Abstract

PUJALS, Sandra. Island Bolshevism: Russia and the Third International in Puerto Rican Revolutionary Imaginaries, 1919-1936. hist.crit. [online]. 2017, n.64, pp.61-80. ISSN 0121-1617.  https://doi.org/10.7440/histcrit64.2017.04.

This article explores the meaning of the Bolshevik Revolution and the founding of the Communist International (Comintern) as revolutionary icons for the "workerist" environment in Puerto Rico between 1919 and 1936. The analysis focuses on the constructions, discursive mechanisms and allegorical references to these topics through a selection of items from the local internationalist-oriented workers press, covering three stages (1919-1921, 1927, 1934-1936) in the development of local communist radicalism. It presents examples on the construction of the concepts of bolshevism and international communism beyond the ideological and political context, suggesting an evolution from an anarchistic type of workers culture to one increasingly based on class struggle. The sources, taken from both the radical workers press and official Communist Party publications, provide a preliminary picture of revolutionary attitudes and dreams that would serve as the cultural and genealogical basis for local communism at a crucial stage in the island's process of ideological and political formation.

Keywords : Puerto Rico; Russia; Comintern; international communism; worker culture; revolutionary imaginaries.

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