Introduction
The Communist was the official weekly organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Its first issue was published on August 5, 1920 and it continued for 131 issues until February 3, 1923, at which point it was replaced by the Worker's Weekly. It went through a series of editors, beginning with Fred Willis, who was replaced by Francis Meynell, who in turn was replaced by R. W. Postgate. The Communist, a weekly publication, should not be confused with The Communist Review, which was the theoretical organ of the CPGB and which appeared monthly, starting in May 1921.
The Communist is best remembered today for its cartoons, mainly those of Will Hope (Espoir). They created such a sensation that the circulation of the journal rose from approximately 8,000 to 50,000, and even at one point to 60,000. A booklet containing a selection of these cartoons can be found here.
We include here both whole issues of The Communist and individual articles that were published in it. Where we have both a whole issue and separate individual articles from it, the articles are listed immediately below the whole issue in question. Where whole issues are not available, individual articles are listed by the publication date of the issue from which they were extracted.
Technical Note from Martin Goodman
I scanned the whole issues included here from original paper. The scans are high resolution: imaged mostly at 600 dpi for text, mostly at 1200 dpi for graphic (mostly cartoon) art, mostly using single bit BW ("bitonal") mode, although 8 bit gray scale is occasionally employed for some of the few photos in some issues.
The original paper issues scanned here were DUPLICATE issues discarded by the University of the Ruhr in Germany that eventually found their way to some guy in Great Britain selling them on eBay. This is a fragmentary digital archive of 46 issues over a period (June 1921 - January 1923) when approximately 80 issues of the paper were actually printed.
I wish I had access to more original issues in this period, to scan at high quality and share with all.
Dr. Martin Goodman, MD
Riazanov Library Digital Archive Project
15 April, 2025
Individual Articles from 1920 Issues
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August 5: The Communist Conference
August 5: Montefiore, Something to Learn from Russia
August 19: MacManus, The Third Anniversary
August 19: MacManus, Towards the Revolution: Our Policy
August 26: Paul, Minerals and World Power
August 26: Montefiore, Our Class-Conscious Governing Class: A Professor’s Mission in Wales
September 2: Montefiore, Hands Beating at the Door
October 14: Hawkins, Communist Disipline
October 14: MacManus, Miners! Down Tools!!
October 14: Inkpin & MacManus The Communist Party and Communist Unity
October 21: MacManus, Stand by the Miners!
October 28: Fox, Labour and the Intellectuals: A Criticism of the New Whigs
November 4: Montefiore, Women and Communism
November 18: Dutt, The Sabotage of Europe
November 25: Montefiore, The Sickle and the Hammer
December 2: Paul, Lenin on Communist Tactics in Britain
December 2: Unsigned, London Labour Party Conference: Communist Party Affiliation Turned Down
December 2: Bell, Open Letter to the Rank and File of the I.L.P.
December 2: Lozovsky, To the Workers of England
December 9: Arnot, Unemployment!
December 23: Bukharin, Common work for the Common Pot
December 23: MacManus, The Spectre at the Feast!
Individual Articles and Whole Issues for 1921
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January 6: Montefiore, History in the Making: The Congress of the French Socialist Party at Tours
January 27: Bukharin, The Era of Great Works
March 12: Jackson, The Organisation of Idolatry
March 19: Jackson, The Commune of London
March 21: MacManus, The Ventetta
April 2: Paul, Wrangel’s Last Stand
May 7: Zinoviev, Zinovieff’s Letter (Official Statement from the E.C.C.I. on Serrati and Levy—Excerpts)
May 14: Jackson, Sedition!
