Remarks and Proposals to the Draft Decision for The Comintern Executive Following the Conference of the Three Internationals {1}

Letters to G. Y. Zinoviev

1

On Point 1 I propose the addendum: dwell at greater length

1) on the real links between our Mensheviks and S.R.s and the common front
of the landowners and bourgeoisie against the Soviet government, special
attention being given for this purpose to Savinkov’s pamphlet Fighting the Bolsheviks (Warsaw, 1920) and S. Ivanovich’s pamphlet The Twilight of Russian Social-Democracy , as these booklets very clearly
reveal what is known, of course, from a number of other documents—namely,
that Right-wing Mensheviks and S.R.s take refuge behind the name of a
common party, as a matter of form, while in fact they act quite independently;

2) pay special attention to showing up the identity of our Menshevik˜
and S.R.s with the leaders of the II and II’12 Internationals, the
highly pernicious nature of Otto Bauer’s recent pamphlet, which virtually
proposes and preaches panic retreat in the face of capitalism. Such
preaching we regard as tantamount to preaching panic flight at the front
during war.

Point2, I accept.

Re Point 3:

Ihave my doubts about this, as I believe that a precisely worded
ruling calling for unanimity should save us from making mistakes, while
general appeals on subjects clarifying the points endorsed at the Berlin
Conference (defence of Soviet Russia, etc.) will be extremely useful to us,
as we shall repeatedly make use of them in future to expose the muddle our
opponents have got themselves into.

Re Point 4—I definitely support this.

Re Point 5—I have no objection.

Re Point 6:

Thepurport of this point is not clear to me. I believe that the Berlin
agreement should be ratified immediately upon receipt of the official text
of the adopted decisions, or, better still perhaps, it should be ratified
at once with the reservation that the text being ratified was the one that
was published in Pravda on 9/IV.

Iwould particularly ask you to arrange for the full text of the
minutes of the Berlin Conference to be dispatched as quickly as possible by
special courier and to check whether these minutes have been signed by the
official representatives of each of the three Internationals.

Lenin

_DICTATED_ Dictated over the telephone April 11, 1922

_FIRST_PUBLISHED_ First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI

_PRINTED_FROM_ Printed from the secretary’s notes (typewritten copy)

2

Comrade Zinoviev, Thefollowing should be added to those points of the Comintern
Executive’s decision on which we exchanged notes this morning:

Criticismof the policy of the II and II 1/2 Internationals should now
be given a somewhat different character, namely, this criticism (especially
at meetings attended by workers who support the II and II 1/2
Internationals, and in special leaflets and articles written for them)
should tend to be of a clarifying nature, made with particular patience and
thoroughness, so as not to scare away these workers with harsh words, and
bring home to them the irreconcilable contradictions between the slogans
their representatives have adopted in Berlin (for example, the fight
against capital, the eight-hour day, defence of Soviet Russia, aid to the
famine-stricken) and the entire reformist policy.

Perhaps,before publishing this, we ought to verify whether the Berlin
decisions have been ratified by the II and II 1/2 Internationals.

Lenin

_DICTATED_ Dictated over the telephone April 11, 1922

_FIRST_PUBLISHED_ First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI

_PRINTED_FROM_ Printed from the secretary’s notes (typewritten copy)

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Notes:
{1}
The Conference of the Three Internationals was held in Berlin
from April 2 to 5, 1922.

Asharp struggle developed at the conference between the
representatives of the II and II 1/2 Internationals on the one hand, and
the Communist International on the other. The Comintern delegation put
forward a proposal that a world congress should be convened, in which the
trade unions and other organisations of the workers would participate, to
discuss questions concerning the fight against the onset of capital,
against reaction, and against preparations for new imperialist wars,
concerning aid for the rehabilitation of Soviet Russia, the Treaty of
Versailles, and the rehabilitation of the devastated areas. The
representatives of the II International, supported by the delegation of the
II 1/2 International, tried to impose unacceptable terms on the Comintern
delegation, namely: the separation of Georgia from the Soviet state,
renunciation of communist cells in the mass workers’ organisations and the
release of political criminals. The Comintern delegation (Bukharin, Radek
and C. Zetkin), while rejecting these terms, nevertheless agreed to the
condition that the Soviet authorities would not apply the death penalty in
the case of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and would allow
representatives of the II and II 1/2 Internationals to attend the trial. In
his article “We Have Paid Too Much”, Lenin severely criticised these
concessions on the part of the Comintern delegation at the Berlin
Conference, which he considered erroneous (see present edition, Vol. 33,
pp. 330-34).

Ageneral declaration was adopted at the conference recognising the
possibility of holding joint meetings and issuing joint statements on
concrete issues. The declaration called upon all the working people to hold
mass demonstrations during the Genoa Conference with slogans to fight for
an eight-hour day, against unemployment, against the onset of capital upon
the working class, in defence of the Russian revolution, in aid of Russia’s
famine-stricken areas, for the resumption by all states of political and
economic relations with Soviet Russia, for the establishment of a united
proletarian front in all countries on a national and international
scale. The conference went on record for the speedy convocation of a world
congress and set up a steering committee of nine members (three from each
International) to prepare further conferences and a congress.

However,the reformist leadership of the II and II 1/2 Internationals
who accepted this agreement under pressure from the broad masses of the
working people, torpedoed and sabotaged the united struggle of the working
class. On May 21, 1922, a number of parties of the II and II 1/2
Internationals passed a decision to call a world congress at the Hague
without the Communists. By this means the reformist leaders blocked the
efforts to create a united front of the workers. In view of this the
Comintern delegation at the meeting of the steering committee on May 23, 1922, in Berlin, announced its withdrawal from the Committee of Nine.

Lenin’sremarks and proposals were made to the following draft decision
for the Presidium of the Comintern Executive in connection with the Berlin
Conference of the Three Internationals:

“1) To step up the campaign against the Mensheviks and
Socialist-Revolutionaries throughout the international communist press.

2) To start making systematic use of the material of the Berlin Conference
for attacking every weak spot of the opponent.

3) The general appeals of the Nine not to be issued for the time being.

4) In agitation during the demonstration on April 20, to be free-spoken in
criticising our opponents.

5) The various sections act according to the concrete conditions.

6) Any new steps by the delegation to be postponed until the question of
ratifying the Berlin results is dealt with” (Central Party Archives, Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.C.,
C.P.S.U.).

Zinovievsent this draft to Lenin with a request that he give his
opinion on it the same day before the Presidium of the Comintern Executive
met.