Podcasts about Communist International

This week David and Madeline finish our two part episode about the Italian syndicalists!PATREON:https://www.patreon.com/pickmeupimscared/SOURCES:⁠Anderson, Considerations on Western Marxism⁠ ⁠Clark, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution That Failed⁠⁠Gramsci, The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935⁠⁠Emmerson, “Gabriele D'Annunzio's Fiume Escapade.”⁠⁠Bertrand, “The Biennio Rosso: Anarchists and Revolutionary Syndicalists in Italy, 1919-1920.”⁠⁠Lenin, “Terms of Admission into Communist International.”⁠⁠Trudell, “Gramsci: The Turin Years.”⁠ ⁠Trotsky, “Speech in Discussion of the Italian Question.”⁠

This week, David and Madeline talk about Italy, Biennio Rossa, and what age is too young to not know how to put your phone on silent!PATREON:https://www.patreon.com/c/pickmeupimscared/SOURCES:Anderson, Considerations on Western Marxism Clark, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution That FailedGramsci, The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935Emmerson, “Gabriele D'Annunzio's Fiume Escapade.”Bertrand, “The Biennio Rosso: Anarchists and Revolutionary Syndicalists in Italy, 1919-1920.”Lenin, “Terms of Admission into Communist International.”Trudell, “Gramsci: The Turin Years.” Trotsky, “Speech in Discussion of the Italian Question.”

