“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder

Source: Collected Works, Volume 31, pp. 17–118

Publisher: Progress Publishers, USSR, 1964

First Published: As pamphlet, June 1920

Translated: Julius Katzer

Online Version: marx.org in 1996, marxists.org 1999

Transcribed: Zodiac

HTML Markup: Brian Baggins and David Walters

Proof reading: Steve Iverson, 2014. Alvaro Miranda 2022.

Contents:

In What Sense We Can Speak of the International Significance of the Russian Revolution (9 k)

An Essential Condition of the Bolsheviks’ Success (9 k)

The Principal Stages in the History of Bolshevism (19 k)

The Struggle Against Which Enemies Within the Working-Class Movement Helped Bolshevism Develop, Gain Strength, and Become Steeled (28 k)

“Left-Wing” Communism in Germany. The Leaders, the Party, the Class, the Masses (28 k)

Should Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions? (29 k)

Should We Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments? (32 k)

No Compromises? (33 k)

“Left-Wing” Communism in Great Britain (35 k)

Several Conclusions (38 k)

Appendix (28 k)

The Split Among the German Communists

The Communists and the independents in Germany

Turati and Co. in Italy

False Conclusions from Correct Premises

Note from Wijnkoop, June 30, 1920

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With this now-classic work, Lenin aimed to encapsulate the lessons the Bolshevik Party had learned from its involvement in three revolutions in 12 years—in a manner that European Communists could relate to, for it was to them he was speaking. He also further develops the theory of what the “dictatorship of the proletariat” means and stresses that the primary danger for the working-class movement in general is opportunism on the one hand, and anti-Marxist ultraleftism on the other.

“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder was written in April, and the appendix was written on May 12, 1920. It came out on June 8–10 in Russian and in July was published in German, English and French. Lenin gave personal attention to the book’s type-setting and printing schedule so that it would be published before the opening of the Second Congress of the Communist International, each delegate receiving a copy. Between July and November 1920, the book was republished in Leipzig, Paris, and London, in the German, French, and English languages respectively.

“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder is published according to the first edition print, the proofs of which were read by Lenin himself.

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