This book traces the clandestine Comintern activities of the German communist Arthur Ewert and his associates during the 1920s and 1930s. It describes through the lives of its participants the founding, expansion, and the collapse of a revolutionary institution unique in contemporary history. An ambitious politician who fell short of his goals in the communist party of his own country, Ewert’s strengths and weaknesses reflect the human condition of those who served the Comintern as an exposed vanguard in its existence between the two great wars.