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The Communist International, 1919–43: The Personnel of its Highest Bodies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Vilém Kahan
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This survey of the personnel of the highest bodies of the Comintern is meant to be a tool for researchers and historians studying the history of the international labour movement, especially of the Communist International.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , August 1976 , pp. 151 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1976

References

page 154 note 1 Fifth Congress of the Communist International. Abridged Report of Meetings held at Moscow June 17th to July 8th, 1924 (London, n.d.), p. 35.Google Scholar

page 155 note 1 In October 1939 Jan Šverma, then head of the bureau-in-exile of the CP of Czechoslovakia situated in Paris, and candidate to the ECCI, left for Yugoslavia, instructed by the ECCI Secretariat to investigate the situation in the leadership of the Yugoslav CP, which was to be dissolved in the same way as the CP of Poland. On his return to Moscow in the spring of 1940, Šverma gave an extensive report to the ECCI Secretariat about the situation in the Yugoslav CP, refuting all the accusations made and thus stopping the dissolution. These facts, known to me owing to my association with Šverma's family for many years, are confirmed by Djilas, Milonan, Memoir of a Revolutionary (New York, 1973), pp. 341–42.Google Scholar

page 155 note 2 See Degras, J., The Communist International 1919–1943, II, p. 573.Google Scholar

page 155 note 3 See Tables 37 and 39, notes.

page 156 note 1 Within the framework of this article it is impossible to go into the reasons why precisely Gennari, under the pseudonym Maggi, was put in Ercoli's (Togliatti's) place in 1927 and why it was that Togliatti did not return to the Political Secretariat of the ECCI until the 11th ECCI plenum in April 1931.

page 156 note 2 From the Fifth Congress the ICC was an independent body of the Comintern and was elected exclusively by the Congresses. One of its tasks was the investigation of complaints about the actions of various departments of the ECCI. Tätigkeitsbericht der Exekutive der Kommunistischen Internationale für die Zeit vom 5. bis zum 6. Weltkongress. Die Komintern vor dem 6. Weltkongress (Hamburg, 1928), p. 85.Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 At the First Congress mainly questions pertaining to the programme of the Comintern were dealt with. As to the structure of the new institution, only the ECCI was elected as an executive body. The Congress directed the ECCI to elect from its ranks a Bureau of five members. The first task of this Bureau (after the Second Congress it was called the Little Bureau) was to conduct the illegal work of the separate Communist parties. A more penetrating study about the development of the structure of the Comintern bodies and their apparatus is in preparation.

page 157 note 2 F. I. Firsov gives a slightly different list; Sirola does not appear as a member of the ECCI, but A. Men'šoj and E. Rudnyánszky do. See Kominterna, Vtoroj Kongress. Razrabotka kongressom idejnych, taktičeskich i organizacionnych osnov kommunističeskich partij (Moscow, 1972), p. 51.Google Scholar (From the First until the Second Congress A. G. Men'šoj (L. S. Levin) under the pseudonym Gaj headed the press department of the ECCI, see Lenin, V. I.i VčK (Moscow, 1975), p. 409.Google Scholar) In 1935, in an interview with B. I. Nikolaevskij in Prague, Thomas (Jakub Reich), head of the West European Secretariat of the ECCI in Berlin from 1919 until 1925, gave the composition of the ECCI and its Bureau after the First Congress as follows. ECCI: Zinov'ev; Bucharin; Lenin; Rakovskij; Thomas; Vorovskij, Secretary; Bureau: Zinov'ev, Chairman; Bucharin; Carlo (Ljubarskij); Klinger, Administrative Secretary; Thomas; Vorovskij, Secretary; Berzin, his deputy. B. I. Nikolaevskij, “Na zare Kominterna. Rasskaz ‘tovarišča Tomasa”’, in: Socialističeskij Vestnik, Sbornik No 1 (New York, 1964), p. 132.

page 158 note 1 Youth International, from 1922 Communist Youth International, CYI, or Youth Communist International, YCI.

page 158 note 2 Radek was elected twice, first as a member of the RCP(B), secondly as a member of the Polish CP.

page 158 note 3 Pavlovič (Vel'tmann) became known as Volonter.

