As we have seen, the Marxist-Leninists in the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist International had no interest in saving a Communist International dominated by revisionists, but worked to create a new international, based on Marxist-Leninist principles and free of all revisionist trends.     In October 1947 it was announced that the Communist Parties of nine European countries -- Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy. Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia -- had set up, at a secret conference held in September at Szklarska Poreba in Polish Silesia during September, an 'Information Bureau of the Communist Parties' (Cominform), with its headquarters in Belgrade. Its purpose was to:     and,     It should be noted the Communist Party of Albania was not invited to join the Cominform. The reasons for this omission will be discussed later.

    The Cominform, it was stated, would consist of two members from each participating Party and would issue a publication, the title of which was later stated to be 'For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy'.

    The principal initiative in forming the new organisation was taken by Stalin:

    The anti-revisionist programme of the new organisation required a new leadership. The Italian revisionist Eugenio Reale*, one of the two Italian delegates to the founding conference, notes:     At the founding conference of the Cominform, on the spot leadership was effected by Andrey Zhdanov* and Georgi Malenkov*, of the Soviet Union:     with Zhdanov taking the leading role:     but behind the scenes the real leadership was carried out by Stalin:     The main report at the conference, delivered by Zhdanov, laid down the line of the Marxist-Leninists for the next five years:     The manifesto agreed upon at the founding conference analysed the postwar international situation as one in which two mutually antagonistic camps had come into being, namely:     The manifesto described the Marshall* Plan as and condemned the role of right-wing social-democracy in striving to conceal the true character of imperialism:     A main political content of the first conference of the Cominform was a strong criticism of the revisionism of the French and Italian Communist Parties.     For this reason, the French and Italian Commnunist Parties had received only a few days notice of the meeting:     but Parties which were to play an accusatory role were given longer notice, arrived earlier and had discussions on the plan of campaign: The criticism of the French and Italian Communist Parties was opened by Zhdanov:     However, for reasons which will be discussed later, the representatives of the Yugoslav Communist Party -- Milovan Djilas* and Edvard Karelj* -- were allotted a prime accusatory role in relation to the French and Italian Communist Parties:     The representatives of the French and Italian Communist Parties accepted the criticisms unreservedly:     In his final speech to the conference, representative of the French Communist Party Jacques Duclos admitted:     The question arises: why was it arranged that the representatives of the Yugoslav Communist Party -- shortly itself to charged with revisionism -should be allotted the leading role in the criticism of the revisionism of the French and Italian Communist Parties? For one reason, it involved the Communist Party of Yugoslavia setting the precedent for intra-party criticism within the Cominform, so making it more difficult for that party to object to criticism of itself:     Thus, when the Yugoslav Communist Party, in the following year, refused the invitation to a meeting of the Cominform to participate in a critical discussion of its own policies, the Cominform could strengthen its case by pointing out that the party had made no bones about criticising other Parties:     Undoubtedly, the anticipated dispute with the Yugoslav Communist Party, was responsible for the failure to invite the Communist Party of Albania to join the Cominform since, at the time the organisation was established, this Party was dominated by Titoite revisionists. The 8th Plenum of the CC of the CPA, which was held in February 1948,     Thus:     The second conference of the Cominform was held in Yugoslavia in January 1948. Only one item was on the agenda, namely,     For the Cominform journal 'For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy', a new editorial board was appointed, headed by:     who represented     On 18 March 1948 the Yugoslav government was notified:     from Yugoslavia, on the grounds:     On the following day, 19 March 1948, the Yugoslav government was informed of a decision to the effect that the Soviet government:     These actions on the part of the Soviet government were followed -between March and June 1948 -- by a mutually critical correspoondence between the leaderships of the two Parties.

    On 4 May 1948 the Central Committee of the CPSU proposed:

    Tito* and Kardelj rejected the proposal on 17 May 1948:     The CC of the CPSU replied on 22 May 1948, pointing out that:     The Second Conference of the Cominform was thus held in June 1948 in the absence of any representative from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Here the leading role in the criticism of the CPY was taken by the representatives of the French and Italian Communist Parties which had been so strongly criticised at the first conference of the Cominform:     On June 28 1948, the Cominform announced that the Communist Party of Yugoslavia had been expelled from the organisation.

