The Communist International (Comintern) is surely the most important and influential world revolutionary movement that has ever existed. Founded in 1919, the early Comintern came to have millions of members and supporters in virtually every country on earth. The new movement aroused sympathy and hope among a large portion of the worldâs oppressed, while generating fear and hatred among its ruling classes. Over the last century, the legacy of the Communist International under Lenin has inspired untold numbers of activists and fighters for social change. It has also sparked interest among students and researchers trying to fully understand the movementâs dynamics and attractive power.
Yet, prior to the 1980s relatively little of the Communist Internationalâs published record was available in English. While serious scholarly studies certainly existed, most of what was known about the Comintern in the popular mind was based largely on hearsay and myth. Without access to the actual published record, an objective assessment of the Communist International, with all its complexities, was extremely difficult to obtain.
That situation was fundamentally changed by the Comintern Publishing Project, launched in 1983 under the editorship of John Riddell. This project has revolutionised the study of the Communist International, allowing for a deeper understanding and appreciation of it.
Over the last four decades, the tally of books published in the series has included two preparatory volumes leading to the formation of the Comintern, four volumes devoted to the proceedings and resolutions of its first four congresses, one volume featuring plenums of its Executive Committee, and four volumes taking up the Cominternâs auxiliary organisations and related world conferences.1
The present book can be seen as an introduction to this series â and to the Communist International itself.
From its beginning, the Comintern Publishing Project established a set of principles and objectives that have guided its work for over forty years:
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The goal of the project is to let the early Communist International speak for itself. With that in mind, editorsâ opinions have been restricted to each volumeâs introduction. In the remainder of the book, readers are able to make their own assessments, without an editorâs interpretation being forced on them at every point.
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Sufficient annotation is provided to allow modern-day readers to follow the text as easily as possible. Unfamiliar historical events and individuals are made accessible through footnotes, glossary, and chronology.
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Translations from the original language â usually German and Russian â have been carefully done and checked, using readable and understandable language.
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While scholars of the Communist movement have greatly appreciated the value of these unique volumes, the projectâs primary target audience has consisted of young rebels, workers, and activists in the struggle for social change â those who seek to use the Cominternâs historical example and legacy as a weapon in the fight to change the world.
Most volumes in the series consist of the proceedings and resolutions of Comintern congresses and conferences. Such items are not generally considered to be engrossing reading material. But oral debates have an advantage in comparison to written exchanges: thereâs less of a tendency of speakers to sand down the rough edges of their words with carefully crafted formulations. Such spontaneity and candour can open a window into Leninâs Comintern.
Readers can try and imagine themselves sitting at these very meetings, following the debates in real time. They can consider the alternative courses being presented to the delegates, based on the information then at hand. Readers can also see mistakes being made, followed by attempts to correct them. In other words, through the proceedings of these working gatherings, the Communist International can be seen not just as a century-old object of historical study, but as a living movement.
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Since 1983 the history of the Communist International has been closely linked to the name of John Riddell.
Known today as an international authority on the Communist movement, John did not come to the subject via academic study, but through work as a lifelong socialist activist and leader.
John got involved in socialist politics in Canada in 1958. Among his most important early political experiences were actions in defence of the Cuban Revolution, which after its victory in 1959 was under attack by the US government, aided by its allies in Canada and around the world. By the early 1970s, Johnâs leadership abilities had led him to become executive secretary of the League for Socialist Action, a major organisation on the Canadian Left at the time. As such, John became a target of Canadaâs political police, as he recounts in Chapter 23 of this book.
In the opening chapter, John recalls how he came to New York in 1983 to organise what was to eventually become the Comintern Publishing Project.
Here Iâll speak personally, having collaborated with John on the project since its inception. As a fellow member of the Pathfinder Press editorial staff in 1983, I was able to witness first-hand how John undertook the work.
Prior to Johnâs arrival in New York, I remember thinking what a daunting project we were embarking on. While I had full confidence that the massive effort could be accomplished, I didnât quite have a handle on how weâd begin. But when John arrived, he quickly took things in hand, organising the seemingly overwhelming number of tasks into a series of manageable steps.
Already fluent in German and French, John realised he needed to improve his Russian in order to lead the project. So with his customary self-discipline, John began working on this language intensively in his spare time, eventually reaching the point where he became a very good translator of Russian. I recall sitting next to John at a boring evening meeting, noticing that the idle doodles I assumed he was scribbling actually consisted of words in Russian that he was memorising!
From the beginning, John directed the project as a team effort, imparting to his colleagues a sense that everyoneâs ideas would be listened to and get fair consideration. With such an approach, he was able to build a large and effective team, involving scores of collaborators from around the world. Authorities in various fields lent a hand, as they came to respect Johnâs seriousness and professionalism. A whole host of volunteers were also enlisted: as translators, typists, proofreaders, copy editors, library researchers, and more.
Even though the effort was initiated by a specific political current (the US Socialist Workers Party), John sought to broaden the projectâs appeal to include individuals from differing political tendencies. As it developed in later years, this non-sectarian approach was strengthened even more.
John led the project from New York in its first ten years, during which five volumes in the series were published. The project then took a hiatus, as Pathfinderâs interest in it began to wane. John returned to Toronto in 1993, together with his partner Suzanne Weiss.
As recounted in the opening chapter, Johnâs association with Pathfinder came to an end in 2003 for political reasons. In the years that followed, John and Suzanne became widely respected activists in Toronto, involved in movements of solidarity with Cuba, Palestine, and Bolivia; in actions to oppose the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and in movements to defend the environment from capitalist degradation.
In 2007, a new chapter in the Comintern Publishing Project began, this time under the sponsorship of the Historical Materialism Book Series. Five books have already been published in this framework, with one more on the way.
John directed the publishing effort until 2019, when he asked me to take over as project coordinator and lead editor. But John has continued to be intimately involved in every aspect of the work â translating, editing, writing, and giving editorial advice. He has also had a hand in making all major decisions related to the project, which after four decades remains closely connected to his name.
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As already stated, the present book can be seen as an introduction to the Comintern Publishing Project as a whole.
Some of the chapters trace the development of the early Communist International from a largely chronological standpoint. Others focus on specific political issues, such as fascism, the workersâ government, strategy and tactics, organisation and centralism, democratic rights, and the colonial and national questions. Many of the individual articles relate to specific books in the series and issues discussed within them.
This volume consists of a collection of essays that were written as separate articles, inevitably giving rise to some repetition. While some of this duplication has been eliminated, a certain amount of overlap is unavoidable, as different chapters approach the same event or subject from different directions and vantage points.
The essays in this book can be viewed as guides to the various volumes in the series and will refer readers to the appropriate place where the questions are discussed in more detail. It is my hope that some readers will be motivated to dig into other volumes in the series.
Those of us who have worked on the Comintern Publishing Project over the years remain convinced that the legacy and example of the Communist International under Lenin remain deeply relevant to the world of today.
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John and I would like to acknowledge help from Jeff White, Paul LeBlanc, Simon Mussell, Suzanne Weiss, Nancy Rosenstock, Lars Lih, Julia Barnett, Tom Reid, Janet Fisher, Hadayt Nazami, James Clark, Sebastian Budgen, and Danny Hayward.
Mike Taber
May 2025
For a listing of these titles, see page xiâxiv.