ABSTRACT
The structure and operation of the CCP The Far Eastern Secretariat (FES) of ECCI, formed in Irkutsk in January 1921, directed Comintern work throughout the Far East until February 1922. Shanghai was the nodal point (uzlovoi punkt) of its work, since the central bureaux of the CCP and the Korean CP and Japanese operations were all based there.1 Hendricus Sneevliet was the principal agent of the Comintern in China, and was based in Shanghai from 3 June until 10 December 1921.2 He met almost daily with NikoPskii, the representative of Profintern, from whom he claimed to receive instructions.3 V.V. Lidin (b.1895) arrived in the city in late October, having been sent by the FES on a mission to Canton. En route, however, he was told to remain in Shanghai so that he could take over from NikoPskii once he had left in December.4 During the first half of 1922, Sneevliet remained based in Shanghai, but he was only in the city periodically - from 7 to 19 February, 7 to 23 March, 29 March to 24 April - before leaving for the Netherlands and Russia. He arrived back on 12 August 1922.5
Communications between the FES and its agents on the ground were poor. In his report of July 1921, Sneevliet wrote: “After I had been in Shanghai for a time I was informed by courier from Irkutsk that the Executive had made me a member of the FES and that they had decided in Irkutsk to leave me in Shanghai. In truth I was a member in name only. . . . Because I never received any direct correspondence, I did not participate in deciding strategy or the work as a whole of the Secretariat”.6 The person with the most reliable link to Russia was S.L. ViPde, who from September 1921 to March 1924 was chief accountant in the office of the Central Union of Consumer Associations (Tsentrosoiuz), whose office was in the compound of the Soviet Consulate on Huangpu road. However, it was Soviet policy to keep Comintern activities strictly separate from those of official soviet bodies, so ViPde was forbidden to meet with Comintern agents. Even more confusingly, Comintern agents in Shanghai were forbidden to have contact with those who worked in the FES “nodal point”.7
