The 'Cominform' ('''Com'munist 'Inform'ation Bureau'') is the common name for what was officially referred to as the ''Information Bureau of the
Communist and Workers' Parties''. It was the first official forum of the international communist movement since the dissolution of the
Comintern, and confirmed the new realities after
World War II - including the creation of an
Eastern Bloc.
The Cominform was a
Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties founded in September,
1947 at a conference of Communist party leaders in
Szklarska Poręba,
Poland. The Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin called the conference in response to divergences among the eastern European governments on whether or not to attend the
Paris Conference on
Marshall Aid in July 1947.
The initial seat of the Cominform was located in
Belgrade (then the capital of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). After the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the group in June 1948, the seat was moved to
Bucharest,
Romania. The expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform for ''
Titoism'' initiated the ''
Informbiro period'' in that nation's history.
The intended purpose of the Cominform was to coordinate actions between Communist parties under Soviet direction. As a result, the Cominform acted as a tool of Soviet foreign policy and
Stalinism. It had its own newspaper (titled ''For Lasting Peace, for People's Democracy!''), and it encouraged unity of Communist parties under Soviet direction.
The Cominform was dissolved in
1956 after Soviet rapprochement with Yugoslavia and the process of
De-Stalinization.
Member Parties
★
Bulgarian Communist Party
★
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
★
French Communist Party
★
Hungarian Workers Party
★
Italian Communist Party
★
Polish United Workers' Party
★
Romanian Workers' Party
★
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
★
Communist Party of Yugoslavia (until its expulsion in June of 1948)
See also
★
Comintern
★
Comecon
★
Warsaw Pact
References
★ P. M. H. Bell, ''The World Since 1945'', London, Arnold, 2001, pp.89