Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties. It was the first official forum of the international communist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern, and confirmed the new realities after World War II - including the creation of an Eastern Bloc.
Cominform was a Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties founded in September, 1947 at a conference of Communist party leaders in Szklarska Poręba, Poland. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin called the conference in response to divergences among eastern European governments on whether or not to attend the Paris Conference on Marshall Aid in July 1947.
The intended purpose of Cominform was to coordinate actions between Communist parties under Soviet direction. As a result, Cominform acted as a tool of Soviet foreign policy and Stalinism. It had its own newspaper (titled For Lasting Peace, for People's Democracy!), and it encouraged unity of Communist parties under Soviet direction.