Last time we spoke about the finale of the Northern Expedition, the reunification of China. In May the NRA advanced from the Yellow River bridgehead despite losing access to the Tianjin-Pukou railway, forcing a 60-mile march. General Chen Tiaoyuan captured Tehzhou on the 13th, as the NRA cleared northern Shandong. They then converged on Beijing, with Feng Yuxiang's 2nd Collective Army and Yan Xishan's 3rd Collective Army advancing from different directions. Yan Xishan fought the NPA, recapturing territories and capturing Nankou, which led to speculation he would enter Beijing first. Despite NPA counterattacks, the NRA forces continued their advance. By late May, the NRA's combined efforts and internal NPA issues led to a general retreat of the NPA forces. On June 6, Yan Xishan's troops entered Beijing. The NPA's Zhang Zuolin was assassinated by Japanese officers, leading to a power shift to his son Zhang Xueliang, who later aligned with Chiang Kai-Shek. By December 1928, China was unified under the KMT.   #118 The Chinese Civil War Draws First Blood Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So I said a few times during the northern expedition that I wanted to push aside the emerging Chinese civil war. Although we loosely covered a lot of the major events, this episode is going to try and narrow and focus it down. Now please note, up until this point I have to admit I had been using sources that were either skewed towards the Chinese nationalist views or were trying to be non biased. For some of these episodes I intentionally am using some CCP aligned sources, I will try my best to balance things out. Also a large part of this is going to be a retelling of the Shanghai Massacre, but more from the point of view of the CCP. All the way back in 1926, Chiang Kai-Shek had managed to seize power over the Kuomintang. He exerted control over the party and army as he unleashed the Northern Expedition. By November 9th Chiang Kai-Shek set up a new headquarters in Nanchang. Chiang Kai-Shek was determined to purge the party of communists and began to do so here. He began by recruiting a large number of right-wing Kuomintang members such as Dai Jitao and Wu Tiecheng. Dai Jitao was a member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee and had served as the Minister of the KMT's propaganda department. After the death of Sun Yat-Sen, Dai Jitao had actively promoted an anti-communist movement, drawing support from warlords, right wingers and those the CCP would describe as “imperialists”. In May of 1925 with the support of Chiang Kai-Shek, Dai Jitao began an anti-communist campaign in Shanghai. He ran two successful pamphlets loosely translated in English as "The Philosophical Foundation of Sun Yat-senism" and "National Revolution and the Chinese Kuomintang”. Both worked to promote the teachings of Confucius and Mencius while distorting Sun Yat-sen's thoughts. Dai Jitao was arguing that Sun Yat-Sen's ideology chiefly came from Confucianism instead of western philosophy and that in fact the man was a traditionalist. He twisted Sun Yat-Sen's three principles, castrating them of revolutionary content. All of this quickly became a "banner" for the Kuomintang right-winger to carry out anti-communist activities. After Chiang Kai-Shek arrived in Nanchang, he immediately invited him to go north to jointly plan the purge of the party and anti-communism. Wu Tiecheng joined Dai Jitao, he was the director of the Guangzhou Public security Bureau and a well known KMT right-winger. Prior to the Zhongshan ship incident, Wu Tiecheng stated he had suggested to Chiang Kai-Shek that they impose sanctions on the CCP. In his words “with the registration materials of the special household registration of our Public Security Bureau, we can immediately arrest a dozen of the main Communist Party members, and then use a ship to transport them to a small island near Zhongshan County , or send them to Shanghai. As for the minor members, they will be temporarily detained." Chiang Kai-Shek said "I will think about it first." After the Zhongshan incident, Chiang Kai-Shek pretended to dismiss him from his post, but specially invited him later to Nanchang and dispatched him to Japan as a liaison. Another large figure who was invited over was Huang Fu, who had served as the Minister of Foreign affairs and Education for the Beiyang Government and as its Prime Minister. When Chiang Kai-Shek came to Nanchang he wrote to Huang Fu twice inviting him to come south. On December 31st, Zhang Jingjiang and Chen Guofu were also invited to Nanchang. Zhang Jingjiang was a member of the KMT's Central Supervisory Committee. After the secondary Plenary session of the second central committee, he became chairman of it. He used his authority and colluded with Chen Guofu, the Minister of Organization to dissolve the Guangzhou Municipal Party committee, which at the time was being led by left winger KMT. They did this by placing confidants in various positions to steal power. Simultaneously, they suppressed worker and peasant movements in Guangdong, even dispatching gangsters to kill their leaders and burn down the provincial and Hong Kong strike committee HQ. All of these people gathered at Nanchang formed a anti-communist cabal backing Chiang Kai-Shek. In January of 1927 these men went up Mount Lushan to a famous hotel called Xianyan where they plotted. After several days of meetings, as my source argues, mostly based on the advice of Huang Fu, these following decisions were obtained. Number 1, they would enact a policy of separating from the USSR and purging the party of CCP. Number 2, the NRA must settle the southeast by forming an alliance with the gentry and merchant class there. Number 3 in their diplomatic efforts they had to abandon the USSR and ally themselves to Japan. Number 4, to increase their military power they had to unite with Feng Yuxiangs Guominjun and Yan Xishan.   Upon returning to Nanchang, Chiang Kai-Shek took action, first by attacking Borodin. He sent a telegram to Xu Qian, the chairman of the Wuhan joint conference, stating Borodin had insulted him in public at Wuhan and demanded he be removed from his advisory position. He also recomended expell Borodin back to the USSR. The source I am reading states Chiang Kai-Shek had two rationales for going after Borodin. "Chiang Kai-Shek felt that except for Borodin, the Kuomintang leaders in Wuhan were all politically incompetent. ... As long as Borodin was there, he could not gain a dominant position. Secondly, he was using Borodin like a scape goat to hide his real anti-Soviet purpose'. At this time Chiang Kai-Shek was being labeled a USSR stooge by the NPA and a Japanese stooge by the CCP. In response, Chiang Kai-Shek stated publicly "Our alliance with Russia was left by the Prime Minister. Although its representatives have been arrogant for a long time and oppressed our party leaders in many ways, I believe that this has nothing to do with the Soviet Union's spirit of treating us equally. No matter what their personal attitudes are, we will never change our relationship with the Soviet Union towards Japan. Why should we unite with the Soviet Union? It is because the Soviet Union can treat China equally. Since the Soviet Union has not given up treating us equally, how can we give up the policy of alliance with Russia. ... Not only Japan, but any country, if it can treat China equally, then we will treat them the same way as we treat the Soviet Union. It is not impossible to unite with them. We unite with the Soviet Union to seek freedom and equality for China. It is completely based on the meaning of treating our nation equally, so we must unite with the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union does not treat us equally and oppresses us in the same way, we will also oppose them in the same way. I have said for a long time." In regards to the CCP Chiang Kai-Shek stated to his close confidants “When I was in Guangzhou, I was always paying attention to the actions of the CCP. I wanted to implement my proposal to overthrow the CCP in Guangzhou, however I did not do so. I was unable to do so because it could mean the end of the Kuomintang”. After the success of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-Shek lamented to his confidants “although our army has won a great victory, I still worry the enemy is not at our front but at our rear. The CCP is causing much trouble within, we must make sure it does not split out party or even collapse our army. There are thorns everywhere”. Publically Chiang Kai-Shek stated "Now there is a rumor that I distrust and alienate my Communist comrades and have a tendency to oppose them. In fact, it cannot be said that I will not oppose the Communist Party. I has always supported the Communist Party... But that is to say, if the Communist Party becomes strong in the future and its members are arrogant and tyrannical, I will definitely correct them and punish them. ... Now many Communist Party members are actually oppressing the Kuomintang members, showing an overbearing attitude, and tend to exclude Kuomintang members, making Kuomintang members embarrassed. In this way, I can no longer treat Communist Party members with the same preferential treatment as before. If I still have the same attitude as before, then I am not in the position of a Kuomintang member, and I cannot be a Kuomintang member. Although I am not a Communist Party member, from a revolutionary perspective, I have to take some responsibility for the success or failure of the Communist Party! I am the leader of the Chinese revolution, not just the leader of the Kuomintang. The Communist Party is a part of the Chinese revolutionary forces. Therefore, if Communist Party members do something wrong or act tyrannically, I have the responsibility and power to intervene and punish them." As you can see, publicly Chiang Kai-Shek was always walking on eggshells when attacking the CCP. If you know the old boiling frog analogy, it's more or less like Chiang Kai-Shek gradually getting the public to attack the CCP. At the ceremony where Li Liejun was appointed chairman of Jiangxi, Chiang Kai-shek once again gave a speech, saying that communism was only a method of economic development, which might be applicable in some countries, but if China adopted communism, it would be a great harm and would only lead to the overthrow and revolution of China. In late January, Chiang Kai-Shek met with Momuro Keijiro, a representative sent by Japan's minister of Finance and Navy at Lushan. Chiang Kai-Shek explained to Keijiro that he understood the importance of the political and economic relationship between Manchuria and Japan. He understood the Japanese had spilt a lot of blood there during the Russo-Japanese War. He believed Manchuria required special consideration and hoped the Japanese would correctly evaluate the KMT's struggle to reunify China. Chiang Kai-Shek then met with the Japanese consul General in Jiujiang, Edo Sentaro, explaining he did not only intend to abolish the unequal treaties but would try to respect the existing conditions as much as possible, such as guaranteeing the recognition of foreign loans and repayments and respecting foreign owned enterprises.  After these meetings Chiang Kai-Shek met with representatives of the Imperial Japanese Military such as Nagami Masuki and Matsumuro Takayoshi. It was Dai Jitao who set up these meetings. Chiang Kai-Shek began the talks by making it clear the KMT would not work with the CCP and was willing to work with Japan to prevent the spread of Communism in China. Chiang Kai-Shek also met with the Japanese politician Yamamoto Jotario who would go on to say in Beijing that he believed the Generalissimo was an outstanding military leader. Needless to say, as my source would put it “Chiang Kai-Shek was closely colluding with Japanese imperialism”. He was also establishing contacts with the US. He dispatched Wang Zhengting to Shanghai to meet the American consul general there. Wang Zhengting told him the KMT had washed their hands of the communists and that there would be nor more incidents such as the one that befell Hankou. The American consul general in Guangzhou was likewise contacted through the finance minister of Guangdong, Kong Xiangxi. What the American consuls told their government was “if the powers want to drive the Soviets out of China, they should establish direct contact with Chiang Kai-Shek”. Chiang Kai-Shek also publicly expressed regret to numerous nations for incidents such as the one in Nanjing. He was gaining a reputation as being the only leader in China capable of restoring order amongst the chaos. Many of these foreign diplomats privately told Chiang Kai-Shek that if he wanted to really brush shoulders with them he had to purge the communists and soon. To truly purge the communists Chiang Kai-Shek reaches a deal with the bourgeoisie of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They will support him economically if he helps suppress the worker movements in Shanghai. They fund Chiang Kai-Shek some 500,000 Yuan in early March, then on the 29th the Shanghai Commercial Federation pledges 5 million Yuan, with another 3 million on April 1st. Around this time Chiang Kai-Shek secretly send Wang Boling, the deputy commander of the 1st army; Yang Hu, chief of the special affairs department of the general HQ and Chen Qun the director of the political department of the eastern route army to Shanghai in disguise to meet Huang Jinrong. Huang Jinrong was a chief detective working in the French concession of Shanghai. He also happened to be one of the top three gangsters working under Du Yuesheng of the Green Gang. Huang Jinrong summoned Du Yuesheng and the other Green Gang leader Zhang Xiaolin, as they all discussed how to purge the communists. The Green Gang leaders seized the opportunity to help the KMT. They began monitoring the CCP, armed their gang members and began to attack anyone who was picketing. They formed the “China Progress Association”, which in reality was just Green Gang members. This association proceeded to attack the Shanghai General Labor Union, providing the perfect pretext for Chiang Kai-Shek to act.  