The Communist Internationals

Second World Congress of the Comintern - 1920

Second World Congress of the Comintern – 1920

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The Communist Internationals

If the principles of socialism have not international application and if the socialist movement is not an international movement then its whole philosophy is false and the movement has no reason for existence.

The International Working Men’s Association (The First International)

In the history of the world emancipation movement of the working class a special place is held by the International Working Men’s Association – the First International. Founded on September 28, 1864, at an international meeting held in St. Martin’s Hall, London, this first international proletarian mass organisation paved the way for the world communist movement of today. In the ranks of the International Working Men’s Association the advanced workers of Europe and America got a schooling in proletarian internationalism, imbibed the ideas of Marxism, and finally discarded petty-bourgeois sectarianism for the proletarian party principle. ‘For ten years the International dominated one side of European history – the side on which the future lies.’ Engels wrote in 1874.

Documents of the First International, Volume 1, 1864-1866, Minutes, The London Conference 1865, FLPH, Moscow, 1964, 483 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 2, 1866-1868, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 444 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 3, 1868-1870, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 534 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 4, 1870-1871, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 617 pages,

Documents of the First International, Volume 5, 1871-1872, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 626 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 6, The Hague Congress, September 2-7 1872, Minutes and Documents, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 758 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 7, The Hague Congress, September 2-7 1872, Reports and Letters, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 701 pages.

The International Working Men’s association and the Working Class Movement in Manchester 1865-85, Edmond and Ruth Frow, Manchester, 1979, 18 pages.

The Second International

‘By social-chauvinism we mean acceptance of the idea of the defence of the fatherland in the present imperialist war, justification of an alliance between socialists and the bourgeoisie and the governments of their ‘own’ countries in this war, a refusal to propagate and support proletarian revolutionary action against one’s ‘own’ bourgeoisie, etc.’ VI Lenin, The Collapse of the Second International in Lenin Collected Works, Volume 21, pp 205-259.

The War and the Second International, VI Lenin, (London, Martin Lawrence, 1931), Little Lenin Library, Volume Two, 63 pages. Two documents written in 1914, ‘The Collapse of the Second International’ and ‘The War and Russian Social-Democracy’.

The rise and fall of the Second International, J Lenz, International Publishers, New York, 1932, 285 pages.

A History of Socialist Thought, Volume 3, Part 1, 2nd International 1889-1914, GDH Cole, Macmillan, London, 1963, 519 pages.

A History of Socialist Thought, Volume 3, Part 2, 2nd International 1889-1914, GDH Cole, Macmillan, London, 1963, 1043 pages.

Resolution of the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, August 18-24 1907 and the Manifesto of the Extraordinary International Socialist Congress, Basel, November 24-25 1912.

The Second International, 1889-1914, Igor Krivoguz, Progress, Moscow, 1989, 393 pages.

The Communist International (The Third International – Comintern)

‘The Third International has gathered the fruits of the work of the Second International, discarded its opportunist, social-chauvinist, bourgeois and petty-bourgeois dross, and has begun to implement the dictatorship of the proletariat.’ VI Lenin, The Third International and its place in history, in Lenin Collected Works, Volume 29, pp 305-313.

The Manifesto of the Moscow International, Educational Press Association, Montreal, 1919, 12 pages.

Theses presented to 2nd World Congress of the Communist International, Petrograd-Moscow, July 1920, Editions of the Communist International, Petrograd, 1920, 121 pages.

Manifesto of the Communist International, adopted at the Congress of the Communist International at Moscow, march 2-6 1919, and signed by Comrades C Rakovsky, N Lenin, M Zinoviev, L Trotzky, and Fritz Platten, Arbeiter Zeitung, Chicago, n.d., 14 pages.

The Third (Communist) International, its aims and methods, James Clunie, Socialist Labour Press, Glasgow, 1921, 74 pages.

Resolutions and Theses of the 4th Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow November 7 to December 3 1922, CPGB, London, 1923, 130 pages.

The Communist International between the 5th and 6th World Congresses, 1924-28, a report on the position of all sections of the World Communist Party, CPGB, London, 1928, 508 pages.

On the Road to Bolshevization, Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1929, 42 pages.

