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Abstract
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 inspired the formation of communist parties across the world. These, in turn, affiliated to the Communist International founded by the Bolsheviks in 1919, through which the national parties adopted a uniform organization, policy and theory. This article seeks to survey the development of the German and British communist parties between 1918 and 1933, examining the extent to which their experiences can be compared and contrasted within the increasingly uniform paradigm established by the Communist International under pressure from Stalin's Soviet Union. By so doing, it rejects traditional monocausal arguments based exclusively on the machinations of Soviet power politics, suggesting instead that to understand the history of communism both nationally and internationally, it is necessary to consider a complex interaction of indigenous and external factors.
Notes
[1] On recent communist historiography, CitationMcDermott and Agnew, The Comintern; CitationRees and Thorpe, eds, International Communism; CitationSaarela and Rentola, eds, Communism; Worley, ed. In Search of Revolution; , et al., eds. Agents of Revolution; CitationLaPorte, et al., eds. Stalinisation and Beyond (forthcoming).
[2] For exceptions, CitationUpton, The Communist Parties of Scandinavia and Finland; CitationCaballero, Latin America and the Comintern; CitationWeitz, Popular Communism; CitationCerdas-Cruz, The Communist International; CitationWirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg?; CitationMorgan and Santana, ‘A Limit to Everything’; Citationvan der Linden, ‘Communist Parties’, 85–94; CitationSwain, ‘Wreckage or Recovery’, 129–51; CitationManly, ‘Moscow Rules?’; CitationMcIlroy and Campbell, ‘The British and French Representatives’, 203–40.
[3] CitationBerger, ‘Guest Editorial’, 1.
[4] ‘Theses on the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International’, in CitationAdler, ed. Theses, 92–7.
[5] Point Eight of the ‘Statutes of the Communist International’ stated: ‘The work of the [ECCI] is performed mainly by the Party of that country where, by the decision of the World Congress, the [ECCI] is located. This Party has five representatives with full voting rights on the [ECCI]’. See Adler, ed. Theses, 125.
[6] CitationSatori, ‘Comparing and Miscomparing’, 243–57. For an introduction to comparative methodology, see CitationBerger, ‘Comparative History’, 161–79.
[7] For one of the less vitriolic examples of such a reductionist approach, see CitationMcIlroy and Campbell, ‘Histories’, 33–60.
[8] CitationMorgan, Cohen and Flinn, Communists; CitationLaPorte, The German Communist Party; CitationWorley, Class Against Class; CitationWeitz, Creating German Communism.
[9] CitationWeber, Die Wandlung.
[10] CitationGrew, ‘The Case for Comparing Histories’, 763–78.
[11] CitationMerson, Communist Resistance.
[12] CitationBerger, The British Labour Party, 7.
[13] CitationBerger, The British Labour Party, 7 248–55.
[14] CitationWrigley, ‘The State and the Challenge of Labour’, 62–89.
[15] CitationWheeler, Die USPD; CitationMcKibben, ‘Who were the German Independent Socialists?’, 425–43.
[16] CitationMacintyre, A Proletarian Science; CitationMcKibbin, ‘Why was there no Marxism in Britain?’, 297–331; CitationCallaghan, Socialism in Britain.
[17] CitationCrick, The History of the Social Democratic Federation.
[18] CPGB, Communist Unity Convention.
[19] CPGB, Communist Unity Convention CitationKendall, The Revolutionary Movement.
[20] These included Sylvia Pankhurst's fledgling Communist Party (British Section of the Third International). See CitationThorpe, The British Communist Party.
[21] CitationWorley, Labour Inside the Gate, Chapter 1.
[22] Thorpe, The British Communist Party, 284.
[23] CitationKoch-Baumgarten, ‘Einleitung’, 23.
[24] CitationWeber, Der Gründungsparteitag, 310–45.
[25] CitationWinkler, Von der Revolution zur Stabilisierung, 500–504; Weber, Der Gründungsparteitag, 310ff.
[26] CitationPeukert, The Weimar Republic, 49–51. For the development on the political right, see CitationJones, German Liberalism.
[27] CitationMallmann, ‘Milieu, Radikalismus und lokale Gesellschaft’, 5–31.
[28] CitationEley, Forging Democracy, 160–69; CitationOertzen, ‘Exkurs 1’, 27–32.
[29] Wirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkreig, 109–11.
[30] Wheeler, Die USPD, 246–58.
[31] Weitz, Creating German Communism.
[32] CitationWilliams, Democratic Rhondda; CitationBeynon and Austrin, Masters and Servants; CitationMacintyre, Little Moscows.
[33] CitationMcKibbin, The Evolution of the Labour Party.
