Background Throughout the early 1930s the Soviet Union's
People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, headed by
Maxim Litvinov, had pursued a policy of attempting to win a broad international agreement to bring about military disarmament. This initiative had clearly reached a terminal impasse from the
Nazi seizure of power in January 1933, however, with the new political reality writ large by the October 1933 departure of
Nazi Germany from the
Geneva disarmament negotiations. Still, there was little motion among the world communist movement towards construction of a broader
united front with the socialist movement and their affiliated trade unions, with the Comintern continuing to train its rhetorical guns on the
social democratic movement, which was held to have sabotaged the effort of the
Communist Party of Germany to wage battle against fascism by propagating what the communists characterized as its "anti-Marxist theory of a 'peaceful,' 'democratic' road to socialism" among the German workers' movement. There were some within the communist movement who began feeling their way to a new more collaborative orientation, however. The
February 1934 Uprising of
Socialists against right wing forces in
Austria and movement towards cooperation between Socialists and Communists in
France in fighting a nascent fascist movement there convinced Bulgarian Communist
Georgi Dimitrov, a leading figure in the Communist International that the Comintern's hostility towards joint action between Communists and Socialists was ill-considered. Dimitrov made his triumphant return to Moscow in April 1934 following acquittal in the
Reichstag Fire trial determined to change the Comintern's fundamental strategy from one of antagonistic opposition to
social democracy to one of cooperation in a joint struggle. This body was divided between Dimitrov and others advocating a move towards a "general democratic, anti-Fascist" orientation and hardliners who continued to argue that the battle against fascism was inseparable from the task of overthrowing the
bourgeoisie, implying a simultaneous fight against the fascist right and the reformist constitutionalist and socialist movements. It would be the exigencies of Soviet foreign policy which ultimately shaped the Comintern's orientation, when on 2 May 1935, the two countries most concerned about the implications of growing German militarism — France and the Soviet Union — concluded the
Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance, a mutual aid pact in which each promised to come to the other's defense in the event that aggression violating the
Covenant of the League of Nations was suffered. Shortly thereafter, two days of consultations in Moscow between French
Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Soviet chiefs
Joseph Stalin,
Viacheslav Molotov, and Maxim Litvinov helped to solidify the agreement through a joint communique in which the parties agreed "not to allow their means of national defense to weaken in any respect" and which recognized France's right to "maintain her armed forces at a level consonant with her security". (1882–1949). The May 1935 treaty and formal communique between France and the USSR tilted the scale decisively towards a new Comintern policy for the Communist Parties of the world, casting aside the old
Third Period line of "class against class" for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie in favor of a new policy of
realpolitik, defending the Russian revolution by supporting mutual defense agreements between the USSR and various capitalist states. Further marking this shift in the international political line of the Comintern was the appointment of Popular Front adherent Georgi Dimitrov as new head of the Communist International. The gathering, which was convened almost exactly seven years since the conclusion of the last Comintern World Congress, was attended by 513 delegates, of whom 371 were accorded full voting rights, representing 65 Comintern member parties as well as 19 sympathizing parties.
Pieck's keynote report (1876–1960), first President of East Germany, as he appeared in his later years. Setting the stage for the 7th World Congress was the keynote report on the Activities of ECCI, delivered on the second day by
Wilhelm Pieck of the Communist Party of Germany. While lauding the 1928 tactic of "class against class" which was "directed against the bloc of the Social Democrats with the bourgeoisie and aimed at destroying the bloc of the Social Democratic leaders with the bourgeoisie," Pieck nevertheless acknowledged that "a certain number of sectarian mistakes were committed." This push for ideologically pure leadership divided the workers' movement during the strike movement of the late 1920s, gaining the support of some workers while alienating others and ultimately failing owing to "clumsy and sectarian tactics." Pieck argued that with the coming of the
Great Depression the bourgeoisie sought to solve its problem of a collapsing internal market and declining profits with a move towards seizure and plunder of foreign territory under the banner of fascism, with the aggression of militarist
Japan in
Manchuria and the rise of Nazi Germany said to epitomize the new trend. "These preparations are simultaneously and primarily designed for the destruction of the Soviet Union, the home, the basis, and the bulwark of the proletarian revolution," Pieck declared. The communists had attempted to change the situation by proposing a united front with the
Social Democratic Party of Germany and its associated trade union federation, the
Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB). This effort had been rebuffed, Pieck said, with the failure of the Social Democratic political and labor movement to join
general strikes following the expulsion of socialist ministers from the government of
Prussia in July 1932 and the coming to power of the Hitler government in January 1933 singled out for specific criticism. Omitting the fact that the Comintern's "class against class" line had been targeted directly at the Social Democrats, who had been castigated as "
social fascists" in no way better than the actual fascist movement, Pieck declared that the Communists had done "everything in their power to mobilize the laboring masses for a revolutionary struggle to prevent the fascist dictatorship," only to be stymied when the Social Democrats "did not abandon their hostile attitude to the united front and the struggle." A variety of factors had contributed to the new attitude of the Socialists towards the Communists, according to Pieck, including the "final and irrevocable victory of socialism in the Soviet Union" on the one hand and the brutal reality of fascist dictatorship in Germany on the other.
Dimitrov's report on unity against fascism After Pieck's keynote report and the extended discussion which ensued came on 2 August a second watershed report, this by Georgi Dimitrov on the task of building unity of the working class in opposition to fascism. The appearance of Dimitrov on the platform, a great hero of the communist movement since his victory at the Leipzig trial, was met by a resounding ovation of the gathered delegates and a rousing singing of "
The Internationale." With respect to its foreign policy, Dimitrov condemned fascism as "jingoism in its most brutal form, fomenting bestial hatred of other nations." Fascism's victory would suppress the "democratic liberties of the working people," curtail "the rights of parliament," and intensify repression of the revolutionary movement, Dimitrov warned. == See also ==