Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial, and Racial Questions

Product Description In 1919, Bolshevik Russia and its followers formed the Communist International, also known as the Comintern, to oversee the global communist movement. From the very beginning, the Comintern committed itself to ending world imperialism, supporting colonial liberation, and promoting racial equality. Coinciding with the centenary of the Comintern's founding, Left Transnationalism highlights the different approaches interwar communists took in responding to these issues. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars on the Communist International, individual communist parties, and national and colonial questions, this collection moves beyond the hyperpoliticized scholarship of the Cold War era and re-energizes the field. Contributors focus on transnational diasporic and cultural networks, comparative studies of key debates on race and anti-colonialism, the internationalizing impulse of the movement, and the evolution of communist platforms through transnational exchange. Essays further emphasize the involvement of communist and socialist parties across Canada, Australia, India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Latin America, South Africa, and Europe. Highlighting the active discussions on nationality, race, and imperialism that took place in Comintern circles, Left Transnationalism demonstrates that this organization - as well as communism in general - was, especially in the years before 1935, far more heterogeneous, creative, and unpredictable than the rubber stamp of the Soviet Union described in conventional historiography. Contributors include Michel Beaulieu (Lakehead University), Marc Becker (Truman State University), Anna Belogurova (Freie Universitat Berlin), Oleksa Drachewych (University of Guelph), Daria Dyakonova (Université de Montréal), Alastair Kocho-Williams (Clarkson University), Andrée Lévesque (McGill University), Lars T. Lih (Independent Scholar), Ian McKay (McMaster University), Sandra Pujals (University of Puerto Rico), John Riddell (Ontario Institute of Studies in Education), Evan Smith (Flinders University), S.A. Smith (All Souls College, Oxford), Xiaofei Tu (Appalachian State University), and Kankan Xie (Peking University). Review "The volume's focus on antiracism and anti-imperialism meets avital need in teaching and research about international communism and the Russian Revolution. Instructors looking in incorporate the perspectives of Black and Indigenous people of colour into their classes will find much though-provoking material ... ." H-Diplo"Left Transnationalism provides a strong representation of current research in the field of transnational communist history. This is a vibrant field of scholarship and the collection comes with a well-informed and wide-ranging introduction that locates it Book Description An exploration of the ways interwar communism sought to combat imperialism, support self-determination of nations, and promote racial equality. About the Author Oleksa Drachewych is assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Western Ontario. Ian McKay is L.R. Wilson Chair of Canadian History, director of the Wilson Institute for Canadian History at McMaster University, and author of The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia.