochures and newspapers in different languages. This propaganda literature was distributed not only among the prisoners of war, but also among the German troops in the Ukraine, sent to Germany, Austria-Hungary and other countries.

Preparations for the convocation of the Constituent Congress of the Third International

The struggle for the creation of the Third International was favored by profound changes in the international working-class movement and the revolutionary events of 1918 all over the world. triumphal procession Soviet power, the exit of Russia from the imperialist war, the defeat of the Czechoslovak and other rebellions demonstrated the strength of the socialist revolution, increased the international prestige of the Soviet state and the Russian Communist Party. The pace of revolutionization of the masses increased. The revolution in Finland and the January political strikes in Germany and Austria-Hungary were followed by an uprising of sailors in Kotor (Kattaro), a mass movement of solidarity with Soviet Russia in England, a general political strike in the Czech lands, revolutionary actions in France. At the end of the World War, the Vladai uprising broke out in Bulgaria, and the revolutions in Germany and Austria-Hungary led to the overthrow of the regime of semi-feudal monarchies in the center of Europe, to the liquidation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the formation of new national states on its territories. In China, India, Korea, Indochina, Turkey, Iran, Egypt and other countries of Asia and Africa, a broad national liberation movement was brewing.

With the strengthening of the positions of Marxism-Leninism, the influence of Social Democracy in the international labor movement weakened. A significant role in this process was played by the speeches and works of V. I. Lenin, such as “Letter to the American Workers”, “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”, “Letter to the Workers of Europe and America” and many others. Exposing opportunism and centrism, these speeches provided: assistance to internationalists who have stepped up their activities in the socialist parties. In a number of countries the internationalists openly broke with the Compromisers and formed communist parties. In 1918 communist parties arose in Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Finland and Argentina.

At the beginning of January 1919, a meeting of representatives of eight communist parties and organizations was held. At the suggestion of V. I. Lenin, it decided to appeal to the revolutionary proletarian parties with an appeal to take part in a conference on the establishment of a new International. The appeal was published on January 24, 1919. It was signed by representatives of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Foreign Bureau of the Communist Workers' Party of Poland, the Foreign Bureau of the Hungarian Communist Party, the Foreign Bureau of the Communist Party of Austria, the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party, the Central Committee of the Finnish Communist Party , Central Committee of the Balkan Social Democratic Federation, Socialist Labor Party of America.

The appeal of eight parties and organizations formulated the platform for a new international organization to be established by the conference. It said: “The gigantic rapid progress of the world revolution, which poses more and more new problems, the danger of this revolution being strangled by an alliance of capitalist states that are organizing against the revolution under the hypocritical banner of the “Union of Peoples”; attempts on the part of the social-traitor parties to come to an agreement and, by granting "amnesty" to each other, help their governments and their bourgeoisie to once again deceive the working class; Finally, the enormous revolutionary experience that has accumulated and the internationalization of the entire course of the revolution compels us to take the initiative to put on the order of the day a discussion of the question of convening an international congress of revolutionary proletarian parties.

The Communist Parties of Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, the Czech revolutionary Social Democrats, the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party ("Close Socialists"), left wing of the Serbian Social Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party of Romania, Left Social Democratic Party of Sweden, Norwegian Social Democratic Party, Italian Socialist Party, Left Socialists of Switzerland, Spain, Japan, France, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, England and the United States of America.

Berne Conference of Social Democratic Parties

The strengthening of internationalist elements, the formation of communist parties, the growth of the movement for the creation of a new International - all this alarmed the right-wing leaders of the Social Democracy. In an effort to consolidate the forces of the opponents of the socialist revolution, they decided to restore the Second International and for this purpose convened an international conference in Bern (Switzerland). The conference met from February 3 to February 10, 1919. Delegates from 26 countries participated in it. A number of parties and organizations, for example, the socialist parties of Switzerland, Serbia, Romania, the left part of the Belgian, Italian, Finnish socialist parties, the Youth International, the Women's Secretariat, which were previously part of the Second International, refused to send their representatives.

All activities of this first post-war conference of social-chauvinist and centrist parties were permeated with hatred for the socialist revolution. K. Branting, one of the leaders of the Second International, a representative of the Swedish Social-Democratic Party, who delivered the main report "On Democracy and Dictatorship", declared that the October Revolution was a departure from the principles of democracy, and in fact called for the liquidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia.

Henderson, Kautsky, Vandervelde, Jouhault and other Social-Democratic leaders spoke in the same spirit. All of them tried to prevent the spread of the international influence of the October Revolution. Therefore, the "Russian question", although it did not appear on the agenda of the conference, was in fact central. However, the conference did not adopt a resolution on negative attitude to the Soviet state, because some of the delegates, fearing to lose influence on the rank and file members of the socialist parties, refused to support the open enemies of the October Revolution.

The Berne Conference decided to restore the Second International (the organizational formalization of this decision was completed at two subsequent conferences - Lucerne in 1919 and Geneva in 1920). In order to deceive the masses, the resolutions of the conference spoke of building socialism, labor legislation, and protecting the interests of the working class, but the concern for the implementation of these and other tasks was entrusted to the League of Nations.

The efforts of the organizers of the Berne Conference and the restored International to prevent the proletariat from moving further to the left, the growth of the communist movement, and the unification of parties of a new type into a revolutionary International proved fruitless. The emergence of a truly revolutionary center of the international labor movement was inevitable.

First, Founding Congress of the Communist International

Many workers' parties responded positively to the appeal of eight parties and organizations dated January 24, 1919. The meeting place was Moscow, the capital of the world's first victorious proletarian dictatorship.

On the way to Moscow, foreign delegates overcame great difficulties caused both by repressions in the capitalist countries against leftist socialists and communists, and by the situation of the civil war in Soviet Russia, the blockade, and anti-Soviet intervention. One of the delegates, the representative of the Communist Party of Austria, Gruber (Steingart), later said: “I had to ride on the steps of the cars, on the roofs, buffers, and even on the tender and on the platform of the locomotive ... When I managed to get into the cattle car, it was already a great success, because I had to do a significant part of the long, 17-day journey on foot. The front line then passed in the Kyiv region. There were only military trains. I disguised myself as a ragged soldier returning from captivity, and all the time I was in danger of being captured and shot by the whites. Besides, I didn’t know a word of Russian.”

Despite all the obstacles, most of the delegates arrived on time.

On March 1, 1919, at the preliminary meeting, the agenda of the conference, the composition of speakers and commissions were approved. At this conference the question of constituting the conference as the Constituent Congress of the Communist International was also discussed. In view of the objection of the representative of the Communist Party of Germany, Hugo Eberlein (Albert), who pointed out the small number of members of the conference and the fact that in many countries there were no communist parties yet, the meeting decided to limit itself to holding a conference and developing a platform.

On March 2, V. I. Lenin opened the first world conference of communist parties and leftist social democratic organizations with an opening speech. First, the conference heard reports from the field. Representatives of Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, the United States of America, Hungary, Holland, the Balkan countries, France, England spoke about the fierce class battles unfolding in the capitalist world, about the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution on the revolutionary movement in these countries, about the growing popularity of Bolshevism and the leader of the world proletariat, Lenin.

On March 4, VI Lenin delivered a report on bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the labor movement of many countries at that time there was a sharp discussion on the question - for or against the dictatorship of the proletariat. Therefore, the explanation of the essence of bourgeois democracy as a democracy for a minority and the need to establish a new, proletarian democracy, democracy for the majority, on the basis of overthrowing the capitalist yoke and suppressing the resistance of the exploiting classes, acquired great importance. V. I. Lenin exposed the defenders of the so-called pure democracy, showing that bourgeois democracy, for which Kautsky and his like-minded people stood up before and after the proletarian revolution in Russia, is a form of dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the dictatorship of the proletariat, which has assumed the form of Soviet power in Russia, has, Lenin pointed out, a truly popular, democratic character. Its essence “... lies in the fact that the constant and only basis of all state power of the entire state apparatus is the mass organization of precisely those classes that were oppressed by capitalism...” ( V. I. Lenin, First Congress of the Communist International March 2-6, 1919. Theses and report on bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat March 4, Soch., vol. 28, p. 443.)

V. I. Lenin showed that the Soviets turned out to be the practical form that provides the proletariat with the opportunity to exercise its rule. The defense of bourgeois democracy by the Right Social Democrats, their attacks against the dictatorship of the proletariat, are a denial of the proletariat's right to its own, proletarian democracy.

The theses and report of V. I. Lenin on bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat were taken as the basis for the decisions adopted by the conference.

In the meantime, in connection with the arrival of new delegations, in particular the Austrian, Swedish, and others, the question arose again of constituting the conference as the Constituent Congress of the Communist International. This proposal was made by the representatives of Austria, the Balkan countries, Hungary and Sweden. After a brief discussion, a vote was taken. The delegates unanimously and with great enthusiasm supported the resolution on the creation of the Third, Communist, International. The representative of the Communist Party of Germany, Eberlein, in his speech on the vote, said that, bound by the instructions of his party and based on personal conviction, he tried to delay the constitution of the Third International and abstained from voting, but since the founding of the Third International had become a fact, he would try to make every effort to in order to persuade their comrades "to declare as soon as possible that they, too, are members of the Third International." The audience greeted the announcement of the voting results with the singing of the Internationale. Following this, a decision was made to formally dissolve the Zimmerwald Association.

With the adoption of the resolution on the formation of the Communist International, the conference turned into the Constituent Congress. It was attended by 34 delegates with a decisive vote and 18 with an advisory vote, representing 35 organizations (including 13 communist parties and 6 communist groups).

The congress discussed the question of the Berne Conference and the attitude towards socialist trends. In his decision, he emphasized that the Second International, which was being resurrected by right-wing socialists, would be a weapon in the hands of the bourgeoisie against the revolutionary proletariat, and called on the workers of all countries to begin the most resolute struggle against this treacherous, "yellow" International.

Congress also heard reports on international position and the policy of the Entente, on the white terror in Finland, adopted the Manifesto to the proletarians of the whole world and approved the resolutions on the reports. Governing bodies were created with a seat in Moscow: the Executive Committee, which included one representative from the communist parties of the most significant countries, and a Bureau of five people elected by the Executive Committee.

On March 6, 1919, the first Constituent Congress of the Communist International finished its work.

