History of the left: the creation of the Bolivian Communist Party. The «late child» of the Communist Movement

In the ХХ-th century, the most important place belongs to the history of the international communist movement. Many regional and national pages of this history have not yet been written. And the story of the Communist Party of Bolivia remains unexplored by historians. This party was created later than all other communist parties in the region, only in 1950. This article for the first time not only in domestic but also in Bolivian historiography addresses the plot of the creation and first decades of the activity of the Communist Party, relying on the analysis of party documents, the press, archival documentation. The article analyzes the internal and external factors of the activities of the Bolivian Communists, the causes of numerous party crises and splits in which the party had to face. In all these crises, the party's life took place in the struggle of opposing currents, between reformists and revolutionaries, and relied more on external, international factors and ideas than on internal political experience and critical analysis of national reality. The exposition touches on several such crises, from the struggle against reformism and Stalinism to the split into pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese parties.

communism, Bolivia, stalinism, maoism, Mario Monje, Cuban Revolution