Comintern

The Comintern (from Russian Коммунистичекий Интернационал (Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional) ? Communist International), also known as the Third International, was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919 by Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (bolshevik), which intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State." The Comintern represented a split from the Second International in response to the latter's failure to form a unified coalition against the First World War, which the Third Internationalists regarded as a bourgeois imperialist war.

From the Last Congress to Dissolution

The last Congress of the Comintern was held in 1935 and officially endorsed the Popular Front against fascism. This policy argued that Communist Parties should seek to form a Popular Front with all parties that opposed fascism and not limit themselves to forming a United Front with those parties based in the working class. There was no significant opposition to this policy within any of the national sections of the Comintern; in France and Spain in particular, it would have momentous consequences.

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As the Seventh World Congress officially repudiated the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism as the purpose of the Comintern, Leon Trotsky was led to state that it was the death of the Comintern as a revolutionary International - and therefore a New International needed to be built. Trotsky also argued that the Stalinist parties were now to be considered reformist parties, similar to the social democratic parties (but also playing a role as border guards for the Russian state).

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As a result, in 1938 the Fourth International was founded in opposition to the Comintern. The communists of the Fourth International believed that the Third International had become thoroughly bureaucratized and Stalinized, and was no longer capable of regenerating itself into a proper revolutionary organization. In particular, they saw the calamitous defeat of the communist movement in Germany (at the hands of the Nazis) as evidence that the Comintern was effectively irrelevant and fully under Stalin's control.

Related Topics:
1938 - Fourth International - Nazi

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At the start of World War II, the Comintern supported a policy of pacifism and non-intervention, arguing that this was an imperialist war between various national ruling classes, much like World War I had been. However, when the Soviet Union itself was invaded in on 22 June 1941, the Comintern switched its position to one of active support for the Allies. Nevertheless, a document dated 11 July 1941 making a strategic assessment for the United States War Department entitled Military Intelligence Estimes Prepared by G-2 (p. 1341) states "The Comintern through the Soviet Regime is striving for a world revolution in the interests of Communism." http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pha/pt_14/x14-033.html#2

Related Topics:
World War II - Pacifism - World War I - 1941 - Allies - War Department - World revolution

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The Comintern was officially dissolved on May 15 1943, by Stalin, who wished to reassure his World War II Allies (particularly Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill) that the USSR was no longer pursuing a policy of trying to foment revolution.

Related Topics:
May 15 - 1943 - Allies - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Winston Churchill

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