In 1935 the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern, meeting in Moscow, initiated the “united-front” policy, which provided that communists should work with other groups against fascism. Since 1933 Hitler had become the principal target of Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks, fearing German military power, desperately attempted to enlist the support of the noncommunist world against the Nazis. Russia joined the League of Nations and became a strong supporter of the “collective security” program aimed at holding Hitler in check. Fascism, the communists shouted, represented a danger to everybody, communist and noncommunist. All must work together. The “united front” is an old Leninist tactic designed to prepare for revolutionary situations. Internationally, the aim is to protect the Soviet fatherland. On a local level it gives the communists an opportunity to infiltrate, manipulate, and take over organizations. Noncommunists are encouraged to participate in communist campaigns with the Party, which always keeps in mind the best way to advance its own interests. If a united-front tactic does not promote communism, it is dropped. A new approach is then developed. The prewar period was the time of great communist fronts in which so many innocent victims were caught. Literally hundreds of organizations, such as the American Youth Congress, American League Against War and Fascism (later known as the American League for Peace and Democracy), the American Peace Mobilization, and the National Negro Congress sprang into existence. They were created or captured by the communists. All were tailored, through high-sounding names, to attract as many people as possible; the communists had something to offer everybody. The Party during these years moved literally thousands of Americans, causing them, in some way or other, to support the communist cause. Their thought-control nets were busy at work, as will be shown later. In 1936 the Spanish Civil War erupted, and the communists in the United States, amid great fanfare, sent about 3000 “volunteers,” commonly known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, to aid the Spanish Loyalists. Front groups of many types were formed to collect money, supplies, and medical aid. Those Americans who were the leaders in the movement to send other Americans, of whom some 50 per cent never returned, had no interest as such in either the Franco group or the opposing Loyalist government. They were acting, along with international communism, to advance the Bolshevik cause.