Transcript Soviet Comintern - Dr. Crihfield's Website

AICE: International World
History 1945 - 1991
Kevin Sacerdote
Mandarin High School
Jacksonville, FL 32258
[email protected]
Soviet Comintern
Soviet Intentions in the
Third World
Source: The Global Cold War: Third
World Interventions and the Making
of Our Times, by Odd Arne Westad
(Cambridge University Press, 2007.
ISBN 978-0-521-70314-7)
Communist International
“Comintern” est. 1919
World-wide Organization
 Headquartered in Moscow
 All Worker’s Parties invited to join
 Lenin: “Bolshevize” all Socialist
Parties
 The Vehicle through which the
Communists would set off rebellions
in the Third World

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Comintern & the Third
World
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The Russian Revolution was a signal
It succeeded, and the Bolsheviks promised to
help others
By the 1920’s Communist parties were in major
Third World states: China, India, Indonesia,
Turkey, and Iran (Foreign “Aid” anyone?)
Imperialism was “an inevitable outgrowth of
industrial capitalism in its advanced stages of
development” (Keylor, A World of Nations, p.
73)
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution
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Capitalist stage could be very brief before the
proletariat uprising
Stalin disagreed, the capitalist stage had to be
“fully-fledged”
Stalin backs the Chinese KMT Right
Did Stalin really want the Chinese to go through
a real capitalist state before the revolution, or
did he fear a unified China of any kind?
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Soviet Communism’s Myth
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1917: a worker’s revolution was carried out by
an advanced group that represented the entire
proletariat. Advanced is the key, not numbers
But how long had there been a bourgeois state
in Russia? Gradual growth since 1905? (fullfledged historical progression?)
Permanent revolution or organizational skills of
Lenin’s Bolsheviks?
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Stalin (Vozhd/Boss) and World
Revolution
He never completely gave up on Lenin’s
faith in “backward countries” being able to
make a quick transition, but…
 He used the “non-skipping” of historical
stages to explain Communist setbacks in
the Third World, especially between 19291936

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Bolshevization Idea
Backfires in many countries
 Parties in other countries are
marginalized
 Often excluded from mainstream
organizations
 Told to form their own party

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
19th Century Marxism
Concentrates its analysis and predictions
on Europe and America
 Little energy spent on non-capitalist states
 Marx saw the world as organized in a
hierarchy of development

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Marx and the Third World
Asiatic mode of production: “Semibarbarian Societies”
 Isolated, Peasant-based
 Connected to a Despotic & Inefficient
State
 Social System led to an “Undignified,
Stagnatory, and Vegetative Life”
 Imperialism, in this case, was an agent of
progress according to Karl Marx

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Lenin’s Imperialism: The
Highest State of Capitalism
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Circa 1917
The scramble for Africa (1870-1914)
accelerated capitalist decay
By 1955, the political situation in Europe
stabilized, and emancipation from European
colonial domination was starting to come to an
end for many non-white lands in Asia/Africa
Calls for world workers to unite, regardless of
what stage they were in
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Mongolia
First opportunity the Bolsheviks got to
implement their credo outside its borders
 The testing ground for much of
communist policy in the Third World
 Methods of education, cultural work,
collectivization, and antireligious
propaganda

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Stalin’s Third
World Adventures
Turkey, Iran, China,
and Korea
Soviet Foreign Policy
German Attack 1941
 Soviet foreign policy is redirected
 Stalin does not want to anger the USA
 USSR is afraid of the Allies forming a
separate peace with Germany
 Separate Peace Treaties would leave the
USSR to fight Germany alone

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Stalin’s Orders to Communist
Parties Throughout the World
Do Not antagonize
 Feels the UK and USA would feud over
the spoils, he is wrong
 Fears a unified, unipolar capitalist world
under the watch of the USA
 Wants Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Romania, and Bulgaria as a security belt

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Turkey
Sees no hope for revolution
 Dominance of Turkish Bourgeois
Nationalism & the USA is watching
 Would like it for: security, control of the
Black Sea entrance, air and naval bases
 Not worth the risk