page 158 note 4 Pravda (Moscow), 10 August 1920, omits Hůla, Meyer, Jansen, Maring and Hurvič as members, and Ciperovič, Cesare and Stučka as candidates; it mentions Levi as a member, and Čičerin, Jansen, Meyer and Varga as candidates.

page 159 note 1 10 Let Kominterna, p. 307, gives Roy for India, not for Mexico.

page 160 note 1 At the close of its session of 26 August 1921, the Little Bureau was abolished and converted into the Presidium of the ECCI. See Die Tätigkeit, op. cit., p. 142.

page 160 note 2 Sellier and Souvarine had a joint vote in the ECCI. See Die Tätigkeit, p. 143.

page 161 note 1 Jílek and Šmeral had a joint vote in the ECCI. See source.

page 161 note 2 Leiciague and Souvarine had a joint vote in the ECCI. See source.

page 161 note 3 Red International of Labour Unions.

page 162 note 1 This source does not mention Šmeral as a member of the Presidium.

page 163 note 1 10 Let Kominterna, p. 316, mentions Šackin and Šmeral as members, Gramsci and Neurath as candidates; it omits Safarov and Lévy as candidates.

page 163 note 2 At the close of the plenum, Stoecker was replaced by Neurath (Czechoslovakia). See source.

page 163 note 3 Vompe headed the OMS (Section of International Communications) from its institution in 1921 until his death on 1 August 1925. The OMS was responsible for all secret activities of the Comintern. See Pjatnickij, Osip, “Unsere Toten”, in: Inprekorr, Vol. 5, pp. 1727–28 (11 08 1925).Google Scholar

page 164 note 1 10 Let Kominterna, p. 316, mentions Šmeral, Bordiga and Schüller instead of Neurath, Terracini and Šackin; it adds Neurath, Terracini and Stewart as candidates.

page 165 note 1 Fedor Raskol'nikov, born Fedor Il'in, attended the Fifth Congress as a member with voting rights of the RCP(B) delegation under the name Raskol'nikov. He was also a member with a consultative vote of the delegation of the CP of China, under the pseudonym Petrov. Under the name Petrov he directed the Eastern department of the ECCI for several years. He was apparently elected as candidate of the ECCI to the Secretariat and the Orgbureau for the Eastern countries. See source, pp. 241–43; Trotzky, Leo, Wer leitet heute die Kommunistische Internationale (Berlin, 1930), p. 30.Google Scholar

page 165 note 2 Béla Kun, reheved of all party positions in the Hungarian CP from 1922 until the first congress of the Hungarian CP held in Vienna on 18–25 August 1925, attended the Fifth Comintern Congress as a full delegate with voting rights of the RCP(B) delegation. He directed the Agitprop department of the ECCI from December 1923 on. In 1924 he was elected as candidate to the ECCI, personally. See source, p. 242; Bélané, Kun, Béla, Kun (Emlékezések) (Budapest, 1966)Google Scholar; Protokoll Fünfter Kongress der Kommunistischen Internationale (Hamburg, n.d.), p. 1022.Google Scholar

page 165 note 3 The German edition of the report omits Schüller, Hessen and Vujović as members, and Petrov as candidate. It mentions Sokolnikov as candidate. Filipović, Kaclerović, Marković, Maslow, Scoccimarro and Chen Tu-hsiu are listed under their pseudonyms: Bošković, Marinović, Simić, Robert, Marco and Tschin Du-liu. Protokoll Fünfter Kongress, pp. 1021–22. The English edition of the report does not give the names of Foster and Ru“United States: 2 comrades”. Petrov is not named as candidate, Kaclerović, Marković, Maslow and Scoccimarro are given und henberg; it mentions only ut Sokolnikov is. Filipović, their pseudonyms. Fifth Congress of the Communist International, op. cit., pp. 277–78.

page 166 note 1 Inprekorr, Vol. 4, p. 1107, lists Pollitt as a member of the Presidium, but fails to mention Foster and Ruthenberg as candidates. It lefers merely to “two American comrades”. J. Degras, II, p. 573, says that the names of Roy and Hessen are omitted from the list published in 10 Let Kominterna. This is not correct. See source, p. 328.

