The Comintern and the Concept of a “Native Republic”
On 2 March 1919, the Communist International (Comintern) was formed. It was also known as the Third International, an international organisation that advocated for world socialism and ultimately communism. The Comintern was founded at a Congress held in Moscow on 2 – 6 March 1919, hosted by the Soviet Union, against the backdrop of the Russian Civil War.
It opened with a tribute to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who were murdered by the “Freikorps” during the “Spartakus Uprising”, which was a general strike (and the armed battles accompanying it) in Berlin from 5 – 12 January 1919. The main topic of discussion was “The Difference between Bourgeois Democracy and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”.
The victory of the Russian Communist Party in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 was felt throughout the world and an alternative path to power to parliamentary politics was demonstrated. With much of Europe on the verge of economic and political collapse in the aftermath of the carnage of World War I, revolutionary sentiments were widespread. The Russian Bolsheviks headed by Vladimir Lenin believed that unless socialist revolution swept Europe, they would be crushed by the military might of world capitalism just as the Paris Commune had been crushed by force of arms in 1871. The Bolsheviks believed that this required a New International to foment revolution in Europe and around the world.
