Comintern Congress Revisited
To the Masses: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4558
Date Written:  2016-01-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21352

Review of John Riddell's To the Masses: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The Third Congress saw a robust struggle. Lenin and Trotsky, the most prominent figures in the Comintern's leadership, came out decisively on the right wing of the Congress, though this in itself was far from sufficient to temper the adventurist and sectarian tendencies represented by the left.

Lenin in particular devoted a great deal of time and energy to winning delegates over to his positions; while much of this work was outside the plenary sessions of the Congress, John Riddell has done an admirable job of assembling an appendix of archival documents which flesh out the story of the Third Congress from behind the scenes.

While confirming the expulsion of the Italian Socialist Party majority, and of Levi for violating party discipline, the Third Congress vindicated the sober revolutionary political course advocated by Levi and Zetkin in the VKPD, and rejected the drive to pursue an ongoing witch-hunt against centrists in all the parties of the Comintern.