‘Catalyst, Stake, Pretext, Symbol, Mask’: On the History of Relations between the Comintern, the Soviet Union and Southern Africa

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Apollon Davidson, Irina Filatova, Valentin Gorodnov, Sheridan Johns (eds), South Africa and theCommunist International: A Documentary History. Vol. 1: Socialist Pilgrims to BolshevikFootsoldiers, 1919–1930 (London, Frank Cass, 2003), lxii þ263 pp., £65.00 hardback, ISBN 0-7146-5280-6. Vol. 2: Bolshevik Footsoldiers to Victims of Bolshevisation, 1931–1939 (London,Frank Cass, 2003), lxi þ304 pp., £65.00 hardback, ISBN 0-7146-5281-4Valentin Gorodnov (compiler), Apollon Davidson (ed.), Komintern i Afrika: dokumenty [The CommunistInternationalandAfrica:Documents](St.Petersburg,Izdat.Aleteia,2003),352pp.,ISBN5-89329-547-1ApollonDavidson(editor-in-chief), Stanovlenie otechestvennoi afrikanistiki, 1920-e - nachalo 1960-x [TheFormationofDomesticAfricanStudies,1920stoEarly1960s](Moscow,Nauka,2003),391pp.,ISBN5-02-008900-1Afrikanistika XX veka: vremia, liudi, vzgliady. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii [AfricanStudies in the Twentieth Century: The Times,the People,the Opinions.Materialsfrom an InternationalScientific Conference] (Moscow, Institut Vseobshchei Istorii, 2002), 256 pp., ISBN 5-94067-068-7In the introduction to South Africa and the Communist International: A Documentary History (hereafterSACI), Apollon Davidson, Irina Filatova, Valentin Gorodnov and Sheridan Johns remark that theCommunist International (the Comintern) ‘may seem to belong to a very distant era’. It was nevertheless,theycontinue – assumingthatweacceptthatcommunismwasitselfanoteworthyphenomenon – ‘withoutdoubtoneofthemostimportantglobalorganisationsevertohaveexisted’[ Vol.1,p.1].Thisisalargeclaim,andpresumablyunderpinstheshorthistoricalaccountofCominternactivityinSouthAfricaintherestoftheintroduction. It also belongs to a class of claims about Soviet and communist history that has come underincreasingly critical scrutiny in recent years. As Neal Ascherson has observed, it is not so long sinceit seemed incontrovertible that the most signific ant event in the 20th century was the BolshevikRevolution of October 1917. Now it is highly controve rtible. Thirteen years after the collapse of theSovietUnion,theviewiscurrentthattheRevolutiona chievedalmostnothingofitsoriginalintentions.