**Geneva and Switzerland became an anti-communist hub in the 1920s. Illustration by Marco Heer.**

The Geneva-based anti-communist movement

Genevan lawyer Théodore Aubert was the driving force behind the International Anticommunist Entente. The organisation was based in the city in western Switzerland and its influence extended into the highest political circles.

Christophe Vuilleumier

Christophe Vuilleumier is a historian and board member of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Geschichte (Swiss Historical Society). He has published a number of articles on 17th and 20th century Swiss history.

On 23 June 1924, conservative activists, politicians and military men from throughout Europe met in Paris to further a common goal: the fight against communism. What started out as a meeting among like-minded people soon evolved into the birth of an international organisation, which operated from the shadows over decades influencing politics, the media and even secret services – the International Anticommunist Entente (EIA). The group’s mission was “to form an international entente designed to combat the activities of subversive groups, mainly comprising the Third International, which aim to destroy modern civilisation and the institutions of every country and to defend the principles of order, family, property and nationality”.

The Third International

The Third International, also known as Comintern (Communist International), was a global association of communist parties. It was founded in Moscow in 1919 with the aim of spreading the ideas of the Russian October Revolution internationally and supporting communist governments. The organisation was dissolved in 1943 so as not to jeopardise the cooperation between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies in the fight against Nazi Germany.

A murder was one of the factors leading to the founding of the organisation. In May 1923, Russian-Swiss Maurice Conradi shot Soviet envoy Vatslav Vorovsky in Lausanne. Vorovsky was there for the negotiations about the future of the Ottoman Empire, which finally concluded in July 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne. Although Conradi’s act was motivated by personal revenge, Genevan lawyer Théodore Aubert managed to politicise the trial. He placed the blame on the Soviet Union and Bolshevism and succeeded in getting his client acquitted. This sensational verdict and the rapid dissemination of Aubert’s summation by the media emboldened him to start an international crusade against Bolshevism. He was supported in this endeavour by Georges Lodygensky, the former representative of the Tsarist Red Cross.

**Portrait of Théodore Aubert, 1939.** Wikimedia, notrehistoire

The EIA established a permanent office in Geneva and developed a network of correspondents throughout most of Europe. This led to Aubert’s movement becoming the largest and most present anti-communist grouping in the first half of the 20th century. From its Geneva headquarters, the EIA sought to set up cells in different countries, usually by recruiting sympathisers from bourgeois and nationalist circles. Aubert addressed figures from the elite echelons of conservative Geneva society and from 1926 enlisted the services of Colonel Alfred Odier as a contact with direct access to the General Staff of the Armed Forces. In under ten years, Théodore Aubert managed to win over a large number of people advocating bourgeois rights from all over Switzerland to the Entente. His supporters included Zurich banker Hans de Schulthess, Brigadier General Guillaume Favre, Vaud National Councillor Jean de Muralt and, from 1936, the Swiss Minister in Rome, Georges Wagnière, who also became a member of the ICRC in the same year.

**Geneva became the Entente headquarters in 1924. Postcard from 1924.** e-pics

An influential network

The EIA not only cultivated close ties with the International Red Cross but also with the Political Department (now the FDFA) in Bern, the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland and the head of the country’s police force, Heinrich Rothmund. The Entente received a regular supply of confidential information from these sources. At the same time, the Geneva anti-communists provided tip-offs on activities and people they considered subversive. The EIA also worked to gain influence in the Swiss parliament. In 1931, Jean de Muralt organised a group of anti-Bolshevik national councillors, including Henri Vallotton and Pierre Rochat. In November 1935, Aubert was elected as a member of parliament representing the National Union, a fascist and anti-Semitic Geneva-based party. From 1929, Aubert cultivated a close relationship with Jean-Marie Musy, a federal councillor and head of the Finance and Customs Department; a person with whom he shared an antipathy to the Bolshevik regime.

At the end of 1924, Jean-Marie Musy was elected President of the Swiss Confederation for the following year. Front page of the Journal du Jura of 11 December 1924. — **At the end of 1924, Jean-Marie Musy was elected President of the Swiss Confederation for the following year. Front page of the *Journal du Jura* of 11 December 1924.** e-newspaperarchives

In the United Kingdom, the EIA merged with the Economic League, which had been founded in 1919 to protect British industry against communist, socialist and left-wing movements. The Economic League was backed by prominent industrial and financial groups. In France, Aubert and his fellow campaigners maintained close ties with the secret service Deuxième Bureau from 1930. The EIA was also welcomed with open arms in Germany and Italy; both countries were generous in their financial support for the organisation. As a result, the EIA was able to conduct major propaganda campaigns right up until the first years of the Second World War, in the Balkans for example, led by the anti-communist movement in Rome. During the Spanish civil war, which involved half of the globe between 1936 and 1939, the EIA ran propaganda campaigns in support of General Franco, presenting the conflict as a fight by Christian civilisation against Bolshevik barbarism.

**EIA propaganda poster against the Jewish-Bolshevik subjugation of women.** Wikimedia

However, the plethora of assistance and member organisations should not give the impression that the EIA was ever some kind of mass movement or that it even harboured ambitions to become one. On the contrary, the organisation primarily saw itself as a subtle and discreet influencer among the ruling elites of the countries in which it operated. Following the Second World War, the Entente found itself on the sidelines, not just due to the role of the Soviet Union in the fight against Nazi Germany, but mainly as a result of Switzerland’s recognition of Moscow. Moreover, the US became the predominant anti-communist force in the post-war order. Théodore Aubert and Georges Lodygensky decided to close down the organisation and turned its library and archives over to Geneva Library, having carefully vetted all the documents first.

More of: 20th / 21st century Politics

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