Appendices¶
Core Argument¶
In the appendices to ‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder, Lenin extends his polemic against sectarian deviations within the international communist movement, grounding his analysis in concrete developments in Germany and Italy. He confirms the split among German Communists, with the ‘Lefts’ forming a separate Communist Workers’ Party, and notes a similar rupture is imminent in Italy. For Lenin, a split is preferable to confusion, which hampers revolutionary growth; the ‘Lefts’ will learn through practical experience that a rigorously centralised party with iron discipline is necessary for the dictatorship of the proletariat. He urges that such divisions should not impede the future amalgamation of all sincere Communists into a single party.
Criticising the German Communist Party for calling a government of social-traitors ‘socialist’ and for claiming that bourgeois democracy could exist without functioning as the dictatorship of capital, Lenin argues this is politically harmful. A compromise with the Independents should instead allow workers to learn from experience. Turning to Italy, he uses a Manchester Guardian interview with Turati to confirm that Turati’s group practices social treachery, endorsing Bordiga and Il Soviet’s demand for their expulsion from the Italian Socialist Party. However, Lenin insists the Italian ‘Lefts’ draw a false conclusion from their correct criticism of Turati by rejecting all parliamentary participation. Communism must introduce something new in all fields, including parliament; the difficulties of combating bourgeois influences there are minor compared to the gigantic problems of re-educating the petty bourgeoisie under the dictatorship of the proletariat. He dismisses anti-parliamentarianism as childish, arguing Communists must master every sphere of activity.
The Dutch delegation protested to Lenin about his book, objecting that he placed responsibility for certain members’ actions onto the Party itself, when those members took little part in current activities and opposed Party slogans. In an appended note, Lenin remarks on the future amalgamation of ‘Left’ Communists, observing from German newspapers that they are often better at mass agitation—a pattern familiar from Bolshevik history, where ‘Left’ Bolsheviks were sometimes more successful agitators. He argues this is partly because a revolutionary moment makes it easier to approach masses with tactics of sheer negation, but this does not prove the tactics correct. A genuine Communist vanguard must learn to conduct propaganda, organisation, and agitation in the simplest, clearest way for both urban factory and rural masses.