International workers' and communist movement after the First Congress of the Comintern

The revolutionary upsurge in the capitalist world continued to grow. The working people of the capitalist countries combined their class struggle with actions in defense of Soviet Russia. They responded to the imperialist intervention against the young Soviet state with the movement "Hands off Russia!" Events of great importance took place in 1919: the heroic struggle of the peoples of the Soviet state against imperialist intervention and internal counter-revolution; proletarian revolutions in Hungary and Bavaria; revolutionary uprisings in all capitalist countries; stormy national liberation, anti-imperialist movement in China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, in the countries Latin America. This revolutionary upsurge, as well as the decisions and activities of the First Congress of the Comintern, contributed to the strengthening of the ideas of communism among the workers and the advanced part of the intelligentsia. V. I. Lenin at that time wrote that “everywhere the working masses, despite the influence of the old leaders, saturated with chauvinism and opportunism, come to the conviction of the rottenness of bourgeois parliaments and the need for Soviet power, the power of the working people, the dictatorship of the proletariat, to rid mankind from the yoke capital" ( V. I. Lenin, American Workers, Soch., vol. 30, p. 20.).

One of the main reasons for the victory of Bolshevism in 1917-1920, Lenin considered the merciless exposure of the vileness, abomination and meanness of social chauvinism and "Kautskyism" (which corresponds to Longuetism in France, the views of the leaders of the Independent Labor Party and the Fabians in England, Turati in Italy, etc.) ( See V. I. Lenin, Childhood illness of “leftism” in communism, Soch., vol. 31, p. 13.). Bolshevism has grown, strengthened and tempered in the struggle on two fronts - with open opportunism and with "Left" doctrinairism. The same tasks are to be solved by other communist parties. All countries of the world will have to repeat the main thing that was achieved by the October Revolution. “... The Russian model,” wrote V. I. Lenin, “shows all countries something, and very significant, from their inevitable and near future” ( Ibid., pp. 5-6.).

V. I. Lenin also warned the fraternal communist parties against ignoring national peculiarities in individual countries, against stereotypes, and demanded that concrete, specific conditions be studied. But at the same time, for all the national peculiarities and originality of this or that country, for all communist parties, Lenin pointed out, the unity of international tactics is obligatory, the application of the basic principles of communism, “which would correctly modified these principles in particular, correctly adapted, applied them to national and national-state differences "( Ibid., p. 72.).

Noting the danger of mistakes made by the young communist parties, V. I. Lenin wrote that the "Lefts" did not

they want to fight for the masses, they are afraid of difficulties, they ignore the indispensable condition for victory - centralization, the strictest discipline in the party and the working class - and in this way they disarm the proletariat. He urged communists to work wherever there are masses; skillfully combine legal and illegal conditions; if necessary, make compromises; stop at no sacrifice in the name of victory. The tactics of any communist party, Lenin pointed out, must be based on a sober, strictly objective account of all the class forces of the given state and the countries surrounding it, on the experience of revolutionary movements, and especially on the own political experience of the broad working masses of each country.

Lenin's work "The Childhood Disease of 'Leftism' in Communism" became a program of action for all communist parties. Its conclusions formed the basis for the decisions of the Second Congress of the Communist International.

II Congress of the Comintern

The II Congress of the Communist International opened on July 19, 1920 in Petrograd, and from July 23 to August 7 it met in Moscow. It was a testament to the great shifts that had taken place in the international revolutionary movement, a convincing proof of the growing prestige of the Comintern and the broad scope of the communist movement throughout the world. It was indeed a world communist congress.

It was represented not only by communist parties, but also by left-wing socialist organizations, revolutionary trade unions and youth organizations from various countries of the world - a total of 218 delegates from 67 organizations, including 27 communist parties.

At the first meeting, VI Lenin made a report on the international situation and the main tasks of the Communist International. Describing the grave consequences of the world war for all peoples, he pointed out that the capitalists, having profited from the war, shouldered its costs on the shoulders of the workers and peasants. The living conditions of the working people are becoming intolerable; the need, the ruin of the masses, has increased unheard of. All this contributes to the further growth of the revolutionary crisis throughout the world. Lenin noted the outstanding role of the Comintern in mobilizing the working masses for the struggle against capitalism and the world-historical significance of the proletarian revolution in Russia.

V. I. Lenin emphasized that the proletariat would not be able to win power without crushing opportunism. “Opportunism,” he said, “is our main enemy. Opportunism at the top of the labor movement is not proletarian socialism, but bourgeois socialism. It has been practically proved that the leaders within the working-class movement, who belong to the opportunist trend, are better defenders of the bourgeoisie than the bourgeois themselves. Without their leadership of the workers, the bourgeoisie would not be able to hold on" ( V. I. Lenin, II Congress of the Communist International July 19 - August 7, 1920. Report on the international situation and the main tasks of the Communist International July 19, Soch., vol. 31, p. 206.).

At the same time, V. I. Lenin described the danger of “leftism” in communism and outlined ways to overcome it.

Proceeding from Lenin's propositions, the congress decided on the main tasks of the Communist International. The main task was to unite the fragmented this moment communist forces, the formation in every country of a communist party (or the strengthening and renewal of an already existing party) in order to intensify the work of preparing the proletariat for the conquest of state power, and moreover, precisely in the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The congress resolution provided answers to questions about the essence of the dictatorship of the proletariat and Soviet power, what should be the immediate and widespread preparation for the dictatorship of the proletariat, what should be the composition of the parties adjoining or wishing to join the Communist International.

In order to prevent the danger of the penetration of opportunists, centrists and, in general, the traditions of the Second International into the young communist parties, the congress approved the “21 conditions” developed by V. I. Lenin for admission to the Communist International.

This document embodied Lenin's doctrine of a new type of party and the world-historical experience of Bolshevism, which, as Lenin wrote back in November 1918, "... created the ideological and tactical foundations of the Third International ..." ( V. I. Lenin, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, Soch., vol. 28, p. 270.). The conditions for admission demanded that all propaganda and agitation of the communist parties be consistent with the principles of the Third International, that a constant struggle be waged against reformism and centrism, that a complete break with opportunism be carried out in practice, that daily work be carried out in the countryside, and that the national liberation movement of the colonial peoples should be supported. They also provided for the compulsory work of communists in reformist trade unions, in parliament, but with the subordination of the parliamentary faction to the leadership of the party, a combination of legal and illegal activities, selfless support of the Soviet Republic. Parties wishing to join the Communist International are obliged to recognize its decisions. Each such party must adopt the name of the Communist Party.

The necessity of adopting such a document was dictated by the fact that, under the pressure of the masses of the workers, the centrist and semi-centrist parties and groups sought their admission to the Comintern, not wishing, however, to retreat from their old positions. In addition, the young communist parties were faced with the task of ideological growth and organizational strengthening. Without a successful struggle against opportunism, revisionism and sectarianism, this would not have been possible.

During the discussion of the "21 conditions" at the congress, various views emerged, many of which contradicted the Marxist understanding of the proletarian party and the proletarian International. Thus, Bordiga (Italian Socialist Party), Weinkop (Dutch Socialist Party) and some other delegates, identifying the mass of rank-and-file members of socialist parties with their centrist leaders, objected to the admission of a number of parties (the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Socialist Party of Norway, etc.). ) to the Communist International even if they accept the "21 conditions". Some of the delegates criticized the "21 conditions" from the standpoint of the reformists. For example, Serrati and the leaders of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, Crispin and Dietmann, who were present at the congress with a deliberative vote, objected to the adoption of the “21 conditions”, proposing to wide open the doors of the Communist International to all parties wishing to join it.

At the same time, they took up arms against the obligatory recognition of the principles of the dictatorship of the proletariat and democratic centralism, as well as against the exclusion from the party of persons who reject the conditions for admission to the Comintern.

Defending the "21 conditions", V. I. Lenin revealed the perniciousness for the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat of the views of Serrati, Crispin and Ditman, on the one hand, Bordiga and Vaynkop, on the other. Congress supported V. I. Lenin.

The subsequent activities of the Comintern confirmed the enormous theoretical and practical significance of the 21 Conditions. The provisions included in the "21 conditions" effectively contributed to the ideological and organizational strengthening of the communist parties, creating a serious obstacle to the penetration of right-wing opportunists and centrists into the Komintzrn and helping to eliminate "leftism" in communism.

An important step towards the institutionalization of the world center of the communist movement was the adoption of the Charter of the Communist International. The charter noted that the Communist International "takes upon itself the continuation and completion of the great work begun by the First International Association of Workers." He determined the principles of building the Comintern and the Communist Parties, the main directions of their activity, specified the role of the leading bodies of the Comintern - the World Congress, the Executive Committee (ECCI) and the International Control Commission - and their relationship with the Communist Parties - sections of the Comintern.

The Second Congress devoted much attention to the problem of the allies of the proletariat in the proletarian revolution and discussed the most important aspects of the strategy and tactics of the communist parties in the agrarian and national-colonial questions.

The theses developed by V. I. Lenin on the agrarian question contained a deep analysis of the situation Agriculture under capitalism and the process of class stratification of the peasantry. The theses emphasized that the proletariat cannot treat all groups of the peasantry in the same way. It must support the agricultural workers, semi-proletarians and small peasants in every possible way and win them over to its side in order to successfully fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat. As for the middle peasantry, in view of its inevitable vacillations, the working class, at least in the initial period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, will confine itself to the task of neutralizing it. The importance of the struggle for the liberation of the working peasantry from the ideological and political influence of the rural bourgeoisie was noted. They also pointed out the need to take into account the established traditions of private property in the agrarian policy of the communist parties and create favorable conditions for the socialization of peasant farms. Immediate confiscation of land should be carried out only from the landowners and other large landowners, that is, from all those who systematically resort to the exploitation of wage labor and small peasants and do not take part in physical labor.

The Congress pointed out that the historical mission of liberating mankind from the oppression of capital and from wars could not be fulfilled by the working class unless the broadest strata of the peasantry were won over to its side. On the other hand, "the working masses of the countryside have no salvation except in alliance with the communist proletariat, in selfless support of its revolutionary struggle to overthrow the yoke of the landlords (large landowners) and the bourgeoisie."

The discussion of the national-colonial question was also aimed at working out correct tactics in relation to the many millions of working masses of the colonies and semi-colonies, allies of the proletariat in the struggle against imperialism. In his report, V. I. Lenin emphasized the new things that had been formulated in the theses submitted to the Congress and considered by the special commission. A particularly lively discussion was aroused by the discussion of the issue of support by the proletariat of the bourgeois-democratic national movements.

