The International Communist Movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrTEN5Yhl3w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KncK5cZ5Rmk

The Comintern Anthem, written in 1928 by German Communist Hanns Eisler

Factories, rise! Workers, close ranks! March, march, march to the battle! Check your sights, load your guns! March to the battle for your cause, worker! The fire of Leninism is lighting our path, It is mobilizing the world for an assault on capital! Two classes are locked in the final battle. Our slogan is: Worldwide Soviet Union! Comrades in prisons, in cold cells, You are with us, even though you are not marching with us now. We do not fear white fascist terror. The bonfire of rebellion will envelop all countries! The Comintern calls on us to form our ranks of steel. Let’s raise the banner of Soviets, our Red Flag! We are troops of the Red Front, And we will not retreat from our path!  

Allegory of the 3d International:Palekh miniature by Ivan Golikov, 1927

World War I and the Russian Revolution triggered off a Global Civil War

At issue: crisis and transformation of the global system A long series of intense political struggles within states and

between states. Main groups of actors: political forces seeking revolutionary changes, oriented

towards socialism (the Global Left), forces aiming to destroy the Global Left and save

capitalism through abolishing liberal democracy (the Global Right), and

forces seeking to save capitalism through social and political reforms which would undercut the Global Left (the Global Centre)

"Schützengraben" by Otto Dix 1918,

The Global Left: The Soviet Union, regarded as the base of world

revolution; A network of communist parties organized in the

Comintern; National liberation movements in the Global South,

seeking the overthrow of Western empires – and regarding the USSR as a key ally

Attempted revolutions in Europe in the wake of World War I

Germany, Nov. 1918 – June 1919 Hungary, March – June 1919 Bulgaria Finland Italy

The 1918-19 revolution in Germany

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INTjCj3Ogas&feature=related

The Bavarian Soviet Republic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

bWluZ81WMIE&feature=related

The Hungarian Soviet Republic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

0up2OQSttQU

The Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921: nationalism vs. export of revolution

Poland’s independence is recognized by the Soviet Government in 1918; at the time, Poland is occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian forces

After World War I, Poland becomes fully independent under a national government

Western powers decide to use Poland as the key bastion in Eastern European “sanitary cordon” to contain Soviet Russia

What should be Poland’s borders? Western powers: territories inhabited by ethnic Poles Poland: restoration of the Polish borders of 1772

(incorporating Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian lands) Poland’s calculation: Russia is wrecked by Civil War, the

West is on Poland’s side

Key battleground: disputed territories of Ukraine and Belarus

Ukraine is in a civil war, split between Ukrainian Soviets, Ukrainian nationalists and the Greens; actions of White forces a major factor

In 1919, Poland interferes in these struggles against supporters of the Soviets

Summer 1920 – full-fledged war between the Red Army and the Polish Army

Polish cavalry attack

52}.

Polish Government information document prepared for Polish Army officers, March 1920:

“The Head of State and the Government of Poland are seeking unconditional weakening of Russia… At the present time, the Polish Government intends to support the Ukrainian national movement in order to create an independent Ukrainian state and thereby substantially weaken Russia which would lose its richest territory in terms of grain and mineral resources. The key goal in creating an independent Ukraine is to build a barrier between Poland and Russia and to assure the transfer of Ukraine under Polish influence which would enable Poland’s economic and political expansion.”*

*Михутина И.В. Некоторые проблемы истории польско-советской войны 1919—1920 гг. // Версаль и новая Восточная Европа. M., 1996, С. 165

“Locked within its 16th century borders, cut off from the Black and Baltic Seas, deprived of its lands and mineral resources of the South and Southeast, Russia might well become a second-rate power incapable of presenting serious danger to Poland’s restored independence. Meanwhile, Poland as the biggest and strongest of the new states, might easily secure for itself a sphere of influence spreading from Finland to the Caucasus.”

Jozef Pilsudski, Provisional Commander of the Second Polish Republic

Pilsudski in Minsk, Belarus

Poland’s shifting borders, 1918-1922

Polish war propaganda poster: “Kill the Bolshevik!”

Soviet war propaganda poster: “How the Lords’ adventure will end”

To the West!

Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda, May 9, 1920

To the West, workers and peasants!Fight against the bourgeoisie and landowners,For the world revolution,For freedom of all peoples!Soldiers of workers’ revolution!Look westwards.It is in the West that the fate of the world revolution is decided.We will march over the corpse of White Poland to light the world fire.On our bayonets we will bring happiness and peaceTo the workers of the world.To the West!To decisive battles, to thunderous victories!

From statement of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern, summer 1920:

“Brothers in the Red Army, know: your war against Polish lords is the most just war history has ever known. You are fighting not only for the interests of Soviet Russia, but also for the interests of the entire working humanity, for the Communist International. The Red Army today is one of the main forces of world history. Time is coming when an International Red Army will be created.”

The idea is to establish a Soviet government in Poland and move on to Germany to help German Communists

Julian Marchlewski, Polish- Russian Communist, head of Provisional Revolutionary Committee, set up by the Soviets to replace the Pilsudski government in Poland

Mikhail Tukhachevsky, commander of Red Army forces in Poland in 1920, a Polish aristocrat by origin, advocate of spreading revolution by military force

Iosif Stalin as member of the Military Council of the Western Front, 1920: skeptical about export of revolution to Poland and Germany

Soviet cavalry attack

“Hey, Poles, to bayonets!” Polish war propaganda poster

Poles defeating Soviet forces near Warsaw, a Polish painting

Soviet POWs in the Soviet-Polish war of 1920

The Communist International was founded in March 1919 by 52 representatives of 34 Bolshevik-type parties

21 Conditions adopted at the 2nd Congress in 1920:

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/2nd-congress/ch07.htm

Major communist parties: In Europe: Germany, France, Italy In Asia: China, Vietnam

Design of the membership card of the Communist Party of Italy

Antonio Gramsci, leader of Italian Communists

Ernst Thalmann, German Communist Party

Dolores Ibarruri, Spanish Communist Party

Mao Zedong, Chinese Communist Party

The Global Right Various right-wing forces, shattered by World War I and the

Russian Revolution On the defensive, trying to adapt to the new situation

Conservatives adrift The rise of Radical Right – fascism

Combining nationalist, militarist, socialist and antidemocratic ideas

The new word: “totalitarianism” (Mussolini) Fascism allows the Right to go on the offensive But until the 1930s, the offensives are of local, not global,

significance

Freikorps, German right-wing militia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf3kh61tsIc

Mussolini addresses a Fascist Party crowd:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGiQ2-oIRpw&feature=related

Italian Fascists march on Rome, 1922:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV3SaZk0UzY&feature=related

Hitler’s rise to power http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=MHvQ3apI6xU&feature=related

The march of dictators 1922: Italy, Spain 1923: Turkey 1926: Poland, Lithuania, Portugal 1929: Yugoslavia 1933: Germany 1934: Latvia, Bulgaria 1936: Hungary, Greece 1939: Spain again 1940: Romania

The cause of World revolution and Soviet politics

Socialism in One Country Peaceful Cosexistence International Solidarity Trying to control foreign revolutions

The Global Center Liberals, reform-minded socialists, labour and other social

movements struggling for democratization and social reforms

The 1920s as a period of uncertainty Emergence of a liberal world order instead of a world

revolution? Stabilization of global capitalism, revival of globalized

markets Disarmament, League of Nations Peaceful coexistence between the West and the Soviet

Union

January 20, 1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as US President: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLU2fJpsmVo&feature=related

From Roosevelt’s inaugural address, January 20, 1933:

“Rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence....The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere

monetary profit”.

1929 The start of the Great Depression Capitalism shattered, class conflicts on the rise everywhere Revival of the ideas of world revolution The Global Left goes on the offensive Radicalization of right-wing forces Political polarization Retreat of liberal democracy In international relations – growing anarchy, return to

traditional power politics

Red Front Battle Union demonstration, led by Ernst Thalmann, Germany, 1927

1933 Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany The Nazis destroy German democracy, crush the Left, build

a totalitarian state, prepare for wars of aggression

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktJU2IZQr4M&feature=related

1936-39 The Spanish Civil War: Spain as an arena of a crucial battle

between the Global Left and the Global Right