Establishment The Communist International was established at a gathering convened in Moscow at the behest of the
Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). As early as December 24, 1918, a radio appeal had been issued by the ruling party of
Soviet Russia calling on "communists of all countries" to boycott any attempts of
reformists to reestablish the
Second International, but to instead "rally around the revolutionary Third International." The formal call for a conference of
revolutionary socialist political parties and radical
trade unions espousing
revolutionary industrial unionism had been issued on January 24, 1919, with the gathering originally slated to commence in Moscow beginning on February 15. The conference which ultimately declared itself the
Founding Congress of the Communist International was postponed to March 2, 1919, owing to the difficulties entailed by foreign delegates in crossing the
blockade of Soviet Russia established by the
Allied Nations at the end of
World War I. Only a comparatively few delegates did manage to make the trip, with a number of the places filled on an
ad hoc basis by individuals already in Soviet Russia not bearing formal credentials from their home organizations. For example,
Boris Reinstein, a druggist from
Buffalo, New York who sat ostensibly as the delegate of the
Socialist Labor Party of America, had been away from home for two years and had no formal authorization to represent his party. Similarly,
Endre Rudnyánszky, a former
prisoner of war stranded in Russia represented
Hungary, while
Christian Rakovsky, a
Romanian, sat for the nearly defunct
Balkan Socialist Federation. A commission (
standing committee) chaired by the
Swiss radical
Fritz Platten was appointed by this Founding Congress to construct an organizational apparatus for the new Third International. This commission recommended the establishment of two deliberative bodies, an
Executive Committee, to handle matters of policy, and a 5-member
Bureau, to handle day-to-day activities. The governing Executive Committee was to be headquartered in
Moscow and to include representatives from the member organizations of the Communist International. The parties of Russia,
Germany,
Austria, Hungary, the Balkan Federation, Switzerland, and
Scandinavia were each to "immediately send representatives to the first Executive Committee." All parties joining the Comintern before the convention of the 2nd World Congress were similarly to be allowed a representative on this body. Until the arrival of the various elected delegates, representatives of the Russian Communist Party were to perform the functions of this Executive Committee of the Communist International. This organizational plan was approved unanimously by the Congress, without debate. Selected as President of ECCI was
Grigorii Zinoviev, an old associate of
V. I. Lenin and top figure in the Russian Communist Party.
Karl Radek, then ensconced in a
Berlin prison, was symbolically selected as Secretary of ECCI, although the actual functions fell to
Angelica Balabanov, albeit only for a few weeks. Zinoviev also served as editor of the official magazine of ECCI,
Kommunisticheskii Internatsional ("The Communist International"), which began appearing regularly as soon as the Founding Congress came to a close. Although no more than the nucleus of an actual organization was created, hampered by difficult communications in the isolation of the blockade, the skeleton ECCI immediately began to issues a series of declarations and manifestos to the workers and nations of the world. These included a manifesto of ECCI to the workers and sailors of all countries on the
Hungarian Revolution (March 28, 1919), a message to the
Bavarian Soviet Republic (April 1919), a
May Day manifesto (April 20, 1919), a manifesto on the
Versailles Peace (May 13, 1919), and a manifesto on foreign intervention in Soviet Russia (June 18, 1919). The early ECCI was, in short, to a large extent a
propaganda body, aiming to stir the
working class to socialist
revolution. In the estimation of historian
E. H. Carr, the summer and fall of 1920 marked the high-water mark for the prestige of the Comintern and its hopes of promoting world revolution. There would be, however, other functions for the organization and the executive committee which directed it.
