Communist Party of Turkey and Soviet Foreign Policy

Abstract

The 1920s were the heyday of anti-imperialist struggle for the Bolsheviks. The relationship between anti-imperialist nationalist movements and communism was articulated and generally supported by Moscow. In 1919, the Communist International (Komintern) was established in Moscow to coordinate the activities of the foreign communist parties around the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. For better or worse, the communist parties thus emerged in foreign lands as the ideological allies and foreign policy instruments of the Soviet Union. Komintern, the Third International, in a radical departure from the precedents set by both the First and Second Internationals, was no longer to be a series of national parties, but more like a single communist party with branches in different countries. Between congresses, the highest authority was to be the Executive Committee, which would have powers parallel to and superseding the powers of the Central Committees of the individual parties. It was to be a directive center of the world revolution. Turkish nationalists and Russian Bolsheviks found themselves threatened by the Western imperial powers. Common struggle against the Western imperial powers threatening both sides led to a mutually advantageous collusion between Moscow and Ankara. In the encouraging atmosphere of friendship between the Bolsheviks and Turkish national movement, left-wing activities gained momentum with the emergence of a number of left-socialist organizations in Turkey. The most important socialist movement was the Communist Party of Turkey.