For Unity of the Wold Communist Movement, a letter to the Independent Labor Party of Great Britain from the Communist Party USA (Opposition), Communist Party USA, New York, 1934, 32 pages.

Program of the Communist International, together with its Constitution, adopted at the 46th Session of the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International, September 1 1928, Workers Library, New York, 1936, 94 pages.

The Spanish Revolution, M Ercoli (Togliatti), Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1937, 29 pages.

VII Congress of the Communist International, abridged stenographic report of proceedings, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 604 pages.

The Communist International, No 4, 1940, Modern Books, London, 34 pages.

The Communist International, No 6, 1940, Modern Books, London, 34 pages.

The Communist International, No 12, 1940, Modern Books, London, 44 pages.

Workers of the world, Unite!, declaration on the dissolution of the Communist International, adopted May 27 1943, Labour News Co., New York, 1943, 28 pages.

The Third International and its place in history, VI Lenin, (Moscow, Progress, 1971) 51 pages.

Principles of Party Organization, JV Stalin, (Calcutta, Mass Publications, 1975), 47 pages. Thesis on the Organization and Structure of Communist Parties, adopted at the Third Congress of the Communist International in 1921. It was on this basis of this thesis that JV Stalin based his lectures reproduced in ‘The Foundations of Leninism’.

Communist International Documents, 1919-1943, Volume 3, 1929-1943, Jane Degras, Routledge, London, 2007, 494 pages.

Toward the united front, Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, edited by John Riddell, Brill, Leiden, 2012, 1323 pages.

To the Masses, Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921, edited by John Riddell, Brill, Leiden, 2015, 1309 pages.

The Communist Movement at a Crossroads, Plenums of the Communist International’s Executive Committee, 1922-1923, edited by Michael Taber, Brill, Leiden, 2018, 808 pages.

History and analysis

The Communist Movement, from Comintern to Cominform, Part 1, the crisis of the Communist International, Fernando Claudin, Monthly Review, New York, 1975, 410 pages. From Marx to Mao digital reprint, 2017.

The Communist Movement, from Comintern to Cominform, Part 2, the zenith of Stalinism, Fernando Claudin, Monthly Review, New York, 1975, 450 pages. From Marx to Mao digital reprint, 2017.

The World Communist Movement, outline of strategy and tactics, edited by VV Zagladin, Progress, Moscow, 1973, 480 pages.

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The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) – CPSU(B)

Leader, teach, friend

Leader, teach, friend

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The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) – CPSU(B)

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) – CPSU(B) was a Party of a new kind. Based upon the principals of Marxism-Leninism it led the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union in the struggle to build a Socialist society in a sixth of the world’s land mass.

Further speeches and reports from other CPSU(B) (and its predecessors) conferences and congresses can be found in the collected works of VI Lenin and JV Stalin.

Report of the XV Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPGB, London, 1928, 415 pages.

From the First to the Second Five-Year Plan, a Symposium, J Stalin, V Molotov, L Kaganovich, K Voroshilov and others, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow, 1933, 490 pages.

The Revolutionary Crisis is Maturing, DZ Manuilsky, report to the Seventeenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on behalf of the Delegation of the CPSU in the Communist International, Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1934, 48 pages.

On the Organization of Party Propaganda in connection with the publication of the History of the CPSU(B) Short Course, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 1976 reprint, 23 pages.

On the Organisation of Party Propaganda, CPSU(B), 1939, e-format, 22 pages.

The Land of Socialism Today and Tomorrow, Reports and speeches at the 18th Congress of the CPSU(B), March 10-21 1939, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 488 pages.

Report to the Eighteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) on the Work of the Central Committee, JV Stalin, March 10, 1939, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, 108 pages.

The Growing Prosperity of the Soviet Union, N Voznesensky, Chairman of the State Planning Commission, USSR, delivered at the 18th All Union Conference of the Soviet Union February 18 1941, Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1941, 48 pages.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Syllabus for six lectures on the history of the CPSU, with notes on reading, CPGB, London, 1942, 31 pages.

History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) – short course, edited by a commission of the CC of the CPSU(B), Cobbett Publishing, London, 1943, 345 pages.

History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), Short Course, FLPH, Moscow, 1945, 364 pages.

