Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
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THE LENINIST GENERATION<br />
especially amongst the youth. 37 As the Zimmerwald movement progressed, Lenin was<br />
able to build a "powerful and articulate minority" of revolutionaries, including the leadership<br />
of the SYI, known as the Zimmerwald Left. 38<br />
For socialist youth, Zimmerwald forged a closer link between youth and Bolshevism.<br />
Münzenberg consistently supported Lenin's revolutionary positions against the war. 39 As<br />
socialist youth drew closer to the Zimmerwald Left, Lenin began to characterize the<br />
Bolshevik