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The Comintern and Czechoslovak Communism: 1921–1929

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

H. Gordon Skilling
H. Gordon Skilling*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

The formation of a Communist Party in Czechoslovakia was accomplished slowly, and as the result of the steady pressure and constant guidance of the Communist International between 1919 and 1921. When the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) was finally established in the latter year, this outcome represented a compromise between the extreme, doctrinaire policies of the Comintern and the more moderate Czechoslovak-oriented views of Bohumil Smeral, the party's first leader. Moreover the party was by no means the genuinely Bolshevik party anticipated by Lenin and the Comintern, and showed evidence of its deep roots in the social democratic movement and of its origin in a country of democratic traditions and intense national pride.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 1960 , pp. 234 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1960

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References

1 See Skilling, H. Gordon, “The Formation of a Communist Party in Czechoslovakia,” The American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. XIV, No. 3 (October, 1955), pp. 346–58 Google Scholar.

2 The weaknesses of the party at this time are now openly criticized in party history, and the great “help” of the CPSU and of Lenin and Stalin in the development of the CPC is acknowledged. See for instance Jindřich, Veselý, Z prvnich bojů KSC (1921–1924), (Prague, 1958), pp. 13–15 Google Scholar. See also Rudolf, Slánský's speech on the thirtieth anniversary of the party, Rudé právo, May 18, 1951 Google Scholar.

3 Apart from contemporary Comintern sources such as International Press Correspondence and the proceedings of the congresses and other organs of the International, the chief sources are those published by the Institute for the History of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, especially the many volumes of Klement Gottwald's Spisy, the accompanying collections of documents for each of these volumes, and special studies such as that by Veselý cited in n. 2, Václav Kopecký, Třicet let KSC (Prague, 1951), and the collective work, Přehled dějin komunistické strany Ceskoslovenska (2nd ed., Prague. 1957). An earlier party history was written by Pavel Reimann, Dějiny komunistické strany Ceskoslovenska (Prague, 1931).

4 International Press Correspondence (henceforth cited as Inprecorr), II, No. 58, pp. 431–33; No. 90, pp. 686–87; No. 98, pp. 765–66Google Scholar.

5 Protokoll des Vierten Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale (November 5-December 5, 1922) (Hamburg, 1923), especially pp. 45–46, 71–73, 84–90, 95–99, 140–41, 169–70, 206–07, 350–54, 394–95, 925–33, 967Google Scholar.

6 Ibid.,pp. 929–32 Google Scholar. English text in Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International(London, n.d.), pp. 111–15 Google Scholar. For the whole crisis, see Reimann, , Dějiny, pp. 126–30 Google Scholar.

7 Reimann, , Dějiny, p. 132 Google Scholar. The resolution had declared that “a workers’ government could not be the means of a peaceful transition to the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is an attempt of the working class to carry out a workers’ policy within the framework, and above all through the means, of bourgeois democracy.“

8 Protokoll, Filnfter Kongress der Kommunistischen Internationale (2 vol., no date, no place), especially I, 68–73; 85–86; 92–93; 98–99; 159–62:209–10; 214–17; 300–04; 385–90; 407–10; 429–31; 498–500Google Scholar. See the ECCI report, including a paragraph on Czechoslovakia, ibid., II, 594.

9 Text of resolutions, in Ve Congrès de I''Internationale Communiste (June 17-July 8) (Paris, 1924), pp. 384–85, 432.

10 Protokoll, Fünfter Kongress, II, 1021–22. šmeral was later elected to the ECCI presidium, with Muna and Neurath as alternates; Neurath was elected an alternate on the secretariat of ECCI. See Tivel, A. and Kheimo, M. (eds.), 10 let Kominterna v resheniiakh i tsifrakh (Moscow-Leningrad, 1929), pp. 327–28 Google Scholar.

11 Reimann, , Dějiny, pp. 148–52 Google Scholar. See also Marx, , Engels, , Lenin, and Stalin, , O Rakousku a české otázce (Prague, 1933. Pavel Reimann and Gustav Breitenfeld, eds.), pp. 361–64 Google Scholar.

12 Reimann, , ibid., pp. 140–41 Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., Chapters 17, 18 and 19 for the following.

14 Inprecorr, V, No. 18, p. 263; No. 19, p. 279Google Scholar.

15 For the proceedings in abridged form, see Bohhevising the Communist International (London, n.d.). For fuller reports, see Inprecorr, V, No. 26 et seq.

16 This address was published in Czech in O Rakousku a české otázce, pp. 365–71, and more recently in various places, including Rudé právo, May 17, 1951. An English version was given in Inprecorr, V, No. 36, 478–80. It is also available in Russian in Stalin, J., Sochinenija (Moscow, 1946-), VII, 59–68 Google Scholar.

17 Text in Bolshevising the Communist International, pp. 127–32.

18 Text in ibid., pp. 181–85 Google Scholar. See also Inprecorr, V, No. 47, 627–29 Google Scholar.

19 Text of the appeal in Inprecorr, V, No. 36, 480–81 Google Scholar. To the ECCI presidium were elected Haken and Zápotocký as full members; to the secretariat, also as full member, Neurath. See Bolshevising the Communist International, p. 5.