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Iran
Soviet’s biggest southern neighbor
 1941 Allied agreement, USSR would
occupy Northern Iran, Britain Southern
Iran
 British help oust the Shah Pahlavi
(leaning towards Hitler)
 The Shah’s son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
replaces him

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Iran
Foreign occupation had thrown the door
open for new political groups
 Tudeh: Led by Communists, it was the
largest and best organized
 Others such as ethnic minorities: Azeris,
Kurds, and Arabs (Iran is Persian) are
organizing

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Iran
Additionally, in Qum- Iran’s leading
religious center- Ruhollah Khomeini and
others call for independence
 1943 Majlis Election shows strong support
for the liberal and leftists leaders
 Examples include: Ahmed Qavam (73
years old) and Mohammad Mossadeq

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Iran
Tudeh sends messages to Stalin
 They want an immediate revolution
 Stalin strongly disagrees
 By following Stalin’s “orders” does the
party miss out on the correct timing for
revolt?
 Stalin wants a piece of the Oil, bases, and
does not want to jeopardize his chances

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Iran
Stalin turns to using northern ethnic
separatists rather than Iranian
Communists to reach his aims
 He plans with Soviet Azerbaijan leader
Mir Bagirov to organize a movement
 Stalin could either work with him for oil, or
tell Tehran he’d help put it down for oil
concessions

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Iran
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Elites realize that there was danger with the
USSR, turn to Ahmad Qavam (76 yr. old land
owner) to become the Prime Minister
Qavam and the USSR go back and forth and
eventually Qavam asks for American assistance
May 1946, the Soviets leave Iran.. no oil deal.
By the end of 1946 the shah’s army retook the
north
Terrible revenge on the Azeri and Kurdish
separatists, Qavam dismissed as PM (Dec.
1947)
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
China
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Mao, unlike Tudeh, does NOT follow the
detailed instructions of Stalin
Mao ignores Stalin’s wish for him to make
peace with the KMT
By 1948, KMT armies were now weak, and
were losing the American money and interest
1948-49 Mao prepares to push to Southern
China
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Korea
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Stalin’s last Third World adventure
He reluctantly backs Kim Il Sung
Soviet involvement was revenge for the US’
behavior in Germany, Europe, the Balkans, the
Middle East and especially the decision to form
N.A.T.O.
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Prime Reason for Soviet
Involvement in the 3rd World
Under Stalin, Third World Communism
had to serve Soviet purposes in the global
Cold War
 It seems as if Stalin - having started the
climb toward “Socialism in One Country” was deliberately kicking away the ladder
for others to follow

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
China
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1949-50, Stalin is uncertain about the future of
Mao’s Communism
Stalin signs a treaty conducive to Soviet
security, NOT a true alliance between two
Communist-run states
Even after the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship,
Alliance, and Mutual Assistance (Feb. 14, 1950)
Stalin is still not sure about Mao
Stalin’s previous backingof the KMT and this
are seeds for the upcoming Sino/Soviet split
Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Soviet Rediscovery of the
Third World
1955 - 1960
Khrushchev and the
Politburo’s New
Policies
Khrushchev and the Politburo’s
“New” Policies
Travel to India, Burma, Beijing, and
Afghanistan
 No armed intervention
 Cooperate with the “national
development” of non-socialist countries of
the Third World (economic and military)
 Enemy was colonialism and imperialism

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
Khrushchev Attacks Stalin
20th Party Congress - 1956
 He neglected the Third World
 Assistance to Worker’s Parties was
necessary
 The Soviets had

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
1951 - Last known in-depth Stalin
statement on 3rd World problems
Indonesia: He criticized the Communist
party there, “Indonesia represents a group
of islands encircled by seas, and the
Indonesian comrades could not lean
anywhere” (China had the USSR at their
back)
 What was his motive for such a
statement?

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)
I love you daddy
 LOVE JULIE

Source: The Global Cold War
(Westad, 2007)