Executive Committee of the Communist International

The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI, was the governing authority of the Comintern

Comintern

The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...

between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Founding Congress of the Comintern in 1919 and was dissolved with the rest of the Comintern in May 1943.

Establishment

The Communist International was established at a gathering convened in Moscow at the behest of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

. As early as December 24, 1918, a radio appeal had been issued by the ruling party of Soviet Russia

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....

calling on "communists of all countries" to boycott any attempts of reformists

Reformism

Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...

to reestablish the Second International

Second International

The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...

, but to instead "rally around the revolutionary Third International." The formal call for a conference of revolutionary socialist political parties and radical trade unions espousing revolutionary industrial unionism

Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...

had been issued on January 24, 1919, with the gathering originally slated to commence in Moscow beginning on February 15.

The conference which ultimately declared itself the Founding Congress of the Communist International

Founding Congress of the Comintern

The Founding Congress of the Comintern was an international gathering of communist, revolutionary socialist, and syndicalist delegates held in Moscow which established the Communist International...

was postponed to March 2, 1919, owing to the difficulties entailed by foreign delegates in crossing the blockade

Blockade

A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...

of Soviet Russia established by the Allied Nations

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

at the end of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Only a comparatively few delegates did manage to make the trip, with a number of the places filled on an ad hoc

Ad hoc

Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....

basis by individuals already in Soviet Russia not bearing formal credentials from their home organizations. For example, Boris Reinstein, a druggist from Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

who sat ostensibly the delegate of the Socialist Labor Party of America

Socialist Labor Party of America

The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...

, had been away from home for two years and had no formal authorization to represent his party. Similarly, Andreas Rudniansky, a former prisoner of war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

stranded in Russia represented Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, while Christian Rakovsky

Christian Rakovsky

Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...

, a Romanian, sat for the nearly defunct Balkan Socialist Federation.

A commission (standing committee) chaired by Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

radical Fritz Platten

Fritz Platten

Fritz Platten was a Swiss Communist.After the collapse of the Second International, Platten joined the Zimmerwald Movement and became a Communist....

was appointed by this Founding Congress to construct an organizational apparatus for the new Third International. This commission recommended the establishment of two deliberative bodies, an Executive Committee, to handle matters of policy, and a 5 member Bureau, to handle day-to-day activities. The governing Executive Committee was to be headquartered in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

and to include representatives from the member organizations of the Communist International. The parties of Russia, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Hungary, the Balkan Federation, Switzerland, and Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

were each to "immediately send representatives to the first Executive Committee." All parties joining the Comintern before the convention of the 2nd World Congress were similarly to be allowed a representative on this body. Until the arrival of the various elected delegates, representatives of the Russian Communist Party were to perform the functions of this Executive Committee of the Communist International. This organizational plan was approved unanimously by the Congress, without debate.

Selected as President of ECCI was Grigorii Zinoviev, an old associate of V.I. Lenin and top figure in the Russian Communist Party. Karl Radek

Karl Radek

Karl Bernhardovic Radek was a socialist active in the Polish and German movements before World War I and an international Communist leader after the Russian Revolution....

, then ensconced in a Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

prison, was symbolically selected as Secretary of ECCI, although the actual functions fell to Angelica Balabanov, albeit only for a few weeks. Zinoviev also served as editor of the official magazine of ECCI, Kommunisticheskii Internatsional ("The Communist International"), which began appearing regularly as soon as the Founding Congress came to a close.

Although no more than the nucleus of an actual organization was created, hampered by difficult communications in the isolation of the blockade, the skeleton ECCI immediately began to issues a series of declarations and manifestos to the workers and nations of the world. These included a manifesto of ECCI to the workers and sailors of all countries on the Hungarian Revolution (March 28, 1919), a message to the Bavarian Soviet Republic

Bavarian Soviet Republic

The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic was, as part of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state in form of a council republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed...

(April 1919), a May Day

May Day

May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....

manifesto (April 20, 1919), a manifesto on the Versailles Peace (May 13, 1919), and a manifesto on foreign intervention in Soviet Russia (June 18, 1919).

The early ECCI was, in short, to a large extent a propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

body, aiming to stir the working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

to socialist revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

. In the estimation of historian E.H. Carr, the summer and fall of 1920 marked the high-water mark for the prestige of the Comintern and its hopes of promoting world revolution. There would be, however, other functions for the organization and the Executive Committee which directed it.