The Congress noted the importance of drawing together the working masses of all nations, the urgent need for contact between the communist parties of the metropolitan countries and the proletarian parties of the colonial countries in order to render maximum assistance to the liberation movement of dependent and unequal nations. The peoples of the colonial and dependent countries, it was said in the decisions of the congress, have no other way of liberation than a determined struggle against imperialism. For the proletariat, temporary agreements and alliances with the bourgeois-democratic forces of the colonies are quite acceptable, and sometimes even necessary, if these forces have not exhausted their objective revolutionary role and provided that the proletariat retains its political and organizational independence. Such blocking helps to form a broad patriotic front in the colonial countries, but does not mean the elimination of class contradictions between the national bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The congress also stressed the need for a resolute ideological struggle against pan-Islamism, pan-Asianism and other reactionary nationalist theories.

Of exceptional importance were the theoretical provisions of V. I. Lenin on non-capitalist way development of economically backward countries. On the basis of Lenin's teaching, the congress formulated the conclusion that these countries were going over to socialism, bypassing the stage of capitalism, with the help of the victorious proletariat of the advanced states.

The theses on the national-colonial question approved by the Congress served as a guide for action for the communist parties and played an invaluable role in the liberation struggle of the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries.

The formulation of the agrarian and national-colonial questions at the Second Congress of the Comintern and the decisions adopted by it differed profoundly and fundamentally from the approach of the Second International to these questions. The social-democratic leaders ignored the peasantry, regarded it as a solid reactionary mass, and in the national-colonial question they actually took the position of justifying the colonial policy of imperialism, presenting it as a "civilizing mission" of foreign capital in backward countries. On the contrary, the Communist International, relying on the principles of Marxism-Leninism, in its decisions indicated revolutionary ways to liberate the peasantry from the yoke of capital, the peoples of the colonies and dependent countries from the yoke of imperialism.

Among other items on the agenda of the Second Congress of the Comintern, questions about the attitude of the communist parties towards the trade unions and about parliamentarism were of great importance.

The congressional resolution condemned the sectarian refusal to work in the reformist trade unions and called on the communists to fight to win the masses in the ranks of these trade unions.

The theses on parliamentarism noted that the revolutionary headquarters of the working class should have its own representatives in the bourgeois parliament, whose rostrum can and should be used for revolutionary agitation, rallying the working masses and exposing the enemies of the working class. For the same purpose, communists should participate in election campaigns. Refusal to participate in election campaigns and parliamentary work is naive infantile doctrinairism. The attitude of communists towards parliaments may vary depending on the situation, but under all circumstances, the activities of communist factions in parliaments should be directed by the central committees of the parties.

Responding to a speech by Bordiga, who tried to persuade the congress to renounce the participation of communists in bourgeois parliaments, V. I. Lenin in a vivid speech showed the fallacy of the views of the anti-parliamentarians. He asked Bordiga and his supporters: “How will you reveal the true nature of parliament to the really backward masses, deceived by the bourgeoisie? If you do not enter it, how will you expose this or that parliamentary maneuver, the position of this or that party, if you are outside the parliament?” ( V. I. Lenin, II Congress of the Communist International July 19 - August 7, 1920 Speech on parliamentarism August 2, Soch., vol. 31, p. 230.). Based on the experience of the revolutionary labor movement in Russia and other countries, V. I. Lenin concluded that by participating in election campaigns and using the platform of the bourgeois parliament, the working class would be able to more successfully fight against the bourgeoisie. The proletariat must be able to use the same means that the bourgeoisie uses in the struggle against the proletariat.

The position of V. I. Lenin received the full support of the congress.

The Second Congress of the Comintern also adopted decisions on a number of other important questions: on the role of the Communist Party in the proletarian revolution, on the situation and conditions in which Soviets of Workers' Deputies can be created, etc.

In conclusion, the Second Congress adopted the Manifesto, in which he gave a detailed description of the international situation, the class struggle in the capitalist countries, the situation in Soviet Russia, and the tasks of the Comintern. The manifesto called on all working men and women to stand under the banner of the Communist International. In a special appeal to the proletarians of all countries regarding the attack of bourgeois-landlord Poland on the Soviet state, it was said: “Go out into the streets and show your governments that you will not allow any assistance to White Guard Poland, that you will not allow any interference in the affairs of Soviet Russia.

Stop all work, stop all movement, if you see that the capitalist clique of all countries, in spite of your protests, is preparing a new offensive against Soviet Russia. Do not miss a single train, not a single ship to Poland.” This appeal of the Comintern found a wide response among the workers of many countries, new force who spoke in defense of the Soviet state under the slogan "Hands off Russia!"

The decisions of the Second Congress of the Communist International played a great role in strengthening the communist parties and rallying them on the ideological and organizational basis of Marxism-Leninism. They had a serious influence on the process of disengagement in the working-class movement, helped the revolutionary socialist workers to move away from opportunism, and helped shape many communist parties, including those in England, Italy, China, Chile, Brazil and other countries. V. I. Lenin wrote that the Second Congress "... created such solidarity and discipline of the communist parties of the whole world, which have never been before and which will allow the vanguard of the workers' revolution to move forward towards its great goal, to overthrow the yoke of capital, with leaps and bounds" ( V. I. Lenin, Second Congress of the Communist International, Soch., vol. 31, p. 246.).

The Second Congress essentially completed the formation of the Communist International. Expanding the struggle on two fronts, he developed the main problems of strategy, tactics and organization of the communist parties. V. I. Lenin wrote: “First, the communists had to proclaim their principles to the whole world. This was done at the First Congress. This is the first step.

The second step was the organizational formation of the Communist International and the elaboration of the conditions for admission to it, the conditions for separation in practice from the centrists, from the direct and indirect agents of the bourgeoisie within the labor movement. This was done at the II Congress" ( V. I. Lenin, Letter to the German Communists, Soch., vol. 32, p. 494.).

The historical significance of the formation of the Communist International

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the proletariat of the capitalist countries launched a determined struggle against the bourgeoisie. But, despite the broad scope of the movement and the selflessness of the working masses, the bourgeoisie retained power in its hands. This was due primarily to the fact that, in contrast to Russia, where there was a truly revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist party, a party of a new type with vast revolutionary experience, the working class in the capitalist countries remained split and its bulk was under the influence of social democratic parties whose right-wing leadership, with all their tactics, saved the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system and ideologically disarmed the proletariat. The communist parties that arose in a number of countries at the time of the most acute revolutionary crisis were in the majority still very weak both organizationally and ideologically. They broke with the opportunist leaders, with their open policy of treason, but did not completely free themselves from compromising traditions. Many of the leaders who then joined communism, in fact, remained faithful to the old opportunist traditions of social democracy in the main questions of the revolutionary movement.

On the other hand, in the young communist parties, which did not have the necessary experience of working among the masses and the systematic struggle against opportunism, tendencies often arose that gave rise to sectarianism, separation from the broad masses, preaching the possibility of a minority acting without reliance on the masses, etc. As a result of this illness The communist parties and the organizations led by them did not sufficiently study the "leftism", and in some cases they ignored the specific national conditions in individual countries, limited themselves to a formal and superficial desire to do what was done in Russia, underestimated the strength and experience of the bourgeoisie. The young communist parties had to do a lot of hard and painstaking work to educate bold, resolute, Marxist-educated proletarian leaders and to prepare the working class for new battles. In this activity, an extremely important role was to play new center international labor movement - the Communist International.

The formation of the Comintern was the result of the activity of the revolutionary organizations of the working class of all countries. “The founding of the Third, Communist International,” wrote V. I. Lenin, “was a record of what was conquered not only by Russians, not only by Russians, but also by German, Austrian, Hungarian, Finnish, Swiss—in a word, international proletarian masses" ( V. I. Lenin, Conquered and Recorded, Works, vol. 28, p. 454.). This was the result of the long struggle of the Bolsheviks against the reformism and revisionism of the leaders of the Second International, for the purity of Marxism, for the victory of Marxist-Leninist ideological and organizational principles on an international scale, for the triumph of proletarian internationalism.

The outstanding role of the Communist International in the history of the international working-class movement was that it began to put into practice the Marxist doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat. As V. I. Lenin pointed out: “The world-historical significance of the III, Communist International lies in the fact that it began to put into practice the greatest slogan of Marx, a slogan that summed up the centuries-old development of socialism and the labor movement, a slogan that is expressed by the concept: the dictatorship of the proletariat » ( V. I. Lenin, The Third International and Its Place in History, Soch., vol. 29, p. 281.).

The Comintern not only rallied the already existing communist parties, but also contributed to the creation of new ones. It united the best, most revolutionary elements of the world labor movement. It was the first international organization that, relying on the experience of the revolutionary struggle of the working people of all continents and all peoples, in its practical activity adopted the positions of Marxism-Leninism entirely and unconditionally.

The great significance of the formation of the Communist International also consisted in the fact that the opportunist Second International of Social Democracy, this agent of imperialism in the ranks of the working class, was opposed by a new international organization that embodied the genuine unity of the revolutionary workers of the whole world and became a faithful representative of their interests.

The program of the Communist International, adopted in 1928, determined its place in the history of the labor movement as follows: “The Communist International, uniting the revolutionary workers leading the millions of oppressed and exploited against the bourgeoisie and its “socialist” agents, regards itself as the historical successor of the “Union Communists” and the First International, under the direct leadership of Marx, and as the heir to the best of the pre-war traditions of the Second International. The First International laid the ideological foundations of the international proletarian struggle for socialism. The Second International, at its best, was preparing the ground for the wide and massive expansion of the working-class movement. The Third, the Communist International, continuing the work of the First International and accepting the fruits of the work of the Second International, resolutely cut off the latter’s opportunism, its social-chauvinism, its bourgeois perversion of socialism, and began to implement the dictatorship of the proletariat...”

The First and Second Congresses of the Communist International were held under the leadership and with the active participation of V. I. Lenin. Lenin's works on cardinal issues of the theory and practice of the communist movement, reports, speeches, conversations with representatives of communist parties - all the many-sided activities of the leader of the world proletariat made a huge contribution to the ideological and organizational strengthening of the Comintern at the very moment of its creation, helping the young communist parties to become truly revolutionary parties of a new type. The principles developed by the First and Second Congresses of the Comintern contributed to the growth of the prestige of the communist parties among the working people of the whole world and to the education of experienced leaders of the communist movement.

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Story

The question of creating a Third International arose with the outbreak of the First World War in the context of the support of the leaders of the Second International by the governments of the warring countries. V. I. Lenin raised the question of creating a new International already in the manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP “War and Russian Social Democracy” published on November 1, 1914. An important contribution to the rallying of the left-wing Social Democrats was the holding of the anti-war Zimmerwald Conference and the Kienthal Conference, the creation of the Zimmerwald Left as part of the Zimmerwald Association.

