World communism

World communism, also known as international communism or global communism, is a form of communism that involves international scope. The long-term goal of world communism is a worldwide communist society that is stateless (lacking any state), which may be achieved through an intermediate-term goal of either a voluntary association of sovereign states (a global alliance) or a world government (a single worldwide state). A series of internationals have worked toward world communism; they have included the First International, the Second International, the Third International (the Communist International or Comintern), the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the World Socialist Movement, and variant offshoots. These are a quite heterogeneous group despite their common ultimate goal of a stateless and global communist society.

During the Stalinist era, the idea of Socialism in One Country, which many international communists considered unworkable, became part of the ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, as Joseph Stalin and his supporters concluded that it was naive to think that world revolution was imminent. This caused great disillusionment among many communists worldwide, who agreed with Marx and Lenin that international scope was vital to communist success. Other currents of national communism, especially after World War II, tempered the prewar popularity of international communism.