Founding the Communist International, Proceedings and Documents of the First Congress, March 1919

by John Riddell (editor), Leon Trotsky, Alexandra Kollontai

Delegates from 20 countries discuss the revolutionary upsurge that swept Central Europe and Asia following World War I. Includes manifesto announcing founding of new revolutionary International. This book is part of a series, The Communist International in Lenin's Time by Pathfinder Press. Photos, maps, notes, chronology, glossary, index. The Bolsheviks Evaluate the Congress.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

600 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

Reviews

[Donald]

I've been to a few party conventions in my life that typically have over a thousand delegates. I guess I always assumed the founding of the Communist International was a similar sized conference. Instead I think it was something like 51 delegates, some of whom seem to have tenuous credentials to speak on behalf of whole nations. The congress itself is fascinating, though, especially seeing the involvement of places like China and Japan. I learned a fair amount from this. There's a lot of talk about the concept of the council republic and relating it to things like the shop stewards committees in Britain. I'm going to try to read the others in this series eventually.