^{page 44 note 1} Geiler, G., “Osnovnye etapy razvitiia MOPR”, in: MOPR–Shkola internatsional' nogo vospitaniia (Moskva, 1933), p. 60.Google Scholar Members of the Central Bureau included Julian Marchlewski (Karski), Lepeshinsky, P. N., Fischer, , and Kramarov, . Julian Marchlewski (1866–1925)Google Scholar was a leading Polish Communist, especially active in the German and Russian revolutionary movements. Among his revolutionary credentials were his participation in the 1907 London Conference of the RSDLP, his work on Iskra, and his involvement in the Spartakus League with Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemberg. Panteleimon Nikolaevich Lepeshinsky (1868–1944) as a youth was active in Narodnaia Volia; for this he was exiled to Siberia in 1897. There he met Lenin and became one of his supporters. After 1917 he was an organizer of Isparta (Commission for the Study of the History of the Communist Party) and later became director of the Museum of History and the Museum of the Revolution. Efforts to identify Fischer and Kramarov have brought meagre success. Both were members of the Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiles, and Kramarov was a member of the Russian Communist Party. Both worked in the central apparatus of IRA until the First Conference, but neither was a member of the Executive Committee elected at that time.

^{page 44 note 2} Ibid., p. 61. In addition to the members of the Central Bureau, the new body included V. S. Mickevičius-Kapsukas, V. P. Kolarov, S. M. Tëmkin, and Wilhelm Budich. Marchlewski was made chairman and Tëmkin Secretary of the CC IRA.

Vintsas Simanovich Mickevičius-Kapsukas (1880–1935), an early leader of the Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party, was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Communist Party in 1918. A supporter of Lenin after 1914, he joined the RSDLP in June 1917, soon after arriving in Petrograd. He was elected to the ECCI as a candidate in 1924 and as a full member in 1928.

Vasil Petrov Kolarov (1887–1950), a leader of Bulgarian socialism, took part in the Zimmerwald Conference of 1915, where he supported Lenin's views. He became a member of the ECCI in 1921, was elected to the Presidium in 1922, and served as general secretary in 1923. Perhaps best known as an agrarian expert in the ECCI, Kolarov was president of the Krestintern from 1928 to 1939. After 1945 he held top positions in the Bulgarian government.

S. M. Tëmkin seems to have been distinguished solely for his work in IRA. He was a member of the central apparatus of both the international organization and its Russian section until 1927.

Wilhelm Budich, about whom little information could be found, was active in the German Communist Party and apparently was one of the founders of the German Red Aid in 1921.

^{page 45 note 1} Pervaia Mezhdunarodnaia Konferentsiia MOPR, 14–16 iulia 1924g. Stenograficheskii otchet (Moskva, 1924), p. 81. Hereafter cited as Pervaia Konferentsiia. Six of the EC IRA members represented MOPR USSR; one, Mezhrabpom (another Comintern front, centered in Germany); and the rest, sixteen countries, mostly European. Many of those elected would attain no greater prominence in international communism, but some would make their names known. These included Willi Münzenberg, chairman of Mezhrabpom and founder of several other important Comintern fronts; Wilhelm Pieck, leader of the German Communist Party in the later ‘30’s and president of East Germany after World War II; Tomash Dombal', the Polish Communist who founded the Krestintern; and Anselmo Maribini, a leader of Italian Communism. A list of members of the EC IRA is found in MOPR (July-August 1924), p. 38.

^{page 46 note 1} 10 let MOPR (Moskva, 1932), pp. 40–43. “Democratic centralism” refers to Lenin's theory of Party organization, in which lower units elect higher ones, while higher units exercise absolute authority over the lower. In both theory and practice “democratic centralism” has meant “centralized control exercised by a small party leadership over a well-disciplined rank-and-file membership”. McKenzie, Kermit E., Comintern and World Revolution, 1928–1943: The Shaping of Doctrine (London and New York, 1964), p. 96.Google Scholar

^{page 46 note 2} International Press Correspondence (March 7, 1928), p. 262. Hereafter cited as Inprecor.

^{page 46 note 3} Geiler, p. 59. The Polish Bureau of the RCP was composed of Polish Communists living in the Soviet Union.

^{page 47 note 1} Stasova, Yelena D., Piat' let MOPR i sovremennye ego zadachi (Moskva, 1928), p. 7.Google Scholar Felix Dzerzhinski (1877–1926) participated in both the Polish and Russian revolutionary movements. He was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP in 1907. Imprisoned from 1912 to 1917, he was elected to the CC of the Russian Communist Party in August 1917. Dzerzhinski was a close comrade of Lenin and was given the task of organizing and heading the Cheka in December 1917.

