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The Fourth Congress of the Communist International, held in November–December 1922, shows evidence of member parties outside Soviet Russia taking initiatives and exerting significant influence on central political questions before world communism. On at least three issues, all related to united-front policy, non-Russian delegates’ pressure substantially altered Comintern Executive Committee proposals to the Congress. A central role in this process was played by leaders of the German Communist Party. The record of the Congress, newly available in English, also contains many calls for increasing the authority of the Comintern Executive. Still, the influence of non-Russian delegations, in a context of frequent division among leading Bolsheviks, suggests that influence of front-line parties was significant and possibly growing in 1922, little more than a year before the Comintern took a sharp turn toward Russian-dominated bureaucratisation.
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Adler Alan Alix Holt & Holland Barbara Theses, Resolutions and Manifestos of the First Four Congresses of the Third International 1980 London Ink Links
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Agosti Aldo Il partito mondiale della rivoluzione 2009 Milan Edizioni Unicopli
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Angress Werner T. Stillborn Revolution: The Communist Bid for Power in Germany, 1921–1923 1963 Princeton Princeton University Press
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Balsamini Luigi Gli Arditi del Popolo: Dalla guerra alla difesa del popolo contro le violenze fasciste 2002 Salerno Galzerano Editore
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Bayerlein Bernhard H. ‘Zwischen Internationale und Gulag: Präliminarien zur Geschichte der internationalen kommunistischen Frauenbewegung (1919–1945)’ International Newsletter of Communist Studies 2006 12 19 27 47
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Behan Tom The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini 2003 London Bookmarks
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Bellamy Richard & Darrow Schecter Gramsci and the Italian State 1993 Manchester Manchester University Press
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Bois Marcel & Florian Wilde ‘Ein kleiner Boom: Entwicklungen und Tendenzen der kpd-Forschung seit 1989–90’ Jahrbuch für historische Kommunismusforschung 2010 23 309 22
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Borkenau Franz World Communism: A History of the Communist International 1962 Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press
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Brandt Willi & Richard Lowenthal Ernst Reuter: Ein Leben für die Freiheit 1957 Munich Kindler
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Braunthal Julius Clark John History of the International 1967 Volume 2 London Nelson
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Broué Pierre Histoire de l’Internationale communiste 1919–43 1997 Paris Fayard
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Broué Pierre Archer John The German Revolution 1917–1923 Historical Materialism 2005 Leiden Brill Book Series
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Cannon James P. The First Ten Years of American Communism 1973 New York Pathfinder Press
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Carr Edward Hallett The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923 1966 Volume 3 Harmondsworth Penguin Books
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Claudín Fernando The Communist Movement: From Comintern to Cominform The Crisis of the Communist International 1975 Volume 1 New York Monthly Review Press
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Cliff Tony ‘The Bolsheviks and World Communism’ Lenin 1979 Volume 4 London Pluto Press
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Comintern Protokoll des iii. Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale 1921a Hamburg Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale
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Comintern Thesen und Resolutionen des iii. Weltkongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale 1921b Hamburg Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale
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Comintern Bericht über die Tätigkeit des Präsidiums und der Exekutive der Kommunistischen International für die Zeit vom 6. März bis 11. Juni 1922 1922a Hamburg Carl Hoym Nachf
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Comintern Die Taktik der Kommunistischen Internationale gegen die Offensive des Kapitals 1922b Hamburg Carl Hoym Nachf
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Comintern Die Tätigkeit der Exekutive und des Präsidiums des E.K. der Kommunistischen Internationale vom 13. Juli 1921 bis 1. Februar 1922 1922c Petrograd Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale
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Comintern iii vsemirnyi kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala 1922d Petrograd Gosizdat
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Comintern iv vsemirnyi kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala 1923a Moscow Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel’stvo
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Comintern Protokoll der Konferenz der erweiterten Exekutive der Kommunistischen Internationale, Moskau 12–23 Juni 1923 1923b Hamburg Carl Hoym Nachf Louis Cahnbley
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Comintern Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International 1923c London Communist Party of Great Britain
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Comintern Thesen und Resolutionen des iv. Weltkongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale 1923d Hamburg Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale
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Comintern Materialien zur Frage des Programms der Kommunistischen Internationale 1924 Hamburg Carl Hoym Nachf Louis Cahnbley
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Comintern The First Congress of the Toilers of the Far East 1970 London Hammersmith Books [1922]
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Comintern The Comintern Archive 1994 Leiden IDC
