When was the Third Communist International created? Chapter VII
From September 3 to 8, 1866, the First Congress of the First International was held in Geneva, in which 60 delegates representing 25 sections and 11 workers' societies of Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany took part. During the meetings, it was decided that trade unions should organize economic and political struggle the proletariat against the wage labor system and the power of capital. Among others decisions made- 8-hour working day, women's protection and prohibition child labor, free polytechnic education, the introduction of workers' militias instead of standing armies.
What is international?
The International is an international organization that unites socialist, social democratic, and some other parties in many countries. It represents the interests of workers and is called upon to fight against the exploitation of the working class by big capital.
How many internationals were there?
The 1st International arose on September 28, 1864 in London as the first mass international organization of the working class. He combined cells of 13 European countries and the USA. The union united not only workers, but also many petty-bourgeois revolutionaries. The organization existed until 1876. In 1850, there was a split in the leadership of the union. German organization advocated an immediate revolution, but it was not possible to organize it out of the blue. This caused a split in the Central Committee of the union and led to repression falling on the disparate cells of the union.
2nd international - international association socialist workers' parties, created in 1889. Members of the organization made decisions on the impossibility of an alliance with the bourgeoisie, the inadmissibility of joining bourgeois governments, held protests against militarism and war, etc. Important role Friedrich Engels played a role in the activities of the International until his death in 1895. During the First World War, the radical elements that were part of the association held a conference in Switzerland in 1915, laying the foundation for the Zimmerwald Association, on the basis of which the Third International (Comintern) emerged.
2½ international - international workers' association socialist parties (also known as the "Two-Half International" or the Vienna International). It was founded on February 22-27, 1921 in Vienna (Austria) at a conference of socialists from Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, Poland, Romania, the USA, France, Switzerland and other countries. The 2½ International sought to reunite all three existing internationals in order to ensure the unity of the international labor movement. In May 1923, a single Socialist Workers' International was formed in Hamburg, but the Romanian section refused to join the new association.3rd International (Comintern) - an international organization that united communist parties various countries in 1919-1943. The Comintern was founded on March 4, 1919 on the initiative of the RCP (b) and its leader V.I. Lenin to develop and disseminate the ideas of revolutionary international socialism, as opposed to the socialism of the Second International, final break which was caused by the difference in positions regarding the First World War and the October Revolution in Russia. The Comintern was dissolved on May 15, 1943. Joseph Stalin explained this decision by saying that the USSR was no longer making plans to establish pro-Soviet, communist regimes on the territory of European countries. In addition, by the early 1940s, the Nazis had destroyed almost all Comintern cells in continental Europe.
In September 1947, Stalin gathered socialist parties and created Cominform - the Communist Information Bureau, as a replacement for the Comintern. Cominform ceased to exist in 1956 shortly after the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
With the International, the human race will rise!.. Eugene Potier, who wrote these lines in early June 1871 on a piece of wallpaper from the wall of a room in an abandoned mental hospital building, where he was hiding from the threat of execution, could not have known that the human race still faced a lot of problems, and There will be as many as three internationals in history.
In fact, in this matter it is incorrect to talk about one specific founder, and of the three communist internationals, only the last one had an official ideology. This was the result of mass “independent activity”, globalization “from below”.
Long live Poland!
In fact, the First Communist International had almost 2,000 founders. So many people, representatives of labor organizations and simply revolutionary-minded workers, gathered in London in September 1864 to express support for the democratic uprising in Poland. K. Marx was among the organizers and most authoritative participants in this event, but he was not alone there, and it was not his voice that decided the issue.
It was decided to create international structure, which will unite workers from different countries in their fight for their rights. It was officially named International Partnership workers, and “international” is an abbreviated name (according to the English pronunciation of the first word).
A little background on the creation of the communist international
There are several reasons why an international association of workers was able to emerge during that period, and all of them were generated by the rapidly developing industrial revolution.
- The working class became quite numerous and organized.
- Its importance in the economy grew rapidly, but at the same time workers were traditionally deprived of all or almost all political rights (due to their lack of private property), and they lived extremely poorly.
- The literacy level of workers was quite high - the industry did not need ignoramuses.
- New means of communication allowed information to spread quickly, literacy made it easier to absorb, and workers were aware that their fellow workers around the world were facing the same problems.
