ABSTRACT
This chapter originates from two almost simultaneous but at first sight contradictory events that took place in Africa and Latin America. Both mark a transformation process of the Soviet Union and international communism. When Mussolini's imperial war against Ethiopia began in October 1935 it was unofficially backed by the Soviet Union. Anti-fascism was only half-heartedly mobilised in defence of Abyssinia by the Communist International and efforts to react from below were squandered. It seems therefore a contradiction that one month later, the Comintern supported a military uprising in Brazil against the government of Getúlio Vargas. The insurrection failed in a pitiful way. The ‘Hands off Abyssinia’ campaign and the uprising of the Aliança Libertadora Nacional (ALN) in Brazil reveal the abandonment of anti-fascism and anti-colonialism by Soviet-style party communism and the Comintern in the last phase of the interwar period. Contrary to (neo-) Stalinist perceptions, empirical evidence substantiates that there was no continuity but a rupture in the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist strategy of the Soviet Union.