On April 1st Wang Jingwei returns to Shanghai from aboard. By the 3rd Chiang Kai-Shek telegrams that Wang Jingwei is reinstated and holds secret talks with him. On the 8th Chiang Kai-Shek organizes a Shanghai Provisional Political Committee, stipulating it will decide all military, political and financial decisions and will replace the Shanghai special municipality provincial government that was established after the third Shanghai worker uprising. On the 9th he unleashes martial law prohibiting assemblies, strikes and marches, and established the Songhu Martial Law Command, with Bai Chongxi and Zhou Fengqi as the commander and deputy commander. Chiang Kai-Shek then takes his leave for Nanjing, leaving the job to Bai Chongxi who will supervise a coup in Shanghai. In a vain attempt Chen Duxiu tells the CCP to ease up on the Anti-Chiang Kai-Shek stuff. Then its announced to them that Chen Duxiu had managed to form a deal with Wang Jingwei. Chiang Kai-Shek send word from Nanjing to carry out the purge, in a very “execute order 66 fashion”.  April the 12th takes a wild turn in Shanghai. In the early morning a signal is raised over a warship anchored near the Gaochang temple. Hundreds of well armed Green Gang, Triads and some secret agents wearing blue shorts and white cloth  armbands with a black gongs on them, dispersed from the French concession in several cars. From 1 to 5am they attacked the picketing workers in Zhabei, Nanshi, Huxi, Wusong, Hongkou and other districts. The workers resisted immediately causing fierce street battles to break out. The 26th Army of the NRA, an old Sun Chuanfang unit that recently defected, came to forcibly confiscate guns while stating they were “mediating an internal strife amongst the workers”. Over 2700 armed workers in Shanghai were disarmed. More than 120 were killed with another 180 injured. The Shanghai General Labor Union club and all their associated pickets in the districts were occupied. Within the foreign concessions, foreign military and police forces arrested more than 1000 CCP members and workers who were immediately handed over to Chiang Kai-Shek's men. On the morning of the 13th, the workers from Shanghai's tobacco, silk factories, trams, municipal administration, postal services, sailors and various other industries went on strike. Over 200,000 workers took to the streets and the Shanghai General Labor Union held a mass rally in Qingyun Road Square in Zhabei with over 100,000 participants. They held a quick conference calling for resolutions. The first resolution was to hand over their weapons. Secondly those who destroyed their unions should be severely punished. Third the families of those killed needed to be compensated. Fourth protests should be made against the imperialists within the concessions. Fifth a telegram needed to be sent to the central government, then whole nation and world to demand assistance. Lastly the military authorities should be responsible for protecting the Shanghai trade unions. After the conference, the masses marched upon the headquarters of the 2nd division of the 26th army along Baoshan road to petition for the release of their comrades and for their weapons to be returned to them. They marched for a kilometer and upon reaching the Sandeli area of Baoshan road, soldiers of the 2nd division rushed out and opened fire upon them killing more than 100 on the spot. It was said Baoshan road was flooded with blood. That afternoon Chiang Kai-Sheks forces occupied the Shanghai General Labor Union and General Command of the Shanghai workers. They closed down and disbanded numerous revolutionary organizations and carried out searches and murders. Within 3 days after the Shanghai incident, more than 300 Shanghai CCP members were killed, another 500 were arrested and 5000 went “missing”. Like I said in the previous podcast on this very subject, I will leave it to you as to what missing meant. On the 15th of april the Kuomintang in Guangzhou launched their own coup. On that day more than 2000 CCP members and their supporters were arrested, 200 trade unions were closed. This all would b followed by similar activities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Guangxi where CCP members were purged. The NPA in the north would likewise crack down on communists. Li Dazhao had been placed on the Beiyang governments list of most wanted back in 1926 following the March 18th massacre. Since then he was hiding in the Soviet Embassy in Beijing, continuing to lead political maneuvers against the warlords. When the first united front collapsed as a result of Chiang Kai-Sheks purges, Zhang Zuolin ordered troops to raid the Soviet embassy. Li Dazhao, his wife and daughter were all arrested. Among 19 other communists, Li Dazhao was executed on April 28th of 1927 by strangulation. One of the behemoths who ushered in the New Culture Movement and was a founder of the CCP had become one of its greatest martyrs. The first united front was no more and in response to this the CCP declared "Chiang Kai-shek has become an open enemy of the national revolution, a tool of imperialism, and the culprit of the white terror of massacring workers, peasants and revolutionary masses”. This was followed by a call to mobilize, unite and form a solid front to fight the warlords and KMT. In May of 1927 the Communist International issued “the May Emergency Directive” to the CCP. (1) Without land revolution, victory is impossible; without land revolution, the Kuomintang Central Committee will become a pitiful plaything in the hands of unreliable generals. Excessive behavior must be opposed, but not by the army, but through the peasant associations. (2) It is necessary to make concessions to artisans, merchants and small landowners, and to unite with these strata. Only the land of large and medium-sized landowners should be confiscated; the land of officers and soldiers should not be touched. (3) Some old leaders of the KMT Central Committee will waver and compromise. We should recruit more new leaders of workers and peasants from below to join the KMT Central Committee and renew the KMT's upper echelons. (4) Mobilize 20,000 Communist Party members and 50,000 revolutionary workers and peasants in Hunan and Hubei to form several new armies and build our own reliable army. (5) A revolutionary military tribunal headed by prominent Kuomintang and non-Communists should be established to punish those officers who persecute workers and peasants.  Wang Jingwei obtained this document from Luo Yi, the representative of the Communist International. The high-ranking officials of the Kuomintang believed that this was the Communist International's armed seizure of power and they were determined to purge the party. Thus began the Wuhan-Nanjing war. However as we saw, Wang Jingwei would perform his own purge of the communists on May 21st as he found out the Soviets were pushing the CCP to seize control over his regime. In order to resist the KMT's massacres, or as the CCP put it “the white terror”, the CCP Central Committee reorganized itself on July 12th of 1927. Chen Duxiu and other early CCP leaders who had insisted on compromising with the KMT were dismissed from their posts and labeled right-wing capitulationists. The CCP formed an alliance with left wing KMT members forming a quasi second front where they planned an armed uprising in Nanchang hoping it would spark a large peasant uprising. They were led by He Long and Zhou Enlai. He Long a ethnic Tujia and Hunanese native was born to a poor peasant family. He received no formal education and worked as a cowherder during his youth. When he was 20 he killed a local Qing tax assessor who had killed his uncle for defaulting on his taxes. From this point he fled and became an outlaw, apparently his signature weapon was a butcher knife. In 1918 he raised a volunteer revolutionary army aligned with an emerging Hunanese warlord. By 1920 he joined the NRA and began brushing shoulders with CCP members. During the northern expedition he commanded the 1st division, 9th corps and served under Zhang Fakui. By late 1926 he joined the CCP. When the first united front collapsed he joined up with the CCP and took command of the 20th corps, 1st column of the Red Army. Zhou Enlai was born in Huai'an of Jiangsu in 1898. He was born to a scholarly family, many of them officials, but like many during the late 19th century in China suffered tremendously. Zhou Enlai was adopted by his fathers youngest brother Zhou Yigan who was also ill with tuberculosis. The adoption was more of a way to cover Zhou Yigans lack of an heir. Zhou Yigan died soon after and Zhou Enlai was raised by his widow Chen. He received a traditional literacy education. Zhou Enlai's biological mother died when he was 9 and Chen when he was 10. He then fell into the care of his uncle Zho Yigeng in Fengtian. Zhou Enlai continued his education at Nankai Middle School who were adopting an educational model used at the Philipps academy in the US. Zhou Enlai excelled at debate, acting, drama the sort of skill sets needed for public service. Like many students of his day he went to Japan in 1917 for further studies. He tried to learn Japanese to enter Japanese schools but failed to do so. He also faced a lot of racism in Japan, prompting him to become quite anti japanese. While in Japan he became very interested in news about the Russian Revolution. This led him to read works from Chen Duxiu.  In 1919 he returned to Tianjin where it is said he led student protests during the May Fourth movement, though a lot of modern scholars don't believe he did. Zhou Enlai then became a university student at Nankai and an activist. He led the Awakening Society and would find himself arrested. During this time he became familiar with Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. Then in 1920 he went to study in Marseille. In 1921 he joined a Chinese Communist Cell while in Paris. By 1922 he helped found a European branch of the CCP. When the first United Front began he joined the KMT and in 1924 was summoned back to China. He joined the Political department of the Whampoa military academy. He was made Whampoa's chief political officer, but he also took the post as secretary of the CCP of Guangdong, Guangxi and served as a Major-General. Soon he became the secretary of the CCP's Guangdong Provincial committee. In 1925 he got his first taste of military command against Chen Jiongming, accompanying the Whampoa cadets as a political officer. When Chen Jiongming regrouped and attacked Guangzhou again that year, Chiang Kai-Shek personally appointed Zhou Enlai as director of the 1st corps political department. Soon after he was appointed a KMT party representative as chief commissar of the 1st corps. With the newfound position he began appointing communists as commissars in 4 out of the 5 corps divisions. However his work at Whampoa came to an end during the Zhongshan Warship incident as Chiang Kai-Shek began purging communists from high ranking positions. Whampoa was a significant part of his career providing him with skills and a network. Until the first united fronts collapse he worked to form numerous armed CPP groups. He was sent to Shanghai where he was part of the effort to stage an uprising there. During the massacre he was arrested and nearly killed if not for the work of Zhao Shu, a representative of the 26th army who released him. From there he fled to Hankou where he participated in the CCP's 5th national congress. When Wang Jingwei unleashed his purge, Zhou Enlai went into hiding. When the CCP called for an uprising in Nanchang, Zhou Enlai as a CCP secretary was in a unique position to lead it. The CCP designated Zhou Enlai, Li Lisan, Yun Daiying and Peng Pai to form a Front Committee. The troops available to them were the 24th and 10th divisions of the 11th army of the 2nd front army, the entire 20th army, 73rd and 75th regiment of the 25th division of the 4th army and part of the officer training corps of the 3rd army of the 5th front army led by Zhu De. He Long was the commander in chief of the 2nd front army, Ye Ting was his deputy and acting front line commander. Zhou Enlai was the chief of staff with Liu Bocheng as director of the political directorate. At this time, the main force of the 3rd Army of the 5th Front Army of the Kuomintang Wuhan Government was located in Zhangshu, Ji'an; the main force of the 9th Army was located in Jinxian and Linchuan; and the main force of the 6th Army was advancing to Nanchang via Pingxiang; the rest of the 2md Front Army was located in Jiujiang; only the 5th Front Army Guard Regiment and parts of the 3rd, 6th, and 9th Armies, totaling more than 3,000 people, were stationed in Nanchang and its suburbs. The CCP Front Committee decided to launch an uprising on August 1 before the arrival of reinforcements. At 2:00am on August 1st the Nanchang uprising began. The 1st and 2nd division of the 20th army launched attacks against the defenders of the Old Fantai Yamen, Dashiyuan street and the  Niuxing railway station. Meanwhile the 24th division of the 11th army attacked the Songbaixiang catholic church, Xinyingfang and Baihuazhou. The bloody battle lasted until dawn inflicting 3000 casualties and capturing more than 5000 small arms of various types, 700,000 rounds of ammunition and a few cannons. During the afternoon the 73rd regiment of the 25th division station at Mahuiling, 3 battalions of the 75th regiment and a machine gun company of the 74th regiment led by Nie Rongzhen and Zhou Shidi revolted and came to Nanchang by the 2nd of august.  For the moment it seemed the CCP had achieved a grand success at Nanchang. The CCP then began proclaiming Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang Jingwei had betrayed the revolution and that of Sun Yat-Sens three principles by choosing to side with the imperialists and warlords. Meanwhile the CCP aligned military units began to gather in Nanchang requiring a reorganization. It was decided the uprising army would continue to use the designation of 2nd front army of the NRA with He Long serving as its commander in chief and Ye Ting as his deputy. Ye Ting would also command the 11th army consisting of the 24th, 25th and 10th divisions, Nie Rongzhen would be his CCP party representative; He Long would command the 20th Army consisting of the 1st and 2nd divisions with Liao Qianwu as his CCP party representative. Zhou Enlai with Zhu De as his deputy would lead the 9th army with Zhu Kejing as his CCP party representative. Altogether they were 20,000 strong and now very well armed. There was to be a great celebration, it seemed this was the grand moment the CCP would take the center stage. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Chinese Civil War had officially just begun. Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang Jingwei purged their respective regimes of communists unleashing a white terror. In a scramble to survive the CCP reorganized itself and sought revenge with their first target being Nanchang. From here until 1949, the CCP and KMT would fight for the future of China.  

