CONFLICTS AND STRUGGLE FOR LEADERSHIP WITHIN THE LITHUANIAN COMMUNIST PARTYIN 1935–1937

Abstract

This article analyses the internal fight between the leadership of the Communist Party of Lithuania (LCP) in the 1930s. In the 1920s and early 1930s the LCP had two strong leaders: Zigmas Angarietis and Vincas Kapsukas who disagreed on some revolutionary tactics related issues. Z. Angarietis, being the leader of the Lithuanian section in the Comintern, was in control of many of the everyday affairs of the Communist underground movement in Lithuania and the Soviet Union. Being able to send young revolutionaries to Communist schools and courses in Moscow, he attracted some ollowers. V. Kapsukas, however, being an old revolutionary Bolshevik and one of the ideologues of Lithuanian Communism, was a moral authority, who also attracted followers. Following the death of V. Kapsukas in 1935, Z. Angarietis wished to advance with the new Comintern tactics of popular fronts and thus wanted to consolidate his power in Lithuania, though some of the former V. Kapsukas’ followers, mainly Aizikas Lifšicas and Karolis Grosmanas, disagreed with Z. Angarietis and the new tactics. Z. Angarietis managed to replace them but they started objecting their ousting by sending letters to other LCP Central Committee members and the Comintern Executive Committee. This had the opposite effect as Z. Angarietis and his followers started to suspect both A. Lifšicas and K. Grosmanas of treason and of being Trotskyists. Finally, A. Lifšicas was expelled from the party and K. Grosmanas, acknowledging his guilt, was spared. Z. Angarietis and his followers, advancing the new Comintern tactics (adopted at the seventh congress) managed to expand the circle of Communist sympathizers which proved very useful in the new administration after the occupation of 1940.