Almost half a century separates us from the Seventh Congress of the Comintern. Over the years, a considerable number of works have appeared on the struggle of the Comintern as a whole and individual Communist parties for the implementation of the historic decisions of the Congress. First opy-

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A volume of the historiography of this problem is the article by K. K. Shirini 1, which contains a fundamental assessment of what Soviet researchers and scientists of the GDR and Bulgaria have done to study the problem.

The purpose of this review is to show how this topic was studied by Soviet historians.

The first attempts to study the activities of the Comintern and the Communist parties in the second half of the 1930s were made in the courses of lectures by Z. A. Zamyslova . To mark the 40th anniversary of the Comintern, an article by I. G. Kabina 3 was published . However, one of the first scientific developments devoted to the Seventh Congress of the Comintern was an article by A. P. Korsunsky, 4 which briefly shows the situation in the world in the mid-1930s, reveals the main content of the congress ' decisions, and attempts to characterize the efforts of individual Communist parties to implement them. The attention of researchers was primarily drawn to the activities of a number of communist parties (for example, the French one) in this direction. The article by V. I. Antyukhina-Moskovchenko and the monograph by M. Kunina and V. Markova 5 analyzed the process of developing new tactics for the PCF and the stages of its struggle for the creation of the Popular Front.

In 1965, representatives of 38 communist parties met in Prague on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern .6 Its participants (among them were congress delegates and prominent figures of the world communist movement) paid special attention to the historical significance of the congress, the enormous impact of its decisions on the process of developing strategies and tactics by individual communist parties on the eve and during World War II, and the relevance of its conclusions for the activities of revolutionary forces in the 60s. The report of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Academician B. N. Ponomarev, emphasized that the Seventh Congress of the Comintern marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the world communist movement, characterized by a continuous increase in the independence and initiative of the Communist parties, and that all the Communist parties participated in the development of a new line of The speaker stressed that the congress "outlined a clear strategic plan and flexible tactics of the communist parties in the fight against the offensive of fascism and the threat of a new world war, indicated ways to unite all anti-fascist, anti-imperialist forces for this purpose," and defined new forms and methods of activity of the communist parties. 7 The report analyzed the new approach of the Communists to unity of action with the Social Democrats, to the creation of a broad anti-fascist front in both capitalist and colonial countries.

B. N. Ponomarev's other works on the Seventh Congress and on the history of the Comintern as a whole, as well as on the activities of G. Dimitrov, are also of great importance. 8 Basic requirements

1 Shirinya K. K. Strategy and tactics of the Comintern in the struggle against fascism and war in 1934-1939. Problems of historiography. In: Problemy istorii i politiki kommunisticheskikh partii [Problems of History and Politics of Communist Parties], Moscow, 1980.

2 See: Zamyslova Z. A. Mezhdunarodnoe kommunisticheskoe dvizhenie mezhdu 1-i i 2-i mirovymi voynami [International Communist Movement between the 1st and 2nd World Wars]. The Communist International and its Role in History, Moscow, 1957.

3 See Kabin I. G. The role of the Comintern in the development of the Communist movement. - Voprosy istorii CPSU, 1959, N 2.

4 See Korsunsky A. P. VII Congress of the Comintern on the United Workers ' and People's Front. - Questions of the history of the CPSU, 1960, N 1.

5 See: Antyukhina-Moskovchenko V. I. The failure of the fascist rebellion of February 6, 1934 and the birth of the Popular Front in France. - New and recent History, 1959, N 6; Kunina M., Markova V. Communists of France in the struggle for the Popular Front. 1934-1936. Moscow, 1961.

6 See International Meeting dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern. Prague. 1966.

7 Ponomarev B. N. Historical lessons of the VII Congress of the Communist International and modernity. - Kommunist, 1965, N 16, p. 16.

8 Ponomarev B. N. The Great Fighter for Peace and Socialism. Problemy mira i sotsializma [Problems of Peace and Socialism], 1962, no. 7 (in Russian). Historical lessons of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern. - Ibid., 1965, No. 12; it is the same. Historical significance of the Comintern. In: Komintern i ego revolyutsionnye traditsii [Comintern and its Revolutionary Traditions], Moscow, 1969. A glorious anniversary in the history of the communist movement (dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Comintern). - Problemy mira i sotsializma, 1969, N 2; his name is G. Dimitrov in the struggle against fascism during the Second World War. - Rabochy klass i sovremennyi mir, 1972, no. 2; his. Ideologue on-

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The provisions related to the assessment of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern were further developed at international scientific conferences dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Comintern and the 40th anniversary of its Seventh Congress .9
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Comintern , a collective monograph 10 was published, which gave a holistic concept of its history, characterized all the stages of its development, presented the activities of the Comintern quite fully on the eve and after the VII Congress, showed the dynamics of the process of developing a new strategic orientation of the world communist movement, and traced the activities of a number of communist parties under the leadership of the ECCI in its implementation.

