Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
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YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
in their narrative. 46 This being said, the primary emphasis of these texts was still upon<br />
the Communist Party, leaving a continued historical void on communist youth.<br />
The opening up of Soviet Comintern archives in 1991 reinvigorated debates over<br />
Moscow domination, Western "autonomy" and the highly contentious issue of espionage.<br />
47 British and American scholars took highly divergent approaches to the use of<br />
these previously inaccessible documents. Andrew Thorpe published the first work on the<br />
CPGB and the Comintern utilizing these sources. 48 Thorpe characterized the "control<br />
mechanisms" between the CPGB and the Comintern as ambiguous, allowing sufficient<br />
room for ideological deviation and autonomous political manoeuvring; a relationship<br />
where results and "competence often mattered more than strict obedience." 49 Thorpe's<br />
treatment of his sources highlights instances of successful "dissent" and "deviation,"<br />
characterizing them as reflections of a consistent negotiation of power between the party<br />
and the Comintern. 50 Other historians have criticized Thorpe's interpretations, asserting<br />
the same documents also show that in the end, despite dissent, the Comintern line prevailed,<br />
reflecting a Stalinist culture of submission to authority. 51 Whatever its shortcomings,<br />
Thorpe's analysis represented a self proclaimed "post-revisionist" attempt to analyze<br />
the relations of national parties to the Comintern. 52<br />
Other scholars studying the Comintern archives came to very divergent conclusions on<br />
the CPUSA's relationship to Moscow. In 1995 John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr<br />
produced The Secret World of American Communism followed by a second volume in<br />
1998 entitled The Soviet World of American Communism, reprinting selective Comintern<br />
documents. 53 These two volumes attempt to expose "the party's clandestine activities,"<br />
emphasizing that "the CPUSA was never an independent political organization" by<br />
highlighting Comintern dictates and Soviet funding. 54 Haynes and Klehr followed up<br />
these publications in 1999 with a lengthy narrative depicting the role of the CPUSA in<br />
Soviet espionage. 55 Revisionist scholars immediately attacked Haynes and Klehr,<br />
contending their approach was biased and intended to justify McCarthyism. 56 Haynes<br />
and Klehr rebutted these critiques by publishing vicious personal attacks against revisionists,<br />
labelling many of them as "Stalinists" and "elitists," denouncing them as "equally<br />
repugnant" as Holocaust deniers. 57 Instead of spurning healthy historical debate about<br />
Comintern documents, the Haynes-Klehr thesis has predominately led to "petty slanders"<br />
on both sides of the revisionist and traditionalist rift, causing many historians to simply<br />
"entrench" themselves in their previous scholarly assumptions. Both schools neglect the<br />
diversity of both clandestine and public experiences of communists during the inter-war<br />
era, particularly neglecting to highlight the role of youth.<br />
Thesis and Methodology<br />
This research on the young communist movement is informed by existing historiography,<br />
but attempts to supersede the conflicts between revisionists and traditionalists by adopt-<br />
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