Information Bureau of the Communist and the Workers’ Parties (Cominform) from the Great Marxism Dictionary ( 2018)
Cominform was an international information exchange and communication organization-the Cominform– established in September 1947 by the Communist and Workers’ Parties of nine countries, including the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France, and Italy.
After the Second World War, nine communist and workers’ parties from Europe were holding the state power and had close relations with each other.
On September 22-27, 1947, representatives of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of nine countries–the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France, and Italy–met in Poland for the founding of the Cominform. The Conference adopted the Resolution on the Interchange of Experiences and Coordination of Activities of the Parties Represented at the Conference, the main elements of which are: The establishment of an Information Bureau, consisting of two representatives from each of the nine Communist and Workers’ Parties of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union, France, Czechoslovakia, and Italy; the tasks of the Intelligence Bureau were determined as to exchange experience and, if necessary, to coordinate the activities of the national parties on the basis of consensus; the Information Bureau would establish an organ of publication (initially a semi-monthly journal, which was later changed to a decennial); the Information Bureau would be located in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. On November 10, 1947, the first issue of the journal of the Cominform, called as “For a Lasting Peace, for People’s Democracy!” was published. In mid-January 1948, the Cominform held its second meeting in Belgrade and decided to establish a standing committee the journal consisting of one representative from each of the nine national parties, with the representative of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as its chairman.
On June 20-28, 1948, the Cominform held a meeting in Bucharest, Romania, and adopted the Resolution of the Information Bureau Concerning the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, accusing the Communist Party of Yugoslavia of broken away from and betrayed the path of socialism, of turning into an appendage of imperialism, of “the leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party is pursuing an unfriendly policy toward the Soviet Union and the CPSU”, of “taking a nationalist stand”, and of calling on the “healthy elements” of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to rise up and overthrow the Tito regime. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia issued a Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia: in regard to the resolution of the Information Bureau of Communist Parties on the situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, completely rejecting the accusations made by the Cominform against the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in June 1928 and refuting their contents.
Subsequently, Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform. The Soviet Union and Eastern European countries imposed an economic blockade on Yugoslavia. Since then, Yugoslavia has broken off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. After June 1948, the Cominform moved to Bucharest, Romania. Cominform held three meetings. In November 1949, the Cominform held its fourth meeting in Hungary and adopted the resolution regarding the Yugoslav Communist Party in the Hands of Murderers and Spies, which renewed the attack on Tito and other people in the leadership of Yugoslavia. The two meetings and the two resolutions adopted by the Cominform against the Communist Party of Yugoslavia were erroneous, both in terms of their content and form of approach.
In 1956, the organ of the Cominform, “For A Lasting Peace, For People’s Democracy!” published the “Communiqué on the End of the Activities of the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers’ Party” thus the Cominform was dissolved.