The Collapse of the Second International

The work where Lenin comprehensively expounded on the causes and essence of the Second International’s bankruptcy. It was written from May to June 1915 and published in September 1915 in the joint issue 1-2 of the journal Communist (Geneva). The full pamphlet is about 360,000 words and consists of 9 parts. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 26 of the second revised edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

When the World War I broke out, the rightists within the Second International, who had already joined the bourgeois cabinets, openly ended up as social chauvinists. The middle of the roaders within the Second International became the hidden social chauvinists. The left wing, represented by Lenin, advocated to use the revolutionary situation during wartime to turn the imperialist war into a civil war thus accelerate the proletarian revolution. The left, middle and right parties within “International” had quite different opinions. Although Second International has not announced its dissolution, it was in fact meaningless. After learning that the German Social-Democratic Party members voted for the military budget in the German parliament on August 4, 1914, Lenin announced: “The Second International is dead. Long live the Third International (Comintern)!”

As for the causes and essence of the bankruptcy of the Second International, various socialist parties had different views. Lenin wrote this article to express his views on this issue. Lenin’s exposition of the war, his systematic exposition of the reasons for the bankruptcy of the Second International and the essence of social chauvinism revealed the essence of the position of the self-styled Centralists such as Kautsky within the ranks of the Second International. Lenin also made clear the new tasks against the war for the left-wing group of the Second International. The main points were as follows:

Firstly, Lenin revealed the true nature of the war and asserted that defending the war is a betrayal of the “International”. Lenin said that in the resolution of the International Socialist Congress in Basel in 1912 and also the within the resolution approved in the Chemnitz Congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany in 1912, many anti-war documents and resolutions proposed by the Social Democrat and Socialist parties from various countries were sorted out, and the view and strategies of the International Socialist Congress on the issue of war and peace were comprehensively explained. It was made clear that this was an imperialist, predatory and anti-proletarian war, a war waged by the bourgeoisie to carve up the world and enslave the “weak” nations.

The war could not be justified on the pretext of the interests of any people. However, Plekhanov and Kautsky distorted many comments of Marx and Basle Manifesto of the Second International to justify that the imperialist war was in the “interest of people”. They tried their best to portray this imperialist and predatory war for colonies as a people’s war, as a war of defensive—and to seek historical precedents of non-imperialist wars to justify this war. This was lie to workers. Socialist leaders initially agreed to this “Left” political stand and most revolutionary resolution passed by “International”. However, later in a most shameless way, they abandoned this resolution which was was a blatant betrayal.

Secondly, Lenin stated that only the revolutionary situation could trigger revolution. Revolutionary situation includes both objective and subjective conditions: (1) The ruling class cannot maintain its rule as usual. (2) The poverty and suffering of the suppressed class have intensified. (3) The masses are actively involved in historic act of independence. Without these objective conditions, revolution is usually impossible. In addition, if no revolutionary class can launch revolutionary mass actions that can destroy the old government, revolution will not happen either. The most basic task of all socialists is to reveal the existence of the revolutionary situation to the masses, to explain the broadness and depth of the revolutionary situation, to arouse the revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary determination of the proletariat, to help the proletariat turn to revolutionary action, and to establish organizations that fit in the revolutionary situation.

Thirdly, Lenin revealed that Plekhanov and Kautsky were representatives who provide apologetic theories for social chauvinism to betray socialism. Lenin pointed out that Plekhanov’s “theory of the culprit” and Kautsky’s “theory of the right to defend the fatherland” in fact replaced opposition to international imperialism with opposition to an imperialist country. They did not see the imperialists’ suppression on many nations, which account for more than half of the world’s population, nor see the competition among the bourgeoisie in these imperialist countries for the distribution of stolen goods, the division of capital and the intention to suppress workers’ movement. They did not understand Marx’s theory that “war was the continuation of politics through violent means”. It has been proved that this war is the continuation of imperialism’s political suppression on other nations and suppression of the workers’ movements. Lenin also refuted Kautsky’s statement that the current war was not only the product of imperialism, but also that of the Russian revolution, so it was not purely imperialist. Lenin pointed out that the objective content of this war is the continuation of imperialist politics and the political plunder of other nations by the dying bourgeoisie and their governments. Lenin also pointed out that the opportunist factions in the European socialist movement betrayed socialism and turned to chauvinism. In fact, opportunists were politically the bourgeoisie. They spread the ideas of the bourgeois and served as the agents of the bourgeoisie in the workers’ movements. Social chauvinism was opportunism, which was closely related to the bourgeoisie and the government. People could not tolerate the continued existence of such factions within the Social-Democratic Labor Party.