- Many revolutionary theorists drew attention to the misfortunes of the working class, and theories of worker liberation emerged (Marxism-Leninism is only one of them).
It was under such conditions that representatives of the proletariat came to the conclusion that their class solidarity was more important than state borders.
Workers' democracy
The charter and program of the organization were already developed by Marx, but his ideas did not become fundamental. Decisions were made by periodically meeting different countries congresses of the Comintern, and in the intervals between them - the General Council, collegially. Yes, it often turned out that it was Marx’s position that won, but excuse me here - you need to be able to defend and argue your point of view! They argued with Marx until they were hoarse, and yet such facts did not spoil his personal relations with the disputants. The First International included trade unionists, Lassalleans, Proudhonists, anarchists - anyone.
The General Council was based first in London (until 1872), then in New York. Each country delegated a representative there, but often one person was a representative of several groups (sections). In particular, the Russian section was represented by the same Marx.
In general, the First International was distinguished by rare democracy. It included associations of very different orientations, and their representatives did not even think of hiding their differences. There were those who disagreed even with the main line of the international, the basis of its activity - the transition of the workers' struggle from a purely economic to a political plane.
Mixing of ideas and peoples
Marx defended the structural organization and unity of the First International, but it did not work out very well for him.
Sections often arose outside the territory of the country they represented (Russian, for example, was based in Geneva). Although in theory the First International united workers' organizations, it had many individual members. Often they entered into international organization even against the wishes of the leaders of their own groups, but at that time few considered this as a crime. Thus, the great O. Blanqui did not share the principles of the international, and his party (very disciplined, organized and authoritative) did not participate in it. But this did not prevent such authoritative Blanquists as E. Duval, C. Jacqular, E. Vaillant, G. Ranvier from joining the international. And nothing - Blanky still got along with them!
And what destroyed the First International was not Marx’s desire for power and centralization, but the brutal defeat of the Paris Commune of 1871, which greatly frightened many workers’ leaders. Decision to move General Council Many did not accept it in New York. In 1876 it was officially dissolved.
But the idea of proletarian unity remained. And soon the whole world began to sing “The Internationale”. The poet E. Pothier, a member of the Paris Commune, was a member of the organization. The song was dedicated to G. Lefrançais, Pothier’s comrade in the Commune, also an internationalist.
Second try
The second attempt to create a communist international was made in 1881. In the Swiss city of Chur, a group of socialists proclaimed the creation of the Second International. Many participants in the first attempt (in particular, F. Engels and B. Malon) also had a hand in this matter. Again, the organization was not monotheistic. Instead of the General Council, the International Socialist Bureau appeared in 1893, coordinating the actions of member parties (now only parties were part of the international).
The International continued to defend the political rights of workers along with economic ones. New to his program was an anti-militarist clause condemning imperialist wars. Retreat from it actually destroyed the organization. Its activities were suspended in 1914 after a number of prominent participants (J. Guesde, E. Vaillant) supported their governments in the war. It is characteristic that in 1904, during the congress in Amsterdam, the Russian G. Plekhanov and the Japanese Sen Katayama became deputy chairmen. The war of their countries could not divide the socialists then, but the world war could... The International was revived in 1920, but then it already had a more militant rival.
Rich inheritance
But the Second International left a rich legacy to its descendants. They became the holidays of May 1 and March 8. It was the Second International that established the celebration of May Day in memory of the syndicalists from Chicago who were killed on this day in 1889 for advocating an 8-hour working day. And March 8 is the idea of K. Zetkin and R. Luxemburg, also active internationalists.
And the international movement also gave K. Marx all three of his sons-in-law: Charles Longuet, Paul Lafargue (First International) and Edward Aveling (Second International).
World USSR
The Third International had both an ideology and a founder. It was called precisely communist, was based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism (the second component of the term was a priority) and was created on the personal initiative of V.I. Lenin. The founding congress was held in Moscow in March 1919 (this is how a rival arose for the revived Second International, called the “Two-Halves”). Only communist parties became participants; the “old” socialists were excluded from the new international. However, even then they were turning from representatives of workers into parties of simply not very rich people thirsting for state support, which they are now.
