ABSTRACT
As International Secretary of the Communist party, Fraina was expected to represent the Communist party at any conferences or congresses abroad. One such conference of representatives of the Western Communist parties was soon announced to take place in Amsterdam, Holland. Early in September, the month the Communist movement was formed, Peterson came to Nuorteva with a sensational tale. He called Nuorteva's attention to an article in the Finnish Socialist paper calling Fraina an "agent provocateur." In all the history of the Comintern—the most neglected of all aspects of Communist history— only once were the Western Communists permitted to get together without the benefit of Russian chaperons to draw up a program of their own. The Amsterdam meeting was not the only effort to set up a Communist center outside Moscow. The German Communist party had previously decided to organize a "Secretariat for Western Europe," and a conference in Germany had been announced for the latter half of January 1920.
