‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder

‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder

VI Lenin

First edition

Wellred Books, April 2024

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Front cover: Lenin, 1920 (public domain)

Cover design by Deep Sohelia

Ebook produced by Martin Swayne, May 2024

Contents

Introduction

Introduction by Leon Trotsky

1. In What Sense We Can Speak of the International Significance of the Russian Revolution

2. An Essential Condition of the Bolsheviks’ Success

3. The Principal Stages in the History of Bolshevism

4. The Struggle Against Which Enemies Within the Working-Class Movement Helped Bolshevism Develop, Gain Strength, and Become Steeled

5. ‘Left-Wing’ Communism in Germany. The Leaders, the Party, the Class, the Masses

6. Should Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions?

7. Should We Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments?

8. No Compromises?

9. ‘Left-Wing’ Communism in Great Britain

10. Several Conclusions

Appendices

I. The Split Among the German Communists

II. The Communists and the Independents in Germany

III. Turati and Co. in Italy

IV. False Conclusions from Correct Premises

V. Letter from the Communist Party of Holland

Cover

Acknowledgements

Copyright page

Foreword

Table of Contents

Text

Introduction

By Francesco Merli

When we started the international revolution, we did so not because we were convinced that we could forestall its development, but because a number of circumstances compelled us to start it. We thought: either the international revolution comes to our assistance, and in that case our victory will be fully assured, or we shall do our modest revolutionary work in the conviction that even in the event of defeat we shall have served the cause of the revolution and that our experience will benefit other revolutions.[1]

These words encapsulate Lenin’s lifelong and unshakeable commitment to the idea of international proletarian revolution. What the Russian workers had begun in October 1917 by seizing power under the leadership of the Bolshevik party could only be conceived by Lenin as the beginning of the international revolution. Their victory could only be consolidated by the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism as a world system. Lenin’s firm belief that the destiny of the Russian Revolution was tied to the victory of the international socialist revolution is at the heart of the book you are about to read.

The biggest obstacle to victory was not posed by a lack of revolutionary spirit among the masses in and outside of Russia. Workers throughout the world paid painstaking attention towards what was happening in Russia. The workers’ overwhelming revolutionary energy was displayed in the German Revolution of November 1918, and again in the victorious insurrection against the Kapp putsch in March 1920.[2] In Italy, the revolutionary Biennio Rosso (the Two Red Years) was anticipated as early as March 1917 by the reaction of the Turin workers on hearing about the February Revolution in Russia.[3] The news that the workers had overthrown the tsar was greeted with indescribable joy and tears, as Antonio Gramsci recalled a few years later.[4] The Italian revolution culminated in the eruption of the factory councils’ movement, the April 1920 Turin general strike and the September 1920 occupation of the factories, which stopped just short of a full-blown revolution only because of the prevarications and capitulation of the leaders of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). The 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic was prematurely defeated because of the mistakes committed by the communists led by Béla Kun. A revolutionary mood was also spreading among the British and French working class, giving serious cause for concern to the imperialists. This ferment was reflected in the tumultuous growth of all the organisations of the working class, which also experienced a powerful shift to the left.

The main problem was the delay in providing a leadership for the world revolution as effective as the Bolshevik Party had been for the Russian working class: a leadership capable of leading the workers to power in one or more of the advanced capitalist countries, as a step towards the global overthrow of capitalism. This was the fundamental reason why the Communist International was founded in 1919.

The young and inexperienced forces of international communism rallied around the banner of October. Support or rejection for the Russian Revolution became the defining line for the new revolutionary vanguard emerging from the war. They reflected an unbreakable spirit and determination, but also a great deal of confusion. The ideas, tactics and methods that had been conquered by the Bolshevik party as a result of fifteen years of practical experience, political struggle and clarification, in the measure that they were known at all, were only partially understood, and often in a simplified way. The problems that the Bolsheviks faced and could resolve politically over many years, were posed anew in an extremely acute form by the rapidly developing crisis in Europe.

