Painting “The Second Congress of Comintern” (“Ceremonial opening of the Second Congress of Comintern in the Uritsky Palace (former Tauride Palace)”)
Brodsky I.I.
USSR, Leningrad. 1924.
Original
Canvas. Oil
Unframed: 320×532 cm;
Framed: 350x564x14 cm.

The Comintern (Communist International) was an international organization that united the communist parties of various countries in 1919-1943.
The Second Congress of the Communist International worked from July 19 to August 17, 1920, first in Petrograd and then in Moscow. Representatives of 67 communist parties and workers’ organizations from 37 countries of Europe, Asia and Africa attended it.
On 20 July 1920, I.I. Brodsky was assigned to depict the solemn meeting of the delegates to the 2-nd Congress of the Comintern.
In the course of work on painting, Brodsky became the owner of a unique collection of iconography of the leaders of the international communist movement of the 1920s. He had 125 portraits of all the main figures of the Comintern with their autographs.
Many artists and art critics refused to accept the painting of I.I. Brodsky as a work of art, but even the fiercest critics, speaking of the painting “The Second Congress of the Comintern” admitted that future historians of the revolution would gratefully use the most accurate in detail and essentially true sketches from nature.
In 1925 I.I. Brodsky donated the entire collection to the Museum of the Revolution.