In the first half of the 70s, the source base of research on the Comintern expanded due to the publication of a significant number of documents that were not previously used by historians , 11 which made it possible to reveal more deeply and comprehensively the activities of the world communist movement in the second half of the 30s.

In the early 70s, K. K. Shirinya published a number of articles [12], in which the main provisions of their joint monograph with B. M. Leibzon were developed and supplemented with new factual material [13 . Particularly interesting in this regard is the article "Politics of the Popular Front", which shows how flexibly and skillfully the ECCI approached the analysis of the situation in individual countries, helped the communist parties to develop a specific program of action, based on the principled line of the Seventh Congress. Studying the materials of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern and the periodical press of the 1930s, as well as the memoirs of participants in the events, allowed B. M. Leibzon and K. K. Shirina to prepare a new edition of their monograph based on largely new factual material and specialized literature published in the second half of the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s (Moscow, 1975)., which analyzes the changes in the world by the mid-1930s and shows the objective nature of the changes that began then in the world communist movement. The authors traced in more detail the process and stages of developing a new line of the Comintern, which they defined as a new strategic orientation (its essence is the path to the socialist revolution through the general democratic anti - fascist phase of the struggle), and found out the role of individual communist parties and Comintern figures in this. A large part of the book is devoted to the analysis of the work of the VII Congress, reports and speeches at its meetings. The authors showed how the new course was being adopted in the communist parties, how their work was being rebuilt. In addition, the book significantly expands the critique of reformist and revisionist concepts.

Since the mid-70s, the circle of historians who study the activities of the Comintern and the Communist parties in the second half of the 30s has been expanding. The struggle for the implementation of the decisions of the Seventh Congress, for

G. Dimitrov's legacy and modernity. - Kommunist, 1972, No. 9; it is the same. Communists in the struggle against fascism and war, for peace, democracy and socialism. - Ibid., 1975, No. 11; his. On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist International. - Ibid., 1979, No. 5; his. The case of Georgy Dimitrov and our modernity. - Ibid., 1982, N 7.

9 See: Comintern and its Revolutionary Traditions, Moscow, 1969; Communists in the Struggle for Democratic Unity. Prague. 1975; Communist movement in the vanguard of the struggle for peace, Social and National Liberation, Moscow, 1976.

10 See Communist International. A brief historical sketch, Moscow, 1969.

11 Georgy Dimitrov on the struggle of Communist parties for the masses. - The questions of party history, 1972, N 6; For the unity of the democratic forces, against fascism and war. New documents of Georgy Dimitrov. - Kommunist, 1972, No. 8; VII Congress of the Communist International and the struggle against fascism and war. Collection of doc. m. 1975; et al.

12 See Shirinya K. K. Politika Narodnogo fronta [Politics of the Popular Front]. In: Iz istorii Kominterna [From the History of the Comintern], Moscow, 1970. From the History of the Struggle of the Communist International against the War (1935-1936). Voprosy istorii CPSU, 1972, N 2; izd. Georgy Dimitrov and the struggle for the implementation and development of the new strategic line of the Comintern in 1936-1939. In: Georgy Dimitrov-an outstanding figure of the communist movement, Moscow, 1972; et al.

13 See Leibzon B. M., Shirinya K. K. The Turn in Comintern Politics, Moscow, 1965.

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creation of the People's Anti-fascist Front on an international and national scale. Articles and monographs constantly emphasized the relevance of the experience of those years for the communist movement of our days. In recent years, a number of monographs have been published that reveal the role of international workers ' organizations in implementing the new strategic orientation developed by the Seventh Congress of the Comintern.

The works of K. K. Shirini 14 and F. I. Firsov 15 attract the most attention . They introduce into scientific circulation a large number of new archival materials about the hitherto little-studied aspects and directions of the activities of the Comintern and Communist Parties in the second half of the 1930s. Thus, in the article "Georgy Dimitrov - General Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Comintern", F. I. Firsov gave a detailed account of the process of reorganizing the Comintern's governing bodies after the Seventh Congress, the work of the Secretariat and the Presidium of the ECCI, and the nature and results of their discussion of topical issues of the international communist movement. This made it possible to present more clearly the huge organizational work of the ECCI, which ensured the success of the Popular Front's policy.

The result of many years of work was K. K. Shirini's monograph " Strategy and tactics of the Comintern in the struggle against fascism and war (1934-1939)". It comprehensively traces the activities of many communist parties in implementing the decisions of the Seventh Congress, developing their strategies and tactics taking into account the specific conditions of their countries, and the assistance provided to them by the ECCI. The author made a fruitful attempt to distinguish the years 1938-1939 as an independent period, to determine its specifics, which consisted in the complication of conditions for the implementation of the Popular Front's policy. Against this background, the book reveals the activities of the Comintern and the Communist parties, emphasizing that their new strategic orientation was preserved, but the tactics of the communist parties had to be changed.

