Communist Party of Germany (KPD) member Paul Levi played a leading role in several debates.
By John Riddell
December 4, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, for more articles by John Riddell, go to http://johnriddell.wordpress.com -- Until recently, I shared a widely held opinion that the Bolshevik
Party of Russia towered above other members of the early Communist
International as a source of fruitful political initiatives. However, my
work in preparing the English edition of the Comintern’s Fourth
Congress, held at the end of 1922, led me to modify this view.(1) On a
number of weighty strategic issues before the congress, front-line
parties, especially the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), played a
decisive role in revising executive committee proposals and shaping the
Congress’s outcome.]
When I translated the first page of this congress, I was not far
distant from the view of Tony Cliff, who, referring to the 1921–22
period, referred to the “extreme comparative backwardness of communist
leaders outside Russia”. They had an “uncritical attitude towards the
Russian party”, which stood as “a giant among dwarfs”, Cliff stated.(2)