Möchten Sie über diese Zeitschrift informiert bleiben? Klicken Sie bitte auf die Buttons, um unsere Alerts zu abonnieren.
Möchten Sie über diese Zeitschrift informiert bleiben? Klicken Sie bitte auf die Buttons, um unsere Alerts zu abonnieren.
Exploring the Ambiguities of the Fifth Comintern Congress
in Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Mike Taber in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
More than a century on, the Fifth Congress of the Communist International in 1924 remains an enigmatic historical event. That congress is associated with the Comintern’s rightward course of the mid-1920s; yet it itself was the scene of a ‘left turn’. It marked the beginning of the world organisation’s Stalinist degeneration; yet it saw a relatively free and open debate. It reversed key Comintern positions, adopted the bureaucratic ‘Bolshevisation’ policy, and brought the anti-Trotsky campaign into the world Communist movement; yet it also included some positive elements in general continuity with earlier congresses. Based primarily on the published congress proceedings, this essay examines the ambiguities of the Fifth Congress, pointing to its lines of continuity and discontinuity with earlier Comintern policies. Such an assessment sheds light on the underlying strength of the Comintern under Lenin, and its overall trajectory in the post-Lenin period.
Kauf
Sofortzugang erwerben (PDF-Download und unbegrenzter Online-Zugang):
Institutszugang
Melden Sie sich mit Open Athens, Shibboleth oder Ihren institutionellen Anmeldedaten an.
Persönliche Anmeldung
Melden Sie sich mit Ihrem brill.com-Konto an
-
Agosti, Aldo 2008, Palmiro Togliatti, London: I.B. Tauris.
-
Angress, Werner 1963, Stillborn Revolution: The Communist Bid for Power in Germany, 1921–1923, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-
Basso, Pietro 2020, ‘Amadeo Bordiga Was the Last Communist to Challenge Stalin to His Face’, Jacobin, available at: <https://jacobin.com/2020/08/amadeo-bordiga-italian-communism>.
-
Bayerlein, Bernard et al. 2003, Deutscher Oktober 1923: Ein Revolutionsplan und sein Scheitern, Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag.
-
Benton, Gregor (ed.) 2015, Prophets Unarmed: Chinese Trotskyists in Revolution, War, Jail, and the Return from Limbo, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Broué, Pierre 1997, Histoire de l’Internationale communiste 1919–1943, Paris: Fayard.
-
Broué, Pierre 2005, The German Revolution 1917–1923, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Broué, Pierre and Emile Témime 1972, The Revolution and the Civil War in Spain, London: Faber & Faber Ltd.
-
Cannon, James 1962, The First Ten Years of American Communism: Report of a Participant, New York: Lyle Stuart, Inc.
-
Cannon, James 1992, James P. Cannon and the Early Years of American Communism: Selected Writings and Speeches, 1920–1928, New York: Prometheus Research Library.
-
Carr, Edward Hallett 1958, Socialism in One Country 1924–1926, Volume 3, Part 1, London: MacMillan.
-
Claudín, Fernando 1975, The Communist Movement: From Comintern to Cominform, New York: Monthly Review Press.
-
Cliff, Tony 2012 [1979], Revolution Besieged: Lenin 1917–1923, Chicago: Haymarket Books.
-
Cohen, Stephen 1975, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888–1938, New York: Vintage Books.
-
Communist International 1924a, Protokoll: Fünfter Kongress der Kommunistische Internationale, Hamburg: Carl Hoym Nachf.; cited throughout the footnotes as Protokoll.
-
Communist International 1924b, The Fifth World Congress of the Communist International. Abridged Report of Meetings Held at Moscow. June 17th to July 8th, 1924, London: Communist Party of Great Britain.
-
Degras, Jane (ed.) 1971, The Communist International 1919–1943: Documents. Volume II: 1923–1928, London: Oxford University Press.
-
Fischer, Ruth 1948, Stalin and German Communism: A Study in the Origins of the State Party, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
-
Fyson, George (ed.) 1995, Lenin’s Final Fight: Speeches and Writings 1922–23, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Geier, Joe 2014, ‘The Forgotten Fifth Comintern Congress: Bridge between Lenin and Stalin’, available at: <https://johnriddell.com/2014/06/23/the-forgotten-fifth-comintern-congress-bridge-between-lenin-and-stalin/>.
-
Gruber, Helmut (ed.) 1967, International Communism in the Era of Lenin, Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, Inc.
-
Gruber, Helmut (ed.) 1974, Soviet Russia Masters the Comintern, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
-
Hallas, Duncan 2008 [1985], The Comintern: A History of the Third International, Chicago: Haymarket Books.
