Comintern [acronym for Communist International], name given to the Third International, founded at Moscow in 1919. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin feared a resurgence of the Second, or Socialist, International under non-Communist leadership. The Comintern was established to claim Communist leadership of the world socialist movement. The delegates to the first congress were mainly Russians, with some members of left-wing socialist splinter groups who happened to be in the Soviet Union and one German (who abstained on the crucial vote of establishing the organization). Gregory Zinoviev was the first president of the Comintern. The second congress laid down (1920) the "Twenty-one Conditions" for membership, firmly establishing a differentiation between the socialist parties and the Communist parties. The Comintern gained strength during the 1920s, but its efforts to foment revolution, notably in Germany, were unsuccessful. In 1935, the Comintern abandoned the membership policies established under the "Twenty-one Conditions" and began to form coalitions, or popular fronts, with bourgeois parties. In 1936, Germany and Japan concluded the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact, ostensibly to protect the world from the Third International. The pact was renewed in 1941 with 11 other countries as signatories. In order to allay the misgivings of its allies in World War II, the Soviet Union dissolved the Comintern in 1943.

Anti-Comintern Pact: see Comintern and Axis.

or Communist International or Third International

Association of national communist parties founded in 1919. Vladimir Ilich Lenin called the first congress of the Comintern to undermine efforts to revive the Second International. To join, parties were required to model their structure in conformity with the Soviet pattern and to expel moderate socialists and pacifists. Though the Comintern's stated purpose was the promotion of world revolution, it functioned chiefly as an organ of Soviet control over the international communist movement. In 1943, during World War II, Joseph Stalin dissolved the Comintern to allay fears of communist subversion among his allies.

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Agreement concluded first between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and later between Italy, Germany, and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937). The pact, sought by Adolf Hitler, was ostensibly directed against the Comintern but was specifically directed against the Soviet Union. It was one of a series of agreements leading to the formation of the Axis Powers. Japan renounced the pact in 1939 but later acceded to the Tripartite Pact of 1940, which pledged Germany, Japan, and Italy to mutual assistance.

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