November - December 1922; 408 delegates from 66 parties and organizations from 58 countries participated. By decision of the congress, the International Organization for Assistance to the Fighters of the Revolution was established.

June - July 1924 Decided on the Bolshevization of the national communist parties and their tactics in the light of the defeats of the revolutionary uprisings in Europe.

July - September 1928

The congress assessed the world political situation as a transitional to a new stage, characterized by a world economic crisis and an increase in the class struggle, developed the thesis about social fascism and the impossibility of political cooperation between communists with both left and right social democrats, adopted the Program and Charter of the Communist International .

July 25 - August 20, 1935 The main topic of the meetings was the solution of the issue of consolidating forces in the fight against the growing fascist threat. The United Workers' Front was created as a body for coordinating the activities of workers of various political orientations.

Stalin's accusations against the leadership of the Communist Party of Poland - in Trotskyism, anti-Bolshevism, in anti-Soviet positions - already in 1933 led to the arrest of Jerzy Czeszejko-Sochacki and the reprisal of some other leaders of the Polish communists (E. Pruchniak, J. Pashin, Y. Lensky, M . Kossuthskaya and others). The rest were repressed in 1937. In 1938, the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern issued a resolution dissolving the Communist Party of Poland. The founders of the Hungarian Communist Party and the leaders of the Hungarian Soviet Republic - Bela Kun, F. Bayaki, D. Bokanyi, J. Kelen, I. Rabinovich, S. Sabados, L. Gavro, F. Karikash - fell under a wave of repression.

Many Bulgarian communists who moved to the USSR were repressed, including R. Avramov, H. Rakovsky, B. Stomonyakov. The repressions also affected the communists of Romania. The founders of the Communist Party of Finland G. Rovio and A. Shotman, the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of Finland K. Manner and many other Finnish internationalists were repressed. More than a hundred Italian communists living in the USSR in the 1930s were arrested and sent to camps. The leaders and activists of the communist parties of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus (before their entry into the USSR) were subjected to mass repressions.

Dissolution of the Comintern

The Comintern was formally dissolved on May 15, 1943. The dissolution of the Comintern was in fact the demand of the allies for the opening of a second front. The announcement was positively received in Western countries, especially in the United States, and led to the strengthening of relations between these countries and the Soviet Union. Defending the need for dissolution, Stalin said: “Experience has shown that under Marx, and under Lenin, and now it is impossible to lead the labor movement of all countries of the world from one international center. Especially now, in conditions of war, when the Communist Parties in Germany, Italy and other countries have the task of overthrowing their governments and carrying out defeatist tactics, while the Communist Parties of the USSR, Britain and America and others, on the contrary, have the task of supporting their governments in every possible way for the speedy defeat of the enemy. There is another motive for the dissolution of the CI, which is not mentioned in the resolution. This is that the Communist parties belonging to the CI are falsely accused of being agents of a foreign state, and this hinders their work among the broad masses. With the dissolution of CI, this trump card is knocked out of the hands of enemies. The step being taken will undoubtedly strengthen the Communist Parties as national workers' parties and at the same time strengthen the internationalism of the popular masses, the basis of which is the Soviet Union. By dissolving the Comintern, neither the Politburo nor the former leadership of the CI were going to give up control and leadership of the communist movement in the world. They only sought to avoid their advertising, which brings certain inconveniences and costs. Instead of the Comintern, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks created a department of international information headed by G. Dimitrov, and after the war the Cominform was formed. The work carried out by the Comintern until May 1943 acquired an even greater scope.

Cominform

Cominform ceased to exist in 1956 shortly after the 20th Congress of the CPSU. The Cominform did not have a formal successor, but the CMEA and the Department of Internal Affairs, as well as periodically held meetings of Soviet-friendly communist and workers' parties, actually became such.

Structure of the Comintern

The charter of the Comintern, adopted in August 1920, stated: In essence, the Communist International should really and in fact be a single world communist party, the separate sections of which are the parties active in each country..

Governing Bodies

The governing body of the Comintern was Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI). Until 1922, it was formed from representatives delegated by the communist parties. From 1922 he was elected by the Congress of the Comintern.

In July 1919 it was created Small Bureau of the ECCI. In September 1921 it was renamed Presidium of the ECCI.

In 1919 was created Secretariat of the ECCI, who dealt mainly with organizational and personnel issues. It existed until 1926.

In 1921 it was created Organizational Bureau (Orgburo) of the ECCI which lasted until 1926.

In 1921 was created International Control Commission, whose tasks included checking the work of the ECCI apparatus, auditing finances, as well as checking individual sections (parties).

From 1919 to 1926 Chairman of the ECCI was Grigory Zinoviev. In 1926, the post of Chairman of the ECCI was abolished. Instead, the Political Secretariat of the ECCI was created from nine people. In August 1929, from the Political Secretariat of the ECCI, to prepare questions for their consideration by the Political Secretariat and to resolve the most important operational political issues, Political Commission of the Political Secretariat of the ECCI, which included O. Kuusinen, D. Manuilsky, a representative of the Communist Party of Germany (in agreement with the Central Committee of the KKE) and one candidate - O. Pyatnitsky.

In 1935 the position was established General Secretary of the ECCI. They became G. Dimitrov. The Political Secretariat and its Political Commission were abolished. The ECCI Secretariat was re-established.

Collective member organizations of the Comintern and affiliated organizations

International Organization for the Relief of Revolutionaries (IOPR, "Red Aid")
International Women's Secretariat
International Association of Revolutionary Writers
International Association of Revolutionary Theaters
International Committee of Friends of the USSR
Freethinking Proletarian International
Tenant International

Educational institutions of the Comintern

... At that time there were four komvuz in Moscow. The first of these, the Lenin School, was intended for comrades who had already accumulated a great deal of practical experience, but who were deprived of the opportunity to really learn. Future leaders of communist parties passed through this university. At the time described, Tito studied there, in particular.
The second komvuz where I was sent to study was the Yu. Yu. Markhlevsky Communist University of National Minorities of the West, who was at one time its first rector. It was created specifically for the national minorities of the West, but in fact there were about two dozen sections - Polish, German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, etc. Each of them included a special group of communists - immigrants from one or another national minority of a given country. For example, the Yugoslav section included Serbian and Croatian groups. As for the Jewish section, it covered Jewish communists from all countries, and in addition, Soviet Jews - members of the party. During summer holidays some of them traveled to their native places, and through them we knew about everything that was happening in the Soviet Union.
The third university was called KUTV... Students from the countries of the Middle East studied there. Finally, the Sun Yat-sen University was created specifically for the Chinese.
In all four universities, there were between two and three thousand carefully selected people.

- L. Trepper Big game. New York: Liberty Publishing House, 1989. (Chapter 5. FINALLY IN MOSCOW!)

Institutions of the Comintern for the collection and analysis of information and policy making

Historical facts

Archive of the Comintern

Notes

Lenin, V.I.: [Speech recorded on a gramophone record] // Complete Works: in 55 volumes / V. I. Lenin; Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU. - 5th ed. - M.: State. Publishing House Polit. lit., 1969. - T. 38: March - June 1919. - S. 230-231.
Why did Stalin dissolve the Comintern? | ANTI-SOVIET LEAGUE(neopr.) . maxpark.com Retrieved September 20, 2018.
Catalogs - NBUV National Library of Ukraine named after V.I. Vernadsky
Glezerov S. Permission to revolution: a conversation with Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of St. Petersburg State University L. Heifets and Doctor of Historical Sciences, prof. St. Petersburg State University V. Heifets // St. Petersburg Vedomosti. - 2019. - March 27
Usov V.N.
Created under the Krestintern in January 1925. Engaged in the study of agrarian and peasant issues in different countries, analysis of the agrarian policy of the communist parties
Created by a decree of the Executive Committee of the Comintern in September 1921 in Berlin. He was engaged in collecting and disseminating information about the labor movement in the capitalist countries.
Our slogan is the World Soviet Union!
Novosyolova E. Money for the cradle of the revolution // "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" - Federal issue. - 04/22/2014. - No. 6363 (91) .

Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Communist International, Comintern, 3rd International (1919-43), an international organization created in accordance with the needs and tasks of the revolutionary labor movement in the first stage of the general crisis of capitalism; historical successor to the 1st International (see International 1st) and heir to the best traditions of the 2nd International (see International 2nd), which collapsed after the outbreak of World War I as a result of an opportunistic degeneration and betrayal of proletarian internationalism by the overwhelming majority of the Social Democratic parties that were its members.
The collapse of the 2nd International prompted the Bolsheviks, led by V.I. Lenin to raise the question of creating a Third International cleansed of opportunism. This was already mentioned in the manifesto of the Central Committee of the RSDLP "War and Russian Social Democracy" published on November 1, 1914. Being the decisive authoritative force in the international labor movement, which remained true to proletarian internationalism, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of V.I. Lenin launched a struggle to rally the left groups in the social democratic parties. One of the most important prerequisites for the creation of a new International was the development of V.I. Lenin of ideological and political principles and theoretical foundations communist movement (revealing the imperialist nature of the 1st World War and substantiating the need to turn it into civil war against the bourgeoisie of one's own country; the doctrine of the revolutionary situation; the conclusion about the possibility and inevitability of the victory of the socialist revolution initially in a few or even in one, separately taken, capitalist country, formulated for the first time in 1915, etc.).
An important contribution to the rallying of the left Social Democrats was the active participation of Lenin and his associates in the work of the Zimmerwald Conference and the Kienthal Conference, the creation of the Zimmerwald Left as part of the Zimmerwald Association, and the propaganda of Bolshevik views on questions of war, peace and revolution at the international women's and youth conferences held in 1915 and the conference of socialists of the Entente countries. The activities of the Bolsheviks in preparation for the creation of the 3rd International brought more and more tangible results as the working class became more active and the workers and the broad masses of workers, who were convinced from their own experience of the fatality of social chauvinism, were gradually liberated from the nationalist frenzy. However, to establish K.I. succeeded only after the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, which had an enormous revolutionary impact on the whole world and created fundamentally new conditions for the struggle of the working class as a result of the emergence of the world's first socialist state. Lenin's Bolshevik Party stood at the head of this state. In the context of a powerful upsurge in the workers' and national liberation movements, the formation of communist parties began in a number of countries. In 1918 communist parties arose in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, and Finland. Revolutionary internationalist positions at that time were occupied by the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party (Close Socialists), the International Socialist Party of Argentina, the Left Social Democratic Party of Sweden, the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece, and others. Communist groups and circles formed in 1918-19 in Czechoslovakia , Romania, Italy, France, UK, Denmark, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Korea, Australia, South African Union and other countries.
In January 1919 in Moscow, on the initiative and under the leadership of V.I. Lenin held a meeting of representatives of the communist parties of Soviet Russia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Latvia, Finland, as well as the Balkan Revolutionary Social Democratic Federation (Bulgarian Tesnyaks and Romanian leftists) and the US Socialist Labor Party. The conference discussed the issue of convening an international congress of representatives of revolutionary proletarian parties, appealed to 39 revolutionary parties, groups and trends in the countries of Europe, Asia, America, Australia to take part in the work of the founding congress of the new International and developed a draft of its platform.
On March 2-6, 1919, the 1st (Constituent) Congress of the CI was held in Moscow, which was attended by 52 delegates from 35 parties and groups from 21 countries of the world. The congress was attended by representatives of the communist parties of Soviet Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Finland and other countries, as well as a number of communist groups (Czech, Bulgarian, Yugoslav, British, French, Swiss, etc.). The social-democratic parties of Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, the USA, the Balkan Revolutionary Social-Democratic Federation were represented at the congress. The Congress discussed and adopted the platform of K.I., developed on the basis of instructions from V.I. Lenin. The new epoch, which began with the victory of the October Revolution, was characterized in the platform as the epoch of the disintegration of capitalism, its internal disintegration, the epoch of the communist revolution of the proletariat. The task of winning and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat has become on the order of the day, the path to which lies through the rallying of all revolutionary forces, a break with opportunism of all stripes, through the international solidarity of the working people. In view of this, Congress recognized the need for the urgent establishment of K.I.
One of the most important policy documents of K.I. - abstracts and report of V.I. Lenin on bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In his report, V.I. Lenin showed that bourgeois democracy, defended under the guise of "democracy in general" by the parties of the 2nd International, is always essentially the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the dictatorship of the minority, while the dictatorship of the proletariat, which suppresses the resistance of the overthrown classes in the name of the interests of the majority, means democracy. for workers.
1st Congress of K.I. called on the workers of all countries to unite on the principles of proletarian internationalism in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, and to resolutely oppose the Second International, formally restored in February 1919 in Bern by its right-wing opportunist leaders (see Berne International). The Congress adopted the Manifesto to the Proletarians of the Whole World, which stated that the communists who had gathered in Moscow, representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of Europe, America and Asia, felt and recognized themselves as the successors and executors of the cause, the program of which was proclaimed by the founders of scientific communism K. Marx and F. Engels in the Communist Manifesto.
Assessing the role that the new International was to play, Lenin wrote in April 1919 that K.I. “... accepted the fruits of the work of the Second International, cut off its opportunist, social-chauvinist, bourgeois and petty-bourgeois filth and began to exercise the dictatorship of the proletariat” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th edition, vol. 38, p. 303). At the 1st Congress of K.I., according to Lenin, “... the banner of communism was only hoisted, around which the forces of the revolutionary proletariat were to gather” (ibid., vol. 41, p. 274). The Second Congress was to carry out the complete formalization of an international proletarian organization of a new type.
Between the 1st and 2nd Congresses, the revolutionary upsurge continued to grow. In 1919, Soviet republics arose in Hungary (March 21), Bavaria (April 13), and Slovakia (June 16). In Great Britain, France, the USA, Italy and other countries, a movement developed in defense of Soviet Russia from the intervention of the imperialist powers. The mass national liberation movement expanded in the colonies and semi-colonies (Korea, China, India, Turkey, Afghanistan, and others). The formation of communist parties continued. In May 1919, the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party (Close Socialists) was renamed into a communist one and joined the K.I. From March 1919 to November 1920 communist parties were formed in Yugoslavia, the USA, Mexico, Denmark, Spain, Indonesia, Iran, Great Britain, Turkey, Uruguay, and Australia. On joining K.I. declared the International Socialist Party of Argentina, the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece, the Left Social Democratic Party of Sweden, the Norwegian Labor Party, the Italian Socialist Party, the British Socialist Party, the Scottish faction of the English Independent Labor Party, the Socialist Party of Luxembourg, as well as revolutionary groups and trade unions in several countries . Under pressure from the revolutionary workers, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), the French Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of America, the English Independent Labor Party, the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, and some others announced a break with the 2nd International. The USPD and the French Socialist Party began negotiations to join the C.I.
Taking into its ranks the Social Democratic masses going to the left, K.I. could not allow persons who had not broken with the ideology and practice of reformism to penetrate into their organizations. One of the main tasks in the formation of new communist parties was a break with right-wing opportunism. At the same time, a threat from the “left” appeared in many communist parties, born of the youth and inexperience of the communist parties, often inclined to solve the fundamental issues of the revolutionary struggle too hastily, as well as the penetration of anarcho-syndicalist elements into the world communist movement. In the struggle against the "leftist danger", as well as in the formation and activity of the communist parties in general, Lenin's book "Children's disease, leftism" in communism played an exceptional role. This book, summarizing the experience of the strategy and tactics of the revolutionary struggle of the Bolshevik Party, showing its world-historical significance, helped the fraternal parties to master this experience. Lenin showed on the examples of the German, English, Italian and Dutch labor movement typical features"left communism": sectarianism; denial of party membership and party discipline; denial of the need to work in mass organizations (trade unions, cooperatives), in parliaments, municipalities, etc. Lenin also revealed the roots of "left" and right opportunism, showing the need for a constant struggle against them.
Speaking against the sectarian narrow-mindedness of the "Left Communists", Lenin called on the Communist Parties "... to learn as quickly as possible to supplement or replace, if necessary, one form of struggle with another, to adapt their tactics to any such change caused not by our class or not by our efforts" ( ibid., p. 89). Lenin's book largely determined the content and direction of the work of the 2nd congress of K.I. (opened July 19, 1920 in Petrograd, July 23 - August 17 continued and completed work in Moscow), the 2nd Congress of K.I. was more representative than the 1st: 217 delegates from 67 organizations (including 27 communist parties) from 37 countries participated in its work. The French Socialist Party and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany were represented at the congress with an advisory vote. The Congress listened to Lenin's report on the international situation and the main tasks of K.I. After analyzing the situation in the world that had developed by that time, Lenin warned the communist parties against underestimating the depth of the crisis of the capitalist system, on the one hand, and against illusions about the possibility of an automatic collapse of capitalism as a result of the crisis, on the other. “We must now,” Lenin said, “prove” by the practice of the revolutionary parties that they have enough consciousness, organization, connection with the exploited masses, determination, and skill to use this crisis for a successful, victorious revolution.
In order to prepare this, evidence, "we gathered mainly for a real congress of the Communist International" (ibid., p. 228).
One of the central tasks facing the young communist parties, still immature in ideological, political and organizational terms, was to transform them into parties of a new type bound by close ties with the working class. Its fulfillment was served by Twenty-one conditions for admission to the CI, approved by the 2nd Congress. These conditions (they included: recognition by the parties entering the Comintern of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the main principle of the revolutionary struggle and the theory of Marxism; a complete break with the reformists and centrists and their expulsion from the ranks of the party; a combination of legal and illegal methods of struggle; recognition of democratic centralism as the main organizational principles of the party, selfless loyalty to the principles of proletarian internationalism, etc.) were called upon to protect the communist parties from the penetration not only of open opportunists, but also of those elements whose inconsistency and inclination to compromise with traitors to the proletarian cause ruled out the possibility of unity with them. Those centrist parties that could not free themselves from the ideology of social democracy and did not agree with the conditions for admission to the K.I. created in February 1921 at a conference in Vienna the so-called International Workers' Association of Socialist Parties, which went down in history under the name "International 21 / 2". The latter in 1923 merged with the 2nd International (Bern) into the Socialist Workers' International (Socintern).
Of great fundamental importance were adopted by the 2nd Congress K.I. decisions on national and colonial issues. Proceeding from the fact that in the new historical epoch the national liberation movement is becoming an integral part of the world revolutionary process, the congress set the task of merging the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat of the developed countries with the national liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples into a single anti-imperialist stream. The emergence of the socialist state and its leading role in the global revolutionary movement opened up new opportunities for the peoples fighting for national independence, and above all, the prospect of a transition to socialism, bypassing the stage of capitalist development. Pointing to this perspective, the congress reflected in its resolution Lenin's idea of a close alliance of all national and colonial liberation movements with Soviet Russia. At the same time, the congress pointed out the need to combat petty-bourgeois-nationalist prejudices.
In determining the positions of the communist parties on the agrarian question, the congress proceeded from the Leninist principles of the alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry and the inevitability after the victory of the socialist revolution of the replacement of individual peasant farming by collective farming, stressing, however, that in solving this problem it is necessary to act "...with tremendous caution and gradualness.. .” (see Communist International in documents, M., 1933, p. 135). The Congress adopted the Charter of the CI, based on the principle of democratic centralism, and also formed the governing body of the Comintern - the Executive Committee (ECCI). Describing the historical significance of the 2nd Congress, Lenin said: “First, the Communists had to proclaim their principles to the whole world. This was done at the 1st congress. This is the first step. The second step was the organizational formation of the Communist International and the development of conditions for admission to it, conditions for separating in practice from the centrists, from the direct and indirect agents of the bourgeoisie within the labor movement. This was done at the II Congress” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th edition, v.44, p.96).
At the end of 1920 and the beginning of 1921, the first post-war economic crisis began in many countries, taking advantage of which the bourgeoisie launched an offensive against the working class. The class battles of the proletariat began to turn into defensive ones. Now it has become obvious that it was not possible to break world capitalism by direct assault. A more thorough and planned preparation for the revolution was required, and this posed the problem of drawing the broad masses of the working people into the revolutionary struggle. In the Soviet Republic, the Bolshevik Party passed to the New Economic Policy, which was the first link in the implementation of Lenin's brilliant plan for building socialism in one country in conditions of capitalist encirclement. The Bolsheviks once again showed an example of the ability to determine the political line, taking into account the changing objective situation.
Under the new conditions, the central place in the struggle between the two social forces on the world stage - capitalism and the Soviet state - was occupied by the economy. “Now our main influence on the international revolution,” Lenin noted, “we exert with our economic policy ... We will solve this problem - and then we will win on an international scale for sure and finally” (ibid., vol. 43, p. 341) .
3rd Congress of K.I. (Moscow, June 22 - July 12, 1921; 605 delegates from 103 parties and organizations participated, including 48 communist parties from 52 countries) outlined a program for the restructuring of the communist movement in accordance with the requirements of a new stage in world development. The Congress was presented with a draft theses on tactics, prepared under the leadership of Lenin, which substantiated the need for the Communist Parties to win the majority of the working class. The delegates of the Communist Parties of Germany, Austria, Italy and some of the delegates of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia subjected the theses to criticism "from the left" and reproached Lenin for being "on the right wing of the Congress." The "Leftists" countered Lenin's line of struggle for the masses with the so-called "offensive theory."
