n.
or Communist International or Third International
Association of national communist parties founded in 1919.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin called the first congress of the Comintern to undermine efforts to revive the Second International . To join, parties were required to model their structure in conformity with the Soviet pattern and to expel moderate socialists and pacifists. Though the Comintern's stated purpose was the promotion of world revolution, it functioned chiefly as an organ of Soviet control over the international communist movement. In 1943, during World War II, Joseph Stalin dissolved the Comintern to allay fears of communist subversion among his allies.