Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Marxism: Beyond Dogma, an Alternative Quest
- 1 The Communist Manifesto after 150 Years: Some Observations
- 2 Rosa Luxemburg's Vision of Socialism: Some Reflections
- 3 Antonio Gramsci and the Heritage of Marxism
- 4 Contrasting Perspectives of International Communism on the Working Class Movement: 1924–1934
- 5 Comintern: Exploring the New Historiography
- 6 History's Suppressed Voice: Introducing Nikolai Bukharin's Prison Manuscripts (1937–38)
- 7 Rosa Luxemburg's Letters as Texts of a New Vision of Revolutionary Democracy and Socialism
- 8 Understanding Socialism as Hegemony: Rosa Luxemburg and Nikolai Bukharin
- 9 Frankfurt School, Moscow and David Ryazanov: New Perspectives
- 10 Perestroika and Socialism: Promises and Problems
- Part II Marxism: Challenges and Possibilities in the New Century
5 - Comintern: Exploring the New Historiography
from Part I - Marxism: Beyond Dogma, an Alternative Quest
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Marxism: Beyond Dogma, an Alternative Quest
- 1 The Communist Manifesto after 150 Years: Some Observations
- 2 Rosa Luxemburg's Vision of Socialism: Some Reflections
- 3 Antonio Gramsci and the Heritage of Marxism
- 4 Contrasting Perspectives of International Communism on the Working Class Movement: 1924–1934
- 5 Comintern: Exploring the New Historiography
- 6 History's Suppressed Voice: Introducing Nikolai Bukharin's Prison Manuscripts (1937–38)
- 7 Rosa Luxemburg's Letters as Texts of a New Vision of Revolutionary Democracy and Socialism
- 8 Understanding Socialism as Hegemony: Rosa Luxemburg and Nikolai Bukharin
- 9 Frankfurt School, Moscow and David Ryazanov: New Perspectives
- 10 Perestroika and Socialism: Promises and Problems
- Part II Marxism: Challenges and Possibilities in the New Century
Summary
With the opening of the Comintern archives in Moscow, it is now an acknowledged fact that the Third International, generally known as the Communist International (Comintern) (1919–43), holds the key to an objective understanding of the history of international communism in the twentieth century. It is also undeniable that it prefigured the destiny of the communist parties in different parts of the world not only in the inter-war period but also in the years to come. As long as the Moscow archives remained closed to the scholars, it was impossible to arrive at a proper, authentic understanding of what actually happened and how things happened in history. This was precipitated by the fact that for all communist parties affiliated to the Comintern, it was simply forbidden to write anything critical about it, as the Comintern, ironically, emerged as a contradictory structure from the very beginning. At one level, theoretically, it proclaimed the principle of equality of all communist parties, while, at another level, conditioned by the given historical situation, it soon established the pre-eminence of the VKP(b), since the Soviet Union became the refuge of all exiled communists, representing the parties affiliated to the Comintern, in the period between the victory of the Russian Revolution and World War II.
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- Marxism in Dark TimesSelect Essays for the New Century, pp. 63 - 90Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2012