6. The Third World Congress

The Third World Congress

Editor’s Note:

The Third Congress of the Comintern convened in Moscow from 22 June to 12 July, 1921. The Congress began its sessions with 509 delegates representing forty-eight countries; 291 had decisive votes; 218 were consultative. Toward the close, the number of delegates increased to 603.

Twenty-four full plenary sessions were held. The agenda was as follows: (1) Report of the ECCI (reporter: Zinoviev); (2) The World Economic Crisis and the New Tasks of the CI (reporter: Trotsky); (3) The German Communist Workers Party (KAPD) and the Italian Question; (4) The Tactics of the CI (reporter: Radek); (5) The Trade Union Question: a) The Red Trade Union International; b) The Struggle Against the Amsterdam International (reporters: Zinoviev, Heckert); (6) The Tactics of the Communist Party of Russia (reporter: Lenin); (7) The Youth Movement; (8) The Women’s Movement (reporter: Clara Zetkin); (9) Communist Work in the Co-operatives; (10) The Organisational Structure of the Communist Parties and the Methods and Content of Their Work; (11) The Organisational Structure of the Comintern; (12) The Eastern Question; (13) Election of the ECCI.

The Russian Bolshevik Party was represented by seventy-two delegates, among them: Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, Bukharin, Rykov and others.

The ‘Left Communists’ were very strongly represented and at one time even appeared to have a majority at the Congress. Lenin demonstratively announced that, at this Congress he was with the ‘Right Wing’. The line of Lenin and Trotsky finally carried the day.