National party lines could diverge from shifting Comintern strategy in the mid-1920s

Evidence

The coincidence between Comintern strategy and that of the Italian party after the Fifth World Congress in June 1924 was not simply a question of cause and effect; it was rather a question of a somewhat tactical “left” turn by the Comintern meshing in with the pre-existing “leftism” of the P.C.I. … For in the spring of 1925 the Comintern was to reverse its “left” turn—after the fall of Macdonald in Britain and Herriot in France, the rise to power of Hindenburg in Germany and the repression of the K.P.D., the new consolidation of Mussolini’s regime in Italy, and the reactionary turn of events in Poland and in Estonia—and speak of the temporary stabilisation of capitalism. Yet there was no corresponding rightward turn in the line of the Italian party, which was to undergo no significant modifications until after Gramsci’s arrest. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 170

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with doctrinaire readings of Comintern as monolith — parallel to nationally-determined political trajectories Gramsci analyzes in the fascism chapters.