The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX
The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX
The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Communist</strong> <strong>Studies</strong> <strong>Online</strong> 16/2003 29<br />
opinions and estimations about the newly founded movement and the arising number <strong>of</strong> supporters <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Comintern. <strong>The</strong>re is no doubt that these were persons who were directly involved with the situation that they<br />
were examining. <strong>The</strong>refore, the first books on the history <strong>of</strong> Latin American Communism (such as »Pugnas de la<br />
gleba« by Rosendo Salazar and »Relatorio de Delegacia a Russia« by A.B. Canellas) have up until now been an<br />
important ressource for researchers as a reliable and well-documented base for studies. 10<br />
<strong>The</strong> first attempts <strong>of</strong> a methodical analysis <strong>of</strong> the history <strong>of</strong> Latin American Communism from the Marxist point<br />
<strong>of</strong> view were undertaken inside the very Comintern structures at the end <strong>of</strong> the 1920s and the beginning <strong>of</strong> the<br />
1930s. However, already the first studies made by Stanislav Pestkovsky (»A. Volsky«, »S.Ortega«), Georgiy Skalov<br />
(»Sinani«), Genrich Yakobson (»G. Ya-n«), August Guralsky, Maurice Chaskin and Vladimir Miroshevsky, despite<br />
all their worthiness, suffered from one serious deficiency, which subsequently for a long time became the<br />
Achilles heel <strong>of</strong> the Marxist historiography <strong>of</strong> the Third <strong>International</strong>. While examining the socio-economic and<br />
political development <strong>of</strong> Latin America and analyzing the genesis <strong>of</strong> Latin American Communism, the Marxist<br />
historians carefully bypassed the major question: to what extend and in what forms had the Third <strong>International</strong><br />
participated in the formation <strong>of</strong> communist parties in New World. It was to some extent a paradox as this very<br />
issue was the problem they knew best. All <strong>of</strong> these authors were working in the Latin American Country-<br />
Secretariat <strong>of</strong> the ECCI and it was they who were coordinating, for the »General staff <strong>of</strong> world revolution«, the<br />
activity <strong>of</strong> the communist parties <strong>of</strong> the continent from the Moscow headquarters <strong>of</strong> the Comintern. <strong>The</strong><br />
reasons for this attitude were mainly due to the interest which arose about Latin American Communism in the<br />
USSR which coincided with the beginning <strong>of</strong> a new stage (Stalin’s) <strong>of</strong> Comintern activity. Many <strong>of</strong> the facts<br />
which had been freely discussed before, even by the international communist media (»<strong>The</strong> <strong>Communist</strong><br />
<strong>International</strong>«, »Inprekorr«, »<strong>The</strong> Red <strong>International</strong> <strong>of</strong> the Trade Unions«), and especially in Latin American<br />
»La Correspondencia Sudamericana«, the 1920s, became taboo from this moment onwards. Culminating in<br />
the Stalinization-process <strong>of</strong> international communism, the Marxist researchers <strong>of</strong> communism became more<br />
and more reduced to the analysis <strong>of</strong> the struggle against »opportunism« and »revisionism« inside the<br />
communist movement. <strong>The</strong> organizational part <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Communist</strong> Party’s, always remained behind the<br />
framework <strong>of</strong> these studies. Thus the major consideration was ignored as it was simply impossible to analyze<br />
and describe the history <strong>of</strong> the »world communist party« (the Third <strong>International</strong>) – not only on the regional<br />
and peripheral level – without dealing with the investigation <strong>of</strong> the functioning <strong>of</strong> its organizational structure.<br />
This is the condition sine qua non in order to study the mechanism <strong>of</strong> interaction between the supreme bodies<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Comintern and its national sections.<br />
10 Many years ago, one <strong>of</strong> the authors <strong>of</strong> this review (Lazar Kheyfetz) was quite surprised by the «unlimited<br />
fantasies« <strong>of</strong> R. Salazar describing in his book the activity <strong>of</strong> a mysterious Russian agent in Mexico named<br />
«Natasha Michaelova« in 1920 (!); this fact led L. Kheyfetz to doubt about some other parts <strong>of</strong> Salazar’s study.<br />
And only after some years had passed, after reading the memoirs written by Manuel Gomez (Charles Phillips)<br />
and thanks to a scrupulous research <strong>of</strong> the Comintern archive documents which contain information about<br />
Gomez’ wife, Natalia Michailova, and her life in Mexico, the Russian historian got a chance to realize finally<br />
how precise R. Salazar was when he describedsome events <strong>of</strong> the first years <strong>of</strong> Mexican Communism.