Comintern

Comintern (Communist International), organization founded by the Russian Communist Party and composed of national Communist parties from all parts of the world. The Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin called for the formation of a world revolutionary organization after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, but the first meeting of the Comintern was held only in 1919. Also known as the Third International (to distinguish it from the Second, or Socialist, International, a world organization of Social Democratic parties), the Comintern attempted during the 1920s to foster workers' revolution on a world scale. During the 1930s, however, it became essentially an organ of the Soviet government. Stalin dissolved it in 1943 as a gesture to his Western Allies during World War Π.

See also: Communism.