The Cominform : a study of propaganda

• Main Author: Katona, Paul
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) 1958
• Subjects: 327
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.284292

This is the story of the Cominform: the Information Bureau of Communist and Workers' Parties, presented as a case history in Communist policy and propaganda. The writer considers the creation and functions of the Cominf'orm as symptoms of an attempt to use ideological discipline as a cohesive force within the Soviet empire. Chapter One deals with the general situation in which the Cominfon was called into existence. Chapter Two is the history of its birth. Chapters Three and Four are devoted to the origins and the outbreak of the Soviet-Yugoslav dispute. Chapters Five and Six contain an analytical description of the propaganda war against Yugoslavia. Events leading to the formal dissolution of the Comixiform - notably the detente with Yugoslavia and the surrender by the Soviet Union of ideological monopoly - are analysed in Chapter Seven. The periods under review are (i) the active lifetime of the Cominform between September 1947 and the end of 1949 and. (ii) the phase preceeding its dissolution in April 1956. The study is partly based. on the writer's M.Sc.(Econ.) thesis entitled "The Content of Propaganda in the Controversy between Yugoslavia and the Cominforin". It is, however, not merely a further elaboration of the theme. while certain parts have been taken, with some modifications, from the old thesis, the new study offer's a view from a new angle. Both the approach and the focus are different. Some of the old sketches have been incorporated in a new, comprehensive, picture of a phase in Communist policy and propaganda. In a similar way, the description of the detente with Yugoslavia in Chapter Seven is partly based on the writer's article entitled "The Detente between Yugoslavia and her Neighbours" published in the Apr11 1956 issue of "International Relations".