The principle of regularly convening congresses was preserved, but now they were held only in the USSR. Between congresses, leadership was exercised by the Executive Committee (its most famous chairman is G. Dimitrov). Thanks to the support of the Soviet state, it was possible to create press organs, educational structures, radio broadcasting, provide material and organizational assistance to communists persecuted in their homeland. But Soviet assistance in those years required loyalty - some foreign communists suffered for disagreements with the “party line” at the height of repression in the USSR.
German, missed by the Gestapo
The Third International also had its own anthem (“Potier’s Internationale” was not suitable, it became the anthem of the USSR). The song was used with words by F. Jahnke and M. Wallentin and music by G. Eisler (all from Germany, and the Russian very free translation was made by I. Frenkel). It was written in 1928.
The most famous performer The “Hymn of the Comintern” was Ernst Busch, a German anti-fascist. It was he who was a German, wounded in Spain, executed behind his back, hidden by the Gestapo, buried by friends, singing on a cold stage in destroyed Berlin - this is how K. Simonov described the singer.
Victim of the anti-Hitler coalition
The 3rd Communist International was officially dissolved in 1943. Many saw this as Stalin’s desire to please his allies in the anti-Hitler coalition and to demonstrate the USSR’s rejection of the policy of spreading communist ideology.
But it is unclear who benefited from this. The de facto successor to the Communist International was the powerful Soviet military-economic bloc.
Today, globalization is carried out “from above” by billionaire transnational corporations and professional lobbyist politicians. But to believe that workers today live poorly only in “third world” countries, while in “developed democracies” they roll like cheese in butter, is fundamentally wrong.
By the way, it doesn’t hurt to remember that Marx personally defended the entry of the intelligentsia into the First International, considering them also a type of proletariat. Among the founders of the internationalist movement were French scientists - anthropologist G. Flourens and geographer academician E. Reclus (friend of J. Verne and prototype of Paganel), as well as Russian writer A. V. Jacqular (Corwin-Krukovskaya).
Workers of all countries, unite!
Editor's responseFrom September 3 to 8, 1866, the First Congress of the First International was held in Geneva, in which 60 delegates representing 25 sections and 11 workers' societies of Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany took part. During the meetings, it was decided that the trade unions should organize the economic and political struggle of the proletariat against the wage labor system and the power of capital. Other decisions taken included an 8-hour working day, the protection of women and the prohibition of child labor, free polytechnic education, and the introduction of workers' militias instead of standing armies.
What is international?
The International is an international organization that unites socialist, social democratic, and some other parties in many countries. It represents the interests of workers and is called upon to fight against the exploitation of the working class by big capital.
How many internationals were there?
1st international emerged on September 28, 1864 in London as the first mass international organization of the working class. It united cells from 13 European countries and the USA. The union united not only workers, but also many petty-bourgeois revolutionaries. The organization existed until 1876. In 1850, there was a split in the leadership of the union. The German organization advocated an immediate revolution, but it was not possible to organize it out of the blue. This caused a split in the Central Committee of the union and led to repression falling on the disparate cells of the union.
Unofficial symbol of the Third International (1920) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
2nd international- an international association of socialist workers' parties, created in 1889. Members of the organization made decisions on the impossibility of an alliance with the bourgeoisie, the inadmissibility of joining bourgeois governments, held protests against militarism and war, etc. Friedrich Engels played an important role in the activities of the International until his death in 1895. During the First World War, the radical elements that were part of the association held a conference in Switzerland in 1915, laying the foundation for the Zimmerwald Association, on the basis of which the Third International (Comintern) emerged.
2½ international- an international workers' association of socialist parties (also known as the "Two-Half International" or the Vienna International). It was founded on February 22-27, 1921 in Vienna (Austria) at a conference of socialists from Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, Poland, Romania, the USA, France, Switzerland and other countries. The 2½ International sought to reunite all three existing internationals in order to ensure the unity of the international labor movement. In May 1923, a single Socialist Workers' International was formed in Hamburg, but the Romanian section refused to join the new association.
3rd International (Comintern)- an international organization that united communist parties of various countries in 1919-1943. The Comintern was founded on March 4, 1919 on the initiative of the RCP (b) and its leader V.I. Lenin for the development and dissemination of the ideas of revolutionary international socialism, as opposed to the socialism of the Second International, the final break with which was caused by the difference in positions regarding the First World War and the October Revolution revolution in Russia. The Comintern was dissolved on May 15, 1943. Joseph Stalin explained this decision that the USSR was no longer making plans to establish pro-Soviet, communist regimes on the territory of European countries. In addition, by the early 1940s, the Nazis had destroyed almost all Comintern cells in continental Europe.
