Gankin Olga, Fisher Harold. The Bolsheviks and the World War: The Origin of the Third International

Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1940. — 874 p. — (The Hoover Library on War, Revolution, and Peace. Publication No. 15).
The purpose of this book is to make available in English a collection of documents on the origin of the Third or Communist International. During the.
decade before 1914, the groups which composed the Russian Social Democratic Labor party were in a turmoil of dissension caused mainly by conflicting theories of organization and tactics. These disputes greatly distressed the leaders of the Second International, and they tried, without success, to persuade the Bolsheviks to accept the kind of compromise by which other socialist parties maintained the formal unity required by the International. Lenin and his friends viewed with no less disapproval what they considered to be the opportunism of the socialist leaders. Certain documents are given which relate to these matters, to Lenin’s defense of the Bolshevik viewpoint and his attempts to organize the Lefts within the International. A great majority of the documents which we reproduce originated during the World War. Among the countless casualties of this war was the Second International. It was not destroyed, but it was put out of action as an effective international force. The failure of its constituent parties to oppose the war measures of their governments or to take advantage of the situation to advance the cause of socialism was interpreted by the Bolsheviks as proof of the bankruptcy of the leadership of the socialist and labor movements. The Bolsheviks and their allies denounced this betrayal, as they regarded it, of the workers and urged the Lefts of all countries to break with their party majorities and to join in the establishment of a new and truly revolutionary International. This campaign was carried on under great difficulties in small gatherings, by letters, by pamphlets, and in fugitive periodicals which reached the readers to whom they were addressed only when they escaped the vigilance of the police. The advocacy of self-determination, defeatism, and the transformation of the international war into a civil war was opposed, sometimes contemptuously and sometimes violently, by many socialist and labor bureaucracies; and even among the small party of its adherents it aroused bitter contention.The Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, and the second International.The International Socialist Bureau and the Menshevik-Bolshevik Controversy.
The International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, 1907.
The Bolsheviks and the International Socialist Bureau, 1907-1910.
The International Socialist Congress at Copenhagen, 1910.
The Extraordinary International Socialist Congress at Basel, 1912.
The Last Attempt at Unification of the R.S.D.L. Party, 1913-1914.
The Activities of the Bolsheviks Abroad, 1914-1916.Bolshevik Activities Abroad, 1914.
The Attempt to Call a Conference of Russian Internationalists.
The Berne Conference of the Bolshevik Sections of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party Abroad.
The Activities of the Bolsheviks Abroad in 1915.
Dissensions among the Bolsheviks Abroad, 1915-1916.
International Socialist Conferences, September 1914 — April 1915.
The Lugano and Copenhagen Conferences.
The London and Vienna Conferences.
International Conference of Socialist Women and the International Youth Conference at Berne.
Zimmerwald.Preliminaries of the Conference.
The Zimmerwald Conférence.
The Lefts at Zimmerwald.
The activity of the International Socialist Committee between Zimmerwald and Kienthal.
Kienthal.The International Socialist Committee Conference at Berne, February 5-8, 1916.
The Kienthal Conference.
The Activities of the International Socialist Committee, May 1916 — March 1917.
Tactics and Dissensions of the Zimmerwald Left.The Tasks of the Zimmerwald Left.
Dissensions in the Zimmerwald Left.
The Zimmerwald' Left and the Swiss Labor Movement.
Activities op the Zimmerwald Left in Scandinavia, France, and the United States.
Stockholm: The Third Zimmerwald Conference.The Stockholm Conference and the Affair of Robert Grimm.
The Zimmerwald Movement under New Leadership.
The Zimmerwald Groups and the Stockholm Conference.
The Third Zimmerwald Conference.
The International Socialist Committee after the Third Zimmerwald Conference.
Chronology.Biographical Notes.
General Index.