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Communism and the East: The Baku Congress, 1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Stephen White
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The First Congress of the Peoples of the East was held in. the city of Baku from September 1 to 8, 1920. It has tended, on the whole, to attract attention rather more because of the colorful Oriental pageantry which surrounded it than because of the importance of its debates and resolutions. The first account to become available in the West, for instance, was that of H. G. Wells, who had been in Russia when the Congress was taking place. He reported that Zinoviev and his associates had "held a congress at Baku, at which they gathered together a quite wonderful accumulation of white, black, brown, and yellow people, Asiatic costumes and astonishing weapons.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , September 1974 , pp. 492 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1974

References

The research upon which this article is based has been greatly facilitated by the Carnegie Trust of the Universities of Scotland and the British Council, which made possible visits to the Hoover Institution, California, and to Moscow.

1. Wells, H. G., Russia in the Shadows (London, 1920), pp. 79, 82 (New York, 1921), pp. 96-97, 99.Google Scholar

2. The Congress is discussed in Sorkin, G. Z., Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka (Moscow, 1961)Google Scholar; A. B., Arutiunian and G. Z., Sorkin, “Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka,” Sovetskoe Vostokovedenie, 1957, no. 5, pp. 114–20Google Scholar; Arutiunian-Arents, A. B., “V. I. Lenin i Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka.” Istoriia SSSR, 1960, no. 2, pp. 246–54Google Scholar; Rudolf, Schlesinger, Die Kolonialfrage in der Kommunistischen Internationale (Frankfurt, 1970)Google Scholar; Carrère d’Encausse, Hélène and Schram, Stuart R., Le marxisme ct l'Asic, 1853-1964 (Paris, 1965; expanded English trans., London, 1969)Google Scholar; and Lazitch, Branko and Drachkovitch, Milorad M., Lenin and the Comintern, vol. 1 (Stanford, 1972)Google Scholar. Useful bibliographies are Egorov, D. N., ed., Biblio.grafiia Vostoka, vol. 1 : Istoriia (Moscow, 1928)Google Scholar, and Pischel, Enrica Collotti and Robertazzi, Chiara, L'Internationale Communiste et les problèmes coloniaux (Paris and The Hague, 1968)Google Scholar.

3. Kommunistkheskii Internatsional, no. 1 (May 1, 1919), cols. 38, 42, 44. There was a time, he noted later, when the Bolsheviks had considered that “only a few days or even hours remained before the inevitable revolutionary upsurge.” See Piat' let Kominterna, Mar. 1, 1924, in G. E. Zinov'ev, Sochineniia, 16 vols. (Leningrad, 1923-29), 15 : 281.

4. Lenin, V. I., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 5th ed., 55 vols. (Moscow, 1958-65), 37 : 511, 520, and 39 : 89.Google Scholar

5. Kommunisticheskii Intcrnatsional, Vtoroi s˝esd : Stenograficheskii otchet, rev. ed. (Moscow, 1934), p. 11.

6. RKP(b), Trinadtsatyi s˝ezd : Stenografichcskii otchet (Moscow, 1924), p. 42.

7. Lenin, PSS, 41 : 77-79.

8. Ibid., 42 : 59, 40 : 204.

9. The expression is used by Carr, E. H., following Canning, in The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923, 3 vols. (London and New York, 1950-53), 3 : 271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Lenin, PSS, 27 : 51, 39 : 329.

11. Bukharin, N. I., Ekonomika perekhodnogo perioda (Moscow, 1920), p. 155.Google Scholar

12. RKP(b), VIII s˝ezd : Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1919), p. 123; VII Vserossiiskii s˝ezd sovetov : Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1920), p. 116; Zinov'ev, G. E., Nabolevshye voprosy mezhdunarodnogo rabochego dvizheniia (Moscow, 1920), p. 125.Google Scholar

13. Lenin, PSS, 42 : 71-72, 44 : 282.

14. Zhizn' natsional'nostei. May 26, 1919.

15. Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Moscow, cited by Sorkin, Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 19; Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka : Stenograficheskie otchety (Petrograd, 1920), p. 139.

16. Kommunisticheskii Iniernatsional, June-July 1920, p. 2316.

17. Kommunisticheskii Iniernatsional, Vtoroi s˝ezd : Stenograficheskii otchet, p. 28.

18. Ibid., pp. 101, 27; Lenin, PSS, 41 : 247.

19. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, Vtoroi s˝ezd : Stenograficheskii otchet, pp. 155, 498. The discussion at the Congress on the national and colonial question is considered further in Korolev, N. E., “Razrabotka Leninym politiki Kominterna po natsional'nomu i kolonial'nomu voprosam,” in Shirinia, K. E., ed., Vtoroi kongress Kominterna (Moscow, 1972), pp. 152–93.Google Scholar

20. Sorkin, , Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 15 Google Scholar; Mikoian, A. I., Dorogoi bor'by (Moscow, 1971), p. 581 Google Scholar; Alfred, Rosmer, Moscou sous Lénine, 2 vols. (Paris, 1970), 1 : 144.Google Scholar

21. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, no. 12 (1920), cols. 2259-64 (a date of September 1 is given in col. 2262).