^{page 47 note 2} In Russian materials the initials “MOPR” are usually used for both the Soviet section and the international organization of IRA. Throughout this study “MOPR USSR” will be used to designate the Soviet section. In the United States IRA was known as International Labor Defence and in Great Britain International Class War Prisoners' Aid Society.

^{page 47 note 3} Stasova, p. 7.

^{page 47 note 4} Protokoll des vierten Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale, Petrograd-Moskau vom 5 November bis 5 Dezember, 1922 (Hamburg, 1923), p. 836. The “political red cross” referred to Krasnyi Krest, an aid organization founded in 1881 by Narodnaia Volia.

^{page 47 note 5} Ibid., p. 837.

^{page 48 note 1} Geiler, p. 60.

^{page 49 note 1} Kon, Felix, “Desiatiletie Kominterna i MOPR”, in: Kommunisticheskii Internatsional (02 8, 1929), p. 156.Google Scholar “Toiling masses” usually refers to non-Communist workers, as opposed to “proletariat”, i.e., Communists.

^{page 49 note 2} Inprecor (August 9, 1923), p. 595. Held in Moscow immediately after the Third Plenum of the ECCI (during which no mention was made of IRA), the CC IRA meeting was attended by delegates of various Communist Parties already in Moscow for the earlier ECCI Plenum.

^{page 49 note 3} Geiler, p. 61.

^{page 49 note 4} Inprecor (August 9, 1923), p. 595.

^{page 50 note 1} From the Fourth to the Fifth World Congress. Report of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (London, 1924), p. 99.Google Scholar

^{page 50 note 2} Pervaia Konferentsiia, p. 31. The failure of some sections to report all expenditures may be viewed as indicating how little effective control the central apparatus exercised over the international organization before 1924.

^{page 50 note 3} MOPR (March-April, 1924), p. 35.

^{page 50 note 4} Angelo Tasca (pseud., A. Rossi) states in A Communist Party in Action (New Haven, 1949), p. 190, that “MOPR served as a channel for financial aid to Communist Parties” from Moscow.

^{page 50 note 5} Geiler, p. 61. Only one periodical was published before 1924, the journal MOPR, and none of the issues for 1923 could be located. Almost all published IRA agitprop appeared in Comintern periodicals, primarily Inprecor.

^{page 50 note 6} Kushner, M., Materialy po MOPR; Spravochnaia kniga dlia otdelenii, iacheek, i aktivnykh rabotnikov MOPR'a (Moskva, 1925), p. 166.Google Scholar The Paris Commune has been lauded by Communists, none too accurately, as the first example of a government of, by, and for the proletariat.

^{page 50 note 7} Geiler, p. 61.

^{page 51 note 1} 10 let MOPR, p. 107.

^{page 51 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 52 note 1} MOPR (March-April, 1924), p. 31.

^{page 52 note 2} Ibid., p. 30.

^{page 52 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 53 note 1} Unfortunately, there is no record of discussion concerning IRA within the ECCI and consequently it is not possible precisely to identify Zinoviev's opponents. It is likely, however, that Karl Radek, Klara Zetkin, and Nikolai Bukharin were among those seeking a broader role for IRA. At the 1923 Plenum of the ECCI Zinoviev emphasized the need to consolidate existing parties and organizations, whereas Radek, Zetkin, and Bukharin called for efforts to broaden the mass base of support.

^{page 53 note 2} From the Fourth to the Fifth World Congress, pp. 98–100. The report also presented a lengthy chart running several pages which showed what questions had been considered by leading Comintern organs (the ECCI, Presidium, Secretariat, and Orgburo) in the year and a half since the Fourth Congress. The question of IRA had been discussed by the bodies a total of fifty-three times (only five items out of several dozen appeared more frequently), and within the Secretariat IRA ranked third as a subject on the agenda (ibid., p. 118). These figures do not, of course, suggest how significant were the fifty-three discussions of IRA, but they would seem to indicate that the development of IRA was indeed a matter of considerable and recurring concern to the Comintern leadership.

^{page 53 note 3} Ibid., p. 100. Capitals in the original.

^{page 54 note 1} Piatyi vsemirnyi kongress Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala, 17 iiunia-8 iiulia, 1924g.; stenograficheskii otchet (Moskva, 1925), pp. 983–984.Google Scholar

^{page 54 note 2} Ibid., p. 983.

^{page 55 note 1} Ibid., p. 984.

^{page 55 note 2} MOPR (May-June, 1924), p. 3.

^{page 55 note 3} Pervaia konferentsiia, p. 17.

^{page 56 note 1} Ibid., pp. 17–18.

^{page 56 note 2} Israel Amter was a member of the American Communist Party especially active in the state of New York. He was never listed as a member of the IRA apparatus, and after the Conference he seems to have had no direct connection with the organization. There was given no explanation of why he was designated to report on the work of the CC IRA.

