International Communism and the Communist International 1919-1943

by Edited by Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe

• ISBN13: 9780719055461
• ISBN10: 0719055466
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1999-02-15
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

The Communist International was formed in Moscow in 1919 as a factory of world revolution, but was dissolved in 1943 without having led a single successful working-class uprising. This comprehensive new collection of essays uses many of the newly available Russian and East European sources to look again at the history of this most fascinating of political phenomena.

Author Biography

Tim Rees is Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter.

Andrew Thorpe is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii	(1)
List of contributors	viii	(2)
List of abbreviations	x
Introduction	1	(14)
Part I The view from the centre	15	(52)
1 Zimmerwald and the origins of the Third International	15	(16)
David Kirby
2 The history of the Comintern in light of new documents	31	(10)
Kevin McDermott
3 Structure of the Moscow apparatus of the Comintern and decision-making	41	(26)
Peter Huber
Part II The parties and the Comintern: Europe	67	(158)
4 The Communist International and the British Communist Party	67	(20)
Andrew Thorpe
5 The Communist International and a `Trotskyite menace' to the British Communist movement on the eve of World War II	87	(8)
Yevgeny Sergeev
6 French communism and the Communist International	95	(8)
Guillaume Bourgeois
7 The Comintern and the Italian Communist Party in light of new documents, 1921-40	103	(14)
Aldo Agosti
8 The testing-ground of world revolution: Germany in the 1920s	117	(10)
Aleksandr Vatlin
9 From Lenin's comrades in arms to `Dutch donkeys': the Communist Party in the Netherlands and the Comintern in the 1920s	127	(16)
Gerrit Voerman
10 The highpoint of Comintern influence? The Communist Party and the Civil War in Spain	143	(25)
Tim Rees
11 Nationalist or internationalist? The Portuguese Communist Party's autonomy and the Communist International	168	(19)
Carlos Cunha
12 The Communist Party of Greece and the Comintern: evaluations, instructions and subordination	187	(18)
Artiem Ulunian
13 Tito and the twilight of the Comintern	205	(20)
Geoffrey Swain
Part III The parties and the Comintern: the Americas and Asia	225	(84)
14 The Communist International and the American Communist Party	225	(9)
Hugh Wilford
15 From Caribbean backwater to revolutionary opportunity: Cuba's evolving relationship with the Comintern, 1925-34	234	(20)
Barry Carr
16 The Comintern, the Chinese Communist Party and the three armed uprisings in Shanghai, 1926-27	254	(17)
S.A. Smith
17 Peasants and the Peoples of the East: Indians and the rhetoric of the Comintern	271	(14)
Wendy Singer
18 The Comintern and the Japanese Communist Party	285	(24)
Sandra Wilson
Index	309