Revolutionary Vanguard

The monolithic nature of the communist movement during the

Stalinist period overlay pluralist tendencies. These were suppressed in the 1920s,

though they were to re-emerge after Stalin's death.

The history of the

Communist Youth International is revealed in this volume as an important example of

the 'autonomist' tendencies in the communist movement after the First World

War. The experience of the CYI also demonstrates that differences between Leninist

and Stalinist eras were of degree, rather than of kind. Under Lenin, organizational

principles and practices were introduced that gave to the new communist movement a

distinct, authoritarian cast.

Cornell considers the relevance, in the

development of radical movements among the young, of such qualities as untempered

idealism, a predisposition to embrace the most radical alternatives for social

change, and a self-assertiveness or rebelliousness directed against traditional

adult teachings. He shows how these qualities were to lead, after the First World

War (and more recently), to conflicts between radical, ideologically orthodox youth

and more pragmatic adult party leaders. 

In introducing their new kind of

radicalism, the young communists of Europe in 1919 considered themselves to be the

most revolutionary element among revolutionaries – the highest form of

'revolutionary vanguard.' Moscow did not agree.