ON THE COMINFORM

3 Relationship between the Comintern and the Cominform

What is the difference between the Comintern and the Cominform ?

The Comintern was the highest form of world proletarian class organisation founded by Lenin.

The Comintern was the highest form of organisation of the working class of the world socialist camp liberated from Hitler's fascism, founded by Stalin.

Formally, in contrast to the Comintern, the Cominform was only an "information and advisory body without superior decision-making authority", non-binding on the Communist Parties. In fact, the decisions and resolutions of the Cominform gave direction and were decisive for common action, not only for the world socialist camp, but also for the entire world communist movement.

Without Stalin, without the leadership of the Soviet Union, there would have been no Cominform. We say: the foundation of the Cominform was urgently necessary and has a firm place in the history of the communist world movement.

However, we have to ask ourselves the critical question: Was there a theory of the Cominform on which its foundation was based and from which its practice was guided? In answering this question, we find:

The theory of the Cominform, the scientific determination of its role in the history of the world communist movement, was not elaborated at its foundation. A theory of the Comintern in which the Comintern is of no relevance is built on sand, is a bourgeois and not a socialist theory. The Comintern (SH) considers the conclusions drawn by the Cominform from the Comintern to be wrong, a betrayal of Lenin's and Stalin's Comintern. For the Comintern (SH), the theory of the Cominform can be nothing other than the necessary further development of the theory of the Comintern. The role of the Cominform as a mediator of the exchange of information of the Communist Parties within the socialist world camp with the involvement of two Communist Parties from the imperialist world camp could only contribute as a very first beginning to the solution of its task. However, before it even came to the development of an independent theory of the Cominform, which defines the Cominform as the highest class organisation of the socialist world camp with its corresponding Bolshevik principles of organisation, the Cominform was already in the hands of the modern revisionists and was dissolved by them when it was no longer of any use to them. A theory of the Cominform which is not developed on the firm foundation of Lenin's and Stalin's Comintern, which ignores or even denies the role of the Comintern in building the world socialist camp, can only be a revisionist theory. This is for us one of the most important lessons of the history of the Comintern.

Instead of a preceding elaboration of a theory of the Cominform oriented towards the revolutionary goal of world socialism, actually only the old Dimitroffian tactics of the popular front were taken over and pragmatically imposed on the Cominform. The Cominform was not concerned with the goal of world socialist revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the world proletariat, as it had been anchored in the programme of Lenin and Stalin's Comintern. The Comintern went no further than cementing the status quo of peaceful coexistence between the socialist and imperialist world camps with the main slogan of democratic and peaceful struggle. Lenin's slogan of October Revolution is not to be found in the Cominform. The Cominform opposed the violent socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The world revolution was the defence of Lenin's slogan also in the Comintern programme. Therefore, the Comintern programme is still the basis for our general line and for our programme on world communism today. We defend the Comintern programme just as we defend the Communist Manifesto. As far as the world socialist camp is concerned, what was already correctly written about the Soviet Union in the Comintern programme could only have been extended to the world socialist camp and thus brought up to date. But the continuation of the Comintern was rejected and rejected from the outset by the Cominform. To this day, we search in vain for a Marxist-Leninist-based refutation of the correctness or validity of the Comintern's programme. As far as we know, there has never been an officially published decision to justify, let alone declare, the invalidity of the Comintern programme. Decisions have been taken on the dissolution of the Comintern, but not on the invalidity of the Comintern programme. We say: A truly socialist world camp follows the world revolutionary banner of the Comintern programme, orients itself and others to it, is guided by the Comintern programme, defends it against modern revisionism. But the Cominform and the world socialist camp did not want to know anything more about the Comintern programme, and therefore their fate was predetermined, namely to become victims of the modern revisionists. In our opinion, the revisionist development could have been prevented if the Cominform and the world socialist camp had been built strictly according to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. Thus, all that remains for us today is to draw lessons for the future so that such a history of the Cominform is not repeated.