22. Sorkin, Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 16; Stasova, E. D., Stranitsy zhizni i bor'by (Moscow, 1957), p. 107.Google Scholar

23. Sorkin, Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, pp. 16, 17; Kommunist (Baku), Sept. 5, 1920.

24. The proceedings of the Congress were reported in Kommunist (Baku) from September 5 onward. The discussion which follows is based on the text in Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka : Stenograficheskie otchety; page references to this source are contained in the text. A Conference of the Youth of Asia opened nine days later. See Kommunist (Baku), Sept. 12, 1920.

25. According to the stenographic protocol (p. 5), 1, 891 delegates were present, representing some twenty-nine nationalities. This figure appears also in Izvestiia, Sept. 21, 1920, in Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, no. 14 (1920), col. 2941, in Narody Vostoka, no. 1 (1920), p. 57, and in Tivel, A. Iu. and Kheimo, M., Desiat' let Kominterna v resheniiakh i tsifrakh (Moscow and Petrograd, 1929), p. Petrograd Google Scholar. A figure of 1, 902 delegates, however, is given in Narody Vostoka, no. 1 (1920), p. 4; and Kommunist (Baku), Sept. 12, 1920, reports “about 2, 000” delegates (p. 1). Sorkin, from an examination of the list of delegates and of delegates’ mandates, concludes that “not fewer than 2, 050” delegates were present (Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 21). But not all of them appear to have attended the first session.

26. Narody Vostoka, no. 1 (1920), pp. 57-61.

27. Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920, in Foreign Office file 371/5178/E13412, Oct. 30, 1920, Public Record Office, London (hereafter FO).

28. Narody Vostoka, no. 1 (1920), pp. 9-10 (and in Zhizn’ natsional'nostei, Oct. 27, 1920).

29. Kommunist (Baku), Sept. 12, 1920, p. 1.

30. Ibid., Aug. 30, 1920, p. 1.

31. Sorkin, Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 21; Pravda, Sept. 16, 1920.

32. Near East, 18, no. 483 (Aug. 5, 1920) : 199; Cabinet minutes, May 21, 1920, Cab. 30(20)3, Cab. 23/21, Public Record Office, London (hereafter Cab.).

33. “Negotiations with M. Krassin,” May 27, 1920, C. P. 1350, Cab. 24/106.

34. Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, vol. 3 (Moscow, 1959), pp. 242-44 (original in FO 371/5434/N4512, Dec. 20, 1920).

35. Ibid., pp. 317-20 (original in FO 371/5431/N118).

36. The letter is printed in Anglo-sovetskie otnosheniia, 1921-1927 : Noty i dokumenty (Moscow, 1927), pp. 8-11 (it is not included in Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR) ; FO 371/68S4/N4823, Apr. 20, 1920.

37. Vestnik NKID, no. 8 (Oct. 15, 1920), p. 116.

38. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, Vtoroi kongress, p. 114.

39. Trotsky Papers, vol. 2 (The Hague, 1971), no. 556, p. 509.

40. Ezhegodnik Kominterna (Petrograd and Moscow, 1923), pp. 278-79.

41. Political Report (Copenhagen, June 8, 1920), FO 371/4036/205118, June 22, 1920.

42. Pavlovich, M. N., Sovetskaia Rossiia i kapitalistichcskaia Angliia, 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1925), p. 37 Google Scholar (emphasis in original).

43. Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR (Moscow, 1960), 4 : 165-68; Kommunist, 1956, no. 18, p. 111.

44. Secret Report, no. 233, June 2, 1921, FO 371/6844/N6733, June 10, 1921.

45. Sorkin, Pervyi s“esd narodov Vostoka, p. 43; Stasova, Stranitsy shisni i bor'by, p. 110; Arutiunian-Arents, “V. I. Lenin i Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka,” p. 252. The statement that “there is no record that the Council of Action and Propaganda ever met“ evidently requires correction. See Jane, Degras, ed., The Communist International, vol. 1 (London, 1956), p. 106.Google Scholar

46. Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, no. 15 (1920), col. 3367; Soviet archival source, cited in Arutiunian-Arents, “V. I. Lenin i Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka,” p. 252.

47. Ibid., p. 253; Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, no. 15 (1920), col. 3367.

48. Soviet archival source, cited in Arutiunian-Arents, “V. I. Lenin i Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka,” p. 253.

49. Secret Intelligence Service report no. 409, Oct. 24, 1921, FO 371/6856/N11963, Oct. 27, 1921.

50. Ibid., FO 371/8193/N6024, June 21, 1922. The Council was reported by Colonel Stokes, the British representative in Tiflis, originally to have been allocated some 10, 000 gold rubles, 150, 000 rubles “in Nicolai money,” £500 in sterling, and six large diamonds (Report no. 95/2, received Feb. 7, 1921, FO 371/6277/E1688, Feb/7, 1921). The reduction in the Council’s budget may have been influenced by the reported discovery by Moscow that previous allocations of cash had been squandered (ibid.). References to the splendid style of the Council’s existence, however, may have been exaggerated. Stasova recalled that although they had lived in the palace of a former khan, conditions there had been “extremely arduous.” Moreover, she added decorously, “there were no conveniences, even the most basic” (Stranitsy zhisni i bor'by, p. 111).