page 166 note 2 Humbert-Droz represented the ECCI in the Latin countries of Europe from 1922 to 1924, and later became responsible for these countries and Latin America in the ECCI Secretariat in Moscow. He attended the Fifth Congress as a full delegate with voting rights of the Portuguese CP. He was probably elected personally to the Secretariat and the Orgbureau. See Pjatyj Vsemirnyj Kongress, II, p. 242.

page 167 note 1 Clara Zetkin was elected to the ECCI personally and as candidate to the Secretariat for the International Women's Secretariat (IWS). See source.

page 167 note 2 The 5th plenum does not appear to have published a list of members elected to the ECCI Presidium and Secretariat. J. Degras, II, p. 573, gives a list of the composition of the Secretariat consisting of Kuusinen, Pjatnickij, Treint, Katz, Humbert-Droz, Neurath and Kornblum. This composition is in accordance with the list of the Secretariat elected at the opening of the plenum for the duration of the plenum only. See, for instance, Protokoll der Erweiterten Exekutive der Kommunistischen Internationale, Moskau, 21. März–6. April 1925 (Hamburg, 1925), pp. 1, 4.Google Scholar

page 167 note 3 On 17 March 1926 Bucharin, Thälmann and Semard were elected as Vice-Presidents of the Comintern and the ECCI. See source.

page 168 note 1 József Pogány was a member of the Hungarian CP from 1919 until 1922, and from the summer of 1922 a member of the CPUSA under the assumed name of John Pepper. From 1925 on, he headed the Information department of the ECCI Secretariat in Moscow. He was probably elected as a candidate to the Secretariat and the Orgbureau for the ECCI apparatus personally.

page 169 note 1 This plenum relieved Zinov'ev from the Presidency of the Comintern and from his duties in the ECCI. It proposed to abolish the post of President of the Comintern and the ECCI. The Orgbureau and the Secretariat were abolished and merged in the Political Secretariat, created at the close of the plenum. See Inprekorr, Vol. 6, p. 2522 (23 November 1926); Protokoll Erweiterte Exekutive der Kommunistischen Internationale, Moskau, 22. November – 16. Dezember 1926 (Hamburg, Berlin, 1927), pp. 842–44Google Scholar; Tätigkeitsbericht der Exekutive der Kommunistischen Internationale, op. cit., p. 10.

page 169 note 2 Bohumír Šmeral, former leader of the Czechoslovak CP, was dispatched in 1926 for permanent work in the Comintern apparatus in Moscow and gradually relieved of his party positions in the Czechoslovak CP. In 1926–28 he headed the Balkan Secretariat of the ECCI in Moscow, and was probably elected to the Political Secretariat for the ECCI apparatus personally.

page 169 note 3 10 Let Kominterna, p. 329, gives Bernard as a member of the Political Secretariat.

page 170 note 1 This plenum did not elect a Presidium and a Political Secretariat. For the attendant changes, see 10 Let Kominterna, pp. 328–29.

page 171 note 1 A. J. Bennett was born in Berdičev in the Ukraine as David Lipec. He emigrated to the USA before World War I. There he used the name Dr Max Goldfarb and became a leading member of the Central Jewish Workers' Party, a member of the Bund, and a political writer on the Jewish Daily Forward. After the October Revolution, he returned to Russia and became a member of the RCP(B). During the Civil War, he served in the headquarters of the Red Army and joined the ECCI apparatus in Moscow under the name of D. Petrovskij. In the spring of 1924, under the name of A. J. Bennett, he was sent to Britain by the ECCI to act as its representative in the British CP. Later he did the same thing in the CP of France under the pseudonym Humbold. Bennett attended the Fifth and the Sixth Congresses of the Comintern as a full delegate with voting rights of the British CP. After the Sixth Congress he worked in the ECCI apparatus. At the beginning of the 1930's, he was accused of being a “Trotskyist” and expelled from the RCP(B). During Stalin's purges, he was arrested and disappeared without trace. See Pjatyj Vsemirnyj Kongress, II, p. 239; Kominterna, VI Kongress, Stenografičeskij otčet (Moscow, Leningrad, 1929), V, p. 150Google Scholar; Epstein, Melech, The Jew and Communism 1919–1941 (New York, 1959), p. 12Google Scholar; Murphy, J. T., New Horizons (London, 1941), pp. 251, 287–88Google Scholar; Humbert-Droz, Jules, Mémoires, De Lénine à Staline 1921–1931 (Neuchâtel, 1971), p. 277.Google Scholar

page 171 note 2 Degras, II, p. 574, gives Weinstein as candidate of the ECCI Presidium; she omits Vincenzi.

