International Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that oversaw the Party's relationships with foreign Communist Parties as well as with international communist front organizations.Schapiro, Leonard. "The International Department of the CPSU: Key to Soviet Policy." International Journal, vol. 32, no. 1, 1976, pp. 41–55. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40542145.

History It inherited the files and some of the personnel of the Communist International, which disbanded in 1943.Ebon, Martin The Soviet propaganda machine New York : McGraw-Hill, 1987 p.88 The International Department was founded in 1943 at roughly the same time as the Comintern's dissolution.Mark Kramer, The Role of the CPSU International Department in Soviet Foreign Relations and National Security Policy, Soviet Studies, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1990), pp. 429-446

The Party's relations with international front groups was managed by the Department's International Social Organizations Sector.Ebon, Martin The Soviet propaganda machine New York : McGraw-Hill, 1987 p.89

Leadership 1943, 27 December – 1945, 29 December: Georgi Dimitrov 1946, 13 April – 1949, 12 March: Mikhail Suslov 1949 – 1953: Vagan Grigoryan 1953 – 1954: Mikhail Suslov 1954 – 1955: Vasily Stepanov 1955 – 1986: Boris Ponomarev (the first deputy director from 1938 to 1955, deputy director of the Cominform from 1947 to 1948)Ebon, Martin The Soviet propaganda machine New York : McGraw-Hill, 1987 pp.88-9 1986 – 1988: Anatoly Dobrynin 1988 – 1991: Valentin Falin

See also Departments of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union International Department of the Chinese Communist Party International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the SED

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