V. I. Lenin

Apropos Of The Third Zimmerwald Conference

Rabochy Put No. 22 of September 28 published the manifesto of the Third Zimmerwald Conference. If we
are not mistaken, the only other newspaper that published this
manifesto was the Menshevik, internationalist Iskra a[89]
No. 1 of September 26, which added a very brief note referring to
the composition of the

Third Zimmerwald Conference and the date on which it was held (August 20 to 27,
N. S.). No other newspaper published either the manifesto or any
detailed information about the Conference.

We are now in possession of certain materials on this Conference
consisting of an article published in Politiken, the organ of the Swedish Left Social-Democrats (a translation of
which appeared in Tydmies, the organ of the
Social-Democratic Party of Finland)[90] and two written
communications, one from a Polish and one from a Russian comrade
who took part in the Conference. On the basis of this information we will first of all say something about the
Conference in general and then make our appraisal of it and of
the tasks of our Party.

I

The representatives of the following parties and groups were
present at the Conference: (1) the German Independent"
Social-Democratic Party (the Kautskyites); (2) the Swiss party;
(3) the Swedish Left party (which, you will remember, has broken off all connection with the opportunist Branting
party); (4) the Norwegians and (5) the Danes (there is nothing
in our material to indicate whether this refers to the official,
opportunist, Danish party headed by the Minister Stauning); (6)
the Social-Democratic Party of Finland; (7) the Rumanians; (8)
the R.S.D.L.P. Bolsheviks; (9) the R.S.D.L.P. Mensheviks (Panin
sent a written statement to the effect that he would not take
part in this Conference on the grounds that it was not a
representative conference; Axelrod, however, attended some of
the meetings, but did not sign the manifesto); (10) the
Menshevik internationalists; (11) the American group of
Christian Socialist Internationalists (?); (12) the American
Social-Democratic Propaganda Group (evidently this is the group
I mentioned in my pamphlet, The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution, Draft Platform for the Proletarian Party , page 24, for this group began to publish the
newspaper, The Internationalist [Journal of the American Socialist Propaganda League ] in January 1917); (13)
the Polish Secial-Democrats united under the National Executive;
(14) the Austrian Opposition (the Karl Marx Club, which was
closed down by the Austrian Government after the execution of
Stürgkh by Friedrich Adler; this Club is also referred to in the above-mentioned
pamphlet, page 25); (15) the Bulgarian Independent Trade Unions
(which, as the writer of the letter I have in my possession
adds, belong not to the Tesnyaki, i.e., not to the Left,
internationalist Bulgarian party, but to the Shiroki group,
i.e., to the opportunist Bulgarian party); this delegate arrived
after the Conference had closed, as also did the delegates of
(16) the Serbian party.

Of these sixteen parties and groups, Nos. 3, 8, 12, 13, and 14
belong to the "third" trend referred to in the resolution of our
Conference of April 24-29, 1917 (and in my pamphlet, page 23 in
which this trend is called "true internationalist"); closer to
this Left trend or between it and the Kautskian Centre, stand
groups 4 and 16, although it is difficult to define their
position precisely—perhaps they also belong to the
Centre. Then, group 1, and probably 2, 6 and 7, group 10 and
probably 15, belong to the Kautskian Centre. Groups 5 (if this
is Stauning's party) and 9 are ministerialists, defencists and
social-chauvinists. Finally, group 11 obviously got to the
Conference by accident.

From this it is seen that the composition of the Conference was
very mixed—even absurd, for the people who got together
were not in agreement on the main thing, and therefore were incapable of really unanimous action, of
really acting together; they were people who were bound to
disagree on the fundamental trend of their policy. Naturally, the fruit of the "collaboration" of such
people is either wrangling or gossip, or elastic, compromise
resolutions written for the purpose of concealing the truth. Examples and proof of this we shall see in a moment......

[Here the manuscript breaks off —Ed. ]