On July 1, 1921, Lenin delivered his famous speech at the congress in defense of the tactics of the Comintern, in which he showed how communist revolutionaries should act when faced with a change in the real situation: not to stick to the old slogans that were correct in the past, but removed from the agenda by life itself, not be limited general provisions Marxism, specifically analyze the new situation and change accordingly political course, tactics. Lenin pointed out that anyone who, in the situation that had developed by the middle of 1921, demanded at all costs, immediately, immediately "attack" the bourgeoisie, he was pushing the working class into an adventure and could ruin the Communist Party. If it follows such a call, it will inevitably turn out to be a vanguard without a mass, a headquarters without an army. Lenin showed the complete theoretical groundlessness and political harm of the demand of the "lefts" that the main blow and the main forces of the communists in the workers' movement should, as before, be directed against the centrists. Lenin noted that under the new conditions, the young communist parties, having accumulated experience in the fight against centrism and right-wing opportunism, must develop the ability to fight "leftism" and sectarianism. They must prove in practice that they are the vanguard of the working-class movement, they know how to unite with the masses, to rally them around a correct line, to create a united front of the working class, making compromises with other political trends and organizations where necessary. The most important task of the Communist Parties under the new conditions was, as Lenin pointed out, to win over the majority of the working class. The congress emphasized the importance of the struggle of the communist parties for the immediate demands of the working class and other sections of the working people.
The 3rd Congress of the Comintern unanimously approved the developed under the leadership of V.I. Lenin's theses on tactics. “More thorough, more solid preparation for new, more and more decisive battles, both defensive and offensive, is the main and main thing in the decisions of the Third Congress,” Lenin pointed out (ibid., vol. 44, p. 98) . Based on the decisions of the congress, a united front tactic was developed. In December 1921, the Presidium of the ECCI adopted detailed theses on a united workers' front.
The first experience of applying the new tactics in the international working-class movement was the Conference of the Three Internationals of 1922 (3rd, 21/2 and 2nd) held in Berlin. However, Lenin believed that the agreements on joint speeches concluded at this conference were reached at too high a price, since the delegation of the Comintern (Klara Zetkin, N.I. Bukharin, K. Radek and others) made excessive and irrelevant to the essence of the issue of unity of action, political concessions to the representatives of the 2nd and 21st/2nd Internationals. The leadership of the 2nd and 21/2nd Internationals frustrated the implementation of the decisions taken at the conference.
4th Congress of K.I. (opened November 5, 1922 in Petrograd, November 9-December 5, continued and completed work in Moscow; 408 delegates from 66 parties and organizations from 58 countries of the world participated) continued the discussion of a number of issues considered at the 3rd Congress. In a report devoted to the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution and the prospects for the world revolution, Lenin substantiated the thesis that it is necessary for the Communist Parties not only to be able to advance during the period of upsurge, but also to learn to retreat in the conditions of the ebb of the revolutionary wave. Using the example of NEP in Soviet Russia, he showed how a temporary retreat should be used to prepare a new offensive against capitalism. The prospects for the world revolution will be even better, V.I. Lenin, if all communist parties learn to master the organization, structure, method and content of revolutionary work. Foreign communist parties "... must accept part of the Russian experience" (ibid., vol. 45, p. 293). Lenin especially emphasized the need for creative assimilation of the experience of Bolshevism. Having paid great attention to the fascist danger (in connection with the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in Hungary and Italy), the 4th Congress of K.I. stressed that the main means of struggle against fascism is the tactics of the united workers' front. In order to rally in a united front the broad masses of working people, not yet ready to fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat, but already capable of participating in the economic and political struggle against the bourgeoisie, the slogan "workers' government" was put forward (later expanded to the slogan "workers' and peasants' government"). The congress pointed to the need to fight for the unity of the trade union movement, which found itself in a state of deep split. The Congress clarified that a specific application of the united front tactic in the conditions of colonial and dependent countries is the united anti-imperialist front, which unites national patriotic forces capable of fighting against colonialism.
1923 was the year of major revolutionary uprisings that completed the post-war revolutionary upsurge. The protests of the proletariat that ended in defeat in Germany, Bulgaria and Poland revealed the weakness of the communist parties. The task of strengthening them on the basis of mastering Leninism, assimilating the international, generally significant in Bolshevism, arose to its full potential. This task, which was called the Bolshevization of the Communist Parties, had to be solved in a difficult situation. The beginning of the partial stabilization of capitalism was accompanied by the activation of the right-wing leaders of social democracy and reformist trade unions, who intensively planted in the labor movement the ideas of class cooperation (the theory of "political and economic democracy", allegedly developing under capitalism, "organized capitalism", etc.). Both right-wing and leftist-sectarian, Trotskyist elements raised their heads in the communist parties.
In January 1924 V.I. died. Lenin. It was a huge loss for the world communist movement. After Lenin's death, Trotsky and his followers openly opposed Lenin's theory of the possibility of building socialism in one country, imposing the RCP(b) and the entire K.I. the disastrous line of artificially "pushing" the world revolution without taking into account the balance of class forces and the level of political consciousness of the masses in various countries. A decisive struggle was launched against Trotskyism. The fact that the Bolshevik Party defended the Leninist course of building socialism in the USSR, defended Leninism against Trotskyism, was a major victory for the entire international communist movement.
5th Congress of K.I. (Moscow, June 17 - July 8, 1924; 504 delegates participated, representing 49 communist parties, one people's revolutionary party, as well as 10 international organizations) went down in history as a congress of the struggle for the Bolshevization of the Communist parties. In the main document of the congress - the theses, it was emphasized that the forging of genuine Leninist parties is the central task of all the activities of K.I. The congress pointed out that the features of a truly Bolshevik party are: mass character (the slogan "To the masses!" put forward by the 3rd congress remained in force); maneuverability, excluding any dogmatism and sectarianism in the methods and means of struggle; fidelity to the principles of revolutionary Marxism; democratic centralism and solidity of the party, which should be "... poured from one piece" (see Communist International in documents, M., 1933, p. 411). “Bolshevization,” it was said somewhat later in the decisions of the 5th expanded plenum of the ECCI (April 1925), “is the ability to apply the general principles of Leninism to a given specific situation in one country or another” (ibid., p. 478). Course K.I. made it possible for each communist party, using its own experience of practical struggle, to become a national political force capable of acting independently in the specific conditions of its country, to become the real vanguard of the labor movement there. But in the implementation of this course, distortions were allowed. Congress, for example, attempted to formulate methods common to all parties for the application of united front tactics. Unity of action was envisaged only from below, negotiations at the top between parties and organizations were allowed only if initially unity was achieved at the bottom. Such stereotyped tactics, as the Comintern itself later noted in its documents, limited the initiative of the Communist Parties and prevented them from adapting their actions to the specific situation. This was a manifestation of a simplified approach to the tactics of a united workers' front - only as a method of agitation, and not a method of practical implementation of unity of action in the labor movement.
The theses of the Fifth Congress contained an incorrect proposition that there was no difference in essence between Social Democracy and Fascism, which subsequently brought significant harm to the practice of unity of action. One of the factors that gave rise to such manifestations of sectarianism was the fierce struggle that the leaders of the Social Democratic parties and the Socialist International waged against the country of the Soviets and the Communist Parties, and the brutal persecution of the Communists by the Social Democratic governments.
In connection with the formation of the Trotskyist-Zinoviev opposition bloc in the CPSU (b) and the activation of Trotskyists in other communist parties, K.I. fully supported the position of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, describing Trotskyism as “... a variety of Menshevism”, combining “...“ European opportunism ”with a left-wing radical phrase that often covers up political passivity” (V expanded plenum of the ECCI, March April 1925, see ibid., p. 481). An especially important role in the ideological defeat of Trotskyism was played by the 7th expanded plenum of the ECCI (December 1926); in the report of I.V. Stalin at this plenum, and then in the resolution of the plenum, the nature of Trotskyism as a petty-bourgeois Social-Democratic deviation in the international working-class movement was revealed. In its further struggle against Leninism, against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Trotskyism more and more revealed its counter-revolutionary essence, the 6th Congress of K.I. (1928) characterized the political content of the Trotskyist platform as counter-revolutionary.
A decisive ideological and political struggle against Trotskyism in the ranks of K.I., in which representatives of the CPSU (b) - I.V. Stalin, D.Z. Manuilsky, V.G. Knorin, I.A. Pyatnitsky. EAT. Yaroslavsky and others, representatives of friendly communist parties - G. Dimitrov, P. Togliatti (Erkoli), M. Torez, P. Semar, B. Shmeral, O. Kuusinen, Y. Sirola, E. Telman, V. Kolarov, p. Katayama and others, contributed to the strengthening of the communist parties on the positions of Leninism.
From July 17 to September 1, 1928, the 6th CI Congress was held in Moscow, which was attended by 515 delegates from 65 organizations (including 50 communist parties) from 57 countries. The Congress noted the approach of a new, "third" period in the revolutionary development of the world after October 1917 - a period of sharp aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism, as evidenced by the signs of an impending world economic crisis, the intensification of class battles and a new upsurge in the liberation movement in the colonial and dependent countries. In this connection, the congress approved the tactics outlined by the ninth plenum of the ECCI (February 1928), which was then expressed in the formula "class against class." This tactic provided for intensifying the struggle against the reformism of the Social Democracy and oriented the Communist Parties to prepare for the possible emergence of an acute socio-political crisis in the capitalist countries. However, it proceeded only from the perspective of the proletarian revolution as the immediate task of the day and underestimated the dangers of fascism, which could take advantage of the crisis for reactionary purposes. In addition, this tactic was applied in many cases in a sectarian manner. The Congress called on the Communists and the working class to intensify their struggle against the threat of a new world war. The congress unanimously stressed the need for all communist parties to defend the Soviet Union - the first and only country of socialism at that time. “The defense of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the international bourgeoisie,” said the theses of the congress on the fight against the war danger, “corresponds to class interests and is the duty of honor of the international proletariat” (ibid., p. 810). Declaring the unconditional and active support of K.I. and all the communist parties of the national liberation struggle of the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries, the congress called for the defense of the Chinese revolution from imperialist interventionists. At the same time, under the impression of the betrayal of the Kuomintang to the cause of the Chinese revolution (1927), the congress gave an erroneous assessment of the national bourgeoisie as a force no longer capable of participating in the struggle against imperialism.
The 6th Congress adopted the Program of K.I., which gave a scientific description of capitalism, especially the period of its general crisis, outlined the periodization of the revolutionary movement in the 10 years that had passed since the October Revolution, and highlighted the goals of the world communist movement. The Program emphasized the enormous importance of the first socialist state in history for the revolutionary struggle throughout the capitalist world and formulated the mutual international duties of the Soviet Union and the international proletariat. However, on certain questions of tactics, the Program also reflected the incorrect assessments noted above. Developing the problems of strategy and tactics of the international communist movement, K.I. with the active participation of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he helped the communist parties overcome the mistakes associated with the activation of representatives of the right deviation in a number of communist parties [N.I. Bukharin and others in the CPSU(b), D. Loveston in the US Communist Party, G. Brandler in the German Communist Party, etc.], who overestimated the degree of stabilization of capitalism, tried to prove the possibility of "organized capitalism" and made other opportunistic mistakes.
New tasks confronted the communist movement in connection with the consequences of the world economic crisis of 1929-33, unprecedented in its destructive force, the intensification of the aggressiveness of imperialism and the offensive against democracy, up to the turn towards fascism. During this period, the communist parties of a number of countries acted as an influential force; a stable Marxist-Leninist core was forged in them, which rallied in France around M. Thorez and M. Cachin, in Italy - A. Gramsci and P. Togliatti (Ercoli), in Germany - E. Thalmann, V. Pick, V. Ulbricht, in Bulgaria - G. Dimitrov and V. Kolarov, in Finland - O. Kuusinen, in the USA - W. Foster, in Poland - Y. Lensky, in Spain - H. Diaz and D. Ibarruri, in the UK - W. Gallagher and G. Podlita. The changed conditions put the communist parties in front of problems that were not foreseen in the previous decisions of K.I.; moreover, some of the previously adopted tactical guidelines and recommendations of K.I. turned out to be unsuitable. The tragic experience of Germany, where fascism seized power in 1933, was a hard lesson for the entire international workers' and communist movement. The experience of the anti-fascist struggle has shown that its success requires the unification of all democratic forces, the broadest sections of the people, and, above all, the unity of the working class.
The 13th Plenum of the ECCI (November-December 1933), noting the growing fascist threat in the capitalist countries, placed particular emphasis on the creation of a united workers' front as the main means of combating this threat. However, a new tactical line, corresponding to the new conditions of the revolutionary struggle, still had to be worked out. It was developed taking into account the experience of the armed battles of the Austrian and Spanish proletariat in 1934, the struggle of the French Communist Party for a united workers' and people's front in their own country, and the anti-fascist struggle of the communist parties of other countries. This line was finally determined by the 7th KI Congress, preparations for which took place in the conditions of the broadest collective discussion of urgent problems.
By the time of the convening of the 7th Congress, K.I. (Moscow, July 25 - August 20, 1935) in K.I. included 76 communist parties and organizations, 19 of them as sympathizers. There were 3,141,000 communists in their ranks, including 785,500 in the capitalist countries. Only 26 organizations operated legally, the remaining 50 were driven underground and subjected to severe persecution. The congress was attended by 513 delegates representing 65 communist parties, as well as a number of international organizations - MOPR, KIM, Profintern, etc. E. Telman, who was in prison in Nazi Germany, was elected honorary chairman of the congress. The Congress discussed the following issues: 1. Report on the activities of the ECCI (speaker V. Pick); 2. Report on the work of the International Control Commission (speaker Z. Angaretis); 3. The offensive of fascism and the tasks of K.I. in the struggle for the unity of the working class against fascism (speaker G. Dimitrov); 4. Preparation of the imperialist war and tasks of K.I. (speaker P. Togliatti); 5. Results of the construction of socialism in the USSR (speaker DZ Manuilsky); 6. Election of the governing bodies of the Comintern. The work of the congress was held in an atmosphere of businesslike, comprehensive discussion and creative criticism and self-criticism.