Fourthly, Lenin pointed out that Kautsky’s “ultra-imperialism” theory was a social chauvinism disguised by science and internationalism. The ultra-imperialism theory referred to the great alleviation of capitalist contradictions, but the reality was that free competition has given way to the monopoly alliance of capitalists, and the whole world has been divided up, which in turn forced a shift from peaceful expansion to the re-division of colonies by armed struggle. International capital interwoven with each other was involved in a good business of arms expansion and war. It was impossible to see an economic trend of arms reduction. However, if an economic trend of arms reduction was predicted, it was to replace the actual sharpening of class contradictions with the wish of ordinary citizens to ease class contradictions. Lenin exposed Kautsky’s hope for a new era of peace in capitalism. Kautsky defended for the opportunists and the official Social-Democratic parties in various countries against their violation of the solemn declaration of the Basel Manifesto, their shift towards the bourgeoisie position and their abandonment of revolutionary tactics.

Fifthly, Lenin pointed out the two means of state governance. Kautsky advocated peace and disarmament in an abstract principle of interests, begging the bourgeoisie not to use violence and to expand capital through peaceful democracy. He completely ignored the fact that capital was earned by the bankruptcy of its competitors. To achieve this goal, military measures would be used when necessary. Kautsky’s statement is a distortion of Marxism. Lenin pointed out all suppressed classes, in order to maintain their rule, demanded two social functions: one is executioners and the other is priests. The executioners suppressed the resistance and riots of the suppressed. The priests comforted the suppressed and drew them a picture of reduced pain and sacrifice under the condition of preserving class rule, thus enabling them to endure such rule, abandon revolutionary actions, and reduce revolutionary enthusiasm. Their revolutionary determination was thus destroyed. Kautsky was playing the role of a priest.

Sixthly, Lenin pointed out that the legal mass organizations of the working class was the most important feature of the Social-Democratic Party in the era of the Second International. He revealed that Kautsky and others sacrificed the revolutionary goal of the proletariat and the right of the proletariat to carry out revolution in order to preserve the existing legal organization. According to Lenin, when there is no revolutionary situation, the working class should adopt legal means to fight against the bourgeoisie and accumulate strength for future struggles. When a revolutionary situation is in place, they should lose no time in fighting against their governments and the bourgeoisie and carry out a proletarian revolution to liberate themselves. According to Lenin, since the “pure legalism” and the “only legalism” in Europe during the World War I have lost fashion, secret organizations and secret activity of the Social-Democratic Party should be promoted to supplement its legal activities.

Seventhly, Lenin pointed out the signal and fundamental reason of the Second International’s Bankruptcy. The most prominent signal was that most of Europe’s formal Social-Democratic parties betrayed their beliefs and the solemn resolutions passed at International Stuttgart and Basel Congresses. This meant the victory of opportunism and the transformation of the Social-Democratic party into a nationalist liberal workers’ party.

This article revealed the nature and root cause of the imperialist war, discusses its political meaning and economic purpose, and enriches the theory of Marxism on the question of war. Lenin has proposed and implemented slogans such as “turning the imperialist war into a civil war”, clarified the objective and subjective conditions of the proletarian revolution, criticized social chauvinism, summed the treachery behaviors of opportunist leaders in the Second International, and laid the ideological and political foundation for uniting the leftist forces of various countries to rebuild the “International”. At the end of 1915, Lenin wrote another article entitled “Opportunism and Bankruptcy of the Second International”. Later, Lenin wrote another article in German with the title “Opportunism and the Collapse of the Second International”, which was published in the first issue of Vorbote, in January 1916, which was the publication of the left faction formed in the Zimmerwald conference. Three consecutive monographs and articles demonstrated Lenin’s emphasis, analysis and elucidation on the bankruptcy of the Second International.