Yearbook on International Communist Affairs

Yearbook on International Communist Affairs is a series of 25 books published annually between 1966 and 1991, which chronicle the activities of communist parties throughout the world.[3] It was published by the Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University.[4][5] Richard F. Staar served as its editor in chief for most of its editions.[6]

Yearbook on International Communist Affairs
Cover of the 1984 edition
Edited byMilorad M. Drachkovitch,
Richard F. Staar (1969–1991)[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish[2]
DisciplineCommunism
PublisherHoover Institution Press, Stanford University
Published1966–1991
Media typePrint
No. of books25
OCLC1680890

The Yearbook was widely regarded as an objective, comprehensive, very detailed, and reliable reference work, with high quality editorial work. Reviewers noted that no other similar vast compilation of worldwide Communist activities had existed prior to the creation of this book series, and becoming "the most authoritative word on the subject".[7][8][9][2][10][11]

History

Creation

In a foreword in the first edition, W. Glenn Campbell, Director of The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, stated the following reasons for creating such a volume:

the international communist movement has had a profound impact inupon the modern world. In the half-century since the Bolshevik Revolution the movement has expanded steadily. Communist parties now rule in fourteen countries and are active in some 75 others. At the same time, the movement has become more complex and fragmented, particularly as divergent tendencies have arisen in the past dozen years. For these reasons, the Hoover Institution decided to begin publication of a Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, a project designed to provide an annual compendium and reference work for scholars, teachers, students, policymakers, journalists, and others.[12]

In 1971 the Il Politico journal noted that the publication of that year's volume had been possible with the financial support from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, and the Esso Education Foundation.[10]

Companion retrospective publication

The first edition of the yearbook appeared in conjunction with another publication by the Hoover Institution: World Communism: A Handbook 1918–1965, which surveyed the historical and structural developments of all communist parties, from their foundation until the end of 1965. The Yearbook then took over to offer documentation for 1966 (and onwards).[12]

Editors and contributors

With some variations, each book had a chief editor, an assistant editor (aided by a "small full-time team" working at the Hoover Institution), an editorial board or area editors (depending on which edition, at times also called "foreign correspondents"), and an advisory board ("of distinguished scholars in the field of communism and international affairs from both the United States and Western Europe").[12][10] There was also a large number of expert contributors in covering each of the countries in the Yearbook; these were initially uncredited, but identified in later editions.[12][13]

The lead editors at inception of the series for the 1966 year volume were Milorad M. Drachkovitch and Lewis H. Gann.[12][1][11] They were followed by Richard Allen and Milorad Popov.[9] Since 1969 and until the end of the series in 1991, Richard F. Staar was its main editor.[1][9][6]

Discontinuation

As the Soviet Union weakened, leading to its dissolution in 1991, Communism as a major global geopolitical factor also faded. As Gerald Segal writing for the International Affairs put it in 1990, the Yearbook while still a "reliable" and "essential" reference work, with all the changes in the Communist world, including "the breaching of the Berlin Wall and the coming of political pluralism to most of Eastern Europe", it was becoming a repository of "esoteric history"[14]

In this context, the Yearbook saw its last edition published covering the year 1991, its 25th anniversary edition. The Washington Post noted how the discontinuation of the Yearbook was a sign of the times, by stating:

In addition to trying to take an active role in the changes sweeping the Soviet Union, American experts also are seeking new directions for scholarship that long focused exclusively on communism and the Cold War. In a symbolic underscoring of how outmoded those topics suddenly have become, the Hoover Institution has decided that its just published Yearbook of International Communist Affairs will be the last edition of a work long regarded as the most authoritative word on the subject. Still, Richard F. Starr, editor of the Yearbook, thinks it is not yet time to abandon the strategic studies that long were the underpinning of Soviet scholarship. He now is concentrating his research on efforts to reform and restructure the Soviet armed forces.[7]

Scope and contents

The books series was conceived to be a "continuing publication in English on the international political activities of the various communist parties, or on the relations among communists themselves."[2]

According to the 1979 edition (and representative of the entire series), the purpose was to provide basic data concerning organizational and personnel changes, attitudes towards domestic and foreign policies, and activities of communist parties and international front organizations through the world. Much of the information came from primary source materials in the native languages. Profiles on each party included founding date, legal or proscribed status, membership, electoral and parliamentary (if any) strength, leadership, auxiliary organizations, domestic activities, ideological orientation, views on international issues, attitude toward the Sino-Soviet dispute, and principal news media.[13]