While K. K. Shirinya and F. I. Firsov primarily analyze the activities of the Comintern and its governing bodies as a whole, the works of other researchers 16 reveal the activities of individual communist parties in implementing the decisions of the Seventh Congress, analyze the assistance provided to them by the Comintern, and trace the development of international proletarian organizations (CIM, Profintern, MOPR, etc.) in the 1930s, their role and place in the implementation of the new strategic orientation, in the struggle for the Popular Front, against fascism and war.

14 See Shirinya K. K. Comintern on the main political goal of the anti-fascist struggle. In: The Communist Movement in the Vanguard of the Struggle for Peace, Social and National Liberation, Moscow, 1975. On the question of strategic stages in the development of the Communist movement and its tactics. - Izvestiya na Instituta po istoriya na BKP, Sofia, l. 38. 1978; his. Strategy and tactics of the Comintern in the struggle against fascism and war (1934-1939). Moscow, 1979; et al.

15 See Firsov F. I. Congress of Struggle for Unity of Revolutionary and Democratic Forces against Fascism and Imperialist War. - Voprosy istorii, 1975, no. 7; his. Georgy Dimitrov is an outstanding Leninist revolutionary. - New and Recent History, 1982, NN 1-2; his. Georgy Dimitrov - General Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Comintern. In: Georgy Dimitrov-an outstanding revolutionary and theorist, Moscow, 1982; et al.

16 See Avrus A. I. MOPR in the fight against fascism and terror. 1922 - 1939. Saratov, 1976; Reznikov A. B. From the history of the struggle for a united anti-imperialist front in the East. In: Communist Parties of developing countries in the Struggle for a United Front, Moscow, 1976. Strategy and tactics of the Communist International on the National-colonial issue, Moscow, 1978; Khavanov E. I. Communist International-organizer and leader of the Revolutionary Youth of the World (1929-1939). Saratov. 1978; Privalov V. V. Kommunisticheskiy Internatsionalny molodezhi [Communist International of Youth]. Pages of History, Moscow, 1979; Adibekov G. M. Questions of trade union policy and tactics of Communists at the International trade union meeting of 1935. In: Problemy istorii i politiki kommunisticheskikh partii [Problems of History and Politics of Communist Parties], Moscow, 1980. Profintern: politika kommunistov v soyuznom dvizhenii [Politics of Communists in the trade union movement], Moscow, 1981; Apollonova E. A. United Front in the strategy of Communists in Australia. In: Idei sotsializma i rabochoe dvizhenie v Australii [Ideas of Socialism and the Labor Movement in Australia], Moscow, 1981. Saratov, 1981; Meshcheryakov M. T. The National Revolutionary War of the Spanish People and the Communist International (1936-1939), Moscow, 1981; et al.

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M. T. Meshcheryakov's monograph examines one of the most important activities of the Comintern: helping the Communist Party of Spain and the Spanish people in the heroic struggle against the forces of fascism. The author investigated various forms of this assistance at different stages of the national revolutionary war of the Spanish people, revealed in detail the role of the ECCI and its advisers, especially P. Tolyatti, in developing the strategy and tactics of the Communist Party of Spain. The book emphasizes the significance of the experience gained at that time for the development of a number of important theoretical propositions by the world communist movement in the new historical conditions: on the union of the proletariat and peasantry, on the People's and National Front, on the people's democratic revolution, on the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, etc.

G. M. Adibekov analyzed the course of the Communist struggle for the implementation of the decisions of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern in the trade union movement, the formation of a new approach of the Communist parties to solving the problem of union unity on a national scale. A. B. Reznikov's article examines the question of how consistently and flexibly the ECCI helped to restructure the strategic line of the Communist parties of the East after the Seventh Congress, and how it approached this matter in a differentiated and tactful way, taking into account the specifics of each country.

The generalizing work of Soviet historians on the history and theory of the international labor movement covers the main aspects of the activities of the Comintern and the Communist parties in the struggle for the Popular Front, politics, the Socialist International and the reformist parties of the working class in the second half of the 1930s .17
So, since the mid-60s, the Russian historiography of the Comintern's struggle for the Popular Front has made a significant step forward: the level of research has increased, new sources have been introduced into scientific circulation, and a number of generalizing works on the history of the Comintern and international proletarian organizations have appeared. However, some issues require further investigation. There are still no solid scientific studies on the activities of a number of communist parties in the second half of the 1930s, especially their participation in the creation of the Popular Front on a national scale. Further research into the relationship between the communist and social-democratic parties during the struggle for the Popular Front is of great scientific and political importance. Changes in the working methods of the ECCI after the Seventh Congress and the restructuring of its staff have not yet been sufficiently revealed on concrete historical material.

17 International Labor Movement. Questions of History and Theory, vol. 5, Moscow, 1981.

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