Resumen

ZOFFMANN RODRIGUEZ, Arturo. Embassies and barricades. Mikhail Borodin, his Team and the Origins of Communism in Mexico and Spain, 1919-1920. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2021, n.62, pp.93-122.  Epub 16-Mayo-2022. ISSN 0185-2620.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24485004e.2021.62.77306.

This article tracks the steps of Mikhail Borodin, the first Soviet representative in Mexico and Spain during the 1919-1920 period. Borodin gave a decisive impulse to the creation of communist parties in both countries by linking them to pre-existing transnational activist networks while forming an energetic team of committed and cosmopolitan young radicals. At the same time, he made unsuccessful attempts to earn sympathy from Mexico’s revolutionary government. Borodin sought to channel the pro-Bolshevik enthusiasm of radical sectors of both Spanish and Mexican left, whose potential was wasted largely due to impetuousness of Borodin himself and his coreligionists. The Borodin mission stands for a valuable case study of the formative years of the Commintern which, against Moscow-centered mechanistic historiography, was signaled by contingency, individual agency, and overlapping of diplomacy and revolutionary activities.

Palabras llave : communism; Russian Revolution; Mexican Revolution; First World War; Communist International.