Reply to ECCI Letter on Tactics of the Communist Party of Germany

Reply of Stalin to the Letter of the Political Secretariat of ECCI, 26 October 1933

Reply of Stalin to the Letter of the Political
Secretariat

of ECCI dated 25th October, 1933.

26 October, 1933

Moscow

Top Secret

The Cominternists are not correct. The boycott proposed by them is not an active boycott in the Bolshevik spirit. It is a simple abstention from elections: simply absenteeism. The Bolsheviks have never observed such a boycott. They observe only active boycott accompanied by revolutionary activities, their aim is to undermine or even to foil the elections. But this, the solely acceptable boycott, is now not possible in Germany. Therefore the Cominternists are wrong and the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPG is correct. You must participate in the elections, cross out the fascist list and vote for the option ‘no’ in the referendum. On such a basis you must form an anti-fascist front with the social-democratic workers and lead them so that such an initiative can be undertaken on a communist platform and under their leadership. Any other politics will serve only the interests of the fascists and social-democrats.

Signed: Stalin

RGASPI F. 508. Op.1. D.128. L.30.