Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...
Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...
Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>International</strong> Newletter <strong>of</strong> <strong>Communist</strong> Studies Online <strong>XIII</strong> (<strong><strong>20</strong>07</strong>), <strong>no</strong> <strong>20</strong> 110<br />
League before drawing the conclusion that <strong>no</strong>ne <strong>of</strong> the above would be able to reach the<br />
same desired result as LAI. <strong>The</strong> probable liquidation <strong>of</strong> the LAI, instead <strong>of</strong> re-organisation,<br />
would “therefore be a large mistake”. 181 Hence, Comintern headquarters regarded the LAI to<br />
be a vital part <strong>of</strong> the anti-imperialist and colonial networks already in place, or those which<br />
could still be constructed in the beginning <strong>of</strong> the 1930s. 182<br />
This is only one <strong>of</strong> the organisational turns the LAI faced during its existence, and it shows<br />
partly that Comintern headquarters regarded it worthwhile to invest energy and time in the<br />
League, partly that the organisational and individual relationships at times were strained in<br />
the anti-imperialist network. This is a fairly neglected paradigm, whereas greater attention<br />
instead had been focused on the degree <strong>of</strong> success that fronts like the LAI achieved during its<br />
existence, namely, how many (or few) followers they had.<br />
In Agents <strong>of</strong> the Revolution (<strong>20</strong>05) Kevin Morgan et al. claimed that time finally has come to<br />
achieve a “genuine”, or for our subject, a complete historicisation <strong>of</strong> the Comintern<br />
phe<strong>no</strong>me<strong>no</strong>n. 183 Included in this there should be a research focus on exploring and discovering<br />
various networks, previously unk<strong>no</strong>wn, and to analyse the level <strong>of</strong> human agency that existed<br />
in the Comintern. <strong>The</strong> history <strong>of</strong> the LAI provides an opportunity to do this, but also to<br />
analyse why and how Comintern acted as it did concerning the front organizations. It would<br />
be <strong>of</strong> equal relevance to show how the international communists active “on the field”,<br />
became engaged in a complex structure which faced organisational turmoil within the LAI,<br />
the Comintern apparatus, and the KPD machinery in Berlin. It is time to examine the LAI from<br />
an inside perspective and to have a broader look out, as far as the sources allow, borrowing<br />
Smeral’s point <strong>of</strong> view regarding the continuation <strong>of</strong> the LAI in 1930: “I regard all <strong>of</strong> the<br />
above mentioned tasks as a possibility”. 184<br />
181<br />
RGASPI 542/1/39, pp.65-76, On the question <strong>of</strong> reorganising and continuity <strong>of</strong> LAI, directives sent<br />
from ECCI Secretariat, 16/2-1930<br />
182<br />
RGASPI 542/1/39, p.37, Letter from Smeral in Berlin to unk<strong>no</strong>wn receiver in Moscow, 27/3-1930<br />
183<br />
Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen & Andrew Flinn (eds.), “Introduction”, in Agents <strong>of</strong> the Revolution – New<br />
Biographical Approaches to the History <strong>of</strong> <strong>International</strong> Communism in the Age <strong>of</strong> Lenin and Stalin,<br />
Bern, <strong>20</strong>05, p.14<br />
184<br />
RGASPI 542/1/39, pp. 5-11, Letter from Smeral in Berlin to unk<strong>no</strong>wn receiver in Moscow, 2/1-1930.<br />
<strong>The</strong> word “possibility” was underlined by the receiver <strong>of</strong> the letter in Moscow.