Anatomy of a Fragile Party: The Early Years of Communism in Portugal, 1921–1926

Abstract

This article examines the first steps of the Portuguese Communist Party (pcp), from its foundation in 1921 until the coup of May 28, 1926. It examines the pcp’s organizational and ideological evolution, its relationship with the republicans and the anarcho-syndicalists and how it was influenced by Moscow, thus providing an in-depth vision of the party and its role during the crisis of the First Republic. It relies on new sources from the archives of the Communist International. Methodologically, the article attempts to overcome the orthodoxy-heterodoxy dichotomy that characterizes much of the historiography, adopting a comparative perspective that is sensitive to the national and international context.