Opposition To Moscow
Larsen had an ability to translate the strange and alien paroles of the Comintern to Danish conditions and his oratorical skills contributed greatly to the successes in organising the unemployed and gaining seats in parliament. In parliament he became known as a great orator.
He did not keep to translating the Comintern policies but also modified them. The ultra-left line was softened and contrary to the directions from Moscow he warned his party members of seeing the Social Democrats as the main enemy.
Larsen wanted to develop a Danish variant of communism and these sentiments grew after the seventh Comintern congress had adopted the popular front strategy aiming for a close cooperation with social democrats. While he did not want to make the Social Democrats the main enemy their unsympathetic views towards the communists made Larsen doubt that cooperation was possible. Instead Larsen was in favour of developing a popular front with the Social Liberal Party. With the exception of Arne Munch-Petersen who had become the Danish representative of the executive committee of Comintern after losing his seat in parliament in 1935 the party leadership supported this course.
The Comintern grew worried about the Danish party and the Trotskyist past of its chairman and as more and more disagreements arose correspondence between Larsen and Moscow grew increasingly harsh. The Comintern lost its patience with Larsen and called him to Moscow for negotiations after he had published two articles against increased military spending.
Not only had he published the articles without clearing them with Moscow. He had also expressed views in contradiction to Soviet interests. Because of its position Denmark is the gate to the Baltic Sea and a strong Danish defence would prevent Nazi Germany for using Denmark as a bridgehead for an attack on the Soviet Union.
Read more about this topic: Aksel Larsen
Famous quotes containing the words opposition to, opposition and/or moscow:
“When feminism does not explicitly oppose racism, and when antiracism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other and both interests lose.”
—Kimberly Crenshaw (b. 1959)
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)
“Napoleon is a torrent which as yet we are unable to stem. Moscow will be the sponge that will suck him dry.”
—Mikhail Kutuzov (1745–1813)