The criterion for a party to be included in the books was its identity as a Marxist–Leninist party,[13][3][15][16] and recognized by authoritative communist publications such as the World Marxist Review.[12][3][15] That is, parties that were pro-Soviet, pro-Chinese, Castroite, Trostkyist, as well as other rival communist movements.[13][3][16] Every edition in the book series covered around 100 parties.[13][17][12][8][5] International mass organizations under communist leadership were also included.[12]

With some variations over the years, the books included the following sections:[8][17][12][3][10][11][15][9]

  • Introduction/Overview
  • Profiles of Individual Communist Parties (by country, constituting the majority of the content of each book)
    • History
    • Organization and leadership
    • Domestic affairs, views and policies
    • International views and activities
    • Publications
  • Register of Communist Parties
  • Chronology
  • Survey of International Communist and National Revolutionary Conferences
  • Description of International Communist Front Organizations
  • Documents
  • Biographies of Prominent International Communist Figures
  • Bibliography
  • Index by Names, and Subjects

The Yearbook averaged over 950 pages in its first few editions, and continuing to oscillate between about 500 to over 1000 pages throughout the duration of the series.[11][17][12][13]

Reception

Accolades

The book series was generally very well regarded by scholars.[3][8][18][4] Talking about the first volume J.M. Bocheński noted that "the reviewer does not believe that anything comparable in scope, wealth of information and exactness has been produced by any Communist organization. It will certainly be a standard reference by all scholars interested in Communism, Communist and non-Communist alike. It is hoped that similar volumes will be published for subsequent years." further adding "it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance and usefulness of this work"[8] Similarly Avakumovic writing for Pacific Affairs concurred, calling it a pioneering work.[3]

In subsequent volumes, the series continued to be praised, with multiple academic reviewers describing the book series as being a "monumental study"[4] having "inestimable value for anyone interested in international affairs",[19] a scholarly tool very rich in detail[19][16][2] and comprehensive in scope,[10][11][16][9] free of cold war jargon,[19] detached and impartial,[11][4] and overall being a good distillation of the prior year's events into a single volume,[10] and "best available Reference on the contemporary communist world".[10][5]

The Washington Post reporting on the discontinuation of the book series in 1991, praised it as "a work long regarded as the most authoritative word on the subject."[7]

Challenges, limitations, and criticisms

In 1970 the Slavic Review noted that in the 1960s new challenges arose in identifying communist parties and movements, with the scene having become "more confused by the appearance of Marxist- oriented-guerrilla and 'New Leftist' movements which also might be designated 'Communist'."[15] The authors coped with the multiplicity and divergence of communist branches by focussing their coverage on those self-described as Marxist–Leninist and those recognized by authoritative Communist publications, such as the World Marxist Review. However, the editors did still not "face up to (...) the concept of the 'international Communist movement.'"[15]

Similarly Karl Schmitt writing for The Hispanic American Historical Review in 1972 also shared his concerns that the definition of communist parties had become inadequate.[16]

Early in the series some reviewers pointed that the wealth of compiled objective data in the book would have benefitted from providing more interpretation, analysis, and theoretical considerations.[15][16][4] Some reviewers concluded that the work reads more like an encyclopedia,[16] dictionary,[4] or "catalogue"[4] than an "analytical perspective".[4][16] On that regard, the American Political Science Review further noted that the work contained "too much factual summary",[4] however "within the framework and strictures of this probably insoluble problem, Staar and his able editorial staff did an outstanding job in offering us invaluable raw materials"[4] that are of value to further study of the movement and literature of contemporary international Communist affairs.[4]

in 1970, the reviewer for that year's book for Africa Today noted that the Africanists would find the coverage on Africa to be weak, while still noting that the sections with Communist parties in the rest of the world were quite valuable.[18] On the other hand, in 1972 the Journal of Asian History remarked that the Asian countries were thoroughly covered.[19]

Some commentators also noted the high price of the first volumes may have put the book out of reach of many, but later that was changed by making it more affordable.[19][11] Also it was noted that some data from year to year might have been repetitive, as some basic facts about the parties remained the same.[20][11] The reviewer for Canadian Slavonic Papers wondered "Would it not be wiser to prepare revised volume every five or six years and keep it up to date with annual supplements which included only new material?" [11] As the new editions changed a bit their format from prior ones, some reviewers lamented the shortening or removal of some sections such as documentation, chronicle, or introduction.[11]

Ryszard Szawłowski writing for Soviet Studies in 1979 opined that some contributing authors for the Yearbook were based far away from their target countries of study, and believing that recruiting contributors closer to their geographical areas of study that would enable them to provide a more nuanced and on-the-ground recounting of facts.[5]

