Communism + transnational: the rediscovered equation of internationalism in the Comintern years

Abstract

, communism was embodied in an International that was organised by and centred on Moscow. This was known as the Third International, the Communist International or the Comintern, which existed from 1919 to 1943. Communism also spawned a new internationalism which connected people around causes from Harlem to Moscow, Hamburg to Buenos Aires, Marseille to Durban, London to Shanghai; it gave rise to global moments of protest and struggle, and myriad diverse organisations of many different acronyms. This internationalism proved to be, through its revolutionary, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist scope, both more enduring and more global than the International which had given it life. In what ways did the Comintern serve as a 'start-up' for worldwide projects and struggles which have left their imprint on the contemporary world, in particular outside of Europe? In this article we try to offer some answers to this question. We should note from the beginning that our inquiry would not have been possible without recent innovations in the field. Communism is transnational, but we needed the perspective of transnational history to be able to think about it as such. For a long time works on communism (as on other topics) had been bound by a nationally-minded framework, a mode of analysis which favoured country-by-country studies of national parties and organisations

A Double-edged Sword: The Political Use of National Heterogeneity in the Soviet Union during the Interwar Period*

“…Soviet construction has been reinterpreted as both imperial and postimperial in its policy toward its neighbors in Eurasia and its international diplomacy. 6 In this new history of transnational Communism, anti-imperialism and the support of cross-border minority identities are read as tools for promoting Bolshevism alongside class struggle. The use of national revolution as a political resource also sheds light on the way the USSR could challenge the League of Nations on the issue of the rights of peoples and the protection of minorities 7 .…”

Judíos, comunistas e interbrigadistas: intersecciones y ambivalencias en los años treinta desde un enfoque transnacional

“…La historiografía ha enfatizado también el carácter transterritorial del proyecto comunista y de algunos colectivos judíos. La perspectiva transnacional, los estudios poscoloniales o los enfoques culturales han resaltado el rol de la Internacional Comunista (IC) y de sus redes de solidaridad o difusión de valores, entendiendo al proyecto comunista como síntesis entre ideal internacionalista, condicionantes locales y proyección global (Dullin;Studer, 2018). También se ha problematizado la visión de control unívoco desde el centro soviético sobre los partidos nacionales, revalorizándose el papel de los intercambios y de las transferencias político-culturales (Laporte, 2013, p. 7-20).…”