Report on ‘The Balance Sheet’ of the Third Congress of the Communist International¶
Core Argument¶
Chapter Digest: Report on ‘The Balance Sheet’ of the Third Congress of the Communist International¶
The Third Congress of the Communist International represented the highest school of revolutionary strategy, confirming the fundamental position of its predecessors: the era of world revolution continues. After reviewing historical facts and tendencies, the Congress distinguished between economic factors—the deepest foundations of society—and secondary factors such as politics, press, and church. A historically bankrupt class does not automatically lose its instruments of rule; the bourgeoisie, facing economic decline, displays extreme energy in maintaining political power. It has succeeded in preserving class equilibrium, but only at the expense of its economic base, making proletarian victory historically inescapable though not automatic. The bourgeoisie could still drain civilisation of vitality; overthrowing it is a strategic, not mechanical, task.
The Italian Socialist Party provided a crucial lesson: abstract revolutionary agitation led workers to seize factories, but without strategy they suffered defeat. The Congress therefore rejected the theory of the pure offensive, which wrongly reduces revolutionary strategy to a series of offensives. Preparation—winning the sympathy of the broadest masses—is the task of the hour. A small party can lead the revolution only if it recognises its smallness as a misfortune to be overcome, not a superiority. The Congress ordered certain groups to execute a strategic retreat to prepare for a real offensive.
After the March events in Germany, where the party had at most one-sixth of workers behind it and suffered a practical defeat, Trotsky argued that a new offensive would only reduce support further due to post-defeat depression. The correct response is a strategic retreat to rebuild forces, develop bonds with the class, and prepare for victory. He rejected the claim that Russia’s trade with the West makes it oppose European revolution, noting a victorious revolution would bring far greater benefits. He dismissed the idea that Russia artificially provoked the March uprising as nonsensical. On centrism, Trotsky stated the Third Congress’s task is not merely to condemn centrism theoretically but to elaborate a revolutionary strategy to overcome it in practice. Expanding organisations, newspapers, and trade union work is not Social-Democratic piddling; in a revolutionary epoch, these are practical preconditions for victory. The Third Congress represents a step forward from the First and Second, because the bourgeoisie has restored its state apparatus, requiring a thought-out, organised revolutionary offensive that includes temporary retreats and preparation. The youth are crucial: the Red Army was built from young workers and peasants, and the revolutionary youth of Europe and America must be ready to serve as the Red Army of the world revolution. The first Congress of the Communist Youth International convened illegally in Berlin in November 1919.