    The Cominform statement asserted that the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia had gravely deviated from Marxist-Leninist principles.

    Firstly, it had followed a policy of hostility to the socialist Soviet Union:

    Secondly, it had based itself not on the working class but on the peasantry and was neglecting the struggle for socialism in the countryside:     thirdly ', the leaders of the Party, which should have been the leading force in society, had dissolved it into the multi-class People's Front, which was the leading force in society:     fourthly, the Yugoslav Communist Party does not operate on the basis of democratic centralism and had rejected fraternal criticism from the Cominform:     The resolution concluded with the announcement of the expulsion of the Yugoslav Communist Party from the Cominform:     The 4th Conference of the Cominform was held in Hungary in November 1949, and adopted three resolutions.

    The first resolution, entitled 'The Defence of Peace and the Fight against the Warmongers', was introduced by Mikhail Suslov* (Soviet Union). It confirmed the basic analysis of whe world situation made at the 1st Conference in 1947, but stated that since that time the danger of war had increased:

    But, declared the resolution,     Therefore,     so that     The second resolution, entitled 'Class Unity and the Tasks of the Communist and Workers' Parties', moved by Palmiro Togliatti (Italy), declared that:     This programme necessarily involves:     and     This     A third resolution, entitled 'The Communist Party of Yugoslavia in the Power of Assassins and Spies', was introduced by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej* (Romania). It characterised the leaders of the Yugoslav Communist Party as:     who had     In consequence:      After Stalin's death in 1953, the Cominform ceased to be active in the struggle against revisionism:     Indeed, between 1953 and 1956 the Cominform journal some articles favourable to Tito regime:     In April 1956, an announcement in 'Pravda' stated that:     The statement gave as the reasons for the dissolution basically the same reasons given by the revisionists for the dissolution of the Comintern, namely:     In fact, the dissolution was a gesture of appeasement towards the Tito revisionists:     The news of the dissolution:
BROZ, Josip ('TITO'), Yugoslav revisionist politician (1892-1980); in Balkan secretariat of CI (1935-37); secretary-general, YCP/LCY (1937-66); marshal (1943); Premier (1945-53); President (1953-80); chairman, LCY (1966-80).

BUKHARIN, Nicolay I., Soviet revisionist politician (1888-1938); deputy chairman, ECCI (1919-26); member, ECCI political secretariat (1926-29); editor-in-chief, 'Izvestia' (1933-37); found guilty of treason and executed (1938).

DIMITROV, Georgi M., Bulgarian revisionist politician (1882-1949); director, West European Bureau CI (1929-33); arrested in connection with Reichstag Fire (1933); to Soviet Union (1934); secretary-general, CI (1935-43); to Bulgaria (1945); secretary-general, BCP (1945-49); Premier (1946-49),

DJILAS, Milovan, Yugoslav revisionist politician (1911- ); Vice-President (1953-45); expelled from Party (1954); imprisoned (1956-61, 1962-66).

GHEORHIU-DF.J, Gheorghe, Romanian revisionist politician (1901-65); General/First Secretary, Roman Workers' Party (1945-65); Minister of Communications (1944-46); Minister of Economy (1946-52); Premier (195261); President (1961-65).

KARDELJ, Edvard, Yugoslav revisionist politician (1910-79); to Soviet Union (1934); to Yugoslavia (1937); Vice-President (1945-53); Minister of Foreign Affairs (1948-53); President, Federal Assembly (1963-67); secretary, CC, LCY (1958-66); President, CC, LCY (1966-69).

LONGO, Luigi, Italian revisionist politician (1900-80); ICP representative on CI (1933-36); to Spain (1936); inspector-general, International Brigades (1936-39); to France (1939); in Italian concentration camp (1942-43); deputy secretary-general, ICP (1945-64); secretary-general, ICP (195472); president, ICP (1972-80).

MALENKOV, Georgi, Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1901-88); member, Defence Council (1941-45); USSR Deputy Premier (1946-53); secretary, CPSU (1953); USSR Premier (1953-55); USSR Minister of Power Stations (195768); expelled from CPSU by revisionists (1961).

