Permanent Revolution in Practice: Why National Liberation Needs International Strategy

Part 2: Study Guide to Histoire de l'Internationale Communiste

Jun 04, 2025

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The founding of the Communist International (Comintern) in March 1919 was a direct and necessary response to the "failure of August 1914." This pivotal moment saw the social democratic parties of the Second International abandon their pre-war internationalist pledges and largely support their respective national bourgeoisies in the imperialist conflict. This betrayal demonstrated the "bankruptcy of the Second International and the need for a new, truly revolutionary international body."

The Internationalist Premise

Rooted in revolutionary Marxism, the early Comintern was established with the explicit aim of uniting national sections to lead "revolutionary struggles worldwide to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism." A cornerstone of this founding perspective was the understanding that the liberation of oppressed peoples in colonial and semi-colonial nations was not a separate struggle, but one inextricably linked to the victory of the working class in the imperialist "metropoles." As noted in one source referencing historical Comintern documents and analyses, the Bolsheviks "had grasped that the proletarian revolution could not ultimately achieve its goal within a national framework alone."

This perspective was integral from the start. The founding manifesto of the Third International, drafted by Leon Trotsky, conveyed this understanding. The Second Congress of the Comintern in 1920 dedicated significant attention to the National and Colonial Questions, reaffirming this internationalist premise. Frank's history and the study guides highlight that the struggle against imperialism and for national liberation was viewed as an "integral part of the broader world revolution." The perspective was that the revolution must be "permanent" – extending beyond initial democratic tasks and requiring international support to achieve socialist goals, particularly in less developed nations intertwined with global capitalism.

The Baku Congress and Global Solidarity

A powerful illustration of this perspective can be found in the Manifesto of the Congress of the Peoples of the East, held in Baku in 1920 under the auspices of the Comintern. The Manifesto directly addressed the "Workers and peasants of China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, of Indochina! Enslaved peoples of the Far East!" It recounted their suffering under the brutal rule and pillage of imperialist powers – "European, American and Japanese thieves" – who "exploit 400 million inhabitants and tear [China] into pieces, building their well-being on the blood and tears of the Chinese people." It contrasted this with the situation in Europe, where the "world war of 1914-1918 has undermined the forces of the world thieves" and "the proletarian revolution grips them by the throat." It explicitly linked the struggles, concluding with the powerful call: "The Communist International has launched the great slogan: Proletarians of all countries and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!"

The Baku Congress, though perhaps more a "manifestation" than a purely deliberative congress, was nonetheless highly significant. For the first time, members of these populations, who had previously been "simple objects of the world politics of the imperialist powers, and objects in the hands of local potentates," gathered in a congress. Frank considers the contribution of the Second Comintern Congress and the Baku Congress to the "march of the greatest part of humanity towards socialism" to be a "colossal historical fact."

The Shift Towards "Socialism in One Country"

However, Frank's History of the Communist International also meticulously details a "significant shift away from this founding internationalist premise." This process began to accelerate in the mid-1920s, marked by the "growing bureaucratisation of the Soviet Union and the Bolshevik Party." Even Lenin himself expressed concerns about the state apparatus, describing it as "fundamentally alien" and a "hotchpotch of bourgeois and tsarist survivals, which it was absolutely impossible for us to transform in five years for lack of help from other countries."

This internal degeneration led to the rise of Stalin and the adoption of the doctrine of "Socialism in One Country." This represented a "fundamental theoretical and strategic departure" from the earlier perspective of world revolution as the immediate goal and necessary condition for socialist construction. As Frank notes in his concluding reflections, when the Comintern was formally dissolved in 1943, the resolution stated its founding reasons in a way that "falsifies history." The resolution claimed the Comintern was founded to defend Marxism from opportunism, gather the vanguard, defend workers' interests, fight fascism/war, and support the Soviet Union. Frank contrasts this by stating, "It falsifies history because the IC had been founded with a view to organising the revolutionary struggle against capitalism, to ensuring the victory of socialism, and to supporting the emancipation struggles of colonial and semi-colonial countries against world imperialism." He adds that "The fundamental goals of the IC that Stalin had long since renounced were thus omitted."

Consequences of Strategic Deviation

This strategic shift led to the International and its national sections becoming increasingly "subservient to the foreign policy needs of the Kremlin." This introduced "dangers of nationalist deviations" and strategies that sometimes subordinated the needs of national revolutionary movements to the diplomatic interests of the Soviet state. The Second Chinese Revolution (1925-1927) serves as a crucial case study during this period of degeneration, illustrating the dangers of alliances with bourgeois nationalist forces and the critical importance of independent class organisation.

Lessons for Today

Pierre Frank, in his history, states his aim is to analyse the Comintern's trajectory "inspired by revolutionary Marxism, by the method Marx employed." He seeks to understand the essential questions regarding its founding, strategy, tactics, and the causes of its degeneration, in order to "extract from the history of the IC everything that can be useful to the workers' movement of today and tomorrow." By tracing the trajectory from the early, militant internationalism that explicitly linked national liberation to the cause of world revolution, to the later period defined by "Socialism in One Country" and the subservience of the International to the foreign policy of the Soviet state, Frank's history, based on extensive use of primary Comintern documents, provides vital historical lessons. It underscores the negative consequences that arise when the internationalist thread is broken and offers historical context for the ongoing necessity of a genuine international strategy for national liberation struggles today.