20 Text given in O Rakoushu a české otazc.e, pp. 372–73 Google Scholar; in English, in J., Stalin, Leninism (London, 1928), I, 322–23 Google Scholar.

21 Inprecorr, V, No. 73, pp. 1088–89 Google Scholar.

22 Inprecorr, V, No. 83, 1253–54.

23 See Kopecky, V., Třicet let KSC, pp. 50–52 Google Scholar, 57–63. In this account Jílek is regarded as a traitor and renegade. In the absence of independent information, it is extremely difficult to evaluate or even to describe the role of Jilek as party leader.

24 See Inprecorr,V, No. 73, 1088–89; VI, No. 18, 276; No. 28, 437; No. 40, 652; No. 60, 1028; No. 68, 1183–84; VIII, No. 10, 224–25. See also Shestoj rasshirennij plenum ispolkoma kominterna (Moscow, 1927), especially pp. 504–05, 705–07 Google Scholar, and The Communist International between the Fifth and the Sixth World Congresses, 1924–28 (London, 1928), p. 220Google Scholar. Included among those expelled as rightists were B. Hula and I. Handler (Handlif), who were active in early stages of Czech communism. See my article cited in n. 1 above.

25 Inprecorr, VII, No. 22, 452–54, and No. 23, 480–81. See also Reimann, , Dějiny, pp. 184 Google Scholar, 196.

26 Inprecorr, VI, No. 83, 1432; Tivel, and Kheimo, , op. cit., pp. 327–28 Google Scholar. During the years 1926 to 1928, Smeral, Neurath, Haken and Jílek interchanged on ECCI organs.

27 Reimann, , op. cit.,pp. 214 ffGoogle Scholar.

28 Protokoll, Sechster Weltkongress der Kommunistischen Internationale (July 17- September 1, 1928) (4 vol., Hamburg, 1929), passim. Reports of the proceedings are also given in Inprecorr, VIII, No. 48 et seq. A full text of Gottwald's report in K. Gottwald, Spisy, I, 101–35.

29 Protokoll, Sechster Weltkongress, IV, 37.

30 Ibid., IV, p. 209. See also Tivel, and Kheimo, , op. cit., pp. 145–46 Google Scholar; 340–41.

31 Full text given in O Rakousku a české otázce, pp. 374–82 Google Scholar. It has recently been published in many places, including Nová mysl, V, No. 5–6 (May-June, 1951), pp. 511–17. For English text, see Inprecorr, VIII, No. 69, 1260–63.

32 See central committee decision in September, in Gottwald, Spisy, I, 142–59; partial text in Inprecorr, VIII, No. 73, 1333–36; No. 75, 1381–82.

33 Reimann, Dějiny,Chapter 27.Google Scholar

34 Za bolševickou orientaci KSC (Prague, 1953), pp. 137–38.

35 The proceedings of the fifth congress were not available. The discussions are summarized by Reimann, Dějiny, Chapter 28, and by Kopecký, op. cit., pp. 76–79. The texts of some of the congress documents, including Gottwald's speeches, are included in Gottwald, Spisy, I, and in Inprecorr, IX, No. 15, 304–05; No. 16, 327–30.

36 These sections of the speech, summarized in contemporary reports in International Press Correspondence, are omitted from texts recently published.

37 Text summarized in Reimann, Dějiny, pp. 250–54 Google Scholar. A full text published in Za bolševickou orientaci KSC, pp. 142 ff., differs somewhat from this contemporary version.

38 Text in Za bolševickou orientaci KSC, pp. 244–47 Google Scholar. For the revolt, see Reimann, , Dějiny, pp. 255–59 Google Scholar; Inprecorr, IX, No. 20, 434–35; Gottwald, Spisy, I, 230–34; Bradáč, Z., “How the CPC Settled Accounts with the Treacherous Group of Jilek and Co.,” Tvorba, July 19 and 26, 1951 Google Scholar.

39 Inprecorr, IX, No. 28, 618Google Scholar; Protokoll des 10. plenums des Executivkomitees der Kommunistischen Internationale (Hamburg, 1929), pp. 934–35 Google Scholar.

40 For the following, see Kopecký, , op. cit., pp. 80–89 Google Scholar; Protokoll des ordentlichen Parteitages der KPTsch, March 7 to 11, 1931 (Prague, n.d.), pp. 33–36; 70–71, 285, 292–93;Google Scholar Borkenau, F., The Communist International (London, 1938), pp. 366–68 Google Scholar.

41 Reimann, , Dějiny, pp. 266–71 Google Scholar. Both Reimann and Fried admitted their error at the sixth congress of the CPC in 1931. See Protokoll cited above, pp. 76–77, 79–80.

42 A revised text of Gusev's speech is given in Bol'shevik, No. 23–24 (December 31, 1929), pp. 119–31, under the title K pol'ozheniju v Cheko-slovackoj kompartii.