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Cortesi Luigi Storia del comunismo: Da utopia al Termidoro sovietico 2010 Rome Manifestolibri
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Courtois Stéphane, Werth Nicolas, Panné Jean-Louis, Paczkowski Andrzej, Karel Bartošek & Margolin Jean-Louis Le livre noir du communisme: crimes, terreur et répression 1997 Paris Laffont
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Croucher Richard ‘Shifting Sands: Changing Interpretations of the History of German Communism’ Labour History Review 2003 68 1 11 31
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Degras Jane The Communist International 1919–1943: Documents 1956 Volume 1 London Oxford University Press
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Drachkovitch Milorad M. & Branko Lazitch Drachkovitch Milorad M. ‘The Communist International’ The Revolutionary Internationals, 1864–1943 1966 Stanford Stanford University Press
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Draper Theodore American Communism and Soviet Russia 1960 New York Viking Press
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Fayet Jean-François Karl Radek (1885–1939): Biographie politique 2004 Bern Peter Lang
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Fiori Giuseppe Nairn Tom Antonio Gramsci: Life of a Revolutionary 1971 New York Dutton
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Firsov F.I. Shirinia & Firsov ‘iv kongress Kominterna i razvitie politiki edinogo fronta’ 1980 1980
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Firsov F.I. Sekretnye kody istorii Kominterna 1919–1943 2007 Moscow AIRO-XXI
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Francescangeli Eros Arditi del Popolo: Argo Secondari e la prima organizzazione antifascista (1917–1922) 2000 Rome Odradek
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Frank Pierre Histoire de l’Internationale communiste, 1919–1943 1979 two volumes Paris La Brèche
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Furet François Le passé d’une illusion: essai sur l’idée communiste au xxe siècle 1995 Paris Laffont
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Geyer Curt Die revolutionäre Illusion: Zur Geschichte des linken Flügels der uspd 1976 Stuttgart Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt
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Gramsci Antonio Socialismo e fascismo: L’Ordine Nuovo 1921–1922 1974 Turin Einaudi
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Gruber Helmut International Communism in the Era of Lenin 1967 Ithaca Cornell University Press
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Hallas Duncan The Comintern 1985 London Bookmarks
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Humbert-Droz Jules De Lénine à Staline: Dix ans au service de l’Internationale communiste, 1921–1931 1971 Neuchâtel A la Baconnière
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International Socialist Congress The Second and Third Internationals and the Vienna Union: Official Report of the Conference between the Executives, held at the Reichstag, Berlin, on the 2nd April, 1922, and the Following Days 1967 Milan Feltrinelli
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Kinner Klaus Der deutsche Kommunismus 1999 five volumes Berlin Dietz Verlag
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Kun Béla ‘Die Ereignisse in Deutschland’ Kommunismus 1920 11 15
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Kun Béla Kommunisticheskii Internatsional v dokumentakh 1933 Moscow Partiinoe Izdatel’stvo
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Kunina D.E. Shirinia & Firsov ‘Kominternovskaia taktika edinogo rabochego fronta i Kommunisticheskaia Partiia Italii’ 1980 1980
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Heng-yü Kuo & Titarenko M.L. rkp(b), Komintern und die national-revolutionäre Bewegung in China: Dokumente 1996 Volume 1 Paderborn F. Schöningh (1920–5)
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LaPorte Norman Moscow’s Marionettes or German Militants: Saxony and the Debate on the German Communist Party during the Weimar Republic 2000 Wolverhampton University of Wolverhampton
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LaPorte Norman The German Communist Party in Saxony, 1924–1933 2003 Oxford Peter Lang
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LaPorte Norman, Kevin Morgan & Matthew Worley Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917–53 2008 Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71a Volume 23 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71b Volume 28 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71c Volume 31 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71d Volume 32 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71e Volume 33 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71f Volume 36 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71g Volume 42 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Collected Works 1960–71h Volume 45 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lih Lars T. Lenin Rediscovered: ‘What Is to Be Done?’ in Context, Historical Materialism 2005 Leiden Brill Book Series
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Luks Leonid Entstehung der kommunistischen Faschismustheorie: die Auseindersetzung der Komintern mit Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus 1921–1935 1985 Stuttgart Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt
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Luxemburg Rosa Peter Hudis & Anderson Kevin B. The Rosa Luxemburg Reader 2004 New York Monthly Review Press
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Mallmann Klaus-Michael Kommunisten in der Weimarer Republik 1996 Darmstadt Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft
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Marx Karl & Frederick Engels Werke 1961–8 Volume 38 Berlin Dietz
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Marx Karl & Frederick Engels Collected Works 1975–2004 Volume 49 Moscow Progress Publishers
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McDermott Kevin Rees & Thorpe ‘The History of the Comintern in the Light of New Documents’ 1998 1998
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McDermott Kevin & Jeremy Agnew The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin 1997 New York St Martin’s Press