The Zinoviev Affair is a story of one of the most long-lasting and enduring conspiracy theories in modern British politics, an intrigue that still resonates nearly one-hundred years after it was written. Almost certainly a forgery, the so-called Zinoviev Letter, had no original and has never been traced. Notwithstanding, the Letter still haunts British politics. It was the subject of major Whitehall investigations in the 1960s and 1990s, and it even cropped up in the British media as recently as during the Referendum campaign of 2016 and the 2017 general election. The Letter, addressed to the leadership of the British Communist Party, encouraging the British proletariat to greater revolutionary fervor, was apparently sent by Grigori Zinoviev, head of the Communist International in September 1924. Sent to London through British Secret Intelligence Service channels, the Letter's publication by the Daily Mail on October 25th 1924 just before the General Election humiliated the first ever British Labour government, headed by Ramsay MacDonald, when its political opponents used it to create a “Red Scare” in the media. Labour blamed (erroneously) the Letter for its defeat, insisting there had been an establishment conspiracy, and many in the Labour Party have never forgotten it. The Zinoviev Letter has long been a symbol of political dirty tricks and what we would now call “fake news”. Now, former Chief Historian at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Dr. Gill Bennett, who headed up an official inquiry into the Zinoviev Affair in the late 1990s, takes another look at this matter in a fascinating book, The Zinoviev Letter: The Conspiracy that Never Dies (Oxford University Press, 2018). Employing research skills honed by forty-years work at the Foreign Office, Dr. Bennett entrances the reader with this still fascinating detective story of spies and secrets, fraud and forgery, international subversion and the nascent global conflict between communism and capitalism. Charles Coutinho holds a doctorate in history from New York University. Where he studied with Tony Judt, Stewart Stehlin and McGeorge Bundy. His Ph. D. dissertation was on Anglo-American relations in the run-up to the Suez Crisis of 1956. His area of specialization is 19th and 20th-century European, American diplomatic and political history. It you have a recent title to suggest for a podcast, please send an e-mail to Charlescoutinho@aol.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The events of the Russian revolution were the greatest in all human history. For the first time, the exploited masses fought back and won. The revolution birthed the most progressive state the world had ever seen, with the Communist International — led by Lenin and Trotsky — becoming a beacon of internationalism, inspiring workers and poor everywhere. And yet, within 10 years, the Soviet Union had degenerated into a bureaucratic and totalitarian regime. The Communist International went from a harbinger of world revolution to a tool for the narrow, national interests of the Soviet bureaucracy, with Stalin at its head. In this session, Rob Sewell will discuss the main processes that led to the degeneration of the Russian revolution, answering the question: What is Stalinism?

The Revolutionary Communist Party has landed! Onwards to the Revolutionary Communist International! Capitalism has spread to every corner of the planet, it has become a deeply interconnected global system, and therefore can only be overthrown on an international scale. This requires a revolutionary leadership that is not confined to this or that nation, but that is equally international in scope. Join us in building the forces of communism all over the globe, and building it into a mass force. This week we're joined by Fred Weston, from the International Secretariat of the IMT, to discuss the founding of the RCI in June.

