Grigorii Zinoviev, Opening Address to the Second Congress of the Comintern. July 19, 1920

The Second Congress of the Communist International opened at a moment of rare Bolshevik confidence. The Civil War was nearing its end, Soviet power looked secure at home, and the advance toward Warsaw seemed to confirm the expectation that revolution would soon spread west. Zinoviev’s opening address caught that high-water mood. It mixed ritual commemoration of fallen militants and imprisoned comrades with a triumphant claim that the Second International had been politically defeated. His exhortation, “Remember this day… Tell your children,” cast the congress as a turning point in world history.

Source: Communist International (Petrograd), No. 13 (1920), pp. 23-26.

Comrades, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, I declare the Second World Congress of the Communist International opened. (thunderous applause, continuing for some time. Cries of "Hurrah!" The band plays the "Internationale").

Comrades, our first word, the word of workers assembled from all over the world, should be consecrated to the memory of our best friends and leaders, who have perished for the cause of the Communist International. You all know that during the past year there is no country in which the blood of the Communist workers, and the best leaders of the working class has not flowed. It is sufficient to remember the names of our Hungarian comrades, it is enough to remember Comrades Levine, Tibor Samuelli, Jogviches, and many others who have joined the multitude of revolutionaries fallen in the beginning of the German and Russian revolutions. In Finland, Estonia. Hungary, hundreds and thousands of the best sons of the working class have perished during this time. In opening our Congress, we are first of all doing honor to the memory of those of our best comrades who have perished for the cause of the Communist International.

In honor of our perished comrades, I propose to the Communist International to rise. (All stand up. The band plays the Funeral March.)

Further, we must remember those of our comrades who are at present locked up in the prisons of various bourgeois republics. We must remember our French friends, Comrades Loriot, Monatte, and a whole list of other comrades, cast into prison a short time before our Congress. We send our greetings to all the numerous fighters of the workers' revolution who are languishing in the German, Hungarian, French, British, and American prisons. We send our brotherly greetings to the American Communist workers, who have particularly suffered from persecution this last year. The American bourgeoisie is literally strangling the Communist workers, and all revolutionaries in general. Our friends cannot find any work in America, they are kept in close stone cells ... There is no cruel measure which the American bourgeoisie has riot employed against the workers who are in the ranks of the Communists or of the IWW, or any other revolutionary organizations following the same route as the Communist International.

We are giving voice to our deepest conviction that the words uttered riot long ago by a French comrade, after the arrest of Loriot, Monatte, and others, will become justified. He said: "Yes, we are living in a time when the ruling bourgeoisie, the 'Democrats' and the so-called 'Socialists' are casting the best leaders of Communism into prison, but we are certain that soon the roles will be changed, and those who today are seated in the bourgeois Governments will tomorrow be put into prison by the working class, while those who are now in prison by order of the bourgeoisie will be placed in power by the working class." (Applause.)

Comrades, the Communist International was founded fifteen months ago. Naturally, it had first of all to cross swords with the Second International, with whom we entered into a direct struggle. Both our friends and our foes-in the face of today's Congress, which is literally a World Congress, attended by representatives from the whole of Europe and America-must recognize that our struggle against the Second International has been crowned with success. Today we are entitled to proclaim that the Second International has been completely beaten by the Third Communist International. (Thunderous applause.)

Comrades, what does this fact signify? It signifies that we have defeated the Second International. The struggle between us and the Second International was not a struggle between two factions of the same revolutionary movement, not a struggle against doctrinal differences of opinion or against tendencies within the same class camp, it was practically a struggle of classes. It is true that in the Second International there are many brothers of our own class; yet nevertheless our struggle against the Second International is not a warfare between factions within the same class, but something incomparably greater.

The collapse of the Second International is a reflection of the collapse of the bourgeois order itself. Here lies the point of the situation. We have conquered the Second International because the twilight of the gods of capitalism has set in. We have vanquished it because the bourgeoisie of the whole world has not been. and will not be, able to do away with the consequences of the imperialistic war. That is why we are conquering the Second International-because the League of Nations, the Entente, and all the bourgeoisie are powerless to do anything effectual for the restoration of the economical life of Europe. We have defeated the Second International because the bourgeoisie will prove itself powerless to solve the problems standing before it demanding solution, unless it "tenders its resignation" (historically speaking).

The Second International has joined its fate to that of the bourgeoisie ever since the first shot was fired in 1914. The social-patriots of each country supported "their own" bourgeoisie, and "their own" bourgeois "fatherland." It was so up to the end of the war. And, after the war, the Second International again linked its fate to that of the bourgeoisie, this time particularly with the group of bourgeois countries which had secured the victory in the imperialist war.