In September 1947, Stalin gathered the socialist parties and created Cominform - the Communist Information Bureau, as a replacement for the Comintern. Cominform ceased to exist in 1956 shortly after the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
4th international- a communist international organization whose task was to implement the world revolution and build socialism. The International was founded in France in 1938 by Trotsky and his supporters, who believed that the Comintern was under the complete control of the Stalinists and was not capable of leading the international working class to conquer political power. The Trotskyist movement is represented in the world today by several political internationals. The most influential of them are:
— Reunited Fourth International
— International Socialist Tendency
— Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)
— International Marxist Tendency (IMT)
— International Committee Fourth International.
The state of affairs in the Comintern is excellent! I, as well as Zinoviev and Bukharin, are confident that right now we should encourage revolutionary movement in Italy, and also pay attention to the establishment of the power of the councils in Hungary, and maybe also in the Czech Republic and Romania.
Telegram from Lenin to Stalin, July 1920
The main purpose of the creation of the Comintern (Communist International) was to spread the socialist revolution throughout the world. Let me remind you that Lenin and Trotsky (the ideological inspirers of the 1917 revolution) were convinced that it was impossible to build socialism in one single country. To do this, it is necessary to overthrow the bourgeois elements throughout the world, and only then begin the construction of socialism. For these purposes, the leadership of the RSFSR created the Comintern as the main means of its foreign policy, to help other states “socialize”.
First Congress of the Comintern
The first congress of the Communist International took place in March 1919. In fact, this is the time of the creation of the Comintern. The activities of the first congress decided several important points:
- A “rule” was established for the work of this body in order to work with workers from different countries, calling on them to fight capital. Remember the famous slogan “Workers of all countries unite!”? This is exactly where it came from.
- The leadership of the Comintern was to be carried out by a special body - the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI).
- Zinoviev became the head of the ECCI.
Thus it was clearly marked main task the creation of the Communist International - the creation of conditions, including financial ones, for the implementation of the world socialist revolution.
Second Congress of the Comintern
The second congress began at the end of 1919 in Petrograd and continued in 1920 in Moscow. By the time it began, the Red Army (Red Army) was fighting successfully and the Bolshevik leaders were confident not only of their own victory in Russia, but also that there were only a few pushes left to “ignite the hearth of the world revolution.” It was at the second congress of the Comintern that it was clearly formulated that the Red Army was the basis for creating a revolution throughout the world.
Ideas of joining forces were also voiced here Soviet Russia and Soviet Germany for the revolutionary movement.
It must be clearly understood that the main task of creating the Communist International lies precisely in the armed struggle against capital throughout the world. In some textbooks you have to read that the Bolsheviks wanted to bring revolution to other peoples with money and persuasion. But this was not the case, and the leadership of the RCP (b) understood this very well. Here, for example, is what one of the ideological inspirers of both the Revolution and the Comintern, Bukharin, said:
To build communism, the proletariat must become the master of the world, conquer it. But one cannot think that this can be achieved with just one movement of the finger. To achieve our task we need bayonets and rifles. The Red Army carries the essence of socialism and workers' power for a common revolution. This is our privilege. This is the right of the Red Army to intervene.
Bukharin, 1922
But the activities of the Comintern did not produce any practical results:
- In 1923, the revolutionary situation in Germany worsened. All attempts by the Comintern to put pressure on the Ruhr region, Saxony and Hamburg were unsuccessful. Although colossal amounts of money were spent on this.
- In September 1923, an uprising began in Bulgaria, but it was very quickly stopped by the authorities, and the Communist International did not have time to provide the necessary assistance.
Change of course of the Comintern
The change of course of the Comintern is associated with the refusal Soviet government from the world revolution. This was connected purely with internal political affairs, and with Stalin’s victory over Trotsky. Let me remind you that it was Stalin who acted as an active opponent of the world revolution, saying that the victory of socialism in one country, especially in such a large one as Russia, is a unique phenomenon. Therefore, we must not look for pie in the sky, but build socialism here and now. Moreover, even active supporters of the idea of world revolution became clear that this idea was utopian and impossible to realize. Therefore, at the end of 1926, the Comintern ceased its active activities.
