Little Moscow was a term for towns and villages in capitalist societies whose population appeared to hold extreme left-wing political values or communist views.
During the early 20th century most of the areas were still expanding, and employment levels were high, but after World War I, despite an initial inflationary boom, the industries experienced market contractions and a series of strikes.
[1] A mixture of unemployment, the rise of trade unionism and the dissatisfaction brought about by World War I led to an increasing level of industrial unrest.
Ablett, a one-time checkweighman from the Mardy Colliery in Maerdy, was a founding member of the Plebs' League, a Marxist organisation originating from Ruskin College, Oxford.
In his 2011 paper Little Moscows in Western Europe: The Ecology of Small-Place Communism, Professor Ad Knotter of Maastricht University, identified ten such locations in mainland Western Europe that had been named as Little Moscow: Tarnac, Saint-Junien, Halluin, Sallaumines and Villerupt in France; Finsterwolde in the Netherlands and Mössingen, Selb, Frauenau and Penzberg in Germany.
In South America, the neighbourhood of Realengo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was nicknamed 'Little Moscow' during the mid twentieth century because of the sometimes militant support of the residents towards the Partido Comunista Brasileiro, the Brazilian Communist Party.
[6] In Australia, the coal mining town of Collinsville in North Queensland was known as 'Little Moscow' for its left-wing political radicalism, based in a culture of militant trades unionism.
[8] Though unlike in Britain, Racine did not have an open Communist political following, but through militant trade unions ran a series of strikes across industries throughout the city in the 1930s.