[34] Weber, Die Wandlung, 361–8; CitationWheeler, ‘Zur Sozialenstruktur’, 179–89.
[35] CitationThorpe, ‘The Membership’, 777–800.
[36] CitationLabour Party, Report of the Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference, 92.
[37] Worley, Class Against Class, 277–80.
[38] Weber, Die Wandlung, 286.
[39] Morgan, Cohen and Flinn, Communists.
[40] ‘Party Census’, January 1927. All CPGB primary sources are based in the Communist Archive, Manchester, unless stated.
[41] Thorpe, ‘The Membership’, 790.
[42] Weitz, Creating German Communism, 246–9; CitationFalter, Hitler's Wähler.
[43] Kaas, ‘Die Sozialstruktur der KPD’, 1050–67; CitationFowkes, Communism, 172–83.
[44] Meeting of the Political Secretariat of the ECCI, 11 July 1929.
[45] Weber, Die Wandlung, 26–36; CitationBiehl, Der Thälmann-Putsch.
[46] CitationWeitz, ‘State Power, 290–1; Fowkes, Communism, 173.
[47] Minutes of the Central Committee (CC), 18–20 September 1932; Thorpe, ‘The Membership’, 792–3.
[48] Worley, Class Against Class, 37–44, 175–181 and 281–6; CitationCroucher, We Refuse to Starve.
[49] Weitz, Creating German Communism, 160–87; Worley, Class Against Class, 37–44.
[50] CitationHeer-Kleinert, Die Gewerkschaftspolitik, 282ff, 360 and 375ff; CitationWickham, ‘Social Fascism’, 1–34. For Pollitt, see Labour Monthly, August 1929; ‘Statement of the Impressions of Comrade Hardy regarding the Situation in the CPGB’, 25 November 1930, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) 495/100/68. Thanks to Kevin Morgan for providing this reference. CPGB, The Revolutionary Way Out.
[51] CitationThorpe, ‘Gender and Party Membership’.
[52] Minutes of the St. Pancras Women's Committee, 7 September 1927. Pollard–Johnson Papers, Bodleian Library.
[53] In addition to Rosa Luxemburg in 1918–19, Ruth Fischer was elected as party chairman in 1924 and again in 1925.
[54] CitationMallmann, Kommunisten, 131–2; Weitz, Creating German Communism, 188.
[55] CitationGeary, Labour Protest; CitationGeary, European Labour Politics.
[56] Berger, The British Labour Party, 248–52.
[57] CitationBerger, ‘The Formation of Party Milieux’, 254.
[58] CitationBerger, ‘The Formation of Party Milieux’, 254, 251.
[59] See Ramsay MacDonald's speech to conference, in CitationLabour Party, Report of the Twenty-Second Annual Conference, 199.
[60] Heer-Kleinert, Die Gewerkschaftspolitik der KPD, 230ff.
[61] Meeting of the Anglo-American Secretariat (AAS), 3 December 1931; Meeting of the CC, 19–21 July 1930. Also, Report of the Students Group, South Wales District June 1930. Working Class Movement Library, Salford.
[62] David Proudfoot, in CitationMacDougall, ed., Militant Miners, 141.
[63] Weitz, Creating German Communism, 231; CitationHunt and Worley, ‘Rethinking British Communist Party Women’, 1–27.
[64] For CitationWeber's ‘Stalinization’ thesis, see Wandlung des deutschen Kommunismus, 8–16. CitationAviva, ‘The SPD and the KPD’, 171–86; CitationRöpenack, NSDAP und KPD, 20–23 and 100–104; CitationWeber, Hauptfeind Sozialdemokratie; CitationKinner, Der Deutsche Kommunismus, 97–110; Weitz, Creating German Communism, 234–43; CitationWatlin, Die Komintern; CitationMcDermott, ‘Stalin and the Comintern’, 409–29; CitationMcDermott, ‘The History of the Comintern’, 31–40.
[65] CitationRudloff, ‘Politische “Sauberungen” in der KPD’, 4–23; CitationBahne, ‘Zwischen “Luxemburgismus” und “Stalinismus”, 359–83.
[66] Thorpe, Thorpe, The British Communist Party. For a classic example, see Meeting of the ECCI Presidium, 22 November 1927. For debate, see Meeting of the AAS, 19 November 1927; Meeting of the ECCI Political Secretariat, 11 July 1929; PB Minutes, 23 January 1931.
[67] Letter to the PB of the CPGB, 30 October 1928; PB Minutes, 18 November 1928; Meeting of the ECCI Political Secretariat, 10 December 1928; PB Minutes, 27 March, 3 April, 5 May, 3 July and 17 July 1930; Meeting of the AAS, 11 August 1930.