A minority of reviewers also questioned some of the relevance of the Yearbook. Charles B. McLane, writing for the Canadian Slavonic Papers asserted in 1972 that there was some irony in the appearance of the series "two decades after it was most urgently needed",[11] as "In the years after World War II, when intense anti-Communist sentiment in Western Europe and the United States coloured the reporting of developments in the Communist world scholars, government officials and the public at large would have profited greatly by the dispassionate appraisals which characterize the Yearbooks".[11] However, by the time the Yearbook series appeared, the world communist movement was already "a less formidable force in international politics than it once was, or appeared to be.", with a small number of countries with significant but already well-studied movements, and many others being marginal and of no meaningful impact in international affairs.[11]

Near the end of the series, and shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gerald Segal writing in 1990 for the International Affairs journal, commented on the declining relevance of the book series as communism as a major geopolitical factor was fading; for "those who dare to retain an interest in comparative communism" the 1990 volume may continue to offer them an "essential"[14] "meticulous report" on the prior year's events,[14] but for most, the events in the communist world had become "esoteric history".[14]

Availability

Physical prints are available in various libraries.[1]

Cover of the World Strength of the Communist Party Organizations – 1963 intelligence report

Similar works

The World Strength of the Communist Party Organizations, was an annual report on communism of more limited scope, published by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the U.S. Department of State since 1948. It was initially conceived as an "in-house" text on Communist parliamentary and party strength. It received favorable notice and was subsequently issued as a public document.[15][11] Some editions are available on-line.[21]

