V. I. Lenin

Letter To

The German and the French Workers

Regarding The Discussion On The Second Congress
Of The Communist International [1]

Comrades, the bourgeois press of Germany and France is devoting much attention to the discussion within the German
Independent Social-Democratic Party and the Socialist Party of
France on affiliation to the Communist International. It is
vigorously supporting the views of the Right-wing opportunist
sections in the two parties.

That can be readily understood, for these Right-wing elements
are in essence petty-bourgeois democrats, who, like Dittmann and
Crispien, cannot think in terms of revolution, and are incapable
of helping the working class prepare for and carry out the
revolution. A break with these Right-wing and opportunist elements
is necessary; it is the only way to rally all the genuinely
revolutionary and genuinely proletarian masses.

All the clamour about Moscow’s “dictates”, etc., is simply a red herring. As a matter of fact, only five of
the twenty members of the Communist International’s
Executive Committee belong to the Russian Communist Party. All
this talk about “dictates”, etc., is either self-deception or deception of the workers. It serves to cover up
the bankruptcy of certain opportunist leaders, just as similar
talk in the K.A.P.D. (Communist Workers’ Party of
Germany) has served to cover up the bankruptcy of several of its
leaders, who have abandoned the path of proletarian revolutionism. The outcry that the “Moscow dictators”,
making use of the terms of admission to the Communist international, are persecuting certain individuals is likewise
self-deception or deception of others. Article 20 of the terms of
admission says clearly in black and white that “exceptions” (Ausnahmen) to the strict rules
in regard of Right-wing leaders and members of central bodies can
be made with the consent of the Executive Committee of the Third International.

Since exceptions are expressly declared to be permissible,
there can be no talk of an absolute bar against specific
individuals. Consequently, there is full recognition of the need
to take into account, not the past but the present, the change in
the views and conduct of individuals, of individual leaders. Since
exceptions are declared to be permissible with the consent of the
Executive Committee of the Third International—in which
Russians constitute only one-fourth of the membership—it
follows that the clamour about “dictates”, etc., is stuff and nonsense, sheer falsehood.

All this clamour is simply a red herring. In fact, a struggle
is going on between the revolutionary proletarian elements and the opportunist petty-bourgeois
elements. Today as in the past, the latter include the
Hilferdings, the Dittmauns, the Crispiens, numerous members of the
parliamentary groups in Germany and France, etc. A struggle
between these two political trends is in progress in every country without exception. This struggle has a long
history. It grew extremely acute everywhere during the imperialist
war, and has become aggravated since then. Opportunism is
represented by elements of the “labour aristocracy”, the old bureaucracy in the trade unions, co-operative societies,
etc., by the intellectualist petty-bourgeois strata, etc. Without
the elimination of this trend—which, by its vacillation and
its “Menshevism” (the Dittmanns and Crispiens fully resemble our Mensheviks) in fact exerts the bourgeoisie’s
influence on the proletariat from within the working-class movement, from within the socialist
parties—without the elimination of this trend, a break with
it, and the expulsion of all its prominent representatives, it
will be impossible to rally the revolutionary proletariat.

By their constant veering towards reformism and Menshevism, and
their inability to think and act in terms of revolution, the
Dittmanns, the Crispiens, etc., without realising the fact, are
actually carrying bourgeois influence into the proletariat from
within the proletarian party—they subordinate the proletariat to bourgeois reformism. Only a break with
such and similar people can lead to international unity
of the revolutionary proletariat, against the bourgeoisie, and for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.

The events in Italy should open eyes most stubbornly closed to
the harmfulness of “unity” and “peace” with the Crispiens and the Dittmanns. The Italian Crispiens and
Dittmanns (Turati, Prampolini and D’Aragona) began at once
to hinder the revolution in Italy as soon as things reached the
stage of a real revolution. Throughout Europe and the world things
are moving in that direction more or less rapidly, and more or
less arduously and painfully.

It is high time to discard, once and for all, these most
harmful illusions about the possibility of “unity” or “peace” with the Dittmanns and the Crispiens, with the
Right wing of the German Independent Social-Democratic Party, the
British Independent Labour Party, the French Socialist Party,
etc. It is high time for all revolutionary workers to purge their
parties of these trends, and form genuinely united Communist
parties of the proletariat.

N. Lenin

September 24, 1920

Endnotes

[1]
The letter was published in Die Rote Fahne, organ of the Communist
Party of Germany, l’Humanite, organ of the
Socialist Party of France and The Communist, organ of the
Communist Party of Great Britain, in the period from September to
November 1920, p. 280