Bolshevization
Bolshevization was the process starting in the mid-1920s by which the pluralistic 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. That policy downplayed autonomy in favor of support for the Soviet Union and its foreign policy.
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.[1]
In the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci took the lead in promoting Bolshevization.[2] In Prague, it was Klement Gottwald who came to power in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by taking charge of Bolshevization.[3]
See also
Notes
- Silvio Pons, and Stephen A. Smith, eds. The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1 (2017) pp 220-]] 31.
- Thomas R. Bates, "Antonio Gramsci and the Bolshevization of the PCI." Journal of Contemporary History 11.2 (1976): 115-131. Online
- 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.
Further reading
- Bates, Thomas R. "Antonio Gramsci and the Bolshevization of the PCI." Journal of Contemporary History 11.2 (1976): 115-131. Online
- Degras, J. ed. The Communist International 1919-1943, Documents: Volume I, 1919-1922; Volume II, 1923-1928; Volume III, 1929-1943 especially volume 2 (1971)
- Pons, Silvio and Stephen A. Smith, eds. The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1 (2017)
- Skilling, H. Gordon. "Gottwald and the Bolshevization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1929-1939)." American Slavic and East European Review 20.4 (1961): 641-655.