The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX

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The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 39 However, the Mexican Conference organized in 1926 did not bring unity and finally the idea collapsed after the failure of the miners’ strike in Great Britain in the same year. Since that failure the Profintern leader Lozovsky developed the idea to form the Latin American Trade Union Confederation (CSLA) for the unification of all Moscow supporters in the region founding parallel structures throughout the whole continent. The creation finally occurred in 1929. But in most of the cases, this policy led to a disconnection with the existing workers’ unions (many of the CSLA branches were mere re-editions of local communist parties). In some cases, the new Confederation proved able to organize some new groups of workers. The next important strategic change was the installation of the Popular Fronts policy in 1934/35 supported seriously by the trade union cadres and prepared during these previous years. Svetlana Rosenthal, RGASPI, Moscow, Russia: Latin America in the Comintern Archives The Russian State Archive of Social and Political History allowed researchers to access the Comintern documents stored there. Since the opening of the archive a lot of previously unknown documents were introduced into scholarly circulation and several thousands of documents were published in the thematic collections provided with a series of indices. Also a brief guide for the archive collections and registers was published. The scientific and reference apparatus of the Comintern archive is continually modernized and the process of computerization is very close to its accomplishment. Eventually, this shall make it easier in the search of necessary documents. The inflow of researchers to the archive does not stop, which shows the inexhaustible interest in Comintern history, including the interest in the history of the Latin American working- class movement. In the documents referring to Latin America there can be found 108 archive registers (from a total number of 527), while 25 registers are exclusively »Latin American«. Nowadays some themes present a great interest for study; one of these topics is the activity of the international revolutionary organizations such as the Communist Youth International, the Profintern, the International Workers Relief, the Krestintern, etc., whose history has not been fully up until now. As these organizations worked legally, their activity was more various and versatile than the activity of the communist parties who in almost all of the countries of the continent functioned underground. Frequently these organizations served as a legal covering for the communists and their leadership was composed of communist party cadres. While today the OMS of the Comintern documents collection is still in confidential storage, the documents of the OMS of the Profintern were always accessible and they contain a lot of data about the cadres and the coordination of illegal connections with the national Profintern and Comintern sections. Latin American trade unions and their relations with Moscow are one of the most interesting areas of the world working class history. In the Profintern documentary collections one can find the documents written by D. Rivera, D. A. Siqueiros, V. R. Haya de la Torre, A. C. Sandino and other famous persons. Such subjects as the functioning of the Latin American Confederation of the Workers (CSLA) and the activity of Profintern representatives in Latin America are poorly
The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 40 investigated and are also in need of research. While the Comintern representatives’ activity in Latin America is partially studied in the world historiography (Lazar and Victor Kheyfetz, Jurgen Mothes), nothing has been written about the Profintern emissaries. They were frequently quite independent from Moscow and were not afraid to take independent decisions which could affect the communist parties and trade-union life. In their correspondence with Moscow there were some critical remarks respecting the communist parties and central bodies of the Profintern (for example, bad organization of the work in countries, delays in financing of trade union activity, etc.). They write about the absence of serious work from the communist parties, the infringements of financial discipline, the lack of support for the communist parties’ leaders by the rank and file. The most significant Profintern representatives in Latin America were two Polish communists: V. Lovsky (Michrovsky) who played an important role during revolutionary fights in Cuba during the overthrow of G. Machado and J. Mariansky (Dutlinger) who carried out the Profintern missions in Southern America till the mid 1930s. Both of them faced tragic destinies and were assassinated in the USSR in 1937. The documents regarding the peasant movement are also poorly researched while they are important for the mainly agricultural Latin American countries. The subject of the Revolutionary Sports Movement in Latin America is also expecting scholarly research. Some rather interesting documents (in the Red Sports International Collection) show that the activities concerning sports were capable to to pull young workers away from bourgeois influence. Victor Kheifets, Institute of Latin America, Moscow: In Search of an Adequate Strategy. Comintern and Soviet Diplomacy in Mexico in the 1920s From the very moment of the foundation of the Comintern, Moscow tried to find an adequate form of a combination of activity of its agents and the Soviet diplomats; Mexico became an example of that constant search. The Soviet General Consul Michael Borodin (Gruzenberg) played an important role in the creation of the Mexican Communist party in 1919 and in the process of its recognition by the leading bodies of the Comintern. Even before he attempted to start his diplomatic mission, moreover, Borodin tried unsuccessfully, to involve the Mexican President Carranza into the Third International structures created in the country. In the USSR (and by the Comintern) the Mexican Revolution was considered to be related to the October one. This belief resulted in further attempts to integrate diplomacy and revolutionary work especially after the diplomatic relations between Mexico and the USSR were reinitiated in 1924. The Soviet Plenipotentiary Representative Stanislav Pestkovsky, (being at the same time the representative of the Third International) (»Andrey«), directly coordinated the activity of the Communist Party of Mexico and was one of the most important actors within the internal party quarrels and the different attempts at reconciliation. The Soviet diplomats believed that, apart from the »official relations« and the non-interference into the domestic affairs of the respective country, there also existed the relations between the workers and peasants of the different countries (and consequently, a
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