page 171 note 3 Rafael Chitarov, of Armenian origin, born near Tiflis, Caucasus, worked in Germany in 1921–25 under the assumed name Rudolf. He served as secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Youth League of Germany in the Ruhr, and in 1923–25 as the organizing secretary of its CC (Central Committee) in Berlin. In May 1927 he was sent to China by the CYI to act as its representative in the Chinese Communist Youth Corps. He took part in removing Chen Tu-hsiu from his post as secretary-general of the Chinese CP. See Avetisjan, G. A., Raffi Chitarov. Očerki žizni i dejatel'nosti (Erevan, 1971).Google Scholar

page 171 note 4 Štook part in the Sixth Congress only as a consultative delegate without voting rights of the Czechoslovak CP. Although he had been re-elected to the ECCI, its Presidium and Political Secretariat for that CP, he was forbidden to attend the fifth congress of the latter (February 1929). He was not re-elected to the CC of the Czechoslovak CP until its seventh congress in 1936. See source, V, p. 156.

page 172 note 1 Humbert-Droz, head of the Latin Secretariat of the ECCI in Moscow at the time of the Sixth Congress, attended the Congress as a representative without voting rights of the ECCI apparatus. See source, V, p. 158.

page 172 note 2 Sergej Gusev participated in the Sixth Congress and delivered a speech, using the pseudonym Travin. See source, IV, pp. 232–41.

page 172 note 3 Nikolaj Popov, of Russian origin, born in Kutaisi (Georgia), was a member of the RCP(B) from 1919, and the author of the Outline History of the RCP(B) published in 1926. As a party official, he served in the central apparatus of the RCP(B) in Moscow and in the Ukraine. He attended the Sixth Congress as a full delegate with voting rights of the RCP(B) of the Ukraine, but was elected as a candidate to the ECCI for the Polish CP. Popov attended the sixth plenum of the CC of the Polish CP held in Moscow in June 1929 as the representative of the ECCI, and was entrusted with the dismissal of the Kostrzewa-Warski group and with making Leński secretary-general. The Soviet literature does not mention Popov's membership of the ECCI for the Polish CP. See Sovetskaja Istoričeskaja Enciklopedija, XI (1963), pp. 410–11Google Scholar; Ukraïnska Radjan'skaja Enciklopedija, XI (1963), p. 392Google Scholar; source, V, p. 156.

page 173 note 1 Vil'gel'm Knorin, born Wilhelm Knorinš, of Latvian origin, was a member of the RCP(B) from 1917. For several years he headed the Information and later Agitprop departments in the central apparatus of the RCP(B) in Moscow. At the fifteenth congress of the RCP(B) in 1927 he was elected a member of the CC of the RCP(B) and became first secretary of the Belorussian CP. Knorin attended the Sixth Comintern Congress as the head of the Belorussian delegation, but was elected as a candidate to the ECCI for the Polish CP under the pseudonym of Sokolik and became defacto head of that party. He went to Berlin, where the Politbureau of the Polish CC resided. Moreover, Knorin directed the West European Bureau of the ECCI in Berlin under the pseudonyms of Sokolik and Tischler until April 1929. At the sixth plenum of the Polish CC he reported on the situation in the RCP(B) and was elected a member of the Politbureau of the Polish CC. He played an active role in removing the Kostrzewa-Warski group. Knorin headed the Central European Secretariat of the ECCI until 29 April 1934. Soviet literature does not mention Knorin's membership of the ECCI for the Polish CP or his activities in that CP. See Bol'śaja Sovetskaja Enciklopedija, XII (1973), p. 344.Google Scholar

page 173 note 2 Ivan Mondok, who emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1929, was excluded from the ICC at the 13th ECCI plenum in December 1933. He was arrested by the State Security organs of the USSR and sentenced to ten years of hard labour, and died in prison in 1941. See the report of Popov in XIII Plenum IKKI, Stenografičeskij otčet (Moscow, 1934), pp. 111–16.Google Scholar

page 174 note 1 Cf. 10 Let Kominterna, p. 341.

