I wonder how much of the far left developed naturally and how much due to the efforts of the Soviet Union

@matrix The left was massive in Europe prior to World War I and even organized with working class, WWI was a massive blow to the left and also the rise of fascism, in the US the organized left was weakend during FDR.

Tbh I think the October Revolution was more influential for the rest of the world than the support the Soviet Union provided, the Soviet Union did publish important works of Marx that were not available beforehand, which would be used by other marxists outside to criticize them w

@orekix Yeah, I don't think they were THAT effective with their efforts (same with western propaganda). I'm not sure how would you even measure it.
Lot of western leftist became quite disillusioned with it in the 1930's after information about the purges etc came out.

I remember reading some text from the US Communist party from the 1920's to use "the struggle of the negro" to strengthen their position, but I can't find it. Do you know about something like that or am I having a stroke?

@matrix you mean this? https://marxists.catbull.com/archive/weisbord/Emancipation.htm

Eugene Debs had some stuff on 'Negro Question' earlier too