When the Communists turned left

The program of the Communist Interational was adopted at its sixth world congress in 1928.

For a number of years, the Comintern had promoted a more moderate line than usual. It was associated with Nikolai Bukharin, a prominent Russian Bolshevik leader also serving as Comintern president. Bukharin promoted the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the Soviet Union and was generally considered to be on the right wing of the Bolshevik Party. At the time, he was supported by Stalin.

There was just one problem. The moderate policies of Bukharin had failed, both domestically and internationally. In the Soviet Union, the rise of the kulaks, made possible by the NEP, threatened the Communist regime. The Communists in China had been betrayed by their "bourgeois" allies in the Kuomintang, and mercilessly massacred. The Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee had failed as well. Bukharin's attempts to co-operate with kulaks, nationalists and Social Democrats were in shambles.

In this situation, Stalin suddenly turned "left". Bukharin was still president of the Comintern at the sixth congress, but he was already a lame duck. The forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture was under way, as was the "industrialization at break neck speed". The Comintern adopted a program which was more "leftist" than the politics associated with Bukharin. The program is dated 1 september 1928. Ironically, it was the only formal program ever adopted by the Comintern.

What struck me when reading the program, was its surprising forthrightness. Thus, the program quite openly explains that the real goal of the Communists is complete collectivization of agriculture. Since this isn't immediately feasible in many nations, peasants will be allowed to keep their land, but only as a transitional measure, the purpose of which is to "neutralize the middle peasants" (Comintern's term for the majority of the peasantry). The program further explains that in nations such as Britain or the United States, the Communists in power will attempt an immediate transition to "the dictatorship of the proletariat", nationalize most of the land, and leave only a smaller portion of it in peasant hands. The program further states that the Communist party plays the leading role in the proletarian state. No other parties are mentioned.

The program is also very sectarian, hardly surprising since it was adopted during Stalin's "left wing" turn. The anti-imperialist united front is never mentioned, the workers' united front is mentioned only in passing. Social Democracy and fascism are supposed to be equally dangerous, left-wing Social Democrats (such as the Austro-Marxists) being the most dangerous of all. The general perspective is apocalyptic. Capitalism is said to be on the brink of its final collapse, and new wars are inevitable.

Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy is explicitly and hysterically condemned for its pacifist, green and religious traits. Communists are admonished to fight it mercilessly. Other people mentioned by name and condemned include Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb and Alfred Richard Orage. Ironically, the Webbs later became apologists for Stalin! Did they ever mentioned the Comintern program in their writings, I wonder?

In 1929, Stalin had the Comintern adopt an ever crazier line, often called "the third period", during which the Communists denounced the Social Democrats as "social fascists" and considered them, rather than real fascism, the main enemy. The politics of "the third period" might have facilitated Hitler's rise to power in Germany, since the Communists and Social Democrats (both being large mass parties) spent more time fighting each other than uniting against Hitler.

The later twists and turns of Stalin, both to the "right" and to the "left", are outside of the scope of my review...

"Program of the Communist International" isn't a book for the general reader. To really get it, you need to know something of the historical background. Otherwise, the program will simply sound like Communism 101. After all, this is how most people imagine reds under the bed to sound like! However, students of Communist or Soviet history may perhaps find it to be of some interest.