Communist International Archives - John Riddell

The ‘German October’ of 1923: A Failed Bid for Workers’ Power

John Riddell — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:58:24 +0000

The text that follows will be included in a new collection, Lenin’s Comintern Revisited, scheduled for publication in 2022. By John Riddell: On 11 January 1923, France and Belgium sent their armies to occupy the Ruhr region, the industrial heartland of Germany. The invaders’ stated goal was to extract the reparations payments imposed on Germany […]

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Socialists Should Take the Right Lessons from the Russian Revolution

John Riddell — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 14:38:00 +0000

The following article was first published in ‘Jacobin’ and is reposted by permission. Eric develops here themes discussed more fully in his new book, Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882–1917). A list of related posts by on this website is appended to the article. A comment on this article by Mike […]

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New Book on Second International’s Marxist Years

John Riddell — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 19:03:54 +0000

Comments by Socialist Historians Haymarket Books has just published ‘Under the Socialist Banner: Resolutions of the Second International, 1889-1912’. Edited by Mike Taber, this book is the first collection ever assembled in English of all the resolutions adopted by the Second International during its Marxist Years. Despite weaknesses and contradictions that led to the Second […]

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Comintern Outreach: The Auxiliary Organizations

John Riddell — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 19:10:01 +0000

Part 1: Introduction By John Riddell: Clustered around the early Communist International’s world congresses were gatherings of an array of related organizations, ranging from the massive Red International of Trade Unions (RILU) to a small gathering of Proletarian Culture (Proletkult) enthusiasts. These auxiliary bodies greatly expanded the Comintern’s influence in the working class and beyond, […]

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‘Meticulous Research and Clarity’

John Riddell — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 15:10:27 +0000

A Review: ‘The Communist Movement at a Crossroads’ The newly available records of the Comintern Executive Committee from 1922-23 show the importance of the organisation before its later Stalinization, argues Chris Bambery. By Chris Bambery: One of the great successes of the neoliberal offensive we have been living under for four decades is the effective removal […]

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How Pioneer Communists Assessed the Russian Soviet Republic

John Riddell — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:01:21 +0000

The following text is the second-last of a series of posts analyzing the early Communist International, which are listed at ‘Lenin’s Comintern Revisited.’ Contents Resisting Imperialist Intervention Correcting Colonialist Abuses of Soviet Power Weighing the New Economic Policy Providing Material Aid to Soviet Republic Parrying a Social-Democratic Intrusion Debating the New Economic Policy By John […]

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Next Steps for Comintern Publication Project

John Riddell — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 22:07:28 +0000

By Mike Taber: The publication project on the Communist International (Comintern) under Lenin was begun in 1983 by Pathfinder Press, under the general editorship of John Riddell. Fifteen years after Pathfinder discontinued work on the project in the early 1990s, it was restarted by John Riddell with vital publishing assistance from the Historical Materialism Book […]

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How Democratic Centralism Was Applied

John Riddell — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:41:37 +0000

Part 2 of ‘Party Organization in Lenin’s Comintern’ See Part 1: Shaping a Policy By John Riddell: The Comintern’s 1921 organizational theses, discussed in Part 1 of this study, were next mentioned in a world congress by Lenin himself, in his address to the Fourth World Congress in 1922. At the end of what was […]

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Party Organization in Lenin’s Comintern

John Riddell — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 01:07:57 +0000

Part 1: Defining Democratic Centralism See also Part 2: Applying Democratic Centralism By John Riddell: Many socialist groups today seek to shape their organizational principles in the spirit of “democratic centralism” identified with V.I. Lenin. Yet as historian Lars Lih has demonstrated (“Fortunes of a Formula” and “Further Fortunes of a Formula”), Lenin himself used […]

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‘A Fascinating Volume Offering Many Treasures’

John Riddell — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 14:45:55 +0000

Daniel Gaido’s review of The Communist Movement at a Crossroads The Communist Movement at a Crossroads: Plenums of the Communist International’s Executive Committee, 1922–1923, edited by Mike Taber. Trans. John Riddell. Historical Materialism Book Series. Chicago: Haymarket, 2019. $50. Pp. 808. By Daniel Gaido: Taber and Riddell have published the minutes of the three Enlarged […]

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