The International Lenin School (ILS) was founded in 1926 as an instrument for the "Bolshevisation" of the Communist International (Comintern) and its national sections, following the resolutions of the 5th World Congress of the Comintern. The school was established, in the formal language of the Comintern: To assist the Comintern sections in raising the qualifications of leading Party workers whose revolutionary experience must be strengthened by general theoretical Marxist-Leninist preparation on the one hand; and, on the other, by direct and active study of the organisational and political experiences of the Russian Communist Party and of the experiences and current work of the Communist Parties in the capitalist and colonial countries." This goal was to be achieved through an intensive one-year course of study including economics and history, Marxist theory, and the strategy and tactics employed by the world communist movement. Its teachers were leading intellectuals of the Comintern and Soviet Union. Its first director was Nikolai Bukharin. Students for the International Lenin School were hand-picked by the various Communist Parties.