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Narinsky Mikhail & Jürgen Rojahn Centre and Periphery: The History of the Comintern in the Light of New Documents 1996 Amsterdam International Institute of Social History
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Natoli Claudio La Terza Internazionale e il fascismo, 1919–1923: proletariato di fabbrica e reazione industriale nel primo dopoguerra 1982 Rome Editori Riuniti
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Palmer Bryan D. James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left 1890–1928 2007 Urbana University of Illinois Press
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Pantsov Alexander The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution, 1919–1927 2000 Richmond Curzon Press
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Peterson Larry German Communism, Workers’ Protest, and Labor Unions 1993 Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Ponomarev Boris Nikolaevich ‘The Socialist Revolution in Russia and the International Working Class, 1917–1923’ The International Working-Class Movement: Problems of History and Theory 1984 Volume 4 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Puschnerat Tânia Clara Zetkin: Bürgerlichkeit und Marxismus 2003 Essen Klartext Verlag
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Rees Tim & Andrew Thorpe International Communism and the Communist International 1919–1943 1998 Manchester Manchester University Press
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Reisberg Arnold An den Quellen der Einheitsfrontpolitik 1971 Berlin Dietz Verlag
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Riddell John ‘Clara Zetkin’s Struggle for the United Front’ International Socialist Review 2009 68 58 64
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Riddell John ‘The Origins of the United Front Policy’ International Socialism 2011 130 available at: <http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=724&issue=130>
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Riddell John ‘The Communist Women’s Movement, 1921–1926’ International Social-ist Review 2013 87 available at: <http://isreview.org/issue/87/communist-womens-movement>
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Riddell John Founding the Communist International: Proceedings and Documents of the First Congress, March 1919 1987 New York Pathfinder Press
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Riddell John Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite!: Proceedings and Documents of the Second Congress, 1920 1991a Volume 1 New York Pathfinder Press
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Riddell John Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite!: Proceedings and Documents of the Second Congress, 1920 1991b Volume 2 New York Pathfinder Press
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Riddell John To See the Dawn: Baku, 1920 – First Congress of the Peoples of the East 1993 New York Pathfinder Press
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Riddell John Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, Historical Materialism 2011 Leiden Brill Book Series
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Riddell John To the Masses: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1922 Historical Materialism 2015 Leiden Brill Book Series
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rilu Resolutions and Decisions of the First International Congress of Revolutionary Trade and Industrial Unions 1921 Chicago The Voice of Labor
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Service Robert Comrades! A History of World Communism 2007 Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press
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Spriano Paolo Storia del Partito comunista italiano 1967 Volume 1 Turin Einaudi
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Stoljarowa Ruth & Peter Schmalfuss Briefe Deutscher an Lenin, 1917–1923 1990 Berlin Dietz Verlag
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Trotsky Leon The Third International after Lenin 1936 New York Pioneer Publishers
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Trotsky Leon The Struggle against Fascism in Germany 1971 New York Pathfinder Press
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Trotsky Leon The First Five Years of the Communist International 1972a Volume 1 New York Pathfinder Press
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Trotsky Leon The First Five Years of the Communist International Volume 2 New York Pathfinder Press
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Trotsky Leon The Stalin School of Falsification 1972c New York Pathfinder
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Trotsky Leon The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution 1973 New York Pathfinder Press
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1
See Riddell (ed.) 2011, hereafter tuf (Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International). Major portions of this paper originated as part of the Introduction to tuf.
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2
Rojahn 1996, p. 38; McDermott and Agnew 1997, pp. 14–15.
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3
Lih 2005.
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4
Drachkovitch and Lazitch 1966, p. 175; Gruber (ed.) 1967, pp. 177–8; Braunthal 1967, p. 255; Borkenau 1962, pp. 230–1; Angress 1963, p. 228; Carr 1966, pp. 440–5.
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5
Claudín 1975, p. 106; Cliff 1979, pp. 54–7; Hallas 1985, pp. 70–1.
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7
Agosti 2009, p. 18. Firsov 2007.
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8
Croucher 2003; LaPorte 2000; LaPorte 2003, pp. 19–38; Bois and Wilde 2010.
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11
McDermott and Agnew 1997, pp. 24–6.
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12
Cortesi 2010, p. 466.
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13
Vatlin 1993a and 1993b.
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14
Wolikow 2010, p. 22. See also Wolikow 2000.
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15
Agosti 2009, pp. 23, 21.
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16
Rees and Thorpe (eds.) 1998, p. 10; McDermott 1998, p. 32.