[68] CitationMacfarlane, The British Communist Party, 204–10; CitationCallaghan, Rajani Palme Dutt, 121–5.
[69] CitationRetzlaw, Spartakus, 294. The extent to which rank-and-file communists also maintained party discipline is the subject of debate, see CitationWirsching, ‘“Stalinisierung” oder Entideologisierte “Nichengesellschaft”’, 449–66; CitationMallmann, ‘Gehorsame Parteisoldaten oder Eigenzinnige Akteure’, 401–15. Mallmann, Kommunisten, 77–81.
[70] A similar point is made by Greame Gill in relation to the USSR. See CitationGill, The Origins of the Stalinist Political System.
[71] CitationCampbell, ‘Miner Heroes’, 143–68.
[72] Cohen and Flinn, ‘In Search of the Typical British Communist’, 37–54.
[73] CitationBenson, To Struggle; CitationBarker and Straker, Free But Not Easy; CitationDocherty, A Miner's Lass; Cohen and Flinn, ‘In Search of the Typical British Communist’, 37–54.
[74] Mallmann, Kommunisten.
[75] Weitz, Creating German Communism, Chapter 7.
[76] Weitz, Creating German Communism; CitationRosenhaft, Beating the Fascists?; Mallmann, Kommunisten; Worley, Class Against Class 37–44.
[77] Weitz, Creating German Communism, 196.
[78] CitationWeitz, ‘Communism and the Public Spheres’, 275– 91.
[79] CitationThurlow, The Secret State.
[80] Worley, Class Against Class, Chapter 1.
[81] CitationClegg, History of British Trade Unions; CitationMartin, Communism, 93–101; Macfarlane, The British Communist Party, 243–6.
[82] Inprecorr, 4 November 1926 and 3 December 1926; CitationWorley, ‘Courting Disaster?’, 1–17.
[83] CitationECCI, The World Situation, 4–12.
[84] Martin, Communism.
[85] CitationCampbell, The Scottish Miners; CitationLerner, Breakaway Unions.
[86] PB Minutes, 17 September 1932; Daily Worker, 20 August 1932; Communist Review, September 1932.
[87] CitationMüller, Lohnkampf, 72ff, 84, 94, 122ff and 199.
[88] Politburo Meeting, 26 August 1926, Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv (henceforth: SAPMO), RY I 2/3/6, Bl. 310–13.
[89] Wirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg, 400–410; Weitz, Creating German Communism, 160–87.
[90] CitationEhls, Protest und Propaganda, 229.
[91] Meeting of the AAS, 30–31 July 1930; CC Minutes, 30–31 May 1931; Inprecorr, 4 and 17 August 1931.
[92] Worley, Class Against Class, 175–81.
[93] CitationDavies, ‘The Membership’.
[94] Ehls, Protest and Propaganda, 113–18 and 227–82; CitationSchüren, Der Volksentscheid zur Fürstenenteignung 1926.
[95] Inprekorr, 19 April and 10 May 1927, 1024. Clashes with the Stahlhelm was a frequent topic of discussion at Politburo meetings. See, 21 April 1927, in SAPMO, RY 1/2/3/7. For a discussion of the militarization of political life, see CitationLongerich, Die Braunen Bataillone.
[96] Rosenhaft, Beating the Fascists?; Weitz, Creating German Communism, 160–87; LaPorte, The German Communist Party, 319–29.
[97] CitationAnderson, Fascists. 147–9.
[98] Ministry of Labour Gazette, Vols 37–40 (1929–32).
[99] CitationWilliamson, National Crisis.
[100] CitationEvans and Geary, eds, The German Unemployed; CitationStachura, Unemployment.
[101] CitationKolb, The Weimar Republic, 179ff.
[102] Inprecorr, 17 July 1924.
[103] Inprecorr, 25 September 1929. The comment was made by Manuilsky on behalf of the ECCI, in relation to the Stalin-inspired purge of the ‘right danger’ throughout the Comintern.
[104] CitationWicks, Keeping My Head, 75; CitationMcCarthy, Generation, 139–49.
[105] Daily Worker, 10 May 1930; CitationSamuel, MacColl and Cosgrave, eds, Theatres of the Left.
[106] For several examples, see CitationMorgan, Labour, Chapter 6.
[107] Worley, Class Against Class, Chapters 7 and 8.
[108] CitationBayerlein, ‘Vom “Fall” zur “Parabel” des Stalinismus’, 35–71.
[109] Rosenhaft, Beating the Fascists?; 10–11; Weitz, Creating German Communism, 160–87.
