Communist International’s Historical Contribution to the International Communist Movement: Its Mistakes and Errors
August 2021
This is a part of a longer article by Authors Wang Zifeng, Assistant Researcher of the International Communist Movement Research Department attached to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Pan Jine, Director of the International Communist Movement Research Department of the Institute of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
During its 24 years of existence, the Communist International played an important role in leading the international communist movement. Its historical contributions are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, the establishment of the Communist International promoted the great development of the international communist movement.
Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, argued that “the historical significance of the Communist International lies in the fact that it combined Marxism-Leninism with the mass workers’ movement on a global scale, promoted the establishment of proletarian parties and mobilized the working people to defend their interests in the struggle against imperialism and fascism, strengthened the international solidarity of workers, and brought the national liberation movement in colonies and dependent countries to a new level. The work carried out by the Communist International laid the foundation for subsequent achievements, including the victory of the Communist Party in many countries and the formation of a world socialist system.” [6]
Second, Communist International guided and helped various countries to establish communist parties and promoted the national liberation movement in colonial and semi-colonial countries. The Communist International sent representatives to directly help and guide communist parties or establish communist groups in various countries around the world, and helped them formulate Marxist theoretical programs and action programs, and clarify the main tasks of the revolution under the historical conditions at that time. In addition, the Communist International also provided a large amount of funds for the activities of communist movements in various countries, cultivated revolutionary backbone forces, and made significant contributions to the victory of the national liberation movement in colonial and semi-colonial countries.
Third, Communist International promoted the establishment of a world anti-fascist front and thus safeguarded world peace and justice. The Communist International called on all countries to establish and develop a world anti-fascist united front and actively participate in the world anti-fascist struggle. Under the guidance of the Communist International’s idea of establishing a united front, France, Spain and China finally won the anti-fascist war.
Mistakes and errors made by the Communist International
The Communist International made some mistakes during its existence, which is the consensus of the Communist Parties of various countries these days.. In 2019, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist International, the Communist Parties of various countries in the world reflected on it and argued that the main mistakes of the Communist International were reflected in the following aspects:
First, the highly centralized organizational principle and rigid operating methods weakened the autonomy and creativity of the Communist Parties of various countries. The “Twenty-One Demands” proposed by the Second Congress of the Communist International, namely the “Conditions for Joining the Communist International”, stipulated that “all decisions of the Communist International Congress and its Executive Committee must be implemented by all parties joining the Communist International”[7].
This highly centralized organizational principle played a positive role in improving the theoretical level and organizational strength of the nascent Communist Parties. However, as the Communist Parties in various countries gradually matured and grew stronger, the drawbacks of this system gradually became apparent. This manifested itself in two aspects: first, the interests of Russia were placed above the interests of the member countries, resulting in the Communist International becoming a political tool to maintain the Soviet Union; second, political instructions that did not conform to the national conditions of each country were imposed on the member parties, and the Communist Parties in various countries had no independent decision-making power, resulting in the failure of revolutions in some countries.
Second, the Communist International’s policy mistakes towards the Social Democratic Party led to confusion in its line and weakened its revolutionary nature.
On the other hand, the strategy of establishing a “workers’ united front” established at the 7th Congress of the Communist International (1935), as well as a series of related propositions that Communists could participate in the workers’ government, that Communists should put pressure on the Social Democratic Party, that Communists should promote Social Democratic Party’s “revolutionary” transformation, and even cooperate with Social Democratic Party, has caused confusion to the revolutionary movements led by the Communist Parties, gradually weakened the initial line of opposing the Social Democratic Party, strengthened the right-wing opportunist stance in the ranks of the Communist International, and even sowed the seeds for the European communism trend and the “new left” trend that practiced class compromise after World War II. [8]
Third, the dogmatism of the Communist International was unacceptable to some communist parties.
The Communist International had dogmatized the Soviet experience, ignored the differences in national conditions, and indiscriminately promoted the Soviet experience to other countries, resulting in the Soviet experience not being accepted in various countries and causing setbacks in the revolutions of some countries. In 2019 a Communist Party representative pointed out that “after the establishment of the Communist International, defending the Soviets and maintaining this country’s socialist construction became the primary task of the parties in the Communist International. So the problem also arose – the Communist International’s strategy aimed at defending the Soviet revolution was sometimes theorized as a universal and unconditionally accepted strategy.”
6. Gen. An. Zyuganov, “The Valuable Experience of the Communist International,” World Socialist Studies, No. 5, 2019.
7. Lenin’s Selected Works: On the Proletarian Party, People’s Publishing House, 2009, pp. 273-274.
8. Liu Shuchun, “Looking back at reality through history — Foreign Communist Parties summarize the historical experience of the Communist International and explore the way to achieve international unity,” in Report on the Development of the International Communist Movement (2019-2020), ed. by Jiang Hui and Pan Jin’e, published in Social Sciences Academic Press, 2020, p. 40.
9. Quoted from Liu Shuchun, “Looking at Reality from History — Foreign Communist Parties Summarize the Historical Experience of the Communist International and Explore the Way to Achieve International Unity”, in Jiang Hui and Pan Jin’e (eds.), Report on the Development of the International Communist Movement (2019-2020), Social Sciences Academic Press, 2020, p. 39.