The historical significance of the 7th Congress lies, first of all, in the fact that it outlined the clear strategic and tactical lines of the communist parties in the struggle against the onset of fascism and the unleashing of a new world war. The Congress defined the class essence of fascism in power as "an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital..." (Resolutions of the VII World Congress of the Communist International, [M.], 1935, p.10-11). The Congress stated that the coming of fascism to power did not mean the usual replacement of one bourgeois government by another, but the replacement of one form of class rule of the bourgeoisie - parliamentary democracy - with its other form, an openly reactionary, terrorist dictatorship. In contrast to the post-October revolutionary upsurge, when the working class faced the question of a choice - a socialist revolution or bourgeois democracy (and support for the latter at that moment meant an actual transition to the side of the class enemy), the political crisis of the early 30s. put another alternative - fascism or bourgeois democracy.
In connection with this, the question of relations with the Social Democracy was also raised differently. The offensive of fascism led to serious changes in the social democratic movement itself. The line of an irreconcilable struggle not only with its right-wing, openly reactionary leaders, but also with the centrists, which was absolutely correct in its time, in the new conditions needed to be revised. Now it was necessary to unite all those who, for one reason or another, could oppose the fascist danger hanging over the peoples and the threat of a new world war. The tactics of the communist movement had to be brought into line with the new tasks. It was necessary to decisively end sectarianism, which remained one of the obstacles to the unity of action of the working class. The change by the 7th Congress of the previous line did not mean, of course, the rejection of the ultimate goals of the movement - the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, for socialism. The struggle for democracy strengthened the position of the proletariat on the general democratic front, contributed to the creation and strengthening of the alliance of the working class, the peasantry and all the working masses, and, consequently, helped to form the political army of the socialist revolution. Having considered the problems posed to the communist movement in the new situation, the 7th Congress of K.I. determined the tactics of the united workers' and people's front, the foundations of which were formulated by Lenin at the 3rd Congress of the Comintern. The first task of the international workers' movement was to create a united workers' front. The Congress emphasized that it does not place unity of action "... no conditions, with the exception of one - elementary, acceptable to all workers ...: that the unity of action should be directed against fascism, against the offensive of capital, against the threat of war ..." ( Dimitrov G., The onset of fascism and the tasks of the Communist International..., see in Selected works, v.1, M., 1957, p.395). Of course, such a broad and flexible presentation of the question of a united workers' front did not signify reconciliation with the opportunism that was carried by the right-wing leaders of the Social Democracy. Closely connected with the problem of a united workers' front was the new formulation of the question of the unity of the trade union movement both on a national and international scale. The Congress came to the conclusion that it was necessary for the communist-led unions to either join the reformist unions or unite with them on a platform of struggle against fascism and the advance of capital. The congress raised the question of the prospects for the political unity of the working class more flexibly. Congress developed the principles of the Popular Front. It was about uniting on the basis of a united working front of broad sections of the peasantry, the petty urban bourgeoisie, the working intelligentsia, i.e. precisely those strata that fascism tried to drag along with it, intimidating it with the bogey of the red danger. The main means of creating a popular front, the congress noted, is the consistent struggle of the revolutionary proletariat in defense of the specific demands and interests of these strata. The congress developed the question of a popular front government, which was seen as the power of a broad class coalition directed against fascism and war. In its development, this power, in the presence favorable conditions could develop into a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, which in turn paved the way for the dictatorship of the proletariat. An enormous contribution to the development of the problems of the Popular Front was made by G. Dimitrov, representatives of the CPSU (b), French, Spanish and other communist parties.
The conclusions of the 7th Congress on the questions of the national liberation movement were of great importance. Rejecting the leftist attitudes, which were based on an underestimation of the national, anti-imperialist tasks of the revolutions in the colonial countries, the congress pointed out that for most colonies and semi-colonies the stage of a national liberation struggle directed against the imperialist oppressors was inevitable. The main slogan put forward by the congress for the peoples of the oppressed and dependent countries is to strive for the creation of an anti-imperialist united front, uniting all the forces of national liberation. This slogan meant the consistent continuation and development of the policy of the Comintern on the national-colonial question, developed under the leadership of Lenin.
One of the central questions of the 7th Congress was the question of the struggle against the outbreak of a new world war. Noting that the redivision of the world had already begun, that the main warmongers were German and Italian fascism and Japanese imperialism, that the imperialists of the West were encouraging fascist aggression, the congress emphasized with all its might that in the event of an attack on the USSR, the communists would call on the working people "... by all means and at any cost to contribute to the victory of the Red Army over the armies of the imperialists ”(Resolutions of the VII World Congress of the Communist International, [M.], 1935, p. 44). On behalf of the Communists of all countries, the congress declared that the Soviet Union is a bulwark of the freedom of the peoples, that the victory of socialism in the USSR had a revolutionary effect on the working masses of all countries, instilled in them confidence in their own strength and conviction in the necessity and practical possibility of overthrowing capitalism and building socialism. In the event of fascist aggression, the congress emphasized, the communists and the working class are obliged to "...stand...in the front ranks of the fighters for national independence and wage the liberation war to the end..." (ibid., p. 42). Having refuted the slanderous allegations that the communists want war in the expectation that it will bring revolution, G. Dimitrov put forward in his closing speech at the closing of the congress the position that “the working masses can interfere with the imperialist war by their military actions” (Dimitrov G.M. , In the struggle for a united front against fascism and war, M., 1939, p. 93). G. Dimitrov connected this possibility (which was completely absent in 1914) primarily with the fact of the existence of the Soviet Union and its peace policy.
The Congress elected the governing bodies of the Comintern - the Executive Committee, the International Control Commission, the Presidium and the Secretariat of the ECCI. G. Dimitrov, an outstanding revolutionary-internationalist, was elected General Secretary of the ECCI.
7th Congress of K.I. was an important milestone in the further development of the forms of unity of the international communist movement. Taking into account the growth of political maturity and the expansion of the geographical range of the activities of the Communists, the Congress considered it possible and necessary to make changes in the methods and forms of leadership of K.I. The Congress proposed to the ECCI "... to avoid, as a rule, direct interference in the internal organizational affairs of the communist parties" (Resolutions of the VII World Congress of the Communist International, [M.], 1935, p. 4). The ECCI was to concentrate on the development of basic political and tactical provisions of general international significance. Soon after the 7th Congress, on the initiative of representatives of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in K.I. The Secretariat of the ECCI adopted a number of important resolutions in this direction.
Fulfilling the decisions of the congress, the most prominent figures of the communist parties actively worked in the leadership of K.I. in an atmosphere of mutual trust and comradely cooperation. The principle of collective leadership was put into practice. Questions of the work of this or that party were discussed with the active participation of its representatives. Sometimes these discussions were critical. The conclusions and recommendations made during the discussions were always the fruit of the collective decision of all participants.
During this period, some negative phenomena associated with Stalin's personality cult also took place in the communist movement.
After the 7th Congress K.I. the communist parties of France, Spain, China and other countries, acting in the spirit of his decisions, enriched the world communist movement with valuable experience in the struggle to expand ties with the masses, to create and strengthen the Popular Front. In France, the victory of the Popular Front (established in 1935) in the April-May 1936 parliamentary elections not only eliminated the danger of a fascist coup, but also made it possible to carry out a number of progressive reforms. In Spain, the enormous possibilities of the Popular Front, created in January 1936 as a force mobilizing the masses for the struggle against fascism, for the implementation of profound social transformations, were especially convincingly revealed during the National Revolutionary War of the Spanish people against the fascist rebels and the Italo-German interventionists (1936-39) . In China, the Communists directed their efforts towards creating a united anti-Japanese front of all the country's patriotic forces on the basis of cooperation between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. In Brazil, in 1935, the National Liberation Alliance, which united the democratic forces, was created, which took over the leadership of the anti-fascist armed struggle that unfolded in the autumn of that year.
The Communists intensified their struggle to unite the working class and all democratic forces on an international scale. In order to restore the unity of the trade union movement, the Red Trade Unions led by the Communists, which were part of the Profintern (Red Trade Union International), began to join the general trade union associations of their countries, and in 1937 the Profintern ceased to exist. The Communists took an active part in the unfolding in the 30s. the anti-war movement of the democratic public (international workers' and peasants' congresses, international congresses of writers, journalists, cultural figures, sports, women's, youth, etc.), as well as in the movement of solidarity with the Spanish, Chinese and Ethiopian peoples who fought for their freedom and independence.
Executive Committee K.I. in 1935-39 he proposed ten times to the leadership of the Socialist Workers' International a specific platform for uniting the efforts of the communist and social democratic movements in the struggle against fascism and unleashing war. In 1935, twice - in Brussels and Paris - representatives of the ECCI Cachin and Thorez met with the leaders of the Socialist Workers' International. However, these efforts did not find the proper response from the right-wing leaders of the Social Democracy. The position of the Socialist Workers' International and the socialist parties led to the fact that the international working class remained split in the face of the onset of fascism and the growing danger of a new world war.
As a result of K.I. between the two world wars, the international working-class movement as a whole met the 2nd world war 1939-45 more prepared than the 1st. Despite the fact that the split of the working class and the policy of the Western powers prevented a new war, the influence of the working class on the nature, course and results of World War II was wider and more significant than in 1914-18.
The great patriotic and international feat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Soviet people in the war against fascism, the heroic anti-fascist struggle of the communists of Poland, Yugoslavia, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Mongolia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands , Luxembourg, China, Korea, Vietnam, Spanish, German, Finnish and Japanese communists, the selfless activities of all the communist parties of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition were a significant contribution of the international communist movement in deciding the fate of the post-war world. However, as the world communist movement grew (1917 - 400 thousand communists, 1939 - 4.3 million), the level of political maturity increased and the tasks of the communist parties became more complicated, K.I. the organizational form of their association, which met the needs of the initial period of the communist movement, no longer corresponded to the new stage of its development.
The variety of situations in different countries and regions of the world, created by the nature and characteristics of the 2nd World War, changed the position of K.I. as the unified center of the entire communist movement. Some communist parties were supposed to operate in the aggressor countries, others - in the countries - victims of aggression. Some remained legal in countries with imperialist governments that fought against the fascist powers, others were driven underground by governments that capitulated to the aggressor. Some were located in colonies occupied or under threat of occupation by the states of the fascist bloc, others operated in colonies that were outside the direct sphere of war. Communist parties had to carefully consider the situation in their countries, the peculiarities of the domestic and foreign policy of this or that state. Due to all this, the leadership of the world communist movement from one center became practically not only impossible, but also inexpedient, because there would be a danger of schematizing tactics, imposing such decisions that did not correspond to the specific situation.
In addition, in order to ensure the greatest possible unity of action of all national and international forces ready to fight against fascism, it was necessary to eliminate everything that could interfere with this, in particular, it was necessary to completely bury the myth of "Moscow's interference" in the internal affairs of other countries, to deprive any grounds for slander that the communist parties are not independent and act "on orders from outside." For all these reasons, the Presidium of the ECCI in May 1943 decided to dissolve the CI, which was approved by all its sections.
The great historical merit of K.I. consisted, first of all, in the fact that he defended the teaching of Marxism-Leninism from its vulgarization and distortion by opportunists, both from the right and from the "left", united Marxism-Leninism with the labor movement on an international scale, developed the Marxist-Leninist theory, strategy and tactics in the conditions of the first stage of the general crisis of capitalism and the building of socialism in the USSR, contributed to the rallying of the vanguard of the advanced workers of many countries and the truly proletarian party, helped them mobilize the masses of working people to defend their economic and political interests and fight against fascism and imperialist wars, strengthened internationalist unity of the working class, fought for the development and victory of the national liberation movement and played an important role in preparing the historic revolutionary transformations carried out during and after the end of World War II. The communist parties that led the working class during the people's democratic socialist revolutions that unfolded in a number of countries went through the school of K.I. Great political experience, close ties with the first country of socialism - the Soviet Union allowed them to successfully carry out democratic and socialist transformations. All this led to the formation of a mighty world socialist system, which is exerting a decisive influence on the entire course of world history in the interests of peace and socialism.
The experience of K.I. teaches that the strength and effectiveness of the communist movement is determined by loyalty to proletarian internationalism. K.I. raised the banner of internationalism high and contributed to the spread of its ideas throughout the world. After the dissolution of K.I. the forms of international ties between the fraternal parties have changed. However, the need to protect, develop and strengthen the principles of proletarian internationalism in every possible way remains a paramount task. This is a vital necessity for the communist movement: internationalism lies at the very foundation of its activity as a world force that expresses the fundamental interests of the working class, of all working people. Internationalism opposes national strife and racial enmity, beneficial to the exploiting classes. The establishment and spread of internationalism is the most reliable guarantee against the fragmentation of the communist movement into separate detachments, against the danger of locking them into national or regional frameworks. At the present stage, as noted by the 1969 International Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties, the defense of real socialism is an integral part of proletarian internationalism. The correct internationalist policy of the communist parties is of fundamental importance for the fate of the entire working-class movement, for the fate of mankind. The traditions of K.I., the richest political experience he has accumulated, faithfully serve the communist parties in their struggle for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism, in their struggle for the unity of the international communist movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, proletarian internationalism, in the struggle against the right and "Left" opportunism.
In the new conditions that developed in the post-war period, Lenin's ideas and principles of the international communist movement received further development in the documents of the international conferences of communist and workers' parties in 1957, 1960 and 1969, in the decisions of the congresses of the CPSU, in the Program of the CPSU, in the Marxist-Leninist program documents of the fraternal parties.