From provisional to permanent status

Owing to poor communications and the difficulty of individuals crossing the frontier during the blockade and civil war

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

, of those originally invited to participate only the Communist Party of Hungary was able to send its permanent representative to ECCI prior to the convocation of the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern

2nd World Congress of the Comintern

The 2nd World Congress of the Comintern was a gathering of approximately 220 voting and non-voting representatives of Communist and revolutionary socialist political parties from around the world, held in Petrograd and Moscow from July 19 to August 7, 1920...

on July 19, 1920. This did not mean that ECCI, the Comintern's directing body, was staffed exclusively with Russians during the 1919-1920 period, however. In addition to representatives of the Russian Communist Party Angelica Balabanova

Angelica Balabanoff

Angelica Balabanoff was a Jewish-Italian communist and social democratic activist.-Revolutionary activities:...

, Ian Berzin, Nikolai Bukharin

Nikolai Bukharin

Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...

, V.V. Vorovsky

V. V. Vorovsky

Vatslav Vatslavovich Vorovsky was a Marxist revolutionary, literary critic, and Soviet Russian diplomat...

, Grigorii Zinoviev, and G. Klinger, a number of radicals from around the world had at various time taken part in ECCI's activities. Among this group were László Rudas

László Rudas

László Rudas was a Hungarian communist newspaper editor and politician who survived the Great Purge in the Soviet Union to become director of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of Hungary.-Before the 1918 Revolution:...

of Hungary, Jacques Sadoul

Jacques Sadoul (politician)

-Works:* 1919, Notes sur la révolution bolchévique* 1922, Quarante Lettres de Jacques Sadoul* 1946, Naissance de l’URSS. De la nuit féodale à l’aube socialiste, Édition Charlot- Notes :...

of France, John Reed of the Communist Labor Party of America, John Anderson (Kristap Beika) of the Communist Party of America, S.J. Rutgers of Holland, in addition to others from Korea, China, Norway, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Finland.

During this interval the Comintern, through ECCI and the permanent staff of the organization, began to fund the various communist parties of the world, attempting to add practical support to the literary fusillade which emanated from Moscow. Over time this financial aid provided by the Comintern would help to bind the various national parties to the central body. Still, it would be facile to reduce loyalty to the Comintern and its governing body, ECCI, to mere finances. The array of national communist parties saw themselves in a very real sense as national subdivisions of a single world party and they accepted centralization as a matter of principle and direction in revolutionary strategy and tactics from Moscow, the home of the only successful proletarian

Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

revolution as logical and natural.

Although Jane Degras in an appendix to her 1956 three volume compendium of Comintern documents intimates that the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern directly elected the membership of ECCI, the stenographic proceedings of the congress published in 1991 indicates that this was not actually the case. At the close of the final regular session of the congress, held on August 6, 1920, a list of ECCI participants was hurriedly discussed and adopted by a vote of the delegates. Russia, by virtue of the size and importance of its party, was allocated five delegates on the Executive Committee, to be joined by one delegate each from the following nations: Great Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, the Far East (Korea), and the Middle East (Iran). No specific individuals were voted upon by the assembled delegates.

This decision seems to have been rapidly modified by ECCI itself after conclusion of the congress, as Degras lists by name a 26 member body that was in place over the course of the next year. Included, in addition to the five Russian delegates, were two Americans (one each from the rival Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party of America), two delegates from the Netherlands, as well as one delegate each from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Scandinavia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, the "Far East" (Korea), the "Near East" (Iran), Finland, Poland, Hungary, Georgia, Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

(Indonesia), plus one representative of the Young Communist International

Young Communist International

The Young Communist International was the parallel international youth organization affiliated with the Communist International .-International socialist youth organization before World War I:...

.

In the aftermath of the 2nd Word Congress, a five member "little bureau" was also chosen to coordinate the day-to-day activities of the Comintern. This group included the Russians Zinoviev, Bukharin, and Mikhail Kobetsky

Mikhail Kobetsky

Mikhail Kobetsky was a Russian communist politician. From 1919 the head of the publishing house of the magazine Kommunisticheskii Internatsional in Petrograd. From 1922 he was a member of ECCI, the director of the Petrograd Department of the Executive Committee of the Communist International . In...

, the Hungarian Rudniansky, and the German Ernst Meyer. The composition of this "little bureau" was presumably named by ECCI itself. This bureau was enlarged in 1921 by the 3rd World Congress of the Comintern by the addition to these five of the Hungarian Béla Kun

Béla Kun

Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...