From provisional to permanent status Owing to poor communications and the difficulty of individuals crossing the frontier during the blockade and
civil war, of those originally invited to participate only the
Communist Party of Hungary was able to send its permanent representative to ECCI prior to the convocation of the
2nd World Congress of the Comintern on July 19, 1920. This did not mean that ECCI, the Comintern's directing body, was staffed exclusively with Russians during the 1919-1920 period, however. In addition to representatives of the Russian Communist Party
Angelica Balabanova,
Jan Antonovich Berzin,
Nikolai Bukharin,
V. V. Vorovsky, Grigorii Zinoviev, and
G. Klinger, a number of radicals from around the world had at various times taken part in ECCI's activities. Among this group were
László Rudas of Hungary,
Jacques Sadoul of France,
John Reed of the
Communist Labor Party of America, John Anderson (Kristap Beika) of the
Communist Party of America,
S. J. Rutgers of the
Netherlands, in addition to others from Korea, China, Norway, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Finland. the stenographic proceedings of the congress published in 1991 indicates that this was not actually the case. At the close of the final regular session of the congress, held on August 6, 1920, a list of ECCI participants was hurriedly discussed and adopted by a vote of the delegates. Russia, by virtue of the size and importance of its party, was allocated five delegates on the executive committee, to be joined by one delegate each from the following nations: Great Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, the Far East (Korea), and the Middle East (Iran). No specific individuals were voted upon by the assembled delegates. This decision seems to have been rapidly modified by ECCI itself after conclusion of the congress, as Degras lists by name a 26-member body that was in place over the course of the next year. Included, in addition to the five Russian delegates, were two Americans (one each from the rival
Communist Party of America and the
Communist Labor Party of America), two delegates from the Netherlands, as well as one delegate each from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Scandinavia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, the "Far East" (Korea), the "Near East" (Iran), Finland, Poland, Hungary, Georgia,
Java (Indonesia), plus one representative of the
Young Communist International. In the aftermath of the 2nd Word Congress, a five-member "little bureau" was also chosen to coordinate the day-to-day activities of the Comintern. This group included the Russians Zinoviev, Bukharin, and
Mikhail Kobetsky, the Hungarian Rudniansky, and the German
Ernst Meyer. The Comintern also maintained an extensive staff of professional
functionaries. The
3rd World Congress of the Comintern, held in Moscow from June 22 through July 12, 1921, did not directly elect an executive committee of the Comintern, as did its predecessor. Instead, it decided that the four parties which had been allocated 40 votes at the congress should send two delegates to ECCI, and the 14 parties with 20 to 30 votes should send one delegate. By virtue of its size and status, the Russian Communist Party was allocated five delegates to ECCI, while all other parties were to be entitled to a consultative voice on the committee, but no decisive vote. , 1935.
Seated (L-R): Georgi Dimitrov,
Palmiro Togliatti,
Wilhelm Florin,
Wang Ming.
Standing: Otto Kuusinen,
Dmitry Manuilsky,
Klement Gottwald,
Wilhelm Pieck. ECCI was subsequently enlarged in 1921-22, as new Communist Parties were allotted delegates with consultative votes while other parties were allowed a second vote. The countries exercising two votes on ECCI at the time of the
4th World Congress of the Comintern late in 1922 were Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and the United States. The
Zinoviev letter, purporting to be instructions to British communists to begin preparations for revolution, is on its face written as a letter from the ECCI on 15 September 1924. Although validated as genuine by the
Secret Intelligence Service at the time, the letter is now accepted by the British government to have been a forgery.
The loss of autonomy It was the Political Secretariat of the Comintern that
de facto governed the
Comintern, in Stalinist era intended to be an instrument of Soviet foreign policy. Subordination of national Communist Parties to the Communist International was complete: in any given country there can be only one Communist Party affiliated to the Communist International and each represented a Section of the Communist International in that country. The decisions of the ECCI were obligatory for all the Sections of the Communist International. And although the Sections had the right to appeal against decisions of the ECCI to the World Congress, they had to execute them, pending the decision of the World Congress. On the other hand, ECCI had the right “to expel from the Communist International, entire Sections, groups and individual members who violate the program and rules of the Communist International or the decisions of the World Congress and of the ECCI”.
Dissolution The
Communist International was dissolved by resolution of the Presidium of the ECCI, May 22, 1943.
Plenums of ECCI ==Important members of ECCI==