MANUILSKY, Dmitry Z., Soviet revisionist politician (1883-1959); member, political secretariat, ECCI (1926-43); Ukrainian Deputy Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1944-50).

MARSHALL, George C., American military officer and politician (1880-1959); chief-of-staff with rank of general (1939-45); President's special representative in China (1945-47); Secretary of State (1947-49); Secretary of Defence (1950-51).

MOLOTOV, Vyacheslav M., Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1890-1986); member, ECCI political secretariat (1928-30); USSR Premier (1930-41); USSR Deputy Premier and Commissar/Minister for Foreign Affairs (1939-49); USSR Minister of State Control (1956-57); Ambassador to Mongolian People's Republic (1957-60); USSR Representative on International Atomic Energy Committee (1960-62); expelled from CPSU by revisionists (1962); readmitted (1984).

REALE, Eugenio, Italian surgeon, diplomat and revisionist politician (1905); Ambassador to Poland (1945-47); expelled from IPC (1956).

SUSLOV, Mikhail A., Soviet revisionist politician (1902-82); secretary, CC, CPSU (1947-92); member, politburo, CC, CPSU (1955-82); editor-in-chief, 'Pravda' (1940-50).

'TITO' -- see: BROZ, Josip.

THOREZ, Maurice, French revisionist politician (1900-64); secretary-general, FCP (1930-64); Minister of State (1945-46); Deputy Premier (1945-46).

TOGLIATTI, Palmiro, Italian revisionist politician (1893-1964); secretary-general, ICP (1927-64); member, CI secretariat (1935); Minister without Portfolio (1944); Vice-Premier (1945).

YUDIN, Pavel F., Soviet Marxist-Leninist philosopher and politician (1899- ); director, Institute of Red Professors (1932-38); director, Institute of Philosophy, USSR Academy of Sciences (1938-44); director, RSFSR Association of State Publishing Houses (1937-47); editor-in-chief,
'Sovetskaia Kniga'; Deputy High Commissioner in Germany (1953); Ambassador to People's Republic of China (1953-59).

ZHDANOV, Andrey A., Soviet Marxist-Leninist politician (1896-1948); secretary, Leningrad, CPSU (1934-44); secretary, CPSU (1944-48); murdered by revisionists (1948).


Avakumovich, Ivan: 'The Dissolution of the Cominform', in: 'Contemporary Review', Volume 190; No. 1,087 (July 1956).
Claudin, Fermando: 'The Communist Movement: From Comintern to Cominform';
Harmondsworth; 1975.
Deutscher, Isaac: 'Stalin: A Political Biography'; Harmondsworth; 1968.
Jaffe, Philip J. 'The Rise and Fall of Earl Browder', in: 'Survey', Volume 18, No. 12 (Spring 1972).
Reale, Eugenio: 'The Founding of the Cominform', in: Milorad M. Drachkovitch & Branko Lazitch (Eds): 'The Comintern: Historical Highlights: Essays, Recollections, Documents'; Stanford (USA); 1966.
Ulam, Adam B.: 'Stalin: The Man and his Era'; London; 1989.
___'Correspondence between the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)'; Belgrade; 1948.
'The Evolution of the Cominform', in: 'The World Today', Volume 6, No. 5 (May 1950).
'History of the Party of Labour of Albania'; Tirana; 1982.
'Meeting of the Information Bureau of Communist Parties in Hungary in the Latter Half of November 1949'; Prague; 1950.
'The Soviet-Yugoslav Dispute: Text of the Political Correspondence'; London; 1948.
'Keesing's Contemporary Archives'


ALSO SEE:
Cominterns, History of Three Cominterns Alliance 19
Comintern and Take-over of by Revisionism  Stalin & Comintern
Comintern, Dissolution of & Revisionist Take-Over of 
& also see Stalin Society
Comintern     Betrayal of the Popular Front
Comintern Second Congress; Alliance 5
Comintern Sixth Congress: & the colonial revolution Alliance 5
Communist Information Bureau:  Cominform Documents & Commentary by NS
Dimitrov Page         Dimitrov Page


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