Dissolution of the ECCI Presidium Recommending the Dissolution of the Communist International 15 May 1943 World News and Views, xxiii, 22, p. 169 29 May 1943 ['Hey! Listen!'--'What?'--'The Comintern's been dissolved.' This conversation took place at Comintern headquarters, in the office occupied by the Spanish section of the ECCI. The speakers obtained the information from the Soviet press. The Communist International ceased publication. Shortly afterwards a new periodical, in Russian and other languages, appeared, entitled The War and the Working Class (after the war its title was changed to New Times). On their return to Moscow after the dissolution, a large proportion of the Comintern staff was distributed among the 'national committees', the foreign-languages broadcasting services, and various propaganda, press, and publication departments of the CPSU. Interviewed on the dissolution by Reuter's chief Moscow correspondent, Stalin said: 'The dissolution of the Communist International is proper and timely because it facilitates the organisation of the common onslaught of all freedom-loving nations against the common enemy--Hitlerism. The dissolution of the Communist International is proper because: '(a) It exposes the lie of the Hitlerites to the effect that "Moscow" allegedly intends to intervene in the life of other nations and to "Bolshevise" them. An end is now being put to this lie. '(b) It exposes the calumny of the adversaries of Communism within the Labour movement to the effect that Communist Parties in various countries are allegedly acting not in the interests of their people but on orders from outside. An end is now being put to this calumny too. '(c) It facilitates the work of patriots of all coutnries for uniting the progressive forces of their respective countries, regardless of party or religious faith, into a single camp of national liberation--for unfolding the struggle against Fascism. '(d) It facilitates the work of patriots of all countries for uniting all freedom-loving
peoples into a single international camp for the fight against the menace of world domination by Hitlerism, thus clearing the way to the future organisation of a companionship of nations based upon their equality. 'I think that all these circumstances taken together will result in further strengthening of the United Front of the Allies and other united nations in their fight for victory over Hitlerite tyranny. I feel that the dissolution of the Communist International is perfectly timely--because it is exactly now, when the Fascist beast is exerting its last strength, that it is necessary to organise the common onslaught of freedom-loving countries to finish off this beast and to deliver the people from Fascist oppression.'] The historic role of the Communist International, which was founded in 1919 as a result of the political union of the great majority of old, pre-war working-class parties, consisted in upholding the principles of Marxism from vulgarization and distortion by the opportunist elements in the working-class movement, in helping to promote the consolidation in a number of countries of the vanguard of the foremost workers in real working-class parties, and in helping them to mobilize the workers for the struggle against fascism and the war the latter was preparing and for support of the Soviet Union as the chief bulwark against fascism. The Communist International from the first exposed the real meaning of the 'Anti-Comintern Pact', as a weapon for the preparation of war by the vicious, subversive work of the Hitlerites who masked it by their screams about the so- called interference of the Communist International in the internal affairs of these States. But long before the war it became more and more clear that, with the increasing complications in the internal and international relations of the various countries, any sort of interational centre would encounter insuperable obstacles in solving the problems facing the movement in each separate country. The deep differences of the historic paths of development of various countries, the differences in their character and even contradictions in their social orders, the differences in the level and tempo of their economic and political development, the differences, finally, in the degree of consciousness and organization of the workers, conditioned the different problems facing the working class of the various countries. The whole development of events in the last quarter of a century, and the Experience accumulated by the Commmunist International convincingly showed that the Organizational form of unting the workers chosen by the first congress of the Communist International answered the conditions of the first stages of the working-class movement but has been outgrown by the growth of this movement and by the complications of its problems in separate countries, and has even become a drag on the further strengthening of the national and working-class parties. The World War that the Hitlerites have let loose has still further sharpened the differences in the situation of the separate countries, and has placed a deep dividing line between those countries which fell under the Hitlerite tyranny and those freedom-loving peoples who have united in a powerful anti-Hitlerite coalition. In the countries of the Hitlerite bloc the fundamental task of the Working class, the toilers, and