RESOLUTION OF THE ECCI PRESIDIUM RECOMMENDING THE DISSOLUTION OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL 15 MAY 1943 The historic role of the Communist International which was founded in 1919 as a result of the dissolution of the great majority of the old workers’ organisations after the war consisted in upholding the principles of Marxism from vulgarization and distortion by the opportunist elements in the working-class movement and contributed to the consolidation in a number of countries of the vanguard of the foremost workers in real working-class parties helping to the mobilisation of the masses of workers for the defence of their economic and political interests for the struggle against forthcoming fascism and war The Communist International exposed on time the real significance of the “antiComintern pact” as a mean in preparing the war by the Hitlerites It continually exposed long before the war Hitlerites’ vile activity of sabotage in different countries masked by their claim about an alleged involvement of the Third International in their internal affairs Even long before the war it became more and more clear that with the increasing complications in internal and international relations of the various countries any sort of international centre would encounter insuperable obstacles in solving the problems facing the movement in each country The deep differences of the historic paths of development of various countries the differences in their character and even contradictions in their social orders the differences in the level and tempo of their political social and economic development the differences in the degree of consciousness and organisation of workers conditioned a deep difference among the problems facing the working class of various countries The whole development of events in the last quarter of a century and the experience accumulated by the Communist International convincingly confirmed that the organisational form of uniting the workers chosen by the first congress of the Communist International answered the problems in the first stages of the working-class movement but has been outgrown by the growth of this movement and by the complications of its problems in separate countries and has even become a drag on the further strengthening of the national workingclass parties The World War that the Hitlerites have let loose has still further sharpened the differences in the situation of the separate countries and has placed a sharp dividing line among those countries which fell under the Hitlerite tyranny and those freedom-loving people who have been united in a powerful anti-Hitlerite coalitions While in the countries of the Hitlerite bloc the main duty of the working class workers and of all honest people is to contribute by all means to the defeat of this bloc by sabotaging the Hitlerite war machine and to contribute to the overthrown of the governments which are guilty of the start of the war In the countries belonging to the anti-Hitlerite coalitions the holly duty of the masses especially of the working class is to support by all means the effort of their governments in crushing the Hitlerite bloc as soon as possible and of securing the alliance of freedom-loving people based on their independence At the same time it has to be taken into account that the states belonging to the 1 anti-Hitlerite coalitions have their own problems In regions and countries under Hitlerite regime in countries which lost their independence the main duty of the vanguard working class and of the large popular masses is to fight by arms and finally to liberate their countries through war against Hitlerite Germany At the same time the liberation war of the freedom-loving people against the Hitlerite tyranny which has put into motion large masses in the large anti-Hitlerite coalition despite their political affiliation and religious beliefs clearly shows that immediate national uprising and mass mobilisation for the victory against the enemy can be reached much better and fruitfully by the vanguard working-class movement in each country Already the seventh congress of the Comintern held in 1935 emphasised the necessity for the Executive Committee of the Communist International to decide all questions of the working-class movement arising from the concrete conditions and peculiarities of each country to make a rule of avoiding interference in the organisational affairs of the communist parties by taking into account the changes in international relations and in the working-class movement which asked for greater flexibility and independence of its sections in solving their problems The Communist International was guided by the same considerations when it approved the departure of the American Communist Party from the Communist International in November 1940 Guided by the judgment of the founders of Marxism-Leninism the communists have never been supporters of the conservation of organisational forms that have outlived themselves they have always adapted the organisational forms of the working-class movement and their working methods to the fundamental political interests of the working class as a whole to the particularities of the present historic situation and to the problems resulted from it They remember the great Marx’s example who has gathered the vanguard working class within the “International Association of Workers” and after the First International fulfilled its historic duty of creating the basis for the development of the communist parties of Europe and America he dissolved the First International which became unnecessary in the new context of the development of mass national workers’ parties In consideration of the above and taking into account the growth and political maturity of the communist parties and their leading cadres in separate countries and also having in view the fact that during the present war some sections have raised the question of the dissolution of the Communist International as the directing centre of the international working-class movement the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International puts forward the following proposal for ratification by the sections of the Communist International as it had no possibility to organise a congress of the Communist International in the present war conditions To dissolve the Communist International as a leading centre of the international working-class movement freeing the sections of the Communist International from their obligations arising from the statuses and resolutions of the congresses of the Communist International 2 The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International asks all members of the Communist International to concentrate their efforts on supporting by all means and actively participating in the liberation war of people and countries belonging to the antiHitlerite coalitions for the immediate defeat of the main enemy of workers of the German fascism their allies and their cronies Members of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International Dimitrov Gottwald Jdanov Kolarov Koplenik Kuusinen Manuilsky Marty Pieck Thorez Florin Ercoli And representatives of communist parties Bianco Italy Dolorez Ibaruri Spain Lehtinen Finland Ana Pauker Romania Rakosi Hungary Moscow 15 May 1943 3