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Communist International (Comintern)

Documents and Publications

      We are beginning to post here a collection of some documents of the Comintern which have been suppressed in some countries and which are very difficult to find even in those countries where they have not been formally banned. Some of these documents have been scanned and posted on the Internet by others, but we are collecting them together here for the convenience of the visitors to this site.

      Some of the documents below have been copied here from other web sites, including from the Comintern section of the Marxist Internet Archive. If you know of additional Comintern documents which should be posted here, or have any comments or suggestions, please contact us at: freespeech@bannedthought.net

Documents of the Communist International — General Collections:

• “The Communist International — 1919-1943 — Documents”, selected and edited by Jane Degras. Originally published in London by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, which described itself as “an unofficial body which promotes the scientific study of international affairs and does not express opinions of its own”.
  • Volume 1: 1919-1922, (1956), 469 pages.   PDF format   [1,991 KB]
  • Volume 2: 1923-1928, (1960), 590 pages.   PDF format   [2,540 KB]
  • Volume 3: 1929-1943, (1965), 499 pages.   PDF format   [2,226 KB]

History of the Communist International (and the First and Second Internationals)

• [Book:] “The Internationale”, by R. Palme Dutt, (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1964), 420 pages. (Some underlining.)   Searchable PDF format   [Large file: 56,788 KB]
• [Book:] “Outline History of the Communist International”, by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Central Committee of the CPSU, (Moscow: Progress, 1971), 573 pages.   PDF format   [Large file: 53,260 KB];   Searchable PDF format   [Very large file: 109,443 KB]

Congresses of the Communist International

• Second World Congress (Moscow: July-August 1920):
  • “The Capitalist World and the Communist International — Manifesto of the Second Congress of the Third Communist International”, American Edition published by the United Communist Party of America, (Moscow: 1920), 32 pages.   PDF format   [5,089 KB]
• Sixth World Congress (Moscow: July-August 1928):
  • [Book:] “The Communist International Between the Fifth & the Sixth World Congresses, 1924-28: A Report on the Position in All Sections of the World Communist Party”, (London: Communist Party of Great Britain, July 1928), 508 pages.   Searchable PDF format   [28,447 KB]
  • “Program of the Communist International”, together with the Statues of the Communist International, adopted at the Forty-Sixth Session of the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International, Sept. 1, 1928. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, 1929), 2nd edition (June 1933), 100 pages.   Searchable PDF format   [5,797 KB]
  • “The Struggle Against Imperialist War and the Tasks of the Communists — Resolution of the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International, July-August 1928”, (NY: Workers Library Publishers, July 1934), second edition, 72 pages. (Some marginal notations.)   PDF format   [16,445 KB]
  • “The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies”, the thesis adopted by the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International, 1928. Pamphlet edition (NY: Workers Library Publishers, 1928), 68 pages.   PDF format   [5,871 KB]    Second version, different translation, in much smaller file with a sharp and easy to read font:   PDF format   [578 KB]
• Seventh World Congress (Moscow: July 25 - August 20, 1935):
  • [Book:] “VII Congress of the Communist International: Abridged Stenographic Report of Proceedings”, (Moscow: FLPH, 1939), 610 pages.   Searchable PDF format   [32,947 KB]
  • “The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial Countries”, by Wang Ming, the revised copy of the speech given on Aug. 7, 1935 in Moscow at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, 1935), 68 pages.   PDF format   [4,017 KB]
    [German edition:] “Im Zeichen der chinesischen Sowjets: Die revolutionäre Bewegung in den kolonialen und halbkolonialen Ländern und die Taktik der kommunistischen Parteien”, (Straßburg: Prometheus Verlag, 1935), 64 pages [missing pp. 40-41].   Searchable PDF format   [20,393 KB];   WinDjView format   [13,687 KB]
  • “The Fight for Peace”, Report on the preparations for imperialist war and the tasks of the Communist International, delivered on August 13, 1935 at the 7th World Congress of the Communist International, by M. Ercoli [real name: Palmiro Togliatti], (NY: Workers Library Publishers, Nov. 1935), 100 pages.   Searchable PDF format   [6,238 KB]
  • “The Work of the Seventh Congress”, by D. Z. Manuilsky, a speech delivered at a meeting of the Moscow branch of the CPSU, Sept. 14, 1935. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, May 1936), 84 pages.   PDF format   [12,067 KB]

Other Documents of the Communist International

• “On the Road to Bolshevization”, by the ECCI and the CPUSA, (NY: Workers Library, Aug. 1, 1929), 72 pages.   Epub format   [210 KB]
• “Fascism, the Danger of War and the Tasks of the Communist Parties”, report by O. W. Kuusinen at the 13th Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), Dec. 1933. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, May 1934), 97 pages. Some marginal markings.   PDF format   [22,371 KB]
• “The Communist Parties in the Fight for the Masses”, speech by O. Piatnitsky at the 13th Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), Dec. 1933. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, March 1934), 100 pages.   Searchable PDF format   [4,970 KB]

The Communist International Magazine

• 1919-1926:
  • A few individual articles from these early issues are available on the Marxist Internet Archive at: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/ci/index.htm
• 1940:
  • # 4   (April 1940):   PDF format   (3,734 KB)
  • # 6   (June 1940):   PDF format   (13,264 KB)
  • #12   (December 1940):   PDF format   (7,307 KB)

International Press Correspondence Publication   [Inprecorr]
        Distributed as articles to be published in Communist and working class newspapers and magazines around the world. (English edition.)

