Logo of the Comintern World Congress

Bolshevization was the process in the mid-1920s by which the pluralistic Communist International (Comintern) and its constituent communist parties were increasingly subject to pressure by the Kremlin in Moscow to follow Marxism–Leninism. The Comintern became a tool of Soviet foreign policy. The policy downplayed autonomy in favor of support for the Soviet Union and its foreign policy.[1]

During the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1924, Bolshevization became the general principle. The Sixth Congress in 1928 took a radical turn as the Comintern decided that capitalism was reaching its final stages. There was less support for wars of national liberation in colonial regions, especially after the collapse of the Comintern in China.[2]

In the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci took the lead in promoting Bolshevization.[3] In Prague, it was Klement Gottwald who came to power in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by taking charge of Bolshevization.[4]

In Spain, there were major efforts that culminated in the Spanish Civil War after 1935.[5]

In Czechoslovakia, Klement Gottwald led the movement in the 1920s and became the dictator after the Soviets invaded late in World War II.[6]

In Great Britain, the Communists were defeated in their efforts to Bolshevize and take over the Labour Party.[7]

In Finland, the Communists failed to Bolshevize the main socialist movement.[8]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Valentine Lomellini, ed. The rise of Bolshevism and its impact on the interwar international order (Springer Nature, 2020).
  2. ^ Gupta, Sobhanlal Datta (2017). "Communism and the Crisis of the Colonial System". In Pons, Silvio [in Italian]; Smith, Stephen A. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Communism. Vol. 1. pp. 220–231. doi:10.1017/9781316137024. ISBN 9781316137024.
  3. ^ Bates, Thomas R. (1976). "Antonio Gramsci and the Bolshevization of the PCI" (PDF). Journal of Contemporary History. 11 (2): 115–131. doi:10.1177/002200947601100207. S2CID 153795445.
  4. ^ Skilling, H. Gordon (1961). "Gottwald and the Bolshevization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1929-1939)". American Slavic and East European Review. 20 (4): 641–655.
  5. ^ Tim Rees, "Deviation and discipline: anti‐Trotskyism, Bolshevization and the Spanish Communist party, 1924–34." Historical Research 82.215 (2009): 131-156.
  6. ^ H. Gordon Skilling, "Gottwald and the Bolshevization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1929-1939)." American Slavic and East European Review 20.4 (1961): 641-655.
  7. ^ Kevin Morgan, "Bolshevization, Stalinization, and Party Ritual: The Congresses of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920–1943." Labour History Review (2022).
  8. ^ Tauno Saarela, "Finnish Communism, Bolshevization and Stalinization." in Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917–53 (2008): 188-205.

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