Report to the Nineteenth Party Congress of the work of the Central Committee of the CPSU(B), G Malenkov, FLPH, Moscow,1952, 147 pages.

Reports to the Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet Leaders Speak for Communism and Peace, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lavrenty Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, New Century Publishers, New York, 1952, 49 pages.

Speech at the 19th Party Congress, JV Stalin, October 14, 1952, FLPH, Moscow, 1952, 20 pages. One of the last public speeches and appearances before his death in March 1953.

Report on the directives of the XIXth Party Congress relating to the Fifth Five-year Plan for the development of the USSR in 1951-1955, M Saburov, FLPH, Moscow, 1952, 72 pages.

50th anniversary of the CPSU, 1903-1953, FLPH, Moscow, 1953, 18 pages.

Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Volume 1, The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1974, 338 pages.

Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Volume 2, The Early Soviet Period, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1974, 396 pages.

Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Volume 3, The Stalin years 1929-1953, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1974, 339 pages.

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Foreign intervention in the Soviet Union

The newly formed Red Army, 1918

The newly formed Red Army, 1918

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Foreign intervention in the Soviet Union

Once the capitalist and imperialist countries (which had been trying to destroy each others power for four years in the ‘First World War’ of 1914-19) realised that the October Revolution in Russia of the Bolsheviks, led by VI Lenin, was a revolution of a ‘new type’ they did all in their power to destroy the first workers’ state.

In this they used outright military intervention – when 14 nations united on the side of the reactionary forces of feudalism and Tsarism, the so-called ‘Whites’ – but also conspiracy, espionage, sabotage and any other tactics to undermine the revolution. Assassination was part of their game, using local dupes to carry out the act, which included the failed attempt upon the life of Comrade Lenin himself.

Once defeated in the Civil War the imperialists used economic warfare to frustrate the nascent Soviet Union from building a society that was organised for and by the workers and peasants, those who produced all the wealth of the country. Later traitors, and those disaffected within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik), were also recruited in activities that sought to weaken the country in the face of threat of fascism from Germany and Japan.

The documents below seek to tell a small part of that history.

The ‘Hands off Russia’ Movement, direct action against military involvement, Laura Forster and Patricia Wheeler,. nd., n.p., 3 pages.

The Epic of the Black Sea, mutiny against fighting the Russian people following the October Revolution, Andre Marty, Modern Books, London, n.d., 37 pages.

Memoirs of a British Agent, being an account of the author’s early life in many lands and of his official mission to Moscow in 1918, R. H. Bruce Lockhart, Putman, London, 1931, 355 pages.

Armed Intervention Russia 1918-1922, WP and Zelda Coates, Gollanz, London, 1935, 400 pages.

The Great Conspiracy against Russia, Michael Sayers and Albert E Khan, Collets Holdings, London, 1946, 486 pages.

The State Department and the Cold War, DN Pritt, International Publishers, New York, 1948, 96 pages.

Conspiracy against peace, Ralph Parker, Literaturnaya Gazeta Publishers, Moscow, 1949, 248 pages. (There’s a printing error on pages 145-161. They are all there – but not in the correct order.)

The truth about American diplomats, Annabelle Bucar, Literatunaya Gazeta Publishers, Moscow, 1949, 176 pages.

Why have you come to Mourmansk?, leaflet, addressed to ‘English’ soldiers sent to fight against the Russian revolutionaries, signed by N (VI) Lenin and G Tchitcherine (Chicherin), no date but probably mid to late 1918, 1 page.

Armed Intervention in Russia: 1918-1922, W. P. Coates & Zelda K. Coates, Victor Gollancz, London, 1935, 400 pages.

They are betraying the peace, Jean Cathalo, former chief of the Information Department of the French Embassy in Moscow, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Moscow, 1951, 232 pages.

The Western Interventions in the Soviet Union, 1918-1920, D. F. Fleming, reprinted as a pamphlet from New World Review, Fall 1967, 16 pages.

Special issue of Wisconsin Magazine of History, with 3 articles about American military intervention in Archangel, 1918-1919, and the American military landing in Vladivostok and its operation of part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Well illustrated. Volume 62, No. 3, Spring 1979, 92 pages.

The secret war against Soviet Russia, David Golinkov, Novosti, Moscow, 1981, 105 pages.

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