page 174 note 2 V. Sakun, of Georgian origin, born in the Caucasus, was a member of the RCP(B) and worked in the apparatus of the Balkan Secretariat of the ECCI in Moscow from 1926. Early in 1928 he was sent to investigate the situation in the Yugoslav CP. Under the pseudonym Milković, he took part in the eighth conference of the CPY, held in Zagreb at the end of February 1928 as the representative of the ECCI. After the conference he submitted a report to the Balkan Secretariat, which played an important role in the removal of the Yugoslav leadership headed by Sima Markovićference of the CPY, organized by the Balkan Secretariat and held in Moscow in April 1928, removed the old leadership. See Trbojević, Mane, VIII Mjesna Kon-ferencija Zagrebačke Organizacije KPJ (Grada) (Zagreb, 1970), p. 19.Google Scholar

page 174 note 3 10 Let Kominterna, p. 341, gives Ulbricht instead of Remmele as a member of the Political Secretariat; it mentions that Milković was elected as candidate to the Presidium for the Balkans and Heckert for the RILU. Chü Chiu-pai is added under the pseudonym Strachov.

page 174 note 4 This plenum carried out supplementary elections to the Presidium. It excluded Jílek, Lovestone and Spector from the ECCI. For the attendant changes, see Protokoll 10. Plenum des Exekutivkomitees der Kommunistischen Internationale, Moskau, 3. Juli 1929 bis 19. Juli 1929 (Hamburg, Berlin, n.d.), pp. 878–80. The name Randolph is sometimes spelled Randolf.

page 176 note 1 This plenum carried out supplementary elections to the Presidium. A list of members does not appear to have been published.

page 177 note 1 For the changes brought about by the supplementary elections of this plenum, see XIII Plenum IKKI, pp. 569–70. This report omits the name of Bronkowski, who replaced Bratkowski as candidate to the Presidium and the Political Secretariat. The latter was arrested by the State Security organs of the USSR in August 1933, and committed suicide on September 4 in a Moscow prison cell. See “Autobiografia Bronislava Bortnowskiego-Bronkowskiego”, in: Z Pola Walki, VII (1964), No 4, pp. 195–200Google Scholar; “Jerzy Czeszejko-Sochacki”, ibid., III (1960), No 4, pp. 128–47.

page 180 note 1 Florin replaced Anvelt as member and chairman of the ICC in 1937. Anvelt was arrested in Moscow and shot.

page 180 note 2 Michal Wolf attended the 13th ECCI plenum as the representative of the Czechoslovak Communist Youth League under the pseudonym Michal in December 1933, and at the sixth congress of the CYI in October 1935 he was elected secretary. He was transferred from the Czechoslovak CP to the Hungarian CP in Moscow in 1940. During World War II he was employed at Radio Kossuth in Moscow and entrusted with political work among prisoners of war in the USSR. Assuming the name of Mihaly Farkas, he emigrated to Hungary at the end of 1944 and became a member of the Hungarian CP leadership. From 1948 to 1953 Farkas was a member of the Politbureau, deputy secretary-general of the Hungarian CP and Minister of National Defense. He was expelled from that party and arrested in 1956, sentenced in Budapest in 1957, but later released from prison. He died in 1965. See XIII Plenum IKKI, pp. 376–80; Munkásmozgalomtörténeti Lexikon (Budapest, 1972), p. 146.Google Scholar

page 180 note 3 Tuominen was expelled from the ECCI and the Finnish CP at the end of 1939.

page 181 note 1 When Hitler attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941, an enlarged session of the ECCI Secretariat appointed a triumvirate consisting of Dimitrov, Manuil'skij and Ercoli. This was entrusted with the day-to-day management of the ECCI during World War II. See Meždunarodnoe Kommu-nističeskoe rabočee i nacional'noosvoboditel'noe dviženie, II (1939–1973 gg.) (Moscow, 1974), p. 21.Google Scholar

page 181 note 2 The resolution was signed only by those members of the ECCI Presidium living in the Soviet Union during World War II. Stalin, who was a member of the Presidium, was not among those who signed. It is not known how Ždanov came to sign this resolution as a member of the Presidium. Officially he was elected only as an ECCI member at the Seventh Congress.