-
Harman, Chris 1982, The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918 to 1923, London: Bookmarks.
-
Isaacs, Harold 1938, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, London: Secker & Warburg.
-
Jackson, George 1966, Comintern and Peasant in East Europe 1919–1930, New York: Columbia University Press.
-
Jacquier, Charles 1993–4, Boris Souvarine, un intellectuel antistalinien de l’entre-deux guerres (1924–1940), PhD dissertation, Université de Paris X–Nanterre.
-
Jedermann 1971, La «bolchevisation» du parti communiste français (1923–1928), Paris: Maspero.
-
Jentsch, Harald 2003, ‘Eine Legende wird 80: Der “deutsche Oktober” 1923’, Linksnet für Linke Politik und Wissenschaft, available at: <https://www.linksnet.de/artikel/18553>.
-
Lewin, Moshe 1968, Lenin’s Last Struggle, New York: Patheon Books.
-
McDermott, Kevin and Jeremy Agnew 1996, The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin, London: Palgrave.
-
Mommen, André 2011, Stalin’s Economist: The Economic Contributions of Jenő Varga, London: Routledge.
-
P’eng Shu-tse 1976, Introduction to Leon Trotsky on China, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Riddell, John 2021a, ‘Krestintern: The Comintern’s Troubled Peasant International’, available at: <https://johnriddell.com/2021/10/10/krestintern-the-cominterns-troubled-peasant-international/>.
-
Riddell, John 2021b, ‘The “German October” of 1923: A Failed Bid for Workers’ Power’, available at: <https://johnriddell.com/2021/12/01/the-german-october-of-1923-a-failed-bid-for-workers-power/>.
-
Riddell, John (ed.) 1991, Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite! Proceedings of the Second Congress, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Riddell, John (ed.) 2012, Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Riddell, John (ed.) 2015, To the Masses: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Schwarz, Bob (ed.) 2022, ‘Clara Zetkin on the Path to Workers’ Power’, available at: <https://johnriddell.com/2022/01/22/clara-zetkin-on-the-path-to-workers-power/>.
-
Sexton, John (ed.) 2018, Alliance of Adversaries: The Congress of the Toilers of the Far East, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Solomon, Mark 1998, The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917–1936, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
-
Stalin, Joseph 1924, ‘The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists’, available at: <https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/12.htm>.
-
Taber, Mike (ed.) 2018, The Communist Movement at a Crossroads: Plenums of the Communist International’s Executive Committee, 1922–1923, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Taber, Mike and Daria Dyakonova (eds.) 2022, The Communist Women’s Movement 1920–1922: Proceedings, Resolutions, and Reports, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Tosstorff, Reiner 2016, The Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) 1920–1937, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1971, The Struggle against Fascism in Germany, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1972, The First Five Years of the Communist International, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1973, The Spanish Revolution (1931–39), New York Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1975, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1923–25), New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1980, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1926–27), New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1981, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1928–29), New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 1996 [1936], The Third International after Lenin, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Trotsky, Leon 2004 [1937], The Stalin School of Falsification, New York: Pathfinder Press.
-
Tumarkin, Nina 1983, Lenin Lives!: The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
-
Zumoff, Jacob 2014, The Communist International and US Communism 1919–1929, Historical Materialism Book Series, Leiden: Brill.
| Insgesamt | Letzte 365 Tage | In den letzten 30 Tagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen | 942 | 942 | 70 |
| Gesamttextansichten | 36 | 36 | 4 |
| PDF-Downloads | 125 | 125 | 15 |
Exploring the Ambiguities of the Fifth Comintern Congress
in Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Mike Taber in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
More than a century on, the Fifth Congress of the Communist International in 1924 remains an enigmatic historical event. That congress is associated with the Comintern’s rightward course of the mid-1920s; yet it itself was the scene of a ‘left turn’. It marked the beginning of the world organisation’s Stalinist degeneration; yet it saw a relatively free and open debate. It reversed key Comintern positions, adopted the bureaucratic ‘Bolshevisation’ policy, and brought the anti-Trotsky campaign into the world Communist movement; yet it also included some positive elements in general continuity with earlier congresses. Based primarily on the published congress proceedings, this essay examines the ambiguities of the Fifth Congress, pointing to its lines of continuity and discontinuity with earlier Comintern policies. Such an assessment sheds light on the underlying strength of the Comintern under Lenin, and its overall trajectory in the post-Lenin period.
| Insgesamt | Letzte 365 Tage | In den letzten 30 Tagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen | 942 | 942 | 70 |
| Gesamttextansichten | 36 | 36 | 4 |
| PDF-Downloads | 125 | 125 | 15 |