Lenin carefully crafted ‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder as part of the political preparation for the Second Congress of the Communist International. This book is probably the most valuable contribution to revolutionary strategy and tactics ever written and retains all of its relevance today.

The subject of the book is declared very clearly. Lenin carefully examines all the most important lessons that can be drawn out of the Russian Revolution and the history of Bolshevism. He directs our attention to the relevant lessons for the political arming of communist party leaders worldwide in the fight against capitalism and imperialism. First, the strategic task of winning over the vast majority of the vanguard of the working class to communism, and uniting them into a revolutionary party. However, as this urgent task was in the process of being accomplished in many countries, the question was posed of how the communists could and should win the masses away from the influence of social democracy, reformism and opportunism – which composed the main obstacle on the road to revolution.

Lenin was very aware that the strategic task of winning the masses, without which the question of conquering power can never be posed, could never be achieved unless a political battle was waged against so-called ‘Left-wing’ communism, which he considered an ‘infantile disorder’. ‘Leftism’ – or ultra-leftism as we would refer to it – was rampant in most of the newly formed communist parties. This posed a serious threat, if not corrected, to the viability of these parties – and the International, as the leadership of the world proletarian revolution.

Imperialist war of aggression against the Soviet Republic

With the Russian October raising the hopes of millions of workers and the oppressed worldwide, a way out of the immense suffering caused by the war materialised in the form of the prospect of world proletarian revolution. Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks were conscious that war would prepare revolution throughout Europe. Trotsky’s masterly use of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations for a separate ‘peace’ with Germany as a platform for revolutionary propaganda, under the demand of a ‘peace without annexations and indemnities’, had widely reverberated among the oppressed masses around the world, and had a profound impact, especially among the German working class.

The November Revolution of 1918 in Germany was the final blow to the monarchy and to the war. The German working class had answered the call by the Russian revolutionaries to the toiling masses of the world: Rise up to end capitalism, imperialism, poverty and war. Rise up and join us in our common struggle. This resonated and chimed with the mood pervading among the workers in Europe and the oppressed peoples throughout the world.

The burning need to overthrow capitalism and imperialism, once and for all, was also posed in the eyes of the masses by the relentless wars of aggression against Soviet Russia. This imperialist meddling, waged by the international capitalist class, exacted an additional catastrophic toll of millions of lives lost, misery and destruction. The imperialists of the Entente, with Britain at the forefront, assembled an even broader coalition of forces with the aim of snuffing out the Soviet Republic before it could consolidate and spread. Winston Churchill, the newly nominated secretary of the British War Office in 1919, recalled decades later: If I had been properly supported in 1919, I think we might have strangled Bolshevism in its cradle.[5]

Unfortunately for Churchill, he could not endeavour strangling Bolshevism with his own hands, but had to rely on workers in uniform that had endured the worst possible conditions during the war and had no intention of continuing putting their lives at risk at the whim of the ruling class. Most of the British soldiers were expecting to be demobilised. Harsh conditions, mistreatment, arbitrary dispatch of troops and delays in demobilisation led to many mutinies in the immediate post-war period.

The world capitalists, faced with revolution, sided openly with the darkest reaction: the counter-revolutionary tsarist White Army. The imperialists actively intervened with tens of thousands of their own troops, mobilised their allies, and provided weapons, training, money and generous supplies to the Whites, hoping to tilt the scales of the class war that was being waged by the old regime against the victorious proletarian revolution. All this to no avail. After initial successes, the Whites were pushed back and defeated over and over again.

In early 1920, the war of aggression against Soviet Russia was continuing, despite the decisive victories on the battleground against Kolchak in the east and Denikin in the south by the Red Army led by Leon Trotsky. A new bout of counter-revolutionary onslaught erupted in late April 1920, just as Lenin was putting the finishing touches to ‘Left-Wing’ Communism. Polish forces led by Józef Piłsudski attacked the Soviet Republic, invading Ukraine and occupying Kiev, together with the White forces of Symon Petliura’s Ukrainian People’s Army (UNA).

