Throughout the early 1930s the Soviet Union's People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, headed by Maxim Litvinov, had pursued a policy of attempting to win a broad international agreement to bring about military disarmament.

[3] Dimitrov made his triumphant return to Moscow in April 1934 following acquittal in the Reichstag Fire trial determined to change the Comintern's fundamental strategy from one of antagonistic opposition to social democracy to one of cooperation in a joint struggle.

[4] This body was divided between Dimitrov and others advocating a move towards a "general democratic, anti-Fascist" orientation and hardliners who continued to argue that the battle against fascism was inseparable from the task of overthrowing the bourgeoisie, implying a simultaneous fight against the fascist right and the reformist constitutionalist and socialist movements.

[6] Shortly thereafter, two days of consultations in Moscow between French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Soviet chiefs Joseph Stalin, Viacheslav Molotov, and Maxim Litvinov helped to solemnify the agreement through a joint communique in which the parties agreed "not to allow their means of national defense to weaken in any respect" and which recognized France's right to "maintain her armed forces at a level consonant with her security.

[9] In keeping with his personal tradition and relative lack of interest in Comintern affairs, the proceedings were not attended by All-Union Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, who had by this time risen to a position of unquestioned supremacy in the Soviet firmament.

"[13] Pieck argued that with the coming of the Great Depression the bourgeoisie sought to solve its problem of a collapsing internal market and declining profits with a move towards seizure and plunder of foreign territory under the banner of fascism, with the aggression of militarist Japan in Manchuria and the rise of Nazi Germany said to epitomize the new trend.

[14] Pieck identified the "defeat of the German proletariat" and the rise of Nazism as the "greatest event that marked the first years of the crisis in the capitalist countries," stating that from the spring of 1932 it had "already become evident that the fascists had a considerable advantage over the Communists in the matter of mobilizing the masses.

"[18] A variety of factors had contributed to the new attitude of the Socialists towards the Communists, according to Pieck, including the "final and irrevocable victory of socialism in the Soviet Union" on the one hand and the brutal reality of fascist dictatorship in Germany on the other.