^{page 56 note 3} Pervaia konferentsiia, p. 37.

^{page 56 note 4} Ibid., p. 39.

^{page 56 note 5} Pestkowsky was a Polish Communist and a member of the Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiles. It is not clear when he entered the central apparatus of IRA. He was first mentioned in Red Aid literature in the spring of 1924.

^{page 56 note 6} Pervaia konferentsiia, p. 29.

^{page 56 note 7} Ibid., p. 32.

^{page 56 note 8} Ibid., p. 92.

^{page 57 note 1} Members of the EC IRA are listed in MOPR (July-August, 1924), p. 38.

^{page 57 note 2} Pervaia konferentsiia, p. 107.

^{page 57 note 3} Biulleten' Tsk MOPR SSSR (January 31, 1927), p. 3. Hereafter cited as Biulleten'.

^{page 58 note 1} The meeting held on January 30–31, 1924, was called a Conference (Konferent-siia), while the assembly of March 1925 was a Congress (S”ezd).

^{page 59 note 1} See Korey, William, Zinoviev on the Problem of World Revolution, 1919–1927 (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1960), passim.Google Scholar

^{page 59 note 2} Pervaia vsesoiusnyi s”ezd MOPR, 15–18 marta 1925g. Stenografisheskii otchet (Moskva, 1925), p. 28.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Vsesoiuznyi s”ezd. In 1935 after overtures had been made to the Socialist International seeking its co-operation with IRA, the above quotation was repudiated on the grounds that it had been made by “a former chairman of the C. I. and a renegade Communist”. Internatsional'nyi Maiak (03, 1935), p. 4.Google Scholar

^{page 59 note 3} Vsesoiuznyi s”ezd, pp. 32–33.

^{page 60 note 1} Rasshirennyi plenum ispolkoma Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala (21 marta-6 aprelia 1925g.). Stenograficheskii otchet (Moskva, 1925), p. 578. Hereafter cited as Piatyi plenum.

^{page 60 note 2} Ibid., p. 579.

^{page 60 note 3} Ibid., pp. 445–446.

^{page 61 note 1} Rasshirennyi plenum ispolkoma Kominterna (21 marta-6 aprelia 1925g.): Tezisy i Rezoliutsii (Moskva-Leningrad, 1925), p. 15.

^{page 61 note 2} Ibid., p. 26.

^{page 61 note 3} Shestoi (VI) rasshirennyi plenum ispolkoma Kominterna (17 fevralia–15 marta 1926g.). Stenograficheskii otchet (Moskva, 1927), p. 631.Google Scholar

^{page 61 note 4} Ibid., p. 486.

^{page 61 note 5} Ibid., pp. 646–647. An alternative approach to the task of organizing those who had fallen under Party influence was to infiltrate various existing non-Communist worker's groups, such as trade unions or cooperatives. Communists in such groups were to form “fractions” in order to concentrate their efforts on influencing the policies of the organization and winning support of non-Communist members.

^{page 62 note 1} Ibid., p. 647.

^{page 62 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 62 note 3} Ibid., p. 648.

^{page 62 note 4} Ibid., pp. 648–649. Emphasis in the original.

^{page 64 note 1} MOPR (January-February, 1926), p. 21; Biulleten' (March 29, 1927), p. 15.

^{page 64 note 2} Pervaia konferentsiia, p. 85.

^{page 64 note 3} MOPR (January-February, 1926), p. 21; Biulleten' (January 31, 1926), p. 7; (March 30, 1927), p. 15; (July 31, 1927), p. 2.

^{page 64 note 4} Biulleten' (March 30, 1927), p. 14.

^{page 65 note 1} MOPR (January-February, 1926), p. 6.

^{page 65 note 2} Letter from N. Hannington to A. Henderson, March 23, 1925, Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, archives of the Labour and Socialist International, 2537/2.

^{page 65 note 3} Piatyi plenum, p. 578.

^{page 65 note 4} Sputnik Moprovtsa (August, 1932), p. 32.

^{page 66 note 1} Biulleten' (October 15, 1927), pp. 7–8.

^{page 66 note 2} Ibid., pp. 8–9.

^{page 66 note 3} Ibid., p. 7.

^{page 66 note 4} Ibid., p. 8.

^{page 66 note 5} MOPR (January-February, 1926), pp. 15–17; Biulleten' (February 15, 1928), p. 1. A “reregistration” of Soviet Moprovsty was conducted during 1927, accounting for the decline in membership totals within the USSR.

^{page 67 note 1} MOPR (September-October, 1926), p. 30.

^{page 67 note 2} Biulleten' (January 31, 1925), pp. 7–8.

^{page 67 note 3} MOPR (September-October, 1926), p. 31.