May 21: Jackson, Wages and Wonderment
June 4: Jackson, Dictatorship of the Damned
Whole Number 46, June 18, 1921
Jackson, Useful and Suggestive
June 25: Jackson, Ideals of a Communist
August 27: Wilkinson, The Congress of 1921
September 10: Gallacher, Communists in Industry
September 17: Wilkinson, The Red Trade Union Congress
Whole Number 60, September 24, 1921
Whole Number 61, October 1, 1921
Bell, Propaganda and Agitation
Whole Number 65, October 29, 1921
Paul, Are We Realists? (Part I)
November 5: Paul, Are We Realists? (Part II)
November 5: Jackson, The Miners Battle
November 5: Jackson & Postgate, Four Years—The Story of the Russian Revolution
November 19: Paul, Are We Realists? (Part III)
November 26: Bell, Are We Realists?: A Reply to William Paul
Whole Number 70, December 3, 1921
December 10:
December 10:
December 10:
Individual Articles and Whole Issues for 1922
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January 7:
January 7:
January 14:
Whole Number 79, February 4, 1922
February 25:
Whole Number 83, March 4, 1922
March 11:
Whole Number 85, March 18, 1922
Whole Number 86, March 25, 1922
Whole Number 87, April 1, 1922
Whole Number 88, April 8, 1922
– Jackson, What Communism Means (Part I)
Whole Number 91, April 29, 1922
– Jackson, What Communism Means (Part IV)
– Montefiore, Implications of Genoa: A Further Reply
Whole Number 92, May 6, 1922
– Jackson, What Communism Means (Part V)
– Murphy, Stop the Lot
Whole Number 93, May 13, 1922
– Bell, Back Again in Russia
– Mann, The Great Lock Out
– Jackson, What Communism Means (Part VI)
Whole Number 94, May 20, 1922
– Murphy, Cut Off the Juice
– Jackson, Taking Things Seriously
Whole Number 95, May 27, 1922
– Murphy, End the Confusion
Whole Number 96, June 3, 1922
Roy, The Liberalism of the British Labour Party
June 10: Bell, May Day in Moscow
June 10: Murphy, Stand by the Boilermakers
Whole Number 98, June 17, 1922
Murphy, “De Profundis”: The Return of the Engineers
Whole Number 99, June 24, 1922
Jackson, The Puritan Revolution
Paul, Mercenary Murderers
Whole Number 100, July 1, 1922
Whole Number 101, July 8, 1922
Whole Number 102, July 15, 1922
Murphy, The Miners at the Cross Roads
Whole Number 103, July 22, 1922
Whole Number 104, July 29, 1922
Whole Number 105, August 5, 1922
Whole Number 106, August 12, 1922
Whole Number 107, August 19, 1922
Murphy, American Coal War
Whole Number 108, August 26, 1922
Elsbury, British Trade Union Blacklegs
Brodsky, A Criticism
Murphy, A Reply to Brodsky
Whole Number 109, September 2, 1922
Murphy, Trade Union Congress
Unsigned, Back to the Unions
Whole Number 110, September 9, 1922
Murphy, The Great Red Drive: Miners’ Minority Movement
Whole Number 111, September 16, 1922
September 23: Mardsen, Trade Union Blacklegs: The Brodsky-Murphy Controversy
Whole Number 113, September 30, 1922
Carney, Trade Union Blacklegs: A Letter from Jack Carney
Murphy, The Critics Answered
Newbold, What is the League of Nations—Anyway?
Pollitt, A Challenge
October 7: Bell, Rally to the Unions
Whole Number 115, October 14, 1922
Whole Number 116, October 21, 1922
Radek, The Greek Revolution
Whole Number 117, October 28, 1922
CPGB, A United Front Against the Capitalist Enemy: Manifesto of the Communist Party of Great Britain
Whole Number 118, November 4, 1922
Bell, French Communists in Congress
Jackson, Why Bother About Parliament?
Whole Number 119, November 11, 1922
Whole Number 120, November 18, 1922
Katayama, Foreign Policy of Japan
Evelyn Roy, The Truth about the Sikh Rebellion
Whole Number 121, November 25, 1922
Unsigned, Soviet Russia on the Up Grade: Encouraging Reports from the Industrial Field
Whole Number 122, December 2, 1922
Saklatvala, British Capital and Indian Revolt
V. Vilenski, The Sovietization of the Far East
Whole Number 123, December 9, 1922
Whole Number 124, December 16, 1922
Unsigned, Labour Defence Committee
Lenin, Labour Defence Committee
Whole Number 124, Special Holiday Supplement: After Five Years: The Russian Revolution and Prospects of World Revolution. Speeches by Lenin and Trotsky at the 4th Comintern Congress
Whole Number 125, December 23, 1922
The Shop Stewards’ Congress of Germany, Fight for a Living Wage
Trotsky, Prospects of Revolution
Unsigned, The First Workers’ University
Whole Number 126, December 30, 1922
Individual Articles and Whole Issues for 1923
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January 6:
Whole Number 128, January 13, 1923
Bell, March Separately—Strike Jointly
Unsigned, First British Foster Parent
January 20: Murphy, Viscont Milner’s Dilema
January 27: Murphy, Milner Becomes Irritable
February 3: Murphy, Milner’s Ghost
February 3: Roy, Legal Murder in India
February 3: MacManus, To the Memory of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg: Moscow’s Tribute
June 10: Bell, Stop the March to Ruin: Manifesto of the Communist Party of Great Britain