Communist International (Comintern, International 3rd) - an international revolutionary proletarian organization that united the communist parties of various countries; existed from 1919 to 1943.

In 1919-1920. The Comintern set itself the task of leading the world socialist revolution, designed to replace the world capitalist economy with the world system of communism through the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie. In 1921, at the Third Congress of the Comintern, V. I. Lenin criticized the supporters of the "offensive theory", who called for revolutionary battles, regardless of the objective situation. The main task of the Communist Parties was to strengthen the position of the working class, consolidate and expand the real results of the struggle in defense of everyday interests, combined with the preparation of the working masses for the struggle for the socialist revolution. The solution of this problem required the consistent implementation of the Leninist slogan: to work wherever there is a mass - in trade unions, youth and other organizations.

In the initial period of the activity of the Comintern and the organizations adjoining it, when making decisions, a preliminary analysis of the situation was carried out, a creative discussion was held, and a desire was manifested to find answers to common questions, taking into account national characteristics and traditions. Subsequently, the working methods of the Comintern underwent serious changes: any dissent was regarded as aiding reaction and fascism. Dogmatism and sectarianism had a negative impact on the international communist and workers' movement. Especially great harm they caused the creation of a united front and relations with social democracy, which was regarded as the "moderate wing of fascism", the "main enemy" of the revolutionary movement, the "third party of the bourgeoisie", etc. The campaign of "purification" of its ranks had a negative impact on the activities of the Comintern from the so-called "rightists" and "conciliators", launched by I. V. Stalin after the removal of N. I. Bukharin from the leadership of the Comintern.

In the 1st half of the 30s. there was a significant shift in the alignment of class forces on the world stage. It manifested itself in the onset of reaction, fascism, and the growth of the military threat. The task of creating an anti-fascist, all-democratic union, primarily of communists and social democrats, came to the fore. Its solution required the development of a platform capable of uniting all anti-fascist forces. Instead, the Stalinist leadership of the Comintern set a course for a socialist revolution, supposedly capable of outpacing the onset of fascism. Understanding the need for a turn in the policy of the Comintern and the Communist Parties came belatedly. The 7th Congress of the Comintern, held in the summer of 1935, worked out the policy of a united workers' and broad popular front, which created opportunities for joint action by communists and social democrats, all revolutionary and anti-fascist forces to repulse fascism, preserve peace, and fight for social progress. The new strategy was not implemented for a number of reasons, including the negative impact of Stalinism on the activities of the Comintern and Communist parties. Terror in the late 1930s against party cadres in the Soviet Union spread to the leading cadres of the communist parties of Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Yugoslavia and other countries. The tragic events in the history of the Comintern were in no way linked to the policy of unity between the revolutionary and democratic forces.

A tangible (albeit temporary) damage to the anti-fascist policy of the communists was caused by the conclusion in 1939 of the Soviet-German pact. During the years of World War II, the Communist Parties of all countries stood firmly on anti-fascist positions, on the positions of proletarian internationalism and the struggle for the national independence of their countries. At the same time, the conditions for the activities of the Communist Parties in the new, more complicated situation required new organizational forms of association. Based on this, on May 15, 1943, the Presidium of the ECCI decided to dissolve the Comintern.