Gregory Zinoviev Quotes
A settlement of relations between the two countries will assist in the revolutionizing of the international and British proletariat not less than a successful rising in any of the working districts of England, as the establishment of close contact between the British and Russian proletariat, the exchange of delegations and workers, etc. will make it possible for us to extend and develop the propaganda of ideas of Leninism in England and the Colonies
This letter caused the Labor Government of Ramsay MacDonald to lose power to the Conservatives. The Conservatives claimed that the British labor movement was in cahoots with the Russian Communists to use British unions to promote Communism and spread propaganda. In 1924 many Laborites claimed that the letter was a forgery and had been planted by the Conservatives who had pulled other dirty tricks before to smear Labor. However, all the British newspapers ran copies of the letter and Labor lost the election. Historians almost all agree that the letter is a forgery because in other parts of the letter, talking about the Russian program, several errors were made describing the Communist program at the time. Gregory Zinoviev, a high ranking member of the Russian Cominterm, would almost certainly have not made these mistakes. Regardless of the fact that it is a forgery, to this day, it is still referred to as the “Zinoviev Letter,”
Gregory Zinoviev, 1883-1936, President, Russian Comintern, 1919-1926, “Zinoviev Letter” September 15, 1924
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While he disagreed with Russian policies in any cases, he kept his criticism private but strove to maintain Yugoslavia as a Socialist state and part of the Soviet lock but independent. As his policies more and more deviated from Russian policies, Stalin tried to have Tito assassinated as Tito had his own independent policies on relations with the West.
Vladimir Lenin. Most did not and the Communist government was brutal and murderous in forcing them into the Communist culture, outlook, and behavior. See {640096} for a description of some of the effort.
In 1921 an Paul E. De Mott, an American Quaker famine relief worker in Germany was arrested as a "Bolshevik" and murdered without trial. American correspondents heard about the crime and asked for a statement from the chief American diplomat in Germany.
This was a great victory for the Victor Berger wing of the party. They purged the violence advocates and communists from the party. Despite this, a few right wingers call any socialist a communist and a revolutionary.
This was the basic document issued after the Russian Revolution establishing the basic legal and economic structure of the new Soviet State.
Although he was a Marxist, he was also a democrat. He was one of the first leftists to criticize the Russian Revolution. The letter was widely published. There were few left wing intellectuals who would take Lenin on at the time but Gorter was one.
Stalin was then only 26 years old. This was more than a decade BEFORE the Russian Revolution and Stalin was a young left wing revolutionary planning how to bring about a revolution and how the society should operate thereafter. He was then much the youthful, intellectual, Georgian idealist.
Vladimir Lenin. See {640096} and {640094} for more on the Communist struggle with the Russian Peasants.
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky, was a Russian revolutionary and politician. He was an Old Bolshevik and a close associate of Vladimir Lenin. During the 1920s, Zinoviev was one of the most influential figures in the Soviet leadership and the chairman of the Communist International.
