For many of the years covered by this book, CP activity in the United States
followed a party line that originated in Moscow, especially during the existence
of the Communist International (1919–1943). For the 1930s especially, mate-
rial in RGASPI suggests an iterative process: U.S. party leaders met with the
Comintern’s Anglo-American Secretariat (AAS) in Moscow, reported their per-
spective on situations facing the CPUSA, and proposed a policy; their report
was discussed in the AAS and sometimes at higher levels of the Comintern;
drawing on such reports and on information from the press, the AAS drafted its
own report analyzing events and proposing policies, which report was some-
times discussed and approved at higher levels of the Comintern. [...]