Comintern, Comicon and Cominform

[Noah]

Can someone tell me what all these words mean? Thanks!

[Leo]

Comintern is Communist International. Cominform is Communist Information Bureau. I have no idea what Comicon is.

[MrDoom]

Comintern was the 2nd International, a portmanteu(sp?) of Communist International.

EDIT: Isn't Comicon that comic book convention? :huh:

[Ol' Dirty]

Comicon is indeed a comic book convention. And a damned good one at that!

[The Author]

COMECON: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Existed from 1949 to 1991. The economic organization of the Eastern Bloc in response to the European Economic Community in the West. The headquarters of COMECON was located in a building adjacent to the Moscow White House I believe (that's the building Boris Yeltsin bombed in the October 1993 Parliamentary Crisis), and where the Moscow Mayor's office is located today.

[Noah]

Okay so comintern promoted communist revolution all over the world?

And cominform was a group of 'communist' countries who obeyed soviet rule?

And Comecon was a council that controlled the planned economies of the soviet-controlled countries by using satellites? (thats what my teacher told me)...But really all the Comecon did was take resources from the neighbouring soviet controlled countries and sent them to Russia. Is that correct?

[BobKKKindle$]

Comecon was first established as a response to the Marshall plan following World War 2 (whereby the US offerred aid to the devestated countries of Europe in order to ward off the threat of socialist revolutions) but later revoled into an organisation whereby the USSR provided economic assistance to the Warsaw pact and other socialist nations (such as the PRC until the Sino-Soviet Split) in the form of technical development plans and personnel. Comecon also played the role of coordinating trade between socialist countries - however - the terms of trade were often unfair for the satellite coutry, as the USSR forced these countries to accept high prices for its manufactured goods, and bought the raw materials of these countries for low prices in exchange.

North Korea overcame these problems through a rather innovative system known as Reverse-engineering, whereby they would purchase one unit of a good, and examine the good to see how it worked. They would then draw up their own desires and manufacture the goods domestically.

Welcome Comrade!

[Severian]

Originally posted by Noah(pbuh)+December 10, 2006 03:05 pm--> (Noah(pbuh) @ December 10, 2006 03:05 pm) Okay so comintern promoted communist revolution all over the world? [/b]
Only to start with. It was an international organization of Communist Parties - the Communist International.

After the first few years, it did the opposite. The Kremlin, through the Comintern, ordered Communist Parties all over the world to seek alliances with "progressive" bourgeois parties. One example that might be familiar to you is the Iraqi Communist Party joining the Ba'ath Party government.

Similarly, the CPUSA supported the Democratic Party beginning in the 30s. The goal of all this was not world revolution - the goal was better relations between the Kremlin and some capitalist regimes, using the CPs as bargaining chips.


And cominform was a group of 'communist' countries who obeyed soviet rule?

Nah, a group of "Communist" Parties. Basically it was just the Comintern renamed "Communist Information Bureau". The Comintern was dissolved during WWII and the Cominform set up to replace it.


And Comecon was a council that controlled the planned economies of the soviet-controlled countries by using satellites? (thats what my teacher told me)...But really all the Comecon did was take resources from the neighbouring soviet controlled countries and sent them to Russia. Is that correct?

Your teacher's got this exactly backwards, and so does Bobkindles.


Bobkindles
Comecon also played the role of coordinating trade between socialist countries - however - the terms of trade were often unfair for the satellitle coutry, as the USSR forced these countries to accept high prices for its manufactured goods, and bought the raw materials of these countries for low prices in exchange.

Exactly backward! The terms of trade between the USSR and the less developed countries were highly favorable - for the less developed countries. The USSR subsidized them. The Soviet-Cuban relationship is the best-known example - Cuba got a price for its sugar way above the world market price, and got oil very cheaply. That's why Cuba ran into so much economic trouble after the collapse of the USSR.

That's more-or-less generally true for COMECON - the so-called Soviet "empire" in fact cost them money. That's why, when the USSR was having trouble economically, Gorbachev basically ditched COMECON - he put all Soviet trade with other countries on a market basis.

[Lamanov]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10, 2006 08:09 pm
Comintern was the 2nd International...

2nd International ended in 1914.

Communist International was founded after the October revolution. Comintern is the 3rd International.