• General Info:
  • CIA Index — 1921-1931, of all the articles related specifically to the United States, 42 pages.   PDF format   (1,488 KB)
• 1921:
  • # 1, October 1, 1921, 12 pages.   Searchable PDF format   (5,023 KB)
  • # 2, October 17, 1921, 8 pages.   Searchable PDF format   (3,311 KB)
  • # 3, October 25, 1921, 8 pages.   Searchable PDF format   (3,277 KB)
  • # 4, November 1, 1921, 8 pages.   Searchable PDF format   (3,274 KB)
  • # 5, November 5, 1921, 8 pages.   Searchable PDF format   (1,709 KB)
  • #19, December 23, 1921, 8 pages.   Searchable PDF format   (3,273 KB)
• 1925:
  • #47 (part), 1925, 3 pages. ECCI Resolution on the American Question.   Searchable PDF format   (578 KB)

Unofficial Comintern Documents (but Supportive)

• “The Revolutionary Crisis is Maturing”, a speech by D. Z. Manuilsky at the Seventeenth Congress of the CPSU on Behalf of the Delegation of the CPSU in the Communist International, (NY: Workers Library Publishers, 1934), 52 pages.   Searchable PDF format   [3,371 KB]
• “The Most Burning Question: Unity of Action”, by Bela Kun, member of the Presidium of the ECCI, 1934. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, Oct. 1934), 68 pages.   PDF format   [13,473 KB]
• “For or Against the United Front?”, by Ernst Fischer, (NY: Workers Library Publishers, Oct. 1936), 60 pages. (Corrected version; page 34 now OK.)   PDF format   [14,871 KB]

Commentaries On and Critiques of the Comintern from Various Revolutionary and Progressive Sources

• Mao on the Dissolution of the Comintern: “The Comintern has Long Ceased to Meddle in Our Internal Affairs”, excerpt from a speech to comrades on May 26, 1943. Online at: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-6/mswv6_36.htm

Other Commentaries and Retrospectives on the Comintern

• [Book:] “De Lénine á Staline: Dix ans au Service de L’Internationale Communiste, 1921-1931”, [“Lenin to Stalin: Ten Years in Service to the Communist International, 1921-1931”], mémoires de Jules Humbert-droz, (Neuchatel, Switzerland: 1971), in French, 524 pages. The author was an ally of Bukharin and part of the Right Opposition in 1928. Although he was the founder of the Communist Party of Switzerland, he later became a social-democrat.  
• [Book:] “The Comintern and the East: A Critque of the Critque”, ed. by R. A. Ulyanovsky, (Moscow: Progress, 1981 [Russian original: 1978]), 472 pages.

Anti-Communist Hostility and Opposition to the Comintern

• “Comintern in Asia”, by D. Ghambashidze, editor of the anti-communist magazine Der Neue Orient, (Berlin: Der Neue Orient, 1939), 68 pages (missing pp. 6-7). (Promotive of the “Anti-Comintern Pact” of Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan.)

Academic Works

• “The Communist International though a British Lens”, by Alastair Kocho-Williams, speech in New York City, January 2009, 14 pages.
• [Book:] “We are Neither Visionaries nor Utopian Dreamers: Willi Münzenberg, the League Against Imperialism, and the Comintern, 1925-1933”, by Fredrik Petersson, Ph.D. Thesis (2013), 598 pages.  
• “Imperialism and the Communist International”, by Fredrik Petersson, Journal of Labor and Society, Vol. 20, March 2017, 20 pages.  
• “Networks, Parties, and the ‘Oppressed Nations’: The Comintern and Chinese Communists Overseas, 1926-1935”, by Anna Belogurova, Cross Currents, E-Journal #24, Sept. 2017, 22 pages.

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Red International of Labor Unions (RILU or Profintern) — 1921-1937

• “Program of Action of the Red International of Labour Unions”, by A. Losovsky [Solomon Abramovich (Alexandr) Lozovsky], originally written and published in Moscow in the Fall of 1921, (Reprint by Red Flag Publications (Montreal?), May 1978), 94 pages.   Also available in HTML format on the MIA at https://www.marxists.org/archive/lozovsky/1921/index.htm

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Information Bureau of Communist and Workers’ Parties (Cominform) — 1947-1956

• “The Cominform on Colonial and Dependent Countries”, five documents from 1950-1953, 21 pages.
• [Book:] “The Communist Movement from Comintern to Cominform”, Two Volumes, by Fernando Claudín, (NY/London: MR Press, 1975), MarxToMao Digital Reprints, 2017, 413 + 453 pages.   Volume I: Searchable PDF format   [1,725 KB];   Volume II: Searchable PDF format   [1,892 KB]

— NOTICE —       Due to the repressive legislation and judicial decisions in the United States, we at BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET want to make it completely clear that we do not have any connection whatsoever with the parties which were once part of the Communist International or Comintern (which has been defunct for more than 80 years), or with any parties or organizations today who may have comments on the Comintern. We do not aid, promote, assist, support, coordinate with, or provide any sort of services or advice to any political party anywhere in the world. However, we do support the right of free speech, and the right of the people everywhere to read the documents and publications of the Comintern and all other political organizations, past or present. And for this reason alone we are making copies of many of these documents available on this site.

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