Changes

==Early years==

==Early years==

It was formed in 1919 as a splinter group of the [[left-wing]] of the [[Socialist Party of the United States of America|Socialist Party]] over the issue of the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] in [[Russia]]. The left wing [[socialist]]s supported [[Lenin]] and [[Trotsky]], and broke off the SP to form two rival parties: the [[Communist Party of America]] and [[Communist Labor Party]]. Under pressure from the [[Communist International]], these two communist parties officially merged in Chicago in 1919. From its inception, the Communist Party, USA came under attack from the [[FBI]] and Attorney General [[A. Mitchell Palmer]] for defying the [[Sedition Act of 1918]]. Consequently, the Communist Party went underground and went through name changes to evade the authorities.

It was formed in 1919 as a splinter group of the [[left-wing]] of the [[Socialism|Socialist Party]] over the issue of the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] in [[Russia]]. The left wing [[socialist]]s supported [[Lenin]] and [[Trotsky]], and broke off the SP to form two rival parties: the [[Communist Party of America]] and [[Communist Labor Party]]. Under pressure from the [[Communist International]], these two communist parties officially merged in Chicago in 1919. From its inception, the Communist Party, USA came under attack from the [[FBI]] and Attorney General [[A. Mitchell Palmer]] for defying the [[Sedition Act of 1918]]. Consequently, the Communist Party went underground and went through name changes to evade the authorities.

During the early 1920s, the party apparatus was to a great extent underground. It reemerged in 1923 with a small legal above ground element, the [[Workers Party]] of America. As the Red Scare and deportations of the early 1920s ebbed, the party became bolder and more open. An element of the party, however, remained permanently underground. It was through this underground party, often commanded by a Soviet official operating as an illegal in the United States, that Soviet intelligence was able to co-opt CPUSA members. The Comintern supplied the American Communist movement with the equivalent of several million dollars in valuables, an enormous sum in the 1920s. [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa4.html]  By 1930 it adopted the title Communist Party of the USA.

During the early 1920s, the party apparatus was to a great extent underground. It reemerged in 1923 with a small legal above ground element, the [[Workers Party]] of America. As the Red Scare and deportations of the early 1920s ebbed, the party became bolder and more open. An element of the party, however, remained permanently underground. It was through this underground party, often commanded by a Soviet official operating as an illegal in the United States, that Soviet intelligence was able to co-opt CPUSA members. The Comintern supplied the American Communist movement with the equivalent of several million dollars in valuables, an enormous sum in the 1920s. [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa4.html]  By 1930 it adopted the title Communist Party of the USA.