IRSH 56 (2011), pp. 475–510 doi:10.1017/S0020859011000381 r 2011 Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis ‘‘Little Moscows’’ in Western Europe: The Ecology of Small-Place Communism A D K NOTTER Sociaal Historisch Centrum voor Limburg/Maastricht University E-mail:
[email protected] SUMMARY: Small communist strongholds were commonly nicknamed ‘‘Little Moscow’’, both in Britain and in Europe. Small-place communism has been wide- spread since the interwar period, often in distinctly hostile surroundings. In this article, based on research into a number of cases in western Europe, I try to identify common characteristics which might explain their receptiveness to communist policies and ideas. My aim is to present a taxonomy for further research. Most of the places that I researched were isolated, recently developed, and mono-industrial. They were populated by a wave of migrants who had formed mono-occupational, pioneer societies. Second-generation migrants turned to communism and built ‘‘occupational communities’’ based on trade unions and other associational activities. Often they continued militant traditions of earlier socialism, anarchism, or syndicalism; others had a tradition of irreligiousness or religious indifference. In 1950 the small agrarian village of Finsterwolde (population 3,250) in the north-east of the Netherlands gained a degree of notoriety in the United States, being attributed the epithet ‘‘Little Moscow’’, when Time magazine reported on the dissolution of its communist-led municipal council.1 In 1951 it shared this Cold War honour with the small French industrial town of Saint-Junien (population 10,645) in Limousin near Limoges, which figured in Life magazine as an example of the communist menace in France.2 Described by Life magazine as a ville rouge, its most militant neighbourhood was 1.