51. Carrère d’Encausse and Schram, Marxisme et I’Asie, p. 41; similarly Roy, M. N., Memoirs (Bombay, 1964), pp. 468, 482.Google Scholar

52. Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920 (cited in note 27); Stokes (Tiflis), Report no. 33/121, Oct. 25, 1920, FO 371/5435/N3390, Nov. 29, 1920.

53. Mikoian, Dorogoi bor'by, p. 582; Zhizn' natsional'nostei, Aug. 3, 1920; Roy, Memoirs, p. 395; Stokes, Report no. 33/121 (cited in note 52).

54. Petrogradskaia pravda, Sept. 18, 1920, quoted in FO 371/5435/N244, Oct. 12, 1920; Shaukat, Usmani, From Peshawar to Moscoiv (Benares, 1927), p. 100.Google Scholar

55. Sorkin, Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 21; Stasova, Stranitsy zhizni i bor'by, p. 110. Zinoviev subsequently reported to the Comintern that the nonparty faction had in fact been “much more numerous than the Communist faction.” See Kommunisticheskii Internatsional, no. 14 (1920), cols. 2941-44.

56. Stasova, Stranitsy zhizni i bor'by, pp. 109-10; Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920 (cited in note 27).

57. Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920.

58. Petrogradskaia pravda, Sept. 18, 1920 (cited in note 54).

59. British High Commissioner (Constantinople), Nov. 5, 1920, FO 371/5439/N2539, Nov. 16, 1920; Rosmer, Moscou sous Lénine, 1 : 147.

60. The elimination of such excesses was the main theme of a resolution adopted by the Politburo of the RKP(b) following a joint meeting with twenty-seven delegates from the Baku Congress in Moscow on October 13, 1920. Lenin’s draft is in Leninskii sbornik, vol. 36 (Moscow, 1959), pp. 133-34.

61. Zinov'ev, G. E., Mirovaia revoliutsiia i Kommunisticheskii Internatsional (Petrograd, 1920), pp. 45, 47, 48.Google Scholar

62. Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920 (cited in note 27).

63. Zhizn' natsional'nostei, July 30, 1921.

64. Kommunisticheskii Intertiatsional, Tretyi vsemirnyi kongress : Stenograficheskii otchet (Petrograd, 1922), p. 464.

65. FO 371/8193/N6024, June 21, 1922.

66. Ezhegodnik Kominterna, pp. 54-55; Tretyi vsemirnyi kongress, pp. 468-69.

67. Economist, Jan. 22, 1921, p. 119; Novyi Vostok, 1923, no. 4, p. 218.

68. Ivanova, M. N., Natsional'no-osvoboditel'noe dvishcnic v Irane v 1918-1922 gg. (Moscow, 1961), p. 85 Google Scholar; idem, “Natsional'no-osvoboditel'noe dvizhenie v Gilianskoi provintsii Irana v 1921-22 gg.,” Sovctskoe Vostokovedenie, 1955, no. 3, pp. 46-55. See also Kheifets, A. N., Sovetskaia Rossiia i sopredel'nye strany Vostoka v gody grazhdanskoi voiny, 1918-20 (Moscow, 1964).Google Scholar

69. Roy, Memoirs, p. 395; NKID, , Godovoi otchet k VIII s˝ezdu sovetov za 1919-20 gg. (Moscow, 1921), p. 72.Google Scholar

70. Pavlovich, M. N., Ekonomicheskoe razvitie i agranyi vopros v Persii XX veka (Moscow, 1921), p. 30 Google Scholar; NKID, Godovoi otchet, p. 73; Izvestiia, Nov. 6, 1921.

71. Zhizn' natsional'nostei, Mar. 17, 1921 (quoted at length, but without any reference to Russian intervention, in Ivanova, Natsional'no-osvoboditel'noe dvizhenie, pp. 101 ff.).

72. Safarov, G., Problemy Vostoka (Petrograd, 1922), pp. 171, 176Google Scholar; Sepehr, Zabih, The Communist Movement in Iran (Berkeley, 1966), p. 52 Google Scholar; Tretyi vsemirnyi kongress, p. 468.

73. 73. Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920 (cited in note 27).

74. Sorkin, Pervyi s˝ezd narodov Vostoka, p. 44.

75. Protokoll des III Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale (Hamburg, 1921), p. 211; Rosmer, Moscon sous Lénine, 1 : 147; Secret Political Report, Oct. 25, 1920 (cited in note 27).

76. Komniunisticheskii Internatsional, no. 17 (June 1921), col. 4031.