Last time we spoke about the rise of the Spirit Soldier movement. As a result of the hardship brought upon the common people of China during China's Warlord Era a new group known as the Spirit Soldiers rose up. Motivated by grievances against warlord abuses and foreign influences, the Spirit Soldier emerged as a grassroots movement seeking to overthrow the oppressive regime. They believed in summoning divine beings or becoming possessed by them to aid their cause, reminiscent of the Yihetuan. Despite lacking centralized organization and firearms, they managed to seize control of several counties in regions like Hubei and Sichuan. However, they simply were no match for Warlord armies who were better trained, better organized and certainly better armed. While in small groups the Spirit armies managed just fine, but when they assembled 100,000 strong, they were ultimately crushed. Despite this the last Spirit rebellion would occur in 1959.   #101 The Mongolian Revolution of 1921   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Oh yes we are not done with Mongolia. As a quick refresher, a few episodes back we talked about what is known as the Occupation of Mongolia. Quite a few things were going on all at once in the late 1910's. The Russian Empire collapsed and now was stuck in a civil war with the Reds vs the Whites. The Republic of China likewise collapsed into the Warlord Era. Mongolia stuck between these two former empires, attempted to gain independence, but swiftly fell into conflict with radicals from both. As a result of the Russian white General Grigori Semyonov trying to force a new pan Mongolia state, Duan Qirui exploited the situation to forcibly invade Mongolia. Duan Qirui had been taking a lot of heat for pushing China to declare war on Germany and getting caught taking secret loans from the Empire of Japan. Everyone in China was calling for Duan to reduce or eliminate his Anhui Army, but the situation in Mongolia gave him the perfect excuse to use it, thus in his mind legitimizing its existence. Duan Qirui dispatched General Xu Shuzheng with the “northwest frontier army” to protect Mongolia from a supposed Red army invasion. In the face of overwhelming military forces, the Mongolians submitted to Xu and were absolutely humiliated and subjugated. And thus Mongolia lived happily ever after. No, not at all. Between 1919-1920 a few Mongolian nobles came together to form two groups, the first was called “Konsulyn denj / the Consular Hill” the second “Zuun khuree / the East Urga” groups. The first group was the brainchild of Dogsomyn Bodoo, a prominent Mongolian politician. Bodoo had worked as a Mongolian language teacher at a Russian-Mongolian school for translators. He spoke Mongolian, Tibetan, Mandarin and Manchu. Because of his work he came into contact with Bolshevism through Russian acquaintances. After the occupation of Mongolia by Duan Qirui's forces, he formed the secret Consular Hill group as a means of resistance. Doboo's Consular Hill soon saw Khorloogiin Choibalsan join. Choibalsan also worked at the Russian Mongolian translator school and shared a Yurt with Doboo. Doboo was a mentor to Choibalsan whom worked primarily as a Russian interpreter at the Russian consulate. Because of the nature of his work, Choibalsan spent a lot of time with the Soviets. Not to give too much away, but later on Choibalsan would become known as “the Stalin of Mongolia”. A Russo-Mongolian printing officer typesetter named Mikhail Kucherenko, a Bolshevik in Urga, visited Bodoo and Choibalsan, talking to them about things related to Mongolian independence and actively resisted the Chinese. The East Urga group were founded by Soliin Danzan an official of the Ministry of Finance and Dansranbilegiin Dogsom , an official in the Ministry of the Army. Danzan had once been a horse thief, but managed to climb the ladder towards being a customs officer or the ministry of finance. Dogs had worked as a scribe for district and provincial assemblies before taking a job at the ministry of finance and Army later on. Another founding member was Damdin Sukhbaatar who grew up around Russians and spoke Russian. He joined the New Mongolia Army in 1911 after the independence movement and rose through the ranks seeing deployment on Mongolia's eastern border. After his death he would be referred to as “the Lenin of Mongolia”. The beginning of the East Urga group saw radicals within the lower house of the Mongolian parliament, such as Danzan and Dogsom met secretly trying to figure a way of getting rid of Xu Shuzheng and the Chinese dominance over their nation. The groups formed a plot to seize the mongolian army's arsenal and assassinate Xu Shuzheng, but the arsenal was too well guarded and Xu departed the region before they could pull it off. Within Urga were many Russian refugees, Red and White alike. They established a Municipal Duma, and some of the Bolshevik minded ones learned of the secret Consular Hill and East Urga groups. In March of 1920, the Duma was sending one of their members, Sorokovikov to Irkutsk, but before he did so, they thought it a good idea for him to learn about these secret groups and what they were up to. Sorokovikov met with representatives of both groups before traveling to Irkutsk. When he returned to Urga in June of that year, he met with the representatives again with promises the USSR would provide any assistance needed to the Mongolian workers. He then extended them invitations to send their groups representatives to Russia to discuss matters further.  As you can imagine, both these groups got pretty excited. Until this point the two groups did not brush shoulders much, they were in fact quite different. The Consular Hill group were progressive socialists while the East Urga group were more nationalistic. While they seemed to be at odds, the Soviet invitation had brought them together and in doing so they decided to merge on June 25th to form the Mongolian People's Party. It was then agreed Danzan and Choibalsan would act as the delegates that would go to Russia. Both men arrived in Verkhneudinsk, the new capital of the Pro-Soviet Far Eastern Republic. They met with Boris Shumyatsky, the acting head of the government. Shumyatsky kind of gave them the cold shoulder as they hounded his government for military assistance to fight off the Chinese. Shumyatsky advised them they should go back home, and get members of their party over in Urga to send a coded message with the stamped seal of the Bogd Khan to formally request such a thing. They did just that and now 5 delegates returned to Verkhneudinsk with it, but Shumyatsky told them he had no real authority to make such a decision and that they needed to go to Irkutsk. So yeah it was one of those cases where a guy you thought was a head honcho, was really not haha. The Mongolian delegates then went to Irkutsk in August where they met with the head of what would soon become the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International aka the Comintern. They explained they required military assistance, soon handing over a list of requests. They wanted military instructors, over 10,000 rifles, some artillery pieces, machine guns and of course funding they could use to recruit soldiers. The head told them….to drag a letter and this time to make sure the name of the party was included in it, not in the name of the Bogd Khan. They were also to list their objectives and requests. Now as funny as this all sounds, not to dox myself, but when I got my first big boy job as they say, I had to learn how to write formal letters to the government, funding requests, partnership things, etc etc, and I can feel for these guys in that sense. They all seemed to have little experience in such matters and yes, some officials were clearing just messing with them, sending them left and right, but some guys were trying to show them how to work an existing process, random rant sorry. Once they finished this new letter they were told it might be considered by the Siberian REvolutionary Committee in Omsk, the buck keeps passing. At this point the mongolians divided themselves into three groups: Delegates Danzan, Losol and Dendev went to Omsk to deliver the new letter; Bodoo and Dogsom went back to Urga to grow the party and begin recruiting a army; and Sukhbaater and Choibalsan went to Irkutsk to serve as liaisons there. Before they all departed, the drafted a new revolutionary message. It dictated the Mongolian nobility would be divested of their hereditary powers. The new system of government would be democratic with a limited monarch run by the Bogd Khaan. Several more meeting with the soviets at Omsk occurred only for the Mongolians to be sold yet again they had to go somewhere else, this time it was Moscow. Thus Danzan led a team of delegates to go to Moscow in September. For a month they discussed matters, but something huge was cooking up in the meantime. Here comes a man named Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. He was born in Graz Austria in January of 1886 to a noble family, descending from present day Estonia. Ungern-Sternberg's first language was German, but he also spoke English, French, Russian and Estonian. Within his family tree he had Hungarian roots and he would claim to be a descendant of Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Why is it, all of these “great men figures” always have to come up with a “I am descended from x” haha. He moved to Reval, the capital of Estonia. It's said as a child he was a ferocious bully and a psychopath who would torture animals. Apparently at the age of 12 he strangled his cousins owl, now thats messed up. Now Ungern-Sternberg was very proud of his ancient aristocratic background…though whether any of it was real who knows. He wrote extensively things like “for centuries my family never took orders from the working classes and it was outrageous that dirty workers who've never had any servants of their own, but still think they can command! They should have absolutely no say in the ruling of the vast Russian Empire". He was proud of his Germanic origin, but also identified with the Russian empire…and with Ghenghis khan, so yeah. When asked about his family's military history in the Russian empire he would proud boast “72 family members were killed in the wartime!”. He believed many of the fallen monarchies of Europe could be restored with the help of the cavalry peoples of the Steppe, such as the Mongols.  Ungern-Sternberg of course was attracted to military service and during the Russo-Japanese War he joined the fighting. Its unsure whether he made it to Manchuria to see actual fighting, but he was awarded a Russo-Japanese War Medal in 1913. During the first Russian Revolution of 1905, Estonian peasants ravaged the country trying to murder nobles. Ungern-Sternberg recalled "the peasants that worked on my family's land were rough, untutored, wild and constantly angry, hating everybody and everything without understanding why". After the failed revolution he continued his military career and picked up an interest in Buddhism. Later in life while in Mongolia he would become a Buddhist, but never really relinquished his Lutheran faith. While in Mongolia Ungern-Sternberg became obsessed with the idea that he was the in-incarnation of Genghis Khan. When he graduated from a military academy he demanded a station amongst the Cossacks in Asia. He was appointed an officer in Eastern Siberia where he served under the 1st Argunsky and later the 1st Amursky Cossack regiments. From there he fell in love with the lifestyle of the nomadic Mongol peoples. He was a hell of a drunk and loved to pick fights. There were theories he had been hit so many times to the head during fights, it was believed he had brain damage and was insane as a result. In 1913 he asked to be transferred to the reserves, because he wanted time and space to achieve a new goal, he sought to assist the Mongols in their struggle for independence from China. Russian officials heard rumors he sought to do this and they actively thwarted him as best as they could. He went to the town of Khovd in western Mongolia where he served as an unofficial officer in a Gossack guard detachment for the Russian consulate.  When WW1 broke out, Ungern-Sternberg joined the 34th regiment of Cossack troops stationed in the Galicia frontier. He would take part in the first Russian offensive against Prussia and earned a reputation as an extremely brave but also very reckless and mentally unstable officer. Men who came to know him said he looked happiest atop a horse leading a charge, showing no signs of fear with a wicked smile on his face. He received multiple citations such as the st george of the 4th grade; st vladimir of the 4th grade, st anna of the 3rd and 4th grades and st Stanislas of the 3rd grade. These decorations however were offset by the amount of disciplinary actions issued against him and he would eventually be discharged from one of his commands for attacking another officer in a drunken brawl. He went to prison and was court martialed.  After he got out of prison in January of 1917, he transferred over to the Caucasian theater to fight the Ottomans. Then the Russian revolution began, ending the Russian empire and of course ending the Romanov monarchy, quite the bitter blow to the monarchist Ungern-Sternberg. While still in the Caucasus, Ungern-Sternberg ran into a Cossack Captain, an old friend we met a few podcasts ago, Captain Grigory Semyonov. Working with Semyonov the two organized a volunteer Assyrian Christian unit in modern day Iran. The Assyrian genocide had led to thousands of Assyrians fleeing over to the Russians. Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg Assyrian force was able to win some small victories over Turkish forces, but in the grand scheme of the theater it did not amount to much. The experience of forging such a group however led them to think about doing the same thing with Buryat troops in Siberia.  At the outbreak of the Russian civil war, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg declared themselves Romanov loyalists, joing the White Movement. They both vowed the defeat the Red Army and late into 1917, they as part of a combined group of 5 Cossacks managed to disarm 1500 Red soldiers at a Far Eastern Railway station in China near the Russian border. They took up a position there, preparing for a military expedition into the Transbaikal region, recruiting men into a Special Manchrian regiment. The White army managed to defeat the Red Army along the Far Eastern Railway territory. Semyonov eventually appointed Ungern-Sternberg to be the commander of a force at Dauria, a railway station at the strategic point southeast of Lake Baikal. Despite being part of the white movement, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg were quite rebellious. Semyonov for example refused to recognize the authority of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, the prominent white leader in Siberia. Semyonov fancied acting on his own and received support from the Japanese. Ungern-Sternberg, a subornidate to Semyonov also acted independently. Ungern-Sternberg also had his own reasons not to comply fully with Kolchak. Kolchak had promised after a White victory, he would reconvene the Consitutional Assembly, disband the Bolsheviks completely and then decide the future for Russia, that being whether it adopts the monarchy back or goes a different path. Ungern-Sternberg believed god had chosen Russia to be run by a monarchy and that its restoration came first.  Ungern-Sternberg performed successful military campains in Dauria and Hailar, earning the rank of Major-General, promtping Semyonov to enturst him with forming his own military unit to fight the communists. Both men gradually recruited Buryats and Mongols for the task, but they also were growing wary of another. Ungern-Sternberg was unhappy with Semyonov who he deemed to be corrupt, he also took issue with the mans love interest in a Jewish cabert singer, he was after all a rampant anti-semite. Ungern-Sternberg founded the volunteer based Asiatic Cavalry Division in Dauria, alongside a fortress. It is said at this fortress he would torture his red enemies and it was full of their bones.  As we mentioned in a previous episode, the Anhui Clique dispatched General Xu Shuzheng to occupy outer mongolia. However after the first Anhui-Zhili war, the Anhui clique was severely reduced and General Xu Shuzheng's forces in Mongolia were as well. This effectively left the Mongolian protectorate without their protectors. Chaos reigned as Chahar Mongols from Inner Mongolia began to fight with Khalkhas Mongols from Outer Mongolia. Seeing the disunity, Ungern-Sternberg saw a grand opportunity and made plans to take control of Mongolia. He began networking and married the Manchurian princess Ji at Harbin. Princess Ji was a relative of Genreal Zhang Kuiwu, the coammander of Chinese troops in the western part of the Chinese Manchurian railway as well as the govenror of Hailar. He also tried to arrange a meeting between Semyonov and Zhang Zuolin, Eventually Kolchak's white army was defeated by the Red Army and subsequently the Japanese pulled their expeditionary forces out of the Transbaikal region. This put Semyonov in a bad situation as he was unable to cope with the brunt of the impending Red forces, thus he planned to pull back into Manchuria. Ungern-Sternberg had a different idea however. He took his Asiatic Cavalry Division, roughly 1500 men at the time, consisting mostly of Russians, but there was also Cossacks, Buryats, Chinese and a few Japanese, with few machine guns and 4 artillery pieces. He broke his ties to Semyonov and took his division into Outer Mongolia in October of 1920. They gradually advanced to Urga where they ran into Chinees occupying forces. Ungern-Sternberg attempted to negotiate with the Chinese, demadning they disarm, but they rejected his terms. In late October and early November, Ungern-Sternbergs forces assaulted Urga, suffering two disasterous defeats. After this they assailed the Setsen-Khan aimag, a district north of the Kherlen River, ruld by Prince Setsen Khan. During his time in Mongolia Ungern-Sternberg befriended some Mongol forces seeking independence from the Chinese occupation, the most influential leader amongst them being Bogd Khan. Bogd Khan secretly made a pact with Unger-Sternberg, seeking his aid to expel the Chinese from Mongolia. Ungern-Sternberg went to work reorganizing his army. Apparently he had taken a liking to a Lt and gave the man full command over the medical division. During a withdrawal, the Lt raped multiple nurses in the medical division, many of whom were married to other officers, ordered settlements they ran by to be looted and ordered all the wounded the be poisoned because they were a nuisance. Ungern-Sternberg had the man flogged and burned at the stake. So yeah.  During the Chinese occupation of Outer Mongolia, they had initiated strict regulations over Buddhist services and imprisoned anyone whom they considered sought independence, including Russians. While Ungern-Sternberg had 1500 well trained troops, the Chinese had roughly 7000 still in Outer Mongolia. The Chinese enjoyed an advantage in more men, more machine guns, more artillery and they already had fortified Urga. On February 2nd, Ungern-Sternberg assaulted the front line of Urga again. His forces led by Captain Rezzukhin managed to capture a front-line fortificaiton near the Small and Big Madachan villages, due southeast of Urga. Ungern-Sternberg's forces also managed to rescue Bogd Khan who was under house arrests, transporting him to the Manjushri Monastery. Ungern-Sternberg then took a page out of Genghis Khan's note book, ordering his troops to light a large number of campfires in the hills surrounding Urga, trying to scare the Chinese into thinking they were more numerous. On February 4th, they attacked Chinese barracks east of Urga, captured them. Ungern-Sternberg then divided his force in two with the first attacking the Chinese trade settlement “Maimaicheng” and the secnd the Consular Settlement. Ungern-Sternbergs men used exlosives and improvised battering rams to blow open the gates to Maimaicheng. Upon storming the settlement, the battle turned into a melee of sabres, seeing both sides hack each other in a slaughter. Ungern-Sternbergs men took Maimaicheng, and soon joined up with the other force to attack the COnsulder Settlement. The Chinese launched a counter attack, forcing Ungern-Sternbergs men northeast somewhat, but then he counter attacked sending them back to Urga. By the night of the 4th, Urga would fall to the invaders. The Chinese civilian and military officials simply fled for their lives in 11 cars, abandoning the soldiers. The Chinese troops followed suite aftwards heading north, massacring all Mongolian civilians they came across, heading over the Russian border. The Red Russians resided in Urga fled alongside them. The Chinese suffered apparently 1500 men, while Ungern-Sternberg recorded only 60 casualties for his force. Ungern-Sternbergs troops were welcomed with open arms as liberators. The populace of Urga hated their tyrannical Chinese overlords and believed the Russians were their salvation. Then the Russian began plundering the Chinese run stores and hunted down Russian Jews still in the city. Ungern-Sternberg personally ordered the execution of all Jews in the city unless they had special notes handed out by him sparing their lives. It is estimated roughly 50 Jews were killed by Ungern-Sternbergs men in Mongolia. Urga's Jewish community was annihilated. After a few days, Ungern-Sternberg had set up a quasi secret police force led by Colonel Leonid Sipalov who hunted Red Russians. Meanwhile Ungern-Sternberg's army seized the Chinese fortified base at Choi due south of Urga. During the attack the Russians number 900, the Chinese garrison roughly 1500. After taking the fort, the Russians returned to Urga as Ungern-Sternberg dispatched expeditionary groups to find Chinese strength. They came across a abandoned Chinese fort at Zamyn-Uud, taking it without resistance. Most of the Chinese troops left in Mongolia withdrew north to Kyakhta where they were trying find a way to get around the Urga region to escape back to China. Ungern-Sternberg and his men assumed they were trying to reorganize to recapture Urga so he dispatched forces to assail them. Chinese forces were advancing through the area of Talyn Ulaaankhad Hill when Ungern-Sternberg initiated a battle. The battle saw nearly 1000 Chinese, 100 Mongols and various amounts of Russians, Buryats and others killed. The Chinese forces routed during the battle, fleeing south until they got over the Chinese border. After this action, the Chinese effectively had departed Outer Mongolia. On February 22nd february of 1921, Ungern-Sternberg, Mongolian prince and Lamas, held a ceremony to restore the Bogd Khan to the throne. To reward their savior, Bogd Khan granted Ungern-Sternberg a high title, that of “darkhan khoshoi chin wang” in the degree of Khan. Once Semyonov heard of what Ungern-Sternberg had achieved, he likewise promoted him to Lt-General. On that same day, Mongolia proclaimed itself independent as a monarchy under the Bogd Khan, now the 8th Bogd Gegen Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. According to the eye witness account of the polish explorer Kamil Gizycki and polish writer Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Ungern-Sternberg went to work ordering Urga's streets thoroughly cleaned, promoted religious tolerance, I would imagine for all excluding Jews and attempted some economic reforms.  The writer Ossendowski had previously served in Kolchaks government, but after its fall sought refugee in Mongolia. He became friends with Ungern-Sternberg, probably looking for a good story, I mean this maniac does make for a good story, hell I am covering him after all ahah. Ossendowski would write pieces of his experience in Mongolia in his book “Beasts, Men and Gods”. A soldier within Ungern-Sternbergs army, named Dmitri Alioshin wrote a novel as well of his experience titled Asian Odyssey and here is a passage about his description of Ungern-Sternberg and his closest followers beliefs. “The whole world is rotten. Greed, hatred and cruelty are in the saddle. We intend to organize a new empire; a new civilization. It will be called the Middle Asiatic Buddhist Empire, carved out of Mongolia, Manchuria and Eastern Siberia. Communication has already been established for that purpose with Djan-Zo-Lin, the war lord of Manchuria, and with Hutukhta, the Living Buddha of Mongolia. Here in these historic plains we will organize an army as powerful as that of Genghis Khan. Then we will move, as that great man did, and smash the whole of Europe. The world must die so that a new and better world may come forth, reincarnated on a higher plane.” Within that passage there was mention of Hutukhta, he was the dominant Buddha of Mongolia at the time. Hutukhta did not share Ungern-Sternbergs dream of restoring Monarchies all across the world and he understood the mans army could not hope to defend them from Soviet or Chinese invaders. In April of 1921, Hutukhta wrote to Beijing asking if the Chinese government was interesting in resuming their protectorship.  In the meantime Ungern-Sternberg began looking for funds. He approached several Chinese warlords, such as Zhang Zuolin, but all rejected him. He also continued his tyrannical treatment never against Mongolians, but against Russians within Mongolia. Its estimated his secret police force killed 846 people, with roughly 120 being in Urga. Ungern-Sternbergs men were not at all happy about the brutality he inflicted upon their fellow Russians. Yet Ungern-Sternbergs days of psychopathic fun were soon to come to an end. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Poor Mongolia was stuck between two crumbling empires, who both became engulfed in violent civil wars. The spill over from their wars saw Mongolia become a protectorate to the Chinese, nearly a satellite communist state to the USSR and now was independent, but really at the mercy of the White army of Ungern-Sternberg. The psychopath was having a field day, but it was about to come to an end. 

