The Peasant International (), known most commonly by its Russian abbreviation Krestintern (Крестинтерн), was an international peasants' organization formed by the Communist International (Comintern) in October 1923. The organization attempted to achieve united front relations with radical peasant parties in Eastern Europe and Asia, without lasting success. After failing to make headway with important initiatives in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and China in the 1920s, the organization was placed on hiatus at the end of the decade. The so-called Red Peasant International was formally dissolved in 1939.
Organizational history
Background
The idea for a Red Peasant International is commonly credited to Polish Communist Tomasz Dąbal, a former member of the Polish Peasant Party and representative elected to the Polish parliament. On 19 June 1923, Dąbal published an article in the Soviet Communist Party's daily newspaper, Pravda, noting a surge in popularity of peasants' political parties, particularly in Eastern Europe, and arguing that these organizations might provide fertile soil for the sowing of Communist ideas among the peasantry. Dąbal suggested that the Communist International should form such an organization to facilitate the establishment of united front political activities between communist and peasants' parties in Europe.
The Comintern had already established similar organizations for the radical youth movement and the trade union movement — the Young Communist International (KIM) and the Red International of Labor Unions (Profintern), respectively — and the idea that a radical international for peasants should be established under Comintern auspices. With the pro-peasant New Economic Policy in full swing in Soviet Russia, the idea for international organization of peasants quickly gained institutional traction.
Establishment
The Red Peasant International was established at a founding congress held in Moscow from 10–16 October 1923. The gathering was attended by 158 delegates, hailing from 40 countries, with a majority of participants representing countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. This gathering established a governing body comparable to the Executive Committee of the Communist International known as the International Peasant Council. Two major plenary sessions of the International Peasant Council were held — the first in October 1923 and the second in November 1927.
The formal head of the new organization at the time of its formation was A. P. Smirnov, although Dąbal emerged as the organization's leading public spokesman. Smirnov remained in place as the organization's chief until 1928.
In 1928 Smirnov was replaced as the top official of the Peasant International by Bulgarian Communist Vasil Kolarov, long a top figure of the Comintern. Kolarov served as chairman of a new governing body for the organization known as the Executive Committee of the Krestintern.
Activities
The Krestintern initially sought to build common cause with the Bulgarian Peasants Union, an organization established in exile in Yugoslavia by two former ministers of the government of Aleksandar Stamboliyski following his government's overthrow by a military coup in June 1923. One of these ministers, K. Todorov, travelled to Moscow early in January 1924 where he conducted negotiations with Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil Kolarov regarding joint action between their organization and the Communist Party of Bulgaria for the overthrow of the newly imposed Aleksandar Tsankov regime. The Bulgarian communists sought without success for Todorov to align his organization with the newly established Krestintern; for his part Todorov sought money and arms for use against the Tsankov government. Some Comintern money changed hands, but no alignment of the Peasants Union with the Peasant International or change of regime in Bulgaria was forthcoming.
The Krestintern was largely unsuccessful in its task of gathering and mobilizing non-Communist peasants' political parties to advance Communist ends and was only able to attract a small number of factional grouplets, these frequently being artificial creations of the various national communist parties themselves. The sole exception to this rule was the nominal affiliation was the brief and nominal adherence of the Croatian People's Peasant Party (Hrvatska Pučka Seljačka Stranka) headed by Stjepan Radić in 1924 during a visit to Moscow. This affiliation is judged by historian E. H. Carr to have had less to do with Communism than with the national aspirations of non-Serbian ethnicities inside Yugoslavia.