The Brazilian Communist Party was founded in 1922, largely by immigrants and former anarchists.36 When they immediately joined Lenin’s recently established Communist International, Moscow had little idea what to do with them. The Comintern classified Brazil as a large “semicolonial” country, in the same category as China, and put it on the back burner. At the time, the directive the Brazilians got from the Soviets was to form a united front with the national “bourgeoisie” against imperialism, without Communist leadership
