Congress of the Peoples of the East
It was this understanding which prompted the Russian representation at the Baku Congress to reject the arguments of the national communists as impractical and counterproductive to the revolution in general, without elaborating their fear that the safety of Russia lay in the balance.
[3] Signed by Comintern president Grigory Zinoviev and 25 Western European and American members of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, the call originally slated the opening of the gathering for August 15, 1920 — although the date was soon postponed by two weeks to September 1.
Now make your way over mountains and rivers, through forests and deserts, to meet and discuss how to free yourselves from the chains of servitude and unite in fraternal alliance, so as to live a life based on equality, freedom, and brotherhood.
[5]Physical arrangements for the Baku Congress were coordinated by a small committee in that city including the Azerbaijani communists Nariman Narimanov and M. D. Huseinov, Said Gabiev from Dagestan, Mustafa Suphi of Turkey, as well as the Georgian Sergo Ordzhonikidze and the Russian Elena Stasova.
[6] Soviet Russia was additionally the subject of a military blockade (cordon sanitaire) at the time, with the government of Great Britain in particular doing its best to impede travel to oil-rich Baku.
[12] Opening at almost 1:30 in the morning, the gathering gave Zinoviev, Karl Radek, and the various representatives of the Comintern from Europe and America a rousing welcome, with an orchestra playing the revolutionary anthem "The Internationale" repeatedly.
The first session, called to order at 9:40 p.m. on the night of September 1 by Nariman Narimanov, noted the existence of organized communist and non-party "fractions" and the seating of a pre-chosen slate of 16 representatives of each of these groups.
[19] Ten honorary members of the Presiding Committee were also named including: the American John Reed, Tom Quelch of Great Britain, Rosmer, Radek, Steinhardt, and Soviet People's Commissar of Nationalities Joseph Stalin, among others.
[24] The enormous cost of this war in money and lives had severely weakened all of these capitalist powers, winners and losers alike, Radek argued, increasing the need for colonial exploitation while at the same time making it possible for the danger to "pass away like a bad dream if the toiling masses of the East will rise up together with the workers of Europe.
[28] Session five was held during the night of September 5, 1920 and dealt with the questions of nationalism and colonialism, with the discussion based upon a lengthy speech delivered to the gathering by Mikhail Pavlovich, a Bolshevik official in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.
[29] Pavlovich represented modern imperialist rivalry in the East as a three-way conflict between the empires of Germany, Great Britain, and Russia — with new players the United States, France, and Japan entering the fray during the World War and its immediate aftermath.
[32] At the sixth Session, during the night of September 6, a set of "Theses on Soviet Power in the East" were delivered as part of a report by Hungarian revolutionary leader Bela Kun.
Their liberation will not be achieved merely by winning political independence, and therefore they cannot halt and rest content when that is won.... For the complete and real liberation of the peasantry of the East from all forms of oppression, dependence, and exploitation, it is also necessary to overthrow the rule of their landlords and bourgeoisie and to establish the Soviet power of the workers and peasants...[36]A final seventh session, held the night of September 7, established a permanent executive body called the Council for Propaganda and Action of the Peoples of the East.
An additional short discussion on the situation faced by the women's movement in the East was also conducted, with Naciye Hanım of the Communist Party of Turkey delivering a report to the congress in Turkish.
It was this understanding which prompted the Russian representation at the Baku Congress in September 1920 to reject the arguments of the national communists as impractical and counterproductive to the revolution in general, without elaborating their fear that the safety of Russia lay in the balance.
[40] Carr noted that owing to the unwieldy size of the gathering, policy debates and decisions took place behind closed doors, conducted by appointed leaders of the communist and non-communist "fractions" that were present.
