In 1919 and 1920, a number of ultraleft tendencies appeared within the ranks of the newly-formed Communist parties. This reflected a revolutionary impatience, which in turn was a reaction against the opportunist actions of the old reformist leaderships. This ultraleftism was an attempt to find a shortcut to success. It failed to appreciate the strong grip of reformism on the minds of the mass of the workers, and the patient work that was needed to break these illusions.
One of Lenin’s most important works, Left Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder, was devoted to this problem. Lenin saw ultraleftism as a natural problem occurring in the newly-formed communist parties, whose membership had been won to an irreconcilable struggle against capitalism and those who defended it. He compared it to a childhood illness which was a necessary part of growing up. Lenin’s book, together with the discussions at the Second Congress, was aimed at educating the leaders of the various communist parties in the tactics and methods of Bolshevism. For the childlike “lefts” and sectarians of today, who repeat all the mistakes of the ultralefts of the past, these writings and ideas remain a closed book. As Lenin explained:
It is beyond doubt…those who try to deduce the tactics of the revolutionary proletariat from principles such as: ‘the Communist Party must keep its doctrine pure and its independence of reformism inviolate: its mission is to lead the way without stopping or turning, by the direct road to the communist revolution’ will inevitably fall into error.
The task of the communist leaderships was to inoculate itself against infantile-leftism and absorb the method, tactics and strategy of Bolshevism in order to equip itself for the revolutionary battles that were unfolding in the main capitalist countries, particularly Germany.
After the unification of the new party, a central committee was elected under the joint chairmanship of Ernst Däumig and Paul Levi, who had been a close friend of Rosa Luxemburg. At Levi’s insistence, the ultraleft group was expelled from the Party, and established themselves as the short-lived German Communist Workers Party (KAPD). In February 1921, after violently disagreeing with the Comintern’s decision to split the Italian Socialist Party, Paul Levi resigned from the party leadership. In his place came Brandler, Meyer, Froelich, and Thalheimer.
To assist the KPD, the Comintern had dispatched the Hungarian Communist leader Béla Kun to Berlin, after the crushing in blood of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. (The Hungarian Revolution is dealt with in Militant International Review Number 18). But as leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, Béla Kun had made big mistakes, and was infected by ultraleft ideas. This tendency was fed by Zinoviev, the head of the Comintern, Bukharin and Radek, who poured scorn on the defensive struggles of the SPD organizations.