, Alfred Rosmer

Alfred Rosmer

Alfred Rosmer was a syndicalist leader before World War I and one of the few leaders of that movement to oppose the war from a revolutionary internationalist position....

of France, Bernard Koenen of Germany, and the Polish-born Soviet citizen Karl Radek

Karl Radek

Karl Bernhardovic Radek was a socialist active in the Polish and German movements before World War I and an international Communist leader after the Russian Revolution....

. The Comintern also maintained an extensive staff of professional functionaries.

The 3rd World Congress of the Comintern, held in Moscow from June 22 through July 12, 1921, did not directly elect an Executive Committee of the Comintern, as did its predecessor. Instead, it decided that the four parties which had been allocated 40 votes at the congress should send two delegates to ECCI, and the 14 parties with 20 to 30 votes should send one delegate. By virtue of its size and status, the Russian Communist Party was allocated five delegates to ECCI, while all other parties were to be entitled to a consultative voice on the committee, but no decisive vote.

ECCI was subsequently enlarged in 1921-22, as new Communist Parties were allotted delegates with consultative votes while other parties were allowed a second vote. The countries exercising two votes on ECCI at the time of the 4th World Congress of the Comintern late in 1922 were Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and the United States.

Although not originally envisioned as such, formal gatherings of the "Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International" rapidly came to supplant the World Congresses of the Comintern.

The 4th World Congress established the Organization Bureau ("Orgburo") of the Comintern. This committee controlled placement of Comintern cadres throughout the world and supervised international agitation and propaganda work, leaving political questions to ECCI. The Comintern Orgburo was patterned after a similar institution in the Russian Communist Party that had been established in March 1919.

The loss of autonomy

It was the Political Secretariat of the Comintern that de facto governed the Comintern

Comintern

The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...

, in Stalinist era intended to be an instrument of Soviet foreign policy.

Subordination of national Communist Parties to the Communist International was complete: in any given country there can be only one Communist Party affiliated to the Communist International and each represented a Section of the Communist International in that country. The decisions of the ECCI were obligatory for all the Sections of the Communist International. And although the Sections had the right to appeal against decisions of the ECCI to the World Congress, they had to execute them, pending the decision of the World Congress. On the other hand, ECCI had the right “to expel from the Communist International, entire Sections, groups and individual members who violate the program and rules of the Communist International or the decisions of the World Congress and of the ECCI”.

Dissolution

The Communist International was dissolved by resolution of the Presidium of the ECCI, May 22, 1943.
.

Conventions

{| class="wikitable"

|-
! Event
! Year Held
! Dates
! Location
! Delegates
|-
! Founding Congress of the Communist International
| align="center" | 1919
| align="center" | March 2–6
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 34 + 18
|-
! Conference of the Amsterdam Bureau
| align="center" | 1920
| align="center" | February 10–11
| align="center" | Amsterdam
| align="center" | 16
|-
! 2nd World Congress of the Comintern
| align="center" | 1920
| align="center" | July 19 to Aug. 7
| align="center" | Petrograd & Moscow
| align="center" | 167 + ≈53
|-
! 1st Congress of the Peoples of the East
| align="center" | 1920
| align="center" | September 1–8
| align="center" | Baku
| align="center" |
|-
! 3rd World Congress of the Comintern
| align="center" | 1921
| align="center" | June 22 to July 12
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 1st Congress of Toilers of the Far East
| align="center" | 1922
| align="center" | Jan. 21 to Feb. 2
| align="center" | Moscow & Petrograd
| align="center" |
|-
! 1st Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1922
| align="center" | Feb. 24 to March 4
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 105
|-
! 2nd Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1922
| align="center" | June 7–11
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 41 + 9
|-
! 4th World Congress of the Comintern
| align="center" | 1922
| align="center" | Nov. 5 to Dec. 5
| align="center" | Petrograd & Moscow
| align="center" | 340 + 48
|-
! 3rd Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1923
| align="center" | June 12–23
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 5th World Congress of the Comintern
| align="center" | 1924
| align="center" | June 17 to July 8
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 324 + 82
|-
! 4th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1924
| align="center" | June 12 and July 12–13
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 5th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1925
| align="center" | March 21 to April 6
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 6th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1926
| align="center" | Feb. 17 to March 15
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 77 + 53
|-
! 7th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1926
| align="center" | Nov. 22 to Dec. 16
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! World Congress Against Colonial Oppression and Imperialism
| align="center" | 1927
| align="center" | February 10–15
| align="center" | Brussels
| align="center" | 152
|-
! 8th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1927
| align="center" | May 18–30
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 9th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1928
| align="center" | February 9–25
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 44 + 48
|-
! 6th World Congress of the Comintern
| align="center" | 1928
| align="center" | July 17 to Sept. 1
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 10th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1929
| align="center" | July 3–19
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 36 + 72
|-
! 2nd Congress of the League Against Imperialism
| align="center" | 1929
| align="center" | July
| align="center" | Frankfurt
| align="center" |
|-
! Enlarged Presidium of ECCI
| align="center" | 1930
| align="center" | February 25-??
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 1st International Conference of Negro Workers
| align="center" | 1930
| align="center" | July 7–8
| align="center" | Hamburg
| align="center" | 17 + 3
|-
! 11th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1931
| align="center" | March 26 to April 11
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 12th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1932
| align="center" | Aug. 27 to Sept. 15
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" | 38 + 136
|-
! 13th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
| align="center" | 1933
| align="center" | Nov. 28 to Dec. 12
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
! 7th World Congress of the Comintern
| align="center" | 1935
| align="center" | July 25 to Aug. 21
| align="center" | Moscow
| align="center" |
|-
Delegate figures are VOTING + CONSULTATIVE. Source: http://www.marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/comintern.html
|}