You remember the first attempts at reviving the Second International when the imperialist slaughter began? You remember the conferences at Berne and Lucerne, at which the so-called leading part of the Second International desired at all costs to become "akin" to the League of Nations? The leaders of the reviving Second International tried to hold on to Wilson's coattails. You remember, comrades, that at the Berne Conference the Chairman, opening the Conference, greeted Wilson by comparing him to Jaures, thus insulting the spirit of the fallen tribune of the French workers. Already after the end of the war the Second International desired to join its fate with that of the bourgeoisie, i.e., that part of it which the Second International thought to be the strongest of all-.the League of Nations. This was its desire and that is why all the blows which the working class of the whole world--and its advance guard, the Third International-have been dealing to the bourgeoisie during this whole year, have been falling also on the Second International. The Yellow Second International has linked its fate indissolubly to a class that is now perishing before our very eyes. That is why our victory over the Second International is so significant. This, we repeat, is not a victory of one faction of the labor movement over the other, nor of one Party over another. No! It is something incomparably greater: every organization which attempts to join its fate to that of the bourgeois class must perish also. That is the historical meaning of the victory of the Communist International over the Second International. The working class, as a young class, is a rising star. It is marching to power. Meantime the bourgeoisie, its star set, is choking in the blood of the working class. It is growing old and decrepit. And as a drowning man grasps a living one, so is the bourgeoisie holding to the Second International and strangling it in its dying clutches. They are both perishing under our very eyes. Both the bourgeoisie and its agent, the Yellow International, are nearing the end (in a historical sense, a year counts for a minute). We can hear their death rattle. Soon the earth will be free from the bourgeois yoke, from all the organizations which have been holding the working class in moral captivity. Soon our International Worker Association will be able to proceed peacefully to the construction of a new world, on the basis of the Communist principles of brotherhood.

Comrades, during these last years the idea of "Democracy" has been fading away before our eyes and is now living out its last days. I consider the theses on the role of bourgeois democracy accepted by the first Congress as the most important document of the first Constituent Congress of the Communist International, and even, if you like, the most important document of the Communist movement of these last years. These theses have been read by the whole world. The workers of the world, the class-conscious part of the peasants and soldiers have studied them. And the course of events during these last 15 or 16 months has confirmed at each step the correctness of the analysis made by the first Congress of the Communist International in its estimate of bourgeois democracy, as pointed out in these theses. When the American bourgeoisie, before the eyes of the whole world, annulled all its own laws, all the constitutional guarantees of the working class; when matters have gone so far that Socialists elected in accordance with all the rules of parliamentary procedure, on the basis of the established laws, are, nevertheless, not admitted into Parliament but put into prison-when such a classical country of bourgeois democracy as America violates the principles of democracy at each step, then she is giving a practical illustration of how perfectly right the Communist International was in pointing out in its programs, its theses, the real historical role of so-called democracy.

Comrades, this is a bona-fide World Congress of the Communist International that we see before us. Our Congress represents the vanguard of the workers of the whole world. Before this World Congress we shall place a series of questions which are at present in dispute within the depths of the International Communist movement. We have invited to the Congress a whole number of labor organizations which are not quite Communist, which are yet only becoming crystallized. The international situation of the working class after the long war, after the desperate crisis, is such that in some places the workers' organizations are standing at crossroads and their movements are undecided. They have not finally determined their tactics, they have not finally chosen the road which they will take. We have invited to work with us all the workers' organizations which we are sure really desire to fight honestly against capitalism. We will speak to them as our brothers in the struggle and in our sufferings as brothers of the same class, ready like us to give up their lives for the cause of the liberation of the working class. We shall not resemble the Second International, which did nothing but turn into ridicule and hunt down the revolutionary workers who did riot follow its train of thought which was a double-faced Janus, showing a sweet smile to the right and cruelly gaping jaws to the left. We are deeply convinced life will be the workers' teacher. The imperialist war has taught the workers many things. The honest revolutionary elements of syndicalism, anarchism, industrialism and the Shop Stewards' Committees will pass over and are already passing over to the side of Communism. It is our duty now to help them to do so quickly.

On the other hand, the representatives of the German Independent Party, the French Socialist Party and the American Socialist Party are also present at our Congress. They have but recently left the ranks of the Second International. With the honest revolutionary workers in the ranks of these parties, we wish to enter into a Communist union.

