Travellers of the World Revolution

Travellers of the World Revolution by Brigitte Studer offers a new and fascinating account of the Communist International, the first organised attempt to bring about worldwide revolution, which left a lasting mark on 20th-century history. This transnational organisation was founded in 1919 by Lenin and Trotsky and was dissolved by Stalin in 1943. The story is told through the eyes of the activists who became its "professional revolutionaries".

Studer follows notable figures such as Willi Münzenberg, Mikhail Borodin, M.N. Roy, Evelyn Trent, Tina Modotti, Agnes Smedley and many others less well-known, as they are dispatched to various political hotspots of the 1920s and '30s. These locations range from revolutionary Berlin to Baku, from Shanghai to Spain, and from Nazi Germany to Stalin's Moscow. The narrative traces their journeys from revolutionary hope to accommodation, defeat or death, while exploring questions of motivation and commitment, agency and negotiation, life and love, conflict and frustration.

In doing so, the book reveals a forgotten Comintern, the expression of a multi-dimensional revolutionary moment. This movement attracted not only working-class but also feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist activists, highlighting the role of women in the Comintern and the centrality of anti-colonialism to the Communist project.

The book concludes with a reflection on the ultimate demise of this historically unique undertaking.