Zimmerwald Conference

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The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between left-wing socialists (communists) and right-wing socialists (social democrats) in the Second International.

The conference had 38 delegates from countries such as Russia, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. (No Norwegians actually participated in the Zimmerwald Conference, but the Swedish socialist Ture Nerman represented Norway.) On the eve of the conference, V. I. Lenin organized a group of socialist internationalists, the Zimmerwald Left, which protested the centrist and centrist-leaning majority of the conference (the "Zimmerwald center", headed by Robert Grimm).

The main question discussed at the conference was about the struggle of the proletariat for peace during World War I. In the course of discussion of this question, left socialists presented their resolution and manifesto, which revealed the imperialistic character of the world war, which decisively condemned social chauvinism and which called on the working people in countries at war to have a civil war for the purpose of the achievement of their political authority, for the socialist organization of society. The majority of the conference rejected both documents, proposing it be limited only to a pacifist declaration. Lenin on behalf of leftists required the concrete definition of political slogans. Lenin said they were on the eve of a revolutionary era, in which the masses would do the revolutionary fighting, so it was necessary to mention the means by which this fight would take place.

The conference passed a compromise manifesto, which in many respects did not correspond to the ideological platform of the Zimmerwald Left, but as a whole corresponded to the task of the mobilization of the international proletariat to the fight against imperialism and the war, and also recognized the imperialistic character of war and indicated (although in insufficiently clear expressions) the falsity of the slogan "protection of the fatherland" and the treason of the leaders of the Second International. "The Manifesto", noted Lenin, "actually indicates a step toward the ideological and practical break with opportunism and social chauvinism". Participants in the conference agreed to a resolution of sympathy to those persecuted due to the war, that expressed fraternal sympathy to the Bolshevik deputies of the Duma, exiled in Siberia, and also Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin,"and to all comrades, who were persecuted or arrested for the fact that they were against the war".

An international socialist commission was created, which was actually a new international socialist bureau, chosen in spite of the will of the old one, on the basis of the manifesto, which directly condemned the tactics of the old one. Two different positions, which were and remained independent, were presented at the Zimmerwald conference: those of the centrists and centrist-leaning, which prevailed at the conference, and those of the revolutionary internationalists. Criticizing the position of majority, Lenin emphasized that The Zimmerwald Left must act inside the Zimmerwald association. Lenin said that the rallying of the Zimmerwald Left was one of the most important features and greatest successes of the conference.