Cominform [key] [acronym for Communist Information Bureau], information agency organized in 1947 and dissolved in 1956. Its members were the Communist parties of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. The Cominform attempted to reestablish information exchanges among the European Communist parties that had lapsed since the dissolution (1943) of the Comintern. Its decisions were not binding, nor was membership obligatory for Communist parties. It was not a reconstitution of the Comintern, only a setting up of information contacts. Its chief function was the publication of materials designed to demonstrate the unity of its members. In 1948 the Cominform expelled the Yugoslav Communist party because of the defiance by Marshal Tito of Soviet supremacy. In 1956, as a gesture of reconciliation with Tito, the Cominform was dissolved.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: International Organizations