After Germany's invasion of the USSR, Stalin begin actively seeking to improve relations with capitalist powers in order to focus on the war effort against the Axis forces so made the decision to dissolve the Comintern as a gesture of goodwill towards the Western ...

St Joseph The Worker & The Secret Society's High Feast Day of May 1st BONUS TRACK FOR FOUNDERS PASS MEMBERS! Heard during Wednesday May 1st's The Mike Church Show, Wednesday May 1st, 2024. This priest is a friend of Mike's and wishes to remain anonymous but the message in this talk bold, courageous and hits the point: Men must follow St Joseph and become the spiritual leaders on their household! NOTES Christian Craftsman Association Christian Baptism to May 1 to be a reminder that social peace will come about through Christian ideals. QUESTION: Why May 1st? The most obvious reason is that the first day of May, was claimed by the workers union and was used for violence.  The 1st Communist International declared it International Workers day. 6 goals of the Illuminati  5 of those 6 goals are almost a reality in America today. The FULL Sermon will be uploaded to YouTube and the Crusade Channel websites. I believe it will be the conversion of America when good manly preaching of good sound doctrine meets the liturgy.  I was a fallen away Catholic until both of those two hit me over the head. This is a clarion call to all men out there.

In June, the International Marxist Tendency will take the monumental step of founding a new Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), to provide communist workers and youth around the world with a bold rallying point in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. In doing so, the RCI will build on the immense revolutionary legacy left behind by the Third (Communist) International, founded by Lenin and the Bolsheviks as the world party of revolution. Register now for the founding of the RCI! https://schoolofcommunism.com/ This week's episode of Spectre of Communism podcast welcomes Fred Weston, a leading comrade of the International Marxist Tendency, to explain the historic revolutionary importance of the Communist International. In doing so, Fred demonstrates the palpable need for a similar organisation in the world today. This episode will be the finale of the first season of the podcast, which will return with new weekly content after a short break. In addition to registering for the founding conference, we also recommend reading the recently published Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International (available in 20 languages), which will constitute the founding document of the RCI: https://www.marxist.com/manifesto-of-... --- Ted Grant's 1943 article, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Communist International' (cited in the episode): https://www.marxist.com/the-rise-and-... New episodes of the Spectre of Communism podcast are out every Tuesday! Subscribe and listen at your preferred platform, and find us on social media, here: https://linktr.ee/specom

In June, the International Marxist Tendency will take the monumental step of founding a new Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), to provide communist workers and youth around the world with a bold rallying point in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. In doing so, the RCI will build on the immense revolutionary legacy left behind by the […]

In June, the International Marxist Tendency will take the monumental step of founding a new Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), to provide communist workers and youth around the world with a bold rallying point in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. In doing so, the RCI will build on the immense revolutionary legacy left behind by the Third (Communist) International, founded by Lenin and the Bolsheviks as the world party of revolution.

Yesterday, the International Marxist Tendency proudly published the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International: a call to arms for all communists who want to put an end to the rotten capitalist system once and for all. If you agree with our analysis, register now for the founding conference of the RCI in June, and help […]

As promised in the previous episode, we discuss V. I. Lenin's Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions for the Second Congress of the Communist International (https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/jun/05.htm). It takes us quite awhile to get to the actual text of Lenin because we end up discussing the nation, the ecumenical state, ethnicity, and many of the contradictions therein. Note: Had some pesky background noise in this one that was hard to get rid of. Sorry about that! Additional Sources: Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/podzim2013/SOC571E/um/Anderson_B_-_Imagined_Communities.pdf Age of Coexistence w/ Ussama Makdisi on The Dig https://thedigradio.com/podcast/age-of-coexistence-w-ussama-makdisi/ How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs w/ Elizabeth Thompson on Guerrilla History https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/how-the-west-stole-democracy-from-the-arabs-w-elizabeth-thompson-remastered Statement on Al Aqsa Flood Battle by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine https://www.workers.org/2023/10/73785/ Marxism and the National Question by Joseph Stalin https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03.htm Resources: Answer Coalition https://www.answercoalition.org/ The Anti-Imperialist Archive https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/4084a94f-b1ea-4146-9e99-6bd47e9ddcef Jewish Voices for Peace https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/ Middle East Children's Alliance https://www.mecaforpeace.org/ The Palestine Children's Relief Fund https://www.pcrf.net/ Palestinian Youth Movement https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/ Turn Leftist Podcast (Mike): Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/turnleftist Twitter: https://twitter.com/turnleftistpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turnleftist The Intervention Podcast: Twitter: https://twitter.com/intervenepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intervention_pod/ Email: interventionpod@gmail.com Levi Levi: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Levi0Levi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/levi0levi0levi Email: levi0levi@duck.com Big thanks to Plasmid for the music for the show: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/plasmidband/ Listen / follow on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/08G1F4phxjM35aTDyrzE4j

After the First World War, the Western powers create new borders and carve out spheres of influence, leaders from the Global South fight for self-determination, and the League of Nations and the Communist International are formed. In this series recorded at the Stratford Festival, IDEAS explores five years in the 20th century that have shaped our world today.

Join Mike Taber, David McNally, Anne McShane, & Tom Alter for a discussion about the Second International's strengths, weaknesses, & legacy. This event took place on October 26, 2023. At its height, the Second (Socialist) International (1889-1914) represented the majority of organized workers in the world, with the stated revolutionary aim of overthrowing capitalism. Several of Its major campaigns and initiatives—such as the eight-hour day, May Day, and International Women's Day—remain today as testaments to its lasting influence. To mark the release of Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism—a collection of debates at congresses of the Second International—join editor Mike Taber, along with David McNally, Anne McShane, and Tom Alter, for a discussion about the Second International's strengths, weaknesses, contradictions, and legacy. The speakers will draw out the relevance of socialist debates from more than a century ago on topics that remain deeply contested: militarism and war, immigration, colonialism and imperialism, women's rights, and socialist participation in government. ———————————— Get a copy of Reform, Revolution, Opportunism: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/... ———————————— Speakers: Mike Taber has edited and prepared a number of books related to the history of revolutionary and working-class movements—from collections of documents of the Communist International under Lenin to works by James P. Cannon, Leon Trotsky, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Maurice Bishop, and Nelson Mandela. David McNally is the Cullen Distinguished Professor of History and Business at the University of Houston and director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism. McNally is the author of seven books and has won a number of awards, including the Paul Sweezy Award from the American Sociological Associaton for his book Global Slump and the Deutscher Memorial Award for Monsters of the Market. Anne McShane is a Marxist, a historian of the early Soviet women's movement and a human rights lawyer, specialising in representing asylum seekers. She has a long history of involvement in both the British and the Irish working class and leftwing movements. She contributes regular articles to the Weekly Worker, the journal of the British based CPGB and occasional pieces for Jacobin. She writes on Irish politics and the historical struggle to connect women's liberation with the socialist project. She is currently writing on the work of the Women's Department of the CPSU (Zhenotdel) in Soviet Central Asia, having completed a PhD on this subject in 2019 at Glasgow University. She is based in Cork, Ireland. Tom Alter is an assistant professor of history at Texas State University, where he specializes in labor and working-class history. He is the author of Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas and has been involved in labor and social justice movement activism for nearly 30 years. Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/4uhw8mFmKNk Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

The socialist revolution cannot win without first of all winning the masses. This is why the Communist International formulated the United Front tactic, which is summarised by the slogan: “March separately, but strike together!” In this episode, Sarah Vedrovitch outlines the events which led to the adoption of this tactic, how it was applied by the Communists, and how it was distorted by the Stalinists.

Students were the first Chinese to pay attention to the Russian Revolution and the new Communist government there. The Communist International (or Comintern) founded in 1919, also actively promoted and sponsored revolution abroad. Gregory Voitinsky arrived in 1920 as part of the Soviet efforts in China.Chinese students in France (like Zhou Enlai) and professors at Peking University were quick to promote socialist and Marxist ideas and to form societies and launch publications. They were encouraged by Cai Yuanpei, the Republic of China's first Minister of Education who was then Rector of Peking University. In particular, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were two intellectuals very active in the lead up to the First Congress of the Communist Party of China. Each was elected at that important first meeting. Chen became the party's first Secretary-General and Li became responsible for propaganda. A Dutch communist, Henk Sneevliet, was present on behalf of the Comintern. A 28 year old Mao Zedong was also there before returning to Hunan province.Please share your advice and make the podcast even better here !Save up to 55% on flights, hotels, car rentals and more through Trip.com here!Enjoy discounts of up to 25% on Contiki Tours here and on Contiki last minute deals here!You save and you support this podcast by using those links. Thank you!Image: "中共一大會會址" by billibala is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a few short years, the Communist International went from being a beacon of internationalism and world revolution, to a tool for the narrow, national interests of the Soviet bureaucracy. How and why did this happen? In this talk, Jack Tye Wilson provides a Marxist response to Stalin's "theory" of 'socialism in one country', and outlines the disastrous consequences of the Comintern's abandonment of internationalism.

