The Communist International: A party of parties confronting interwar internationalisms, 1920–1925

Abstract

The interwar period gave rise to a multitude of international organizations, movements, arenas, and solidarities. As national parties sought to capture state power by fusing themselves into the state, the Communist (Third) International was established with a clear goal to support this process at the international level. The Bolsheviks sought to control its proceedings, motivated largely by an internationalist vision that prioritized the ability to react quickly, leaving them at odds with other parties that preferred a slower, more democratic structure. At the same time, international system and relations were being reconfigured in the aftermath of the First World War, providing an opportunity for the Comintern to stake a claim on the system itself. The Third International did not merely seek to capture states, but the entire international system, replacing it with a party-of-parties, an arena through which all international relations would be conducted. This chapter explores these processes of capture – by the Bolsheviks of the Comintern and by the Comintern of the international system – embedding them in a history of emerging internationalisms. The League of Nations, representing a liberal internationalism that was itself designed to bring forth a new international system based on the nation-state rather than the party-state, competed directly with the Comintern for legitimacy on the global stage. At the same time, remnants of the Second International, coalescing into the Labour and Socialist International in 1923, confronted the Bolsheviks’ approach to international relations by establishing a reformist organization that recognized the League's legitimacy. This chapter argues that the questions asked within this volume about national parties can also be asked about the international arena(s), and in doing so, shows that the lack of unity on the left at the international level facilitated the growth and establishment of the liberal system of international relations in the post-Second World War period.