To the Masses

Debates at world Communism’s 1921 congress reveal Lenin’s International at a moment of crisis. A policy of confrontational initiatives by a resolute minority contends with the perspective of winning majority working-class support on the road to the revolutionary conquest of power. A frank debate among many currents concludes with a classic formulation of Communist strategy and tactics. Thirty-two appendices, many never before published in any language, portray delegates’ behind-the-scenes exchanges. This newly translated treasure of 1,000 pages of source material, available for the first time in English, is supplemented by an analytic introduction, detailed footnotes, a glossary with 430 biographical entries, a chronology, and an index. The final instalment of a 4,500-page series on Communist congresses in Lenin’s time.

John Riddell has translated and edited eight volumes of documents of the Communist movement in the era of the Russian revolution, such as Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922 (Brill, 2012). A further Brill volume now in preparation will complete this ambitious project.

"To the Masses is the last volume of a hugely ambitious project to make the proceedings of the (four) congresses of the Communist International held during Lenin's time available in English. It's an extraodrinary achievement for John Riddell, a Canadian revolutionary socialist historian and activist. With good reason the publisher can boast of "this newly translted treasure of 1,000 pages of source material.... supplemented by an analytic introductioin, detailed footnotes, a glossary with 430 biographical entries, a chronology, a comprehensive index". The volume also includes 32 appendices which portray behind the scenes exchanges between delegates at the congress. A brief review cannot begin to do justice to a a resource like this. It will justifiably demand the attention of generations of professional and amateur historians, socialist activists and curious general reaers who want to deepen their understanding of the desperate struggle to internationalise the world's first socialist revolution in Russia in October 1917."
- John Rose, International Socialism, January 2017

Auch diese Ausgabe basiert auf einem sorgfältigen Textvergleich der seinerzeitigen Ausgaben in mehreren Sprachen. Eine ausführliche Einleitung führt in die den Kongressdiskussionen zugrunde liegenden Probleme ein und skizziert deren historische Kontexte. Weitere Erläuterungen finden sich in den Anmerkungen zum Protokoll bzw. in einem Anhang mit Kurzbiographien. Auch hier gibt es einen Anhang mit erläuternden Dokumenten, auf die im Verlaufe der Diskussionen Bezug genommen wurde. [...] Beide Bände bestätigen die ausgezeichnete Qualität der Edition. Sie ist damit den verschiedenen zeitgenössischen (zumeist deutschen) Ausgaben überlegen, die ja in vielen wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken – wenn auch oft nur als Reprint – vorhanden sind.
- Reiner Tosstorff, H-Soz-Kult, 13.01.2017 "This collection is the first complete scholarly publication in English of the proceedings, the theses and resolutions of the Third Congress of the Third International. [...] The volume also contains a third type of source material in the form of 32 appendices translated from archival and published sources in German, Russian and French, given here in chronological order. These and the extensive editorial introduction are welcome contributions to the contextualizing of the proceedings. Both help to understand the complex and confusing political situation the delegates and the ECCI leadership were in after the revolutionary prospects in Europe had dwindled, and the deep fractures that divided them about the correct strategy to undertake. [...] Specialists will be particularly interested in Riddell’s interpretation of the leading figures of the congress and their respective roles. These seven historical actors comprise, not surprisingly, Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev and Radek, but also three non-Russian
Communists – Clara Zetkin, the absent Paul Levi, who had been excluded from the German Party for his criticisms of the March Action, and the mostly silent Béla Kun, who had probably acted on his own initiative when he actively supported the infamous March Action as the
head of the ECCI mission to Germany. [...] Proceedings of a Comintern congress are not exactly something that one reads systematically from the first page to the last. The detailed introduction and the glossary with its short biographical notes are thus useful guides through the book. I have been picking what interested me most, but I ended up reading much more than I had intended."
- Brigitte Studer (University of Bern), The International Newsletter of Communist Studies, Vol 22/23 (2016/17), Nos. 29-30, pp. 95 - 96