The Polish offensive was supported by Britain and France, but was met with general hostility by a large part of the Ukrainian population and lost its initial momentum after capturing Kiev. The invasion was swiftly routed by the Red Army under the command of a young officer: Mikhail Tukhachevsky. The solidarity of the international working class seriously undermined imperialist support for Poland. Dockers in London and Danzig refused to handle supplies, while Czechoslovak and German workers blocked transit through their respective countries. The British Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party threatened a general strike if British troops joined Poland in the war. Workers of all lands instinctively acted in defence of the Soviet Republic, united in a formidable force.

Military victory against the Whites was indeed a question of life and death. Nothing could be spared. All the resources of the Soviet Republic had to be concentrated in arming and supplying the Red Army. The workers and the poor peasants of Russia showed an iron will and endured unimaginable sacrifices to defend their revolution. The need to protect the revolution justified resorting to draconian measures, and the policy of ‘war communism’ was the only way of resisting, under these circumstances. However, it put the workers’ state under unbearable strain.

In spite of the extreme lack of resources, the fight for survival of the workers’ state achieved miracles. A powerful and disciplined Red Army was set up, trained and organised literally while fighting on the battlefield. However, Soviet Russia would never be able to overcome, just out of sheer force of will, the deep backwardness inherited from the tsarist regime, compounded by years of war. International solidarity by the workers proved to be vital, while foreign intervention crumbled and the Whites were pushed back. Lenin and the Bolsheviks were conscious that from every point of view, unless a revolution triumphed in one or more of the advanced countries it would be impossible for Soviet Russia to overcome that extreme backwardness on its own. With the revolution of November 1918, Germany became the key to world revolution.

Revolution in Germany

On 3 November 1918, the sailors of the German Navy mutinied in Kiel. The attempt by the regime to suppress the revolt triggered a revolutionary explosion with the formation of workers’ and soldiers’ councils throughout the Empire. These councils immediately started assuming political and military power. The monarchy collapsed like a house of cards, and the Kaiser abdicated a few days later. German imperialism had no other choice than capitulating, putting an official end to the war. What is most remarkable is that the German working class was spontaneously replicating forms of Soviet power similar to those that had emerged after the February revolution in Russia.

Unfortunately, the revolutionary forces in Germany were not as politically consolidated and organised as the Bolshevik party had been at the beginning of the revolution in Russia. They were not even close to the level of discipline and centralisation needed to take advantage of the convulsive and stormy events unleashed by the Revolution. They were also facing a much stronger reformist bureaucratic apparatus, which was fully embedded in the workers’ movement. The right-wing Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was shaken, but still strong, and had money, structures, resources and mostly retained its traditional control of the trade unions. A left-wing split from the SPD established the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) in April 1917. The new party had hundreds of thousands of radicalised workers in its ranks, but also a number of leaders like Karl Kautsky, who were reformists. A revolutionary wing in the USPD was emerging around the Spartacist League, whose most prominent leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, were still imprisoned until after the revolution had broken out.

The war and the betrayal by the social democratic leaders, who contributed to it by supporting their own ruling classes, had heavily affected the consciousness of the new generation of revolutionaries.

Among these revolutionaries prevailed what we can consider a healthy rejection of the rotten bankruptcy of the SPD leaders and the opportunism of USPD leaders like Kautsky. However, this drove them to the false conclusion that a break was necessary, not just with these reformist leaders, but also with sections of the working class that were being rapidly radicalised by the revolution at the same time as being hesitant and unprepared to sever ties with what they considered their own organisations. The Spartacists walked out of the USPD shortly after the November Revolution, under the pressure of this mood. This split, dictated by impatience, inflicted a heavy toll. The possible fusion between the communists and a large section of the advanced elements in the USPD – which were moving towards communism – was delayed for two more decisive years

Founding of the KPD

The founding congress of the German Communist Party (KPD) was convened in Berlin on 30 December 1918. Around 100 delegates were present. The discussions displayed all the symptoms of the ‘infantile disorder’ that Lenin later described in ‘Left-Wing’ Communism. Most of the delegates were young, with a large presence of industrial workers.

One of the main discussions was around the participation in the elections