Comintern: Revolutionary Internationalism in Lenin's Time

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aroused widespread misgivings and opposition in the International.
In response, Stalin and his allies asserted their control of the International
through a campaign misleadingly called “Bolshevization.”
In 1924, directives of the Comintern executive to member parties
were defined as “imperative,” to be applied “immediately.” Its
emissaries were given wide powers to act on its behalf. Moscow
now hand picked national leaderships, Trotsky stated, on the basis
of “readiness to accept and approve the latest apparatus grouping”
in the party.
In the 1930s, the Stalinist regime executed the vast majority of
Bolshevik leaders from Lenin’s time, along with hundreds of prominent
figures in other communist parties who had taken refuge in
the USSR.
During the decades following the Comintern’s dissolution in
1943, the immense obstacle presented by world Stalinism to progressive
struggles weakened and finally shattered.
In our times, we see signs of a new rise of internationalism in the
struggles of workers and the oppressed. Since the turn of the century,
the worldwide movement against the Iraq war, the rise of popular
struggles in Latin America, and other movements have shown
broad understanding that the great questions of our epoch will be
decided in the world arena.
In this context, the program and strategy hammered out by the
Communist International in Lenin’s time has new relevance.