all honest people consists in giving all help for the defeat of this bloc, by sabotage of the Hitlerite military machine from within, and by helping to overthrow the Government who are guilty of the war. In the countries of the anti-Hitlerite coalition, the sacred duty of the widest masses of the people, and in the first place of the foremost workers, consists in aiding by every means the military efforts of the Governments of these countries aimed at the speediest defeat of the Hitlerite bloc and the assurance of the friendship of nations based on their equality. At the same time the fact must not be lost sight of that separate countries which are members of the anti-Hitlerite coalition have their own particular problems. For example, in countries occupied by the Hitlerites which have lost their State independence the basic task of the foremost workers and of the wide masses of the people consists in promoting armed struggle, developing into a national war of liberation against Hitlerite Germany. At the same time, the war of liberation of the freedom-loving peoples against the Hitlerite tyranny, which has brought into movement the masses of the people, uniting them without difference of party or religion in the ranks of a powerful anti-Hitlerite coalition, has demonstrated with still greater clearness that the general national upsurge and mobilization of the people for the speediest victory over the enemy can be best of all and most fruitfully carried out by the vanguard of the working-class movement of each separate country, working within the framework of its own country. Already the seventh congress of the Communist International, meeting in 1935, taking into account the change[s] that had taken place both in the international situation and in the working-class movements that demand great flexibility and independence of its sections in deciding the problems confronting them, emphasized the necessity for the Executive Committee of the Communist International, in deciding all questions of the working-class movement arising from the concrete conditions and peculiarities of each country, to make a rule of avoiding interference in the internal organizational affairs of the communist parties. These same considerations guided by the Communist International in considering the resolution of the Communist Party of the USA of November 1940, on its withdrawal from the ranks of the Communist International. Guided by the judgment of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, communists have never been supporters of the conservation of organizational forms that have outlived themselves. They have always subordinated forms of organization of the working-class movement and the methods of working of such organizations, to the fundamental political interest of the working-class movement as a whole, to the peculiarities of the concrete historical situation and to the problems immediately resulting from the situation. They remember the example of the great Marx, who united the foremost owrkers in the ranks of the Working Men's International Association, and, when the First International had fulfilled its historical task, laying the foundations for the development of the working-class parties in the countries of Europe and America, and, as a result of the matured situation creating mass national working-class parties, dissolved the First International inasmuch as the form of organizational already no longer corresponded to the demands confronting it. In consideration of the above, and taking into account the growth and political Maturity of the communist parties and their leading cadres in the separate countries, and also having in view the fact that during the present war some sections have raised the question of the dissolution of the Communist International as the directing centre of the international working-class movement, The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, in the circumstances of the World War not being able to convene a congress of the Communist International, puts forward the following proposal for ratification by the sections of the Communist International. The Communist International, as the directing centre of the international working class movement, is to be dissolved, thus freeing the sections of the Communist International from their obligations arising from the statutes and resolutions of the congresses of the Communist International. The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International calls on all supporters of the Communist International to concentrate their energies on whole-hearted support of and active participation in the war of liberation of the peoples and States of the anti-Hitlerite coalition for the speediest defeat of the deadly enemy of the working class and toilers--German fascism and its associates and vassals. The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International Signed: G. Dimitrov M. Ercoli W. Florin K. Gottwald V. Kolarov J. Koplenig O. Kussinen D. Manuilsky A. Marty W. Pieck M. Thorez A. Zhdanov The following representatives of communist parties also append their signatures to the present resolution: Bianco (Italy) Dolores Ibarruri (Spain) Lekhtinin (Finland) Ann Pauker (Rumania) Matthias Rakosi (Hungary) Moscow, 15 May 1943 From Jane Degras, The Communist International 1919-1943, Vol. 3, p. 476. See also,
*Mao on the Comintern (1943)