Vicente Lombardo Toledano and the Soviet Approach to the Mexican Left After the Second World War

Abstract

In the history of relations between the USSR and Latin American states, support for the Soviet foreign policy course from non-communist forces – national reformist parties, trade unions, and leftist intelligentsia associations – was of great importance. The Mexican syndicalist Vicente Lombardo Toledano, founder of the Confederation of Latin American Workers and the Socialist People’s Party, had the greatest political weight among the members of all these organizations. He proclaimed himself a supporter of orthodox Marxism, always supported the USSR in the international arena, and actively interacted with the communists. In this article, the author examines the formation of Lombardo Toledano’s views, his ideas about the significance of the Russian revolution and the USSR for the development of Mexico and other Latin American countries. He notes that communication with him helped the Soviet party and state leadership to avoid excessive dogmatism in assessing the domestic and foreign policies of Mexico in the 1940s–1960s. The author places special emphasis on the extent to which contacts with Lombardo Toledano enabled the CPSU Central Committee and the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs to better understand the state of the Mexican left-wing forces and, above all, the Communist Party of Mexico. The author also demonstrates that he was of interest to Soviet strategists as someone who both had access to the Mexican ruling elite and enjoyed prestige in the Latin American and international labour and anti-war movements. He shows that Lombardo Toledano tried to benefit politically and materially from friendly relations with the USSR, while in return supporting Moscow in its struggle against its ideological opponents such as the Trotskyists and Maoists. The source base of the study comprises Lombardo Toledano’s polemical and propaganda writings, documents from Russian archives (the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History and the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History), declassified archival materials and published documents emanating from the U.S. Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.