Communism vs. Fascism

• How did the communists explain the rise of fascism?
• What is the 'third period'?
• What was the rationale behind denouncing the social democrats as social fascists in 1928 and attempting to create a Popular Front in 1935?

Source

'Theses of the Tenth ECCI Plenum on the international situation and the tasks of the Communist International', 1 July 1929, (extracts), in: The Communist International: Documents, ed. by Jane Degras, vol. 3: 1919-1943 (1964), pp. 39-52.

Essential Reading

Suny, Ronald G., The Soviet Experiment (New York, Oxford, 1998), pp. 291-308. You can borrow an electronic version of the book here. You will need to register with archive.org but it is worth it. Please borrow the book only for one hour at a time.

Kozlov, Nicholas N. and Eric D. Weitz, ‘Reflections on the Origins of the ‘Third Period’: Bukharin, the Comintern, and the Political Economy of Weimar Germany’, Journal of Contemporary History, 24 (1989), pp. 387-410. JSTOR

Haslam, Jonathan, ‘The Comintern and the Origins of the Popular Front 1934-1935’, The Historical Journal, 22 (1979), pp. 673-691. JSTOR

Additional Reading

Thorpe, Andrew, ‘Comintern ‘Control’ of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-43’, The English Historical Review, 113 (1998), pp. 637-662. JSTOR

McDermott, K., ‘Stalinist Terror in the Comintern: New Perspectives’, Journal of Contemporary History, 30 (1995), pp. 111-130. JSTOR

Haslam, Jonathan, ‘The Soviet Union, the Comintern and the Demise of the Popular Front 1936-1939’, in H. Graham and P. Preston (eds), The Popular Front in Europe (London, 1987), pp. 152-160.

McDermott, K. and J. Agnew (eds), The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin (London, 1996).

Borkenau, Franz, World Communism: A History of the Communist International (Ann Arbor, 1962).

Carr, E.H., The Twilight of Comintern, 1930-1935 (London, 1982).

Haslam, Jonathan, Soviet Foreign Policy, 1930/1933: The Impact of Depression (London and New York, 1983)

Haslam, Jonathan, The Soviet Union and the Search for Collective Security, 1933-1939 (London and New York, 1984).

Spriano, Paolo, Stalin and the European Communists (London, 1985).

Gruber, Helmut (ed.), Soviet Russia Masters the Comintern: International Communism in the Era of Stalin’s Ascdendancy (New York, 1974).

McKenzie, Kermit E., Comintern and World Revolution, 1928-1943: The Shaping of Doctrine (London, New York, 1963).

Narinsky, Mikhail and Jürgen Rojahn, Centre and Periphery: The History of the Comintern in the Light of New Documents (Amsterdam, 1996).