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20
Kun 1920, pp. 349, 441.
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21
Broué 2005, pp. 468–72; Reisberg 1971, pp. 50–62.
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28
Firsov 1980, pp. 145, 147; tuf, pp. 1158–9 (Theses on Tactics).
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39
Lenin 1960–71d, p. 522; Behan 2003, p. 106.
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40
Comintern 1922c, p. 394. The letter, apparently written by Bukharin, was not published until 1924. For excerpts, see Spriano 1967, pp. 150–1; Behan 2003, pp. 107–8.
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42
Spriano 1967, pp. 223–7.
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50
Rothschild 1959, pp. 103–6; Ponomarev 1984, pp. 649–51; Broué 1997, pp. 333–5.
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53
Kunina 1980, p. 368; Puschnerat 2003, pp. 283–4; Comintern 1923b, pp. 204–32, 293–8. For Zetkin’s role, see Riddell 2009.
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55
Broué 2005, pp. 361–71.
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57
Broué 2005, pp. 385–90.
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58
Lenin 1960–71c, p. 109.
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59
Reisberg 1971, pp. 259–61; Broué 1997, pp. 261–2.
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60
Comintern 1922a, p. 123.
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70
Trotsky 1972b, p. 325.
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71
Comintern 1994, 491/1/278–81/1483–91 (first and second drafts); tuf, pp. 1096–1100 (late amendments); pp. 1159–62 (adopted text).
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74
Riddell (ed.) 1987, pp. 227–8; Riddell (ed.) 1991a, p. 286; Riddell (ed.) 1991b, p. 768; Riddell (ed.) 1993 (Baku congress); Comintern 1970 (Far-East Congress).
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80
Comintern 1970, pp. 193–4; Pantsov 2000, p. 57; Carr 1966, p. 527 (entry into kmt); and tuf, pp. 711–12 (Liu on kmt), 722 (Safarov), 733 (Radek).
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85
Luxemburg 2004, pp. 364–5. An English translation of the Erfurt programme is available at: <www.marxists.org>.
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86
Riddell (ed.) 1987, pp. 149–59, 241–8; Lenin 1960–71b, pp. 457–74.
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87
Trotsky 1973, p. 75; Comintern 1921a, pp. 475–6; Comintern 1921b, p. 47. See also Adler (ed.) 1980, p. 286.
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88
Broué 2005, pp. 648–50.
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94
See also Lenin 1960–71e, pp. 418–32; Trotsky 1972b, pp. 185–216. Trotsky also wrote summary theses based on his speech (Trotsky 1972b, pp. 264–74), which – although included in the Adler (ed.) 1980 collection of congress documents – were not adopted by the Congress. Zetkin sent an outline of her speech to Lenin, who responded with encouragement: see Stoljarowa and Schmalfuss (eds.) 1990, pp. 303–7.
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100
Riddell (ed.) 1987, pp. 247–8 (Comintern Platform); Riddell (ed.) 1991b, pp. 696, 698 (Statutes), 770 (Conditions).
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101
Lenin 1960–71d, pp. 515–16. On Pogány’s role see Draper 1960, passim.; Cannon 1973, pp. 74–84; Palmer 2007, pp. 175–95. Cannon, then a central leader of the us party, explains that Pogány’s authority as an ecci representative ‘was never completely clear’; in Moscow, Cannon heard that it was limited to working with the us party’s Hungarian federation.
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106
See Riddell (ed.) 1991a, p. 417; Humbert-Droz 1971, pp. 119–20; and Trotsky’s comments, tuf, pp. 994–8.
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110
See Geyer 1976, pp. 234–5; Brandt and Lowenthal 1957, pp. 191–2.
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114
Fayet 2004, p. 352.
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115
Stoljarowa and Schmalfuss (eds.) 1990, p. 215.
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The Fourth Congress of the Communist International, held in November–December 1922, shows evidence of member parties outside Soviet Russia taking initiatives and exerting significant influence on central political questions before world communism. On at least three issues, all related to united-front policy, non-Russian delegates’ pressure substantially altered Comintern Executive Committee proposals to the Congress. A central role in this process was played by leaders of the German Communist Party. The record of the Congress, newly available in English, also contains many calls for increasing the authority of the Comintern Executive. Still, the influence of non-Russian delegations, in a context of frequent division among leading Bolsheviks, suggests that influence of front-line parties was significant and possibly growing in 1922, little more than a year before the Comintern took a sharp turn toward Russian-dominated bureaucratisation.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
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| Abstract Views | 2502 | 128 | 8 |
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| PDF Views & Downloads | 356 | 52 | 0 |