Comrades, you know that by degrees, as the Third International grew, about ten of the larger old parties--I shall not stop to enumerate them--have left the ranks of the Second International. A new stage is now commencing: the old parties are not only leaving the Second International, but they are making attempts to enter the Tanks of the Third. A number of representatives of such parties, as I have said already, are now present among us. The Communist Congress will put all the burning questions squarely before the German and French workers. The Communist Congress will in no wise admit any ideological double-dealing, it will not make any concessions in the question of principles.

The radical questions of the proletarian revolution must be put in a categorical form. We want clarity, absolute clarity. We shall not permit the Third International to become a fad. The questions before us interest millions of workers. We shall expose our views on all the urgent questions of the day before the workers of the French and German Socialist Parties. We shall wait patiently until the vast majority of the French and German workers will have completed the requisite weeding-out in their ranks and are able to pass into those of the Communist International in such a way that no one might possibly regard them as a simple ballast for the latter; they must come over to us to conduct the joint struggle, together with us, against the bourgeoisie.

We intend to lay before the present Congress the Constitution of the Communist International. We consider that, just as in every separate country, in order to conquer the bourgeoisie, the Communists need first of all a strong centralized Party welded out of one piece of metal, it is also time to proceed to such an organization on an international scale. We are carrying on this struggle against the international bourgeoisie against a whole world of foes, armed to the teeth. We must have an iron international proletarian organization which will be able at any given moment to render the maximum of assistance to any of its detachments, which can forge the most powerful, most elastic, most rapid weapons in order to be fully armed in face of the enemy with which they will have to contend. In the Draft Constitution we are citing an extract from the Constitution of the first International Workers' Association, the leaders of which were Marx and Engels. In this Constitution Marx and Engels said: "If up to now the struggle of the working class has not met with success, it is first of all due to the fact that the workers had no international understanding, no well formed international organization, no mutual support on an international scale." Yes, comrades, there is the simple truth. But we have had to wait over 50 years, to pass through four years of war, to live through the horrors that mankind has been experiencing during the last period, in order that this simple truth should not only become accessible to individuals or separate groups, but that it should enter the brain and marrow of millions of workers. We are perfectly sure that at present this idea has become the common property of the masses. We understand very well that for victory over the bourgeoisie it is necessary to realize at last this elementary simple idea, voiced by the First International, the first International Workers' Association, whose traditions and principles in many questions we are now taking up in order to realize them at once. The representatives of the Petrograd working men and women, who were the first to rise in October 1917, are present here. I say to them: a great historic event is taking place today in Petrograd--the Second Congress of the Communist International has entered its name in history at the moment when it opened its sessions. Remember this day. Know that this is the reward for all your resolutions and for all your courageous and steadfast struggle. Tell your children and explain to them the meaning of this day. Imprint on your hearts the memory of this solemn moment.

Before us is an accomplished fact, grand in its simplicity! For what can be simpler: the workers of all the world have united together to free themselves from the yoke of the rich? And at the same time, what can be grander than this? Is it possible, comrades, that you do not hear, as I do, the beating of the wings of victory? Our earth shall be free!

Wage-slavery shall be suppressed. Communism will conquer!

Comrades, in concluding my speech I recollect that in a few months 50 years will have gone by since the first great historical uprising of European workers served as an example for us all. I am speaking of the Paris Commune. I am referring to the heroic uprising of the proletarians of Paris, who, in spite of all their weakness and mistakes (we are trying to avoid them) made a golden record in the history of the international proletarian movement, and opened the way which is now being followed by millions of workers.

Allow me to express the wish that on the fiftieth anniversary of the Paris Commune we shall see in France a French Republic of Soviets. (Loud, thunderous applause.)

Comrades, in an article written immediately after the Constituent Congress of the Communist International entitled: "Prospects of the International Revolution," I happened to say in my enthusiasm that maybe only a year would elapse before we would be beginning to forget that a struggle had been going on in Europe for the power of Soviets, because this struggle would be definitely ended in Europe and would have passed over to the other continents. One of the bourgeois German professors dug up this sentence of mine; and quite recently I had occasion to read an article in which he quoted it and remarked with malignity: "Well, soon a Second Congress will be opened: more than a year has elapsed; but it seems that the Soviet Power has not quite conquered in Europe yet." We can answer to this learned bourgeois that, if he likes, it is so: we went too far in our hopes. Perhaps not one year, but two and even three will be necessary for all Europe to become a Soviet Power. But if you are so modest that you consider a reprieve of a year or two as an unheard-of piece of luck, we can only wish you joy in your modesty. And we may express our conviction that, sooner or later-we shall bear up for a while-we shall have an international Soviet Republic whose leader will be the Communist International.

Long live the working class of the whole world! Long live the Communist International! (Long and thunderous applause).