In the third part of our podcast series on the lessons of the Communist International, Thomas Soud covers the ultra-left mistakes made by the young forces of communism, and how Lenin and the Comintern corrected this "infantile disorder".

In part two of our series on the lessons of the Communist International, Lubna Badi outlines the events of the German Revolution of 1918-1923 and draws out the lessons for communists today. With power lying in their hands, the masses were able to topple the Kaiser and end Germany's involvement in WWI. And yet, without a well-established Communist leadership, the socialist revolution ultimately failed. The consequences of that failure would be most brutally felt over a decade later with the rise of fascism in Germany and the consolidation of Stalinism in Russia.

To kick off our six-part series on the lessons of the Communist International, Fiona Lali outlines the rich history of Marxist internationalism, stretching from Marx and Engels' efforts to build the First International, through to Trotsky's Fourth International.

The 80-year anniversary of Stalin's dissolution of the Communist International is an opportunity to explore theoretical and historical questions that led to its degeneration. In this three-part series, John Peterson digs deeper into the differences between genuine Bolshevism and Leninism, and its bureaucratic opposites of Zinovievism and Stalinism.  Read the article on this topic: srev.org/comintern-degeneration.  Read "The First 4 Years of the Comintern": marxistbooks.com/5-comintern.  Join the fight for socialism in our lifetime: srev.org/join. 

The 80-year anniversary of Stalin's dissolution of the Communist International is an opportunity to explore theoretical and historical questions that led to its degeneration. In this three-part series, John Peterson digs deeper into the differences between genuine Bolshevism and Leninism, and its bureaucratic opposites of Zinovievism and Stalinism.  Read the article on this topic: srev.org/comintern-degeneration.  Join the fight for socialism in our lifetime: srev.org/join. 

80 years ago, on May 15, 1943, Stalin dissolved the Communist International. This anniversary is an opportunity to explore key theoretical and historical questions that led to the Comintern's degeneration. In this three-part series, John Peterson digs deeper into the differences between genuine Bolshevism and Leninism, and its bureaucratic opposites of Zinovievism and Stalinism.  Read the article on this topic: srev.org/comintern-degeneration.  Join the fight for socialism in our lifetime: srev.org/join. 

Join us as we read from V. I. Lenin, W. Z. Foster, Earl Browder, and others on the necessity of building broad coalitions in the fight against fascism. This is a very important class that we want all our comrades to pay close attention to and implement in their work. Connect with PSMLS: https://linktr.ee/peoplesschool Sign up to join the PSMLS mailing list and get notified of new Zoom classes every Tuesday and Thursday: http://eepurl.com/h9YxPb Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 1:05 Sectarianism and its Consequences 2:15 Reading from Lenin's "Left-Wing Communism", chapter 6 3:35 The CPUSA and the LaFollette Movement 4:40 Reading from W. Z. Foster's "History of the CPUSA", chapter 15 6:35 Q&A 1 15:15 Coalition Building - The People's Front Against Fascism 16:45 Reading from Browder's "The People's Front", chapter 10 18:40 The French Communist Party's "Outstretched Hand" 21:15 Q&A 2 34:45 The Popular Front in Practice 35:05 Reading from "The Communist International, Volume III" 37:55 Q&A 3 50:25 Conclusion

In this week's class from the People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies (PSMLS), we examine fascism as it stands in the present day in different countries in Europe, Asia and South America, as well as in the United States. We also read from Dimitrov's “The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International” to understand what we must do as Communists to resist the re-emergence of fascism. Connect with PSMLS: linktr.ee/peoplesschool Sign up to join the PSMLS mailing list and get notified of new Zoom classes every Tuesday and Thursday: eepurl.com/h9YxPb Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:50 Preface: Fascism in the Last Century 4:50 Q&A 1 9:50 Fascism in the World Today 11:30 Ukraine 16:05 Q&A 2 24:25 Fascism in Other Foreign Countries - Italy 26:00 Sweden, Japan 28:20 Brazil 30:15 Q&A 3 39:00 Brief History of American Fascism 42:20 American Fascism in the Present Day 48:30 Q&A 4 1:04:00 Reading from "The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International" 1:09:20 Conclusion 1:12:10 The Song of the United Front

Episode 214. I dive into a story from the Intercept detailing an FBI informant who was supplying guns and training to the Left after having served in the communist international brigade in Syria. It is proof positive how the Left has brought their training and experience home to foment communist revolution here in America - one that the US' enemies plan to exploit in full. The Guerilla's Guide to the Baofeng Radio is a #1 Bestseller!  Nehemiah Strong discount code: SCOUT1 Radio Contra Sponsors: Civil Defense Manual Tactical Wisdom Blacksmith Publishing Radio Contra Patron Program Brushbeater Training Calendar Brushbeater Forum Palmetto State Armory Primary Arms

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, though their work has been neglected in broader historiography. In Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism (Routledge, 2022), Jasmine Calver provides a comprehensive history of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the International Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, or CMF), an international women's organization concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Examining the CMF's key figures and campaigns during its short 1934-41 tenure, Calver reveals its place at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organization developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. CMF campaigns around the Spanish Civil War, rising Nazism in Germany, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia show its international ambitions. Using newly-available sources to assess CMF congresses, correspondence, travels, and publications, Calver uncovers the complexities of its links to the Communist International, and its status as an early Popular Front organization. The book comes at an important time to reevaluate the successes and failures of historical efforts to combat rising fascist movements. Rebecca Turkington is a PhD Candidate in History at Cambridge University studying transnational women's networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/french-studies

Although directed against the Communist International, the organisation that sought to create a worldwide communist republic, the Anti-Comintern Pact was in reality against the Soviet ...

Mike Taber has edited and prepared a number of books related to the history of revolutionary and working-class movements—from collections of documents of the Communist International under Lenin to works by James P. Cannon, Leon Trotsky, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Maurice Bishop, and Nelson Mandela. His book Under the Socialist Banner is a collection of the resolutions of the Second International from 1889 to 1912. 

A close reading of the portion of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928, which later became a key early text in the Maoist canon.Further reading:Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China's Jinggangshan Base AreaStuart Schram, ed., Mao's Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930Mao Zedong, “Why Is It that Red Political Power Can Exist in China?”Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949Jane Degras, ed., The Communist International, 1919-1943: Documents, vol. 2: 1923-1928A name from this episode:Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee in May 1928 and who returned in JuneSupport the show

At the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, the Executive Committee adopted this appendix to the Theses on Comintern Tactics in December, 1922. This episode is a reading of Theses on the United Front.Access free resources and support the show: https://www.patreon.com/massstruggleFollow Mass Struggle on instagram: @MassStrugglePodFollow Mass Struggle on twitter: @MassStrugglePod Email: massstrugglepod@gmail.comSupport the show

The People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies presents this reading of Order No. 470 of the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army by comrade Kim Il-sung, written July 27, 1953. Today the Korean people celebrate the 69th anniversary of their great victory in the war of liberation from the yoke of US imperialism. American communists must stand in unflinching solidarity with our comrades in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, whose country has been brutally bombed, pillaged, and sanctioned by the marauding imperialists of our own country. Long live the DPRK! Long live the victory of the Korean people over the US imperialist invaders! Connect with PSMLS: linktr.ee/PSMLS Literature Used: Congratulations on the Great Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War by Kim Il-sung (1953) www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/07.pdf Recommended Literature: 10 Days That Shook the World by John Reed (1919) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/john-reed/ten-days-that-sh… Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-stalin/foundations-of-l… Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/third-congress-of-the-comm… Imperialism and the Split in Socialism by V.I. Lenin (1916) www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/oct/x01.… Join the PCUSA: linktr.ee/partyofcommunists

Please enjoy the second part of our series where we host comrade Dr. Barry Lituchy from Brooklyn College for lectures on fascism in Europe. It is vitally important for us as Communists today to understand the significant role that fascism is playing in the current US/EU/NATO conflict with Russia. Comrade Georgi Dimitrov put it correctly when he said that "Fascism acts in the interests of the extreme imperialists, but it presents itself to the masses in the guise of champion of an ill-treated nation, and appeals to outraged national sentiments..." This lecture was recorded on March 17th, 2022. Long live the anti-fascist struggle! Down with fascism in Ukraine! Connect with PSMLS: linktr.ee/PSMLS Join the PCUSA: linktr.ee/partyofcommunists Literature Used: N/A Recommended Literature: Ukrainian leftist criticizes Western war drive with Russia: US is using Ukraine as ‘cannon fodder' by Yuliy Dubovyk (2022) multipolarista.com/2022/03/14/ukrainian-leftist-wa… The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International by Georgi Dimitrov (1938) www.lulu.com/shop/georgi-dimitrov/the-fascist-offe… PCUSA Women's Commission Selected Writings (2022) www.lulu.com/shop/pcusa-womens-commission/pcusa-wo… History of the Three Internationals by William Z. Foster (1955) www.marxists.org/archive/browder/way-out/index.htm The Communist Party A Manual on Organization by J. Peters (1935) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/j-peters/the-communist-par… Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-stalin/foundations-of-l… 0:00 Introduction 0:16 Opening lecture 5:48 Buying into propaganda? (Q&A) 8:41 Imperialists' end goal? (Q&A) 10:51 Stand with Russia 15:15 Slobodan Milošević? (Q&A) 16:33 Euro-American diaspora? (Q&A) 19:42 Putin & economics? (Q&A) 22:38 A plague on both your houses 23:56 Dubovyk's article 26:25 Western imperialism 28:56 US funding fascists? (Q&A) 29:39 Role of China? (Q&A) 32:07 Role of the National Question 32:45 Closing remarks