See also

References
  1. Staar, Richard Felix; Drachkovitch, Milorad M.; Gann, Lewis H.; Hoover Institution On War, Revolution (2018). "Yearbook on international communist affairs". Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. OCLC 1680890.
  2. Stoessinger, John G. (July 1968). "Recent Books on International Relations". Foreign Affairs. 46 (4): 780–799. doi:10.2307/20039344. JSTOR 20039344. a quite hefty contribution, useful as a reference.
  3. Avakumovic, Ivan (Summer 1970). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1968. by Richard V. Allen". Pacific Affairs. 43 (2): 270–271. doi:10.2307/2755070. JSTOR 2755070.
  4. Gyorgy, Andrew (1978). "1975 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Edited by Staar Richard F.. (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1975. Pp. 678. $25.00.)". American Political Science Review. 72 (2): 819. doi:10.2307/1954276. JSTOR 1954276. Retrieved May 13, 2017. Staar and his able editorial staff did an outstanding job in offering us invaluable raw materials for further study of the various facets of the world Communist movement and the current literature of contemporary international Communist affairs. Those of us working in Communist Studies eagerly look forward to the next few volumes of this series.(...)
    A major contrition to the solid body of information and increasing knowledge on the International communist movement(...)
    significant and lasting work in this particularly murky and complicated field.(...)
    this work contains too much factual summary and is somewhat short on analytical propositions and theoretical considerations. However, within the framework and strictures of this probably insoluble problem, Staar and his able editorial staff did an outstanding job in offering us invaluable raw materials for further study of the various facets of the world Communist movement and the current literature of contemporary international Communist affairs. Those of us working in Communist Studies eagerly look forward to the next few volumes of this series.
  5. Szawlowski, R. (October 1979). "Reviewed Work: Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1978 by Richard F. Starr". Soviet Studies. 31 (4): 617–619. JSTOR 150933. this twelfth volume of the Yearbook covers eighty-six International Communist front organizations. One has to Conquest in the preface that such an almanac is indispensable and that without this type of reference work all those interested would be handicapped.
  6. "Richard F. Staar – Senior Fellow, Emeritus". US: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  7. Goshko, John M. (December 3, 1991). "As Soviet Union dissolves, "kremlinologists" shift gears". Washington Post. US. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  8. Bocheński, J. M. (1968). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1966". Studies in Soviet Thought. 8 (2/3): 203. JSTOR 20098337.
  9. Hanak, Harry (April 1971). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1968 by Richard V. Allen and Milorad Popov". The Slavonic and East European Review. 49 (115): 323. JSTOR 4206404. the value of this vast volume as a work of reference is unquestionable and the editorial work (...) be very highly praised
  10. J.S.R. (September 1971). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1970 by Richard F. Staar". Il Politico. 36 (3): 617. JSTOR 43207413. It is the only comprehensive survey, in any language, of what is happening in the communist world. In this single volume we find the distillation of a year's research by full-time researchers working at the Hoover Institution and by correspondents and analysts located throughout the world.(...)The work can hardly be criticized. Who is, after all, to argue with the specialists who have helped to author this large volume, the best available Reference on the contemporary communist world?"
  11. McLane, Charles B. (Autumn 1972). "1970 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs and 1971 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs by RICHARD F. STAAR". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 14 (3): 548–551. JSTOR 40866482. The volumes are, in short, extremely comprehensive and are as well researched and authenticated as the elusive activities of Communist parties, many of them clandestine, can be. The tone of the essays, meanwhile, is detached and impartial. While individual authors may sometimes lean on rumour and hearsay where concrete evidence is lacking, none of them can be charged with gratuitously perpetrating a distorted impression of world communism or of displaying a bias toward individual parties.(...)
    There is, indeed, some irony in the appearance of this worthy series two decades after it was most urgently needed. In the years after World War II, when intense anti-Communist sentiment in Western Europe and the United States coloured the reporting of developments in the Communist world scholars, government officials and the public at large would have profited greatly by the dispassionate appraisals which characterize the Yearbooks. Today these appraisals are less crucial to a grasp of world affairs. The world Communist movement itself, wracked by its own internal convolutions, is a less formidable force in international politics than it once was, or appeared to be. Most of the parties dealt with in meticulous detail in the Yearbooks are now almost without significance in their local political setting and are not likely to gain stature in the years immediately ahead; their leverage in international affairs is negligible. The parties that are important – that is, those in power and a dozen or so others which play an active part in democratic systems (as in Italy and France) – are better understood today through wider and more exacting research.
  12. Drachkovitch, Milorad M., ed. (1967). Yearbook on International Communist Affairs – 1966. US: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University. p. vii-xiii. LCCN 67-31024.
  13. Staar, Richard F., ed. (1979). Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1979. US: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University. ISBN 978-0-8179-7151-9. LCCN 76-51879.
  14. Segal, Gerald (July 1990). "1989 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. by Richard F. Staar". International Affairs. 66 (3): 650–651. doi:10.2307/2623202. JSTOR 2623202. Copies of this already well-established reference tool will be well thumbed this year. But with all revolutionary events in the so-called communist world, the most important parts of it are now esoteric history. Of course, this yearbook never claimed to be more than a meticulous report of the previous year's events. The usual provision of lists of party congresses and parties, and a wonderful bibliography, still make it essential for those who dare to retain an interest in comparative communism. Though the editor notes that 'the world revolutionary process, thus, is still alive if no longer well' (p. xxxiii), he was using ' revolution' in a very different sense from most of his readers, who have since watched the breaching of the Berlin Wall and the coming of political pluralism to most of Eastern Europe.
  15. Morris, Bernard S. (December 1970). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1968. by Richard V. Allen". Slavic Review. 29 (4): 704–705. doi:10.2307/2493285. JSTOR 2493285. One problem that did not face the analyst until the 1960s was the constitution of the international Communist movement. The parties that belonged to the Comintern were the orthodox parties, and even after its dissolution there was no problem in identifying members of the 'Stalinist international.' Within the last decade, however, the scene has been confused by the appearance of Marxist- oriented-guerrilla and 'New Leftist' movements which also might be designated 'Communist.' The editors of the yearbook have coped with this development by treating as Communist parties only those that describe themselves as Marxist- Leninist and are so recognized by authoritative Communist publications, such as the World Marxist Review. This is not a bad solution for identification of 'orthodox.' Communist parties. What the editors do not face up to, however, is the concept of the 'international Communist movement.
  16. Schmitt, Karl (February 1972). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs: 1969. by Richard F. Staar". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 52 (1): 181–182. JSTOR 2512180.
  17. Staar, Richard F.; Grigory, Margit N., eds. (1991). 1991 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. US: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University. ISBN 978-0-8179-9161-6. ISSN 0084-4101. LCCN 67-31024.
  18. Kanet, Roger E. (March–April 1970). "Soviet Perspectives on African Socialism by Arthur Jay Klinghoffer; Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1968 by Richard V. Allen". Africa Today – the Scholar's View: A Book Review Issue. 17 (2): 27. JSTOR 4185079.
  19. Sinor, Denis (1972). "Short notices on books received". The Journal of Asian History. Harrassowitz Verlag. 6 (2): 194–199. JSTOR 41930067. [the books] constitute a scholarly tool of inestimable value for anyone interested in international affairs. As today's events constitute tomorrow's history and as these volumes give an extensive coverage to Asian countries, it was felt that the attention of this Journal's readers should be called to these excellent publications. The amount of useful information contained in these volumes is truly amazing and they are mercifully free from any trace of cold war terminology or polemics.
  20. Morris, Bernard S. (September 1971). "Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1969. by Richard F. Staar". Slavic Review. 30 (3): 678. doi:10.2307/2493575. JSTOR 2493575.
  21. World strength of the Communist Party organizations. HathiTrust. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
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