Cominform
international organization (1947–1956) of European Marxist-Leninist parties during the early Cold War, replacing Comintern
The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Russian: Информационное бюро коммунистических и рабочих партий, romanized: Informatsionnoye byuro kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partiy), commonly known as Cominform (Коминформ), was a co-ordination body of Marxist–Leninist and communist parties in Europe which existed from 1947 to 1956. Formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Communist International in 1943, it did not replace that body, but instead mainly served as an expression of solidarity and as a means of disseminating Stalinist propaganda. The Cominform initially included the communist parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia (expelled in 1948), France, and Italy. The organization was dissolved in 1956, during de-Stalinization, largely replaced in function by the Warsaw Pact formed in 1955 and Comecon formed in 1949.
Overview
Establishment and purpose
The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties was unofficially founded at a conference of Marxist–Leninist communist parties from across Europe in Szklarska Poręba, People's Republic of Poland, in September 1947. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union (USSR), called the conference in response to divergences among communist governments on whether or not to attend the Paris Conference on the Marshall Plan in July 1947. It was founded with nine members: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Bulgarian Communist Party, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the Hungarian Communist Party, the Polish Workers' Party, the Romanian Communist Party, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, the French Communist Party, and the Italian Communist Party. The organization was commonly known as Cominform, an abbreviation of "Communist Information Bureau", itself a shortened version of the official name.
The Cominform was officially established on 5 October 1947 to coordinate actions among European communist parties under the direction of the Soviet Union. Cominform was not intended to be a replacement or successor to the Communist International (Comintern), the international organization that advocated world communism and dissolved in 1943, but was considered a type of successor.
“Cominform” enters the record as international organization (1947–1956) of European Marxist-Leninist parties during the early Cold War, replacing Comintern. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cominform, international and organization can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cominform” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cominform, international and organization provides the most credible route into that argument.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q183533. VIAF identifies the subject as 269853024. The Library of Congress control number is n84223337. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1947, 1956, 1943 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cominform” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.