Whether you're interested in history, politics, memoirs, or light reads by the pool, our listeners have recommendations for you: "Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil" by Susan Neiman “In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman's Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings.” "Against Fascism and War"  A report to the 7th Congress of the Communist International, 1935 that includes a 1936 speech on the People's Front and a short speech to Young Communist International. Foreword by James West, then a U.S. youth delegate to the 7th Congress.  "Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West" by H.W. BrandsIn Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. "The Soul of America" by John Meachum Meachum writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women's rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson's crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear—a struggle that continues even now. “Waterman's Song” by David Cecelski The first major study of slavery in the maritime South, The Waterman's Song chronicles the world of slave and free black fishermen, pilots, rivermen, sailors, ferrymen, and other laborers who, from the colonial era through Reconstruction, plied the vast inland waters of North Carolina from the Outer Banks to the upper reaches of tidewater rivers. "Four Funerals, No Marriage: A Memoir" by Mike Keren                                                                            Author Mike Keren gives his readers an inside look at his unexpected foray into caregiving to his sick and dying parents and in-laws. Often funny and always poignant, the story begins when his loving but difficult parents announce they are moving back to New Jersey from their retirement home in North Carolina because they “never really liked it there.” Within days of arriving on a house-hunting trip, his father is hospitalized with a stroke and his mother with another in a series of heart attacks. At the same time, his partner's mother is recuperating from a hysterectomy and struggling with chemotherapy after a diagnosis of uterine cancer. Additionally, he must deal with the unhappy marriage between his parents, sibling relationships that have often been his undoing, a homophobic world, and his own lifetime of affective dysregulation. "The Gown" by Jennifer Robson'It is about two young women who work for a dress designer just after World War II, and they were involved in making the gown for Queen Elizabeth's wedding.' "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us Versus Them" by Jason StanleyAs the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don't have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism's roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations.    

Please enjoy this PSMLS reading of L. Magyar's 1934 article "What is Fascism?" published in that year's April edition of "The Communist," the former theoretical organ of the CPUSA, and the current theoretical organ of the PCUSA. This article provides interesting insight into the perspective of the Communist International during the period of "class against class," ahead of the later "united front" period. It articulately explains the rise of fascism in Europe, as well as how German fascism was to be used as a battering ram for an invasion of the Soviet Union. We hope you learn something new! Connect with PSMLS: linktr.ee/PSMLS Join the PCUSA: linktr.ee/partyofcommunists Literature Used: What is Fascism? by L. Magyar (1934) ourcloud.usvanguard.net/s/qpLZCkDHxZitoPp Recommended Literature: Black and Red: The Role of Communists in the Black Liberation Movement (2022) https://www.lulu.com/shop/party-of-communists-usa/black-and-red/paperback/product-pqeqyd.html History of the Three Internationals by William Z. Foster (1955) www.marxists.org/archive/browder/way-out/index.htm History of the Communist Party of the United States by William Z. Foster (1952) williamzfoster.blogspot.com/ The Communist Party A Manual on Organization by J. Peters (1935) https://www.lulu.com/shop/j-peters/the-communist-party-a-manual-on-organization/paperback/product-1e48qqp2.html Toward Soviet America by William Z. Foster (1932) ouleft.org/wp-content/uploads/towardsovietamer.pdf Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) https://www.lulu.com/shop/jv-stalin/foundations-of-leninism/paperback/product-1wkqz545.html

The People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies presents this piece of the Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol. 4 (Foreign Languages Publishing House), originally published in the Soviet review "Problems of the East" on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of V.I. Lenin's birthday, April 1960. Today is comrade Ho Chi Minh's 132nd birthday, and we pay tribute to him with the reading of this piece. Long live the Socialist Republic of Vietnam! Connect with PSMLS: linktr.ee/PSMLS Literature Used: The Path Which Led Me To Leninism by Ho Chi Minh www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/wor… Recommended Literature: 10 Days That Shook the World by John Reed (1919) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/john-reed/ten-days-that-sh… Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-stalin/foundations-of-l… Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921) www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/third-congress-of-the-comm… Imperialism and the Split in Socialism by V.I. Lenin (1916) www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/oct/x01.… PSMLS Website: peoplesschool.org/contact/ Party of Communists USA Website partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOKYiaiGRHM

The People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies presents the third and final part of a three-part series over the book "Socialism Betrayed" by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny. This class specifically highlights the ideological differences between Bukharin, Trotsky, and Stalin in the early years of the Soviet Union. We hope you learn something new! Interested in attending a class? Email info@psmls.org for more information Literature Used In This Class: Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Roger Keeran and Thoms Kenny https://valleysunderground.files.word... Recommended Literature: The Communist Party A Manual on Organization by J. Peters (1935) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/j-pet... Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-st... Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/third... Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder by V.I. Lenin (1920) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/vi-le... The New Economic Policy by V.I. Lenin (1921) https://www.marxists.org/archive/leni... Recommended Viewing: Mission to Moscow by Michael Curtiz (1943) PSMLS Website: http://peoplesschool.org/contact/ Party of Communists USA Website https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/ Timecode Key: (Q&A) = Question & Answer / Response 0:00 Introduction 0:39 Reading 1 6:49 Soviet Life Magazine 8:27 "Universal human values" 9:14 Socdem degeneration 10:05 Reading 2 15:29 Second economy? (Q&A) 21:02 Middle class? (Q&A) 22:29 Comrade Fidel 22:53 Reading 3 28:39 CPUSA & Perestroika 29:05 Kruschev & class? (Q&A) 30:50 Relevancy to China 32:03 Socialism or Death 33:23 Reading 4 36:54 Imperialism Today 39:42 Das Kapital 40:20 Soviet middle class? (Q&A) 43:40 Am I petty-bourgeois (Q&A) 44:35 More relevancy to China 47:32 Concluding remarks

Amidst Russia's wholesale destruction of Ukraine, growing trouble much closer to home is getting scant attention. We're about to lose what's left of free Latin America to our indigenous and foreign enemies there – with calamitous economic, demographic and national security consequences here. Straws in the wind include Chile's new Marxist government's installation of the granddaughter of former Communist president Salvador Allende as its defense minister. Cartels engorged on the money they have made smuggling across our southern border since Joe Biden opened it are waging all-out war against the Mexican military. And impending elections may well result in anti-American leftists running the table in their last two holdouts: Colombia and Brazil. We must secure our southern border, oppose Chinese and Russian support for their regional Communist International, the Forum of San Paolo, and stand with those in Latin America who love freedom. This is Frank Gaffney. The Secure Freedom Minute - the most interesting, informative and life-saving 60 seconds of your day

The People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies presents the second part of a three-part series over the book "Socialism Betrayed" by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny. This class specifically highlights the ideological differences between Bukharin, Trotsky, and Stalin in the early years of the Soviet Union. We hope you learn something new! Interested in attending a class? Email info@psmls.org for more information Literature Used In This Class: Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Roger Keeran and Thoms Kenny https://valleysunderground.files.word... Recommended Literature: The Communist Party A Manual on Organization by J. Peters (1935) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/j-pet... Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-st... Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/third... Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder by V.I. Lenin (1920) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/vi-le... The New Economic Policy by V.I. Lenin (1921) https://www.marxists.org/archive/leni... Recommended Viewing: Mission to Moscow by Michael Curtiz (1943) PSMLS Website: http://peoplesschool.org/contact/ Party of Communists USA Website https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/ Timecode Key: (Q&A) = Question & Answer / Response 0:00 Introduction 0:31 Reading 1 5:06 Context of the NEP 6:16 Ideological seeds? (Q&A) 7:33 Kulaks? (Q&A) 9:29 Factionalism? (Q&A) 12:26 Reading 2 15:55 Lenin on the NEP? (Q&A) 19:02 Trotsky's role (Q&A) 20:11 Reading 3 32:11 Softening of class struggle 32:36 People change roles 34:14 Trotsky's Amalgams 35:00 Foster's Russia in 1924 35:26 Short vs. Long Term NEP 36:44 Marxism & the National Question 37:13 Other CPSU Leaders? (Q&A) 39:19 The Kulak Issue 40:25 China & Concluding Remarks

The People's School for Marxist-Leninist Studies presents the fifth and final part of our five-part series covering the pamphlet "Party Building and Political Leadership" by comrades William Z. Foster, James Ford, Charles Krumbein, and Alex Bittleman. This part talks about the importance of understanding Marxism-Leninism as a science, as well as the importance of being able to adequately study, learn, and apply Marxism-Leninism in our time. This text should prove useful to anyone looking to help build socialism in the United States. Connect with PSMLS: https://linktr.ee/PSMLS Literature Used In This Class: Party Building and Political Leadership by William Z. Foster, James Ford, Alex Bittleman, and Charles Krumbein (1937) https://archive.org/details/PartyBuil... Recommended Literature: The Meaning of San Rafael by Henry Winston (1971) https://ourcloud.usvanguard.net/s/3Fk... Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-st... Mastering Bolshevism by J.V. Stalin (1937) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/josep... Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/third... 7849qz.html?page=1&pageSize=4 The Communist Party A Manual on Organization by J. Peters (1935) https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/j-pet... History of the Communist Party USA by William Z. Foster (1952) https://archive.org/details/history-o... PSMLS Website: http://peoplesschool.org Party of Communists USA Website: https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/ Timecode Key: (Q&A) = Question & Answer/Response 0:00 Introduction 0:25 Reading/Lecture 1 5:09 Staying consistent 5:34 African People's Socialist Party (Q&A) 7:02 Enver Hoxha 7:50 Center the class struggle 8:35 Reading/Lecture 2 15:30 Science of Marxism-Leninism 17:18 PCUSA vs. CPUSA 17:37 Black & Red 17:47 Hammer and Hoe 17:54 Science of Marxism-Leninism cont. 18:59 Concluding remarks & ending