Important members of ECCI

Tom Bell
Tom Bell (politician)
Thomas "Tom" Bell was a Scottish socialist politician and trade unionist. He is best remembered as a founding member of both the Socialist Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain and as the editor of Communist Review, the official monthly magazine of the latter.-Early years:Thomas...

, Great Britain.
Ian Karlovich Berzin
Janis Berzinš
Jānis Bērziņš also Ian Karlovich Berzin or Yan Karlovich Berzin , Latvian and Soviet communist military official and politician.-Early years:...

, USSR.
Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga was an Italian Marxist, a contributor to Communist theory, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy, a leader of the Communist International and, after World War II, leading figure of the International Communist Party.- Early life :Bordiga was born at Resina, in the province of...

, Italy.
Earl Browder
Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...

, USA.
Tim Buck
Tim Buck
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...

, Canada.
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...

, USSR.
Marcel Cachin
Marcel Cachin
Marcel Cachin was a French politician.In 1891, Cachin joined Jules Guesde French Workers' Party . In 1905, he joined the new French Section of the Workers' International and won election to the Chamber of Deputies representing the Seine in 1914...

, France.
Chou En-lai, China.
Georgii Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...

, Bulgaria.
Jacques Duclos
Jacques Duclos
Jacques Duclos was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial portion of the vote in the presidential elections.During World War I, Duclos fought...

, France.
William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...

, USA.
Willie Gallacher
Willie Gallacher
William "Willie" Gallacher was a Scottish trade unionist, activist and communist. He was one of the leading figures of the Shop Stewards' Movement in wartime Glasgow and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain...

, Great Britain.
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...

, Czechoslovakia.
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...

, Italy.
Sergey Ivanovich Gusev, USSR
Nicholas Hourwich, USA
Jules Humbert-Droz
Jules Humbert-Droz
Jules Humbert-Droz was a Swiss Communist and a founding member of the Communist Party of Switzerland. He held high Comintern office through the 1920s and also acted as Comintern emissary to several west European countries. Prior to his becoming a Communist, Humbert-Droz was a pastor...

, Switzerland.
Lev Kamenev
Lev Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev , born Rozenfeld , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly head of state of the new republic in 1917, and from 1923-24 the acting Premier in the last year of Lenin's life....

, USSR.
Sen Katayama
Sen Katayama
Sen Katayama , born Yabuki Sugataro , was an early member of the American Communist Party and co-founder, in 1922, of the Japan Communist Party....

, Japan.

L. E. Katterfeld, USA
Vasil Kolarov
Vasil Kolarov
Vasil Petrov Kolarov was a Bulgarian communist political leader and leading functionary in the Communist International.-Early years:Kolarov was born in Shumen, Bulgaria on 16 July 1877, the son of a shoemaker...

, Bulgaria.
Béla Kun
Béla Kun
Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...

, Hungary.
Otto Kuusinen, Finland.
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...

, USA.
A. Lozovsky
Solomon Lozovsky
Solomon Lozovsky was a prominent Bolshevik revolutionary, a high official in various parts of the Soviet government, including as a Presidium member of the All-Union Central Council of Soviet Trade Unions, a Central Committee member of the Communist Party, a member of the Supreme Soviet, a deputy...

