Bolshevization was the process in the mid-1920s by which the pluralistic Communist International (Comintern) and its constituent communist parties were increasingly subject to pressure by the Kremlin in Moscow to follow Marxism–Leninism. The Comintern became a tool of Soviet foreign policy. The policy downplayed autonomy in favor of support for the Soviet Union and its foreign policy.
During the Fifth Congress of the Comintern in 1924, Bolshevization became the general principle. The Sixth Congress in 1928 took a radical turn as the Comintern decided that capitalism was reaching its final stages. There was less support for wars of national liberation in colonial regions, especially after the collapse of the Comintern in China.
In the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci took the lead in promoting Bolshevization. In Prague, it was Klement Gottwald who came to power in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by taking charge of Bolshevization.
In Spain, there were major efforts that culminated in the Spanish Civil War after 1935.
In Czechoslovakia, Klement Gottwald led the movement in the 1920s and became the dictator after the Soviets invaded late in World War II.
In Great Britain, the Communists were defeated in their efforts to Bolshevize and take over the Labour Party.
In Finland, the Communists failed to Bolshevize the main socialist movement.
See also
Communist International
Notes
Further reading
Babadjanov, Bakhtiyar. "From Colonization to Bolshevization: Some Political and Legislative Aspects of Molding a 'Soviet Islam' in Central Asia." in Central Asian Law: An Historical Overview. A Festschrift for the Ninetieth Birthday of Herbert Franke (Lawrence, KS: Society for Asian Legal History, 2004).
Bates, Thomas R. "Antonio Gramsci and the Bolshevization of the PCI." Journal of Contemporary History 11.2 (1976): 115-131. David-Fox, Michael. "Symbiosis to Synthesis: the Communist Academy and the bolshevization of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1918-1929." Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas vol. 2 (1998): 219-243.
Degras, J. ed. The Communist International 1919-1943, Documents: Volume I, 1919-1922; Volume II, 1923-1928; Volume III, 1929-1943 especially volume 2 (1971)
Drachkovitch, Milorad M. "The Third International" In The Revolutionary Internationals, 1864-1943 (Stanford University Press, 1966) , pp. 159-202. Gabrič, Aleš. "The Bolshevization of Slovenia." Slovene Studies: Journal of the Society of Slovene Studies (2006): 79-94. Goldner, Loren. "Max Eastman: One American Radical's View of the ‘Bolshevization’ of American Radicalism and a Forgotten, and Unforgettable, Portrait of Trotsky." Critique 35.1 (2007): 119-139. James, Winston. "In the nest of extreme radicalism: radical networks and the Bolshevization of Claude McKay in London." Comparative American Studies 15.3-4 (2017): 174-203. online
Krasucki, Eryk. "Polish Research on the History of the Comintern: An Overview of Existing Literature and an Outline of Future Perspectives." Acta Poloniae Historica 123 (2021): 261-287. online LaPorte, Norman, Kevin Morgan, and Matthew Worley, eds. Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: perspectives on Stalinization, 1917-53 (Springer, 2008) online.
Morgan, Kevin. "Bolshevization, Stalinization, and Party Ritual: The Congresses of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920–1943." Labour History Review (2022). Suzdaltsev, Ilya. "Modern English Historiography of the Communist International: A General Overview." Novaia i noveishaia istoriia 4 (2021): 18-30. online
Waller, Michael, Stéphane Courtois, and Marc Lazar, eds. Comrades and brothers: communism and trade unions in Europe (Psychology Press, 1991). Zumoff, Jacob A. The Communist International and U.S. Communism, 1919-1929 (Brill Publishers, 2014).
External links
"Comintern History Archive" at Marxists Internet Archive.