In the same 1926, Bukharin replaced Zinoviev at the head of the ECCI. And along with the change of leadership, the course also changed. If earlier the Comintern wanted to spark a revolution, now all its efforts went towards creating a positive image of the USSR and socialism as a whole.
Therefore, we can say that the main task of creating the Communist International is to incite a world revolution. After 1926, this task changed - creating a positive image of the Soviet state.
The foreign policy of the Soviet state from the very moment of its inception was of a dualistic nature, determined by the presence of two priorities - state interests and the interests of the world revolutionary movement. From the very beginning, this dualism led to heated internal party discussions (for example, during the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany in 1918). After the death of V.I. Lenin, whose authority was certainly a restraining and consolidating factor, the controversy became even more acute, primarily between I.V. Stalin - a supporter of the theory of building socialism in one country and L.D. Trotsky - theorist of the world permanent revolution. The Third International became the most important field of this struggle. As a result, in 1928, at the VI Congress of the Comintern, the “state” point of view won - the interests of the world revolutionary movement and foreign communist parties were consciously subordinated to the interests of the Soviet state. However, it should be noted that since the establishment of the Third International, the defense of Soviet statehood has been one of the central tasks of this organization; Soviet Russia was proclaimed an outpost of the world revolution, which had to be protected with all possible forces and means. Indisputable, for example, is the enormous contribution of the leaders of the Third International to the defense of Soviet power from foreign intervention, to the organization economic assistance and so on.
One should not, however, think that the birth of the Third International was due to the desire of the Soviet leadership to create a powerful lever of pressure on capitalist countries in order to use this lever exclusively in the interests of its own state. The Third International was created in the wake of the powerful revolutionization of the labor movement throughout the world, which followed the Great October Revolution in Russia, in the wake of the bourgeois-democratic revolutions in Germany and Austria-Hungary, the establishment of Soviet republics in Bavaria, Hungary, Slovakia (1919) and Finland (1918), in an environment of rapid development of the communist movement (in 1918, the first communist parties appeared in Europe - in Finland, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland). Great October Revolution acutely raised the issue of political and organizational demarcation between revolutionary and opportunist tendencies in the labor movement. At the center of the ideological and political struggle were questions about the attitude towards the Great October Socialist Revolution, its international significance, the tasks, strategy, tactics and organization of the working class of capitalist countries in the new conditions. Unlike the opportunists, the communists, as well as representatives of some other left-wing parties and groups, were confident that the Great October Socialist Revolution marked the beginning of the world social revolution.
From February 3 to February 10, 1919, a conference of social reformists who tried to revive the Second International took place in Bern (Switzerland). The tone at the conference was set by recognized leaders of social reformism: K. Kautsky, E. Bernstein, R. MacDonald and others. The resolutions were clearly opportunistic in nature: they expressed hope for fair decisions at the Paris Peace Conference, where at that time the future of post-war Europe was being laid; the activities of American President Wilson were assessed as “peacekeeping” and “democratic”; in two resolutions adopted on the issue “On Democracy and Dictatorship”: in one, Bolshevism was sharply criticized, the dictatorship of the proletariat, parliamentary democracy was proclaimed solely possible way to the “social reorganization” of society; the second contained a refusal to openly condemn Soviet Russia due to the lack of information about the latter. The organization formed as a result of this conference was later called the Berne or London (based on the location of the headquarters) International.
