"Left-Wing" Communism: an Infantile Disorder is a classic work by Lenin that encapsulates the lessons learned by the Bolshevik Party from its involvement in three revolutions in 12 years. It stresses the primary danger for the working-class movement in general is opportunism on the one hand, and anti-Marxist ultraleftism on the other.
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)
“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
False Conclusions from Correct Premises
Note from Wijnkoop, June 30, 1920
In What Sense We Can Speak of the International Significance of the Russian RevolutionAn Essential Condition of the Bolsheviks’ SuccessThe Principal Stages in the History of BolshevismThe Struggle Against Which Enemies Within the Working-Class Movement Helped Bolshevism...“Left-Wing” Communism in GermanyShould Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions?Should We Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments?No Compromises?“Left-Wing” Communism in Great BritianSeveral ConclusionsEndnotes
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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