, USSR.
Arthur MacManus
Arthur MacManus
Arthur MacManus was a Scottish trade unionist and communist politician.-Political career:MacManus joined the De Leonist Socialist Labour Party and began work at Singers in Clydebank, then known as part of the Red Clydeside...

, Great Britain.
Dmitrii Manuilsky
Dmitry Manuilsky
Dmitriy Manuilsky, or Dmytro Zakharovych Manuilsky was an important Bolshevik. He was the son of an Orthodox priest from a Ukrainian village. After secondary school he enrolled in the University of St...

, USSR.
Mao Tse-tung, China.
André Marty
André Marty
André Marty was a leading figure in the French Communist Party, the PCF, for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern from 1935 to 1944; and Political Commissar of the International Brigades during the...

, France.
V.M. Molotov, USSR.
Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg was a communist political activist. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919-20 and established the famine-relief and propaganda organization Workers International Relief in 1921...

, Germany.
Walton Newbold
Walton Newbold
John Turner Walton Newbold , known as Walton Newbold, was the first Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom to be elected as a Communist.-Early years:...

, Great Britain.
Osip Piatnitsky
Osip Piatnitsky
Osip Piatnitsky was a revolutionary.He was an associate of Vladimir Lenin since 1902, when he smuggled Lenin's propaganda into Russia from abroad....

, USSR.
Wilhelm Pieck
Wilhelm Pieck
Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck was a German politician and a Communist. In 1949, he became the first President of the German Democratic Republic, an office abolished upon his death. He was succeeded by Walter Ulbricht, who served as Chairman of the Council of States.-Biography:Pieck was born to...

, Germany.
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :...

, Great Britain.
Karl Radek
Karl Radek
Karl Bernhardovic Radek was a socialist active in the Polish and German movements before World War I and an international Communist leader after the Russian Revolution....

, USSR.
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born as Mátyás Rosenfeld, in present-day Serbia...

, Hungary.

John Reed
John Reed
-Arts, letters, and entertainment:* John Reed , New York novelist and author* John Reed , actor and singer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company* John Reed , Australian critic and art patron...

, USA.
Alfred Rosmer
Alfred Rosmer
Alfred Rosmer was a syndicalist leader before World War I and one of the few leaders of that movement to oppose the war from a revolutionary internationalist position....

, France.
M.N. Roy
Manabendra Nath Roy
Manabendra Nath Roy , born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya and popularly known as M. N. Roy, was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and an internationally known radical activist and political theorist. Roy was a founder of the Communist Parties in both Mexico and India and was a delegate to...

, India.
László Rudas
László Rudas
László Rudas was a Hungarian communist newspaper editor and politician who survived the Great Purge in the Soviet Union to become director of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of Hungary.-Before the 1918 Revolution:...

, Hungary.
C.E. Ruthenberg, USA.
Yrjö Sirola
Yrjö Sirola
Yrjö Elias Sirola was a Finnish socialist politician, teacher, and newspaper editor...

, Finland
Bohumir Smeral
Bohumír Šmeral
Bohumír Šmeral was a Czech politician, leader of the social democracy and one of founders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...

, Czechoslovakia.
Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine was an Imperial Russian-born French socialist, communist activist, essayist, and journalist.-Early years:...

, France.
I.V. Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

, USSR.
Peter Stuchka
Peteris Stucka
Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Ivanovich Stuchka ; b. in Koknese parish, Governorate of Livonia — d. January 25, 1932 in Moscow) was the head of the Bolshevik government in Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence, one of the leaders of the New Current movement in the late 19th...

, Latvia.
Ernst Thaelmann, Germany.
Maurice Thorez
Maurice Thorez
thumb|A Soviet stamp depicting Maurice Thorez.Maurice Thorez was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party from 1930 until his death. He also served as vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947....

, France.
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...

, Italy.
Mikhail Tomsky
Mikhail Tomsky
Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky was a factory worker, trade unionist and Bolshevik leader. He was the Soviet leader of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.Tomsky attempted to form a trade union at his factory in St...

, USSR.
Wang Ming
Wang Ming
Wang Ming was a senior leader of the early Chinese Communist Party and the mastermind of the famous 28 Bolsheviks group. Wang was also a major political rival of Mao Zedong during the 1930s, opposing Mao's nationalist deviation from the Comintern and orthodox Marxism and Leninism lines...

, China.
D. Wijnkoop, Netherlands.
Klara Zetkin, Germany.
Grigorii Zinoviev, USSR.

External links

Index of contents of The Communist International (1919-1926), at Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet archive of Marxist writers and other similar authors...

.

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