The desire, on the one hand, to resist world social reformism, and on the other, to create an international organization that could lead the emerging world social revolution, unite ideologically and politically, and also coordinate the work of communist parties in different countries, led to the creation III - Communist - International, the I (Founding) Congress of which took place in March 1919 in Moscow. Only 52 delegates took part in this congress, representing 35 communist and left socialist workers' parties and groups from 21 countries (Soviet Russia at that moment was under blockade and many delegates simply could not arrive in Moscow). The RCP(b), as the most massive party, the party that organized the congress, and, moreover, the party in power in the only country in the world that announced the construction of a socialist system, from the very beginning enjoyed almost unquestionable authority and had the most direct influence on the entire course and resolutions of the congress . The delegation of the RCP(b) was headed by V.I. Lenin. The delegation included the largest leaders of the Soviet state - N.I. Bukharin, G.E. Zinoviev, L.D. Trotsky and - which is very significant - Foreign Minister G.V. Chicherin. The Congress adopted a temporary program - “Theses of the Communist International”, in which the modern era was assessed as an era of revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism and the final goals of the Comintern were formulated - the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and Soviet power in bourgeois countries. In addition, social reformism was sharply criticized at the congress (V.I. Lenin’s report “On bourgeois democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat”; discussion of the issue of attitude towards socialist movements and the Berne International); the need to use bourgeois-democratic rights and freedoms was recognized - first of all, parliament; The “Manifesto of the Communist International to the proletarians of the whole world” and the appeal “To the workers of all countries”, which had great propaganda significance, were adopted. At the congress, the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI) was elected from representatives of Soviet Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Balkan Federation, Switzerland and Scandinavia (G.E. Zinoviev was later approved as the Chairman of the Executive Committee). The Executive Committee was instructed to prepare a draft Charter of the Third International.
The creation of the Comintern had enormous international significance. The development of the world communist movement accelerated. In 1919-1920 American, French and Italian socialists, German and English
Chinese independents and others left the Second International; The ISP joined the Comintern, and the leaders of the NSDPD and the SFIO began negotiations on accession.
Under the current conditions great importance acquired the question of the conditions for admission to the Comintern - this issue became central to the agenda of the Second Congress of the Comintern, held from July 19 to August 7, 1920 in Petrograd and Moscow (from July 23). This congress was attended by 217 delegates from 67 organizations from 37 countries. Along with the communists, there were German independents and French socialists (with the right to an advisory vote), representatives of youth and syndicalist organizations.
At the congress, the organizational design of the Third International was completed: the Charter and “21 conditions for admission to the Comintern” were adopted. According to the Charter, the Comintern was a world communist party and, accordingly, the organizations included in it were to be called - communist party such and such a country is a section of the Comintern; the International was built on the principles of democratic centralism; its supreme body was the congress, and in the intervals between the work of the congresses - the Executive Committee (ECCI), whose decisions were binding on all organizations included in the Comintern. Among the conditions for admission to the Comintern, the main ones were: recognition of the principles and programs of the Comintern, active struggle for their implementation and complete break with opportunism.
The work of the congress took place in an atmosphere of general confidence in the imminent victory of the world revolution, the basis for which was the post-war socio-political crisis in capitalist countries, the rapid growth of the authority of the Third International, the fall in the prestige of the Second International, and the successes of the Red Army in the war against Poland. This confidence led, on the one hand, to an overestimation of the prospects for the world revolution, and on the other, to an underestimation of the influence of social democracy.
In parallel with the work of the Second Congress of the Comintern, at the end of July - beginning of August 1920, a Social Democratic Congress met in Geneva, which restored the Second International. A little later - in February 1921 - at a conference in Vienna, the centrists, who had previously left the Second International and were not accepted into the Comintern, founded the International Association of Socialist Parties (II 1/2 International). In May 1923, these organizations merged in Hamburg and a single Workers' Socialist International (RSI) was created.
The communists failed to win over the majority of the workers; the social reformists continued to control the bulk of the trade unions in capitalist countries. The most influential international trade union center was the Amsterdam International of Trade Unions, created in the summer (July 28 - August 2) 1919 and operating in close cooperation with the Second International. Along with the Amsterdam one, the reformist International Confederation of Christian (Catholic) Trade Unions (Utrecht International, created in 1920), the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers' Association, etc., were active. In contrast to the reformist trade unions, the communists founded the Red International of Trade Unions (Profintern) in July 1921. , operating in close contact with the Third International. However, Profintern failed to become the world's main trade union center.
By 1921, the international general political situation had also changed: in August 1920, the Red Army’s offensive against Warsaw failed; a significant part of the Polish working class not only did not support this offensive, but also openly opposed Soviet troops; in September 1920 the Italian working class was defeated; The uprising of the working class in Central Germany and the miners' strike in England in the spring of 1921 ended in defeat. Under these conditions, the question of changing the strategy and tactics of the world communist movement became extremely urgent. It was this issue that became central to the agenda of the Third Congress of the Comintern.
Developed by V.I. Lenin's new political line - the tactics of a united front - was first formulated in the "Open Letter" of the Central Committee of the KPD to the leaders of all workers' parties and organizations in Germany on January 7, 1921. This line immediately caused a flurry of criticism - primarily from the "left" communists, who preached the so-called “offensive theory” (offensive tactics in any balance of forces and in any conditions, entry into vanguard battles and the inadmissibility of any compromises with other workers’ parties and organizations). Despite the strong positions of the “left” communists, the Third Congress of the Comintern, after long debates, decided to implement united front tactics. This decision was largely facilitated by the defeat of the rebellious proletariat of Central Germany in March 1921 (the congress took place in June - July 1921 in Moscow). However, the united front tactics were put into practice in the 1920s. failed - there was no unity among the communists (primarily on the issue of the degree of possible compromise with the reformists and other non-communist parties and groups), the leaders of the II and II 1/2 Internationals, in turn, sabotaged even the very possibility of such unity (in particular - question of convening an international workers' congress).
Thus, the question of a united front remained open. At the IV Congress of the Comintern in November - December 1922 (in Petrograd and Moscow), this issue again came into the spotlight: the idea of united front tactics was supplemented by the slogan of creating a workers' government on a parliamentary basis as a possible form of transition to the dictatorship of the proletariat. At the IV Congress, for the first time, the fight against international fascism was identified as one of the central tasks, again based on the tactics of a united front. However, things again did not come to the point of actually implementing the decisions made at the congress on tactical issues.
The V Congress of the Comintern took place in June - July 1924 in Moscow. The international situation by this time had changed significantly: in capitalist countries the socio-political crisis had been overcome and a stage of temporary stabilization had begun; the number of communist parties was significantly reduced, many of which were driven underground; The authority of social reformism increased sharply. Finally, this was the first congress without
V.I. Lenin - the recognized leader of the world communist movement. At the congress, the tendency that had already emerged earlier towards a dogmatic absolutization of the experience of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) clearly manifested itself. In assessing the international situation, the congress participants proceeded from erroneous belief in the approach of a new revolutionary explosion. In their tactical guidelines, while verbally advocating a united front, the leaders of the Comintern actually excluded the slightest possibility of cooperation with non-communist parties and organizations, labeling the Social Democrats as the “moderate wing of fascism.”
In November - December 1926, the VII expanded plenum of the ECCI was held, at which questions about the general strike of English miners, the development of the Chinese revolution, as well as the activities of the Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc in the CPSU (b) were considered. G.E. Zinoviev was removed from the post of chairman of the ECCI, and N.I. became the de facto leader of the Comintern until 1929. Bukharin.
In July - August 1928, the VI Congress of the Comintern met in Moscow, which adopted the Program, substantiated the imminent collapse of stabilization and the onset of a new phase of the world revolution, and also adopted a number of tactical recommendations, most of which were erroneous, sectarian in nature (for example, social democracy was once again identified with fascism; the idea of “Class against class” tactics was put forward, which rejected the policy of class alliances and compromises, etc.).
The VII Congress of the Comintern took place on July 25 - August 21, 1935 in Moscow. Central to the agenda was the issue of the fight against fascism. Increased international tension (primarily in connection with the rise of the National Socialists to power in Germany), the growing aggressiveness of the fascist powers - all this contributed to a radical turn in the strategy and policy of the communists. The struggle for a united proletarian anti-fascist front based on compromises with non-communist parties and groups is proclaimed the main task of the moment. The significance of this congress was enormous. In a number of countries, on the initiative of the communists, popular fronts were created that stopped the development of fascism in these countries (France, Spain, Chile, Mexico, China). The solidarity movement reached its apogee during the period civil war in Spain, when, on the initiative of the Comintern, international brigades were created, uniting not only communists, but also representatives of other political trends and non-party people. However, at the same time, from the second half of the 1930s. Mass repressions begin against the leaders of the Third International by the Soviet - Stalinist - leadership. Those who suffered the most were representatives of fascist and semi-fascist countries, as well as communists who fought in the International Brigades in Spain. As a result, by the beginning of World War II, the Comintern was drained of blood, and the change in the foreign policy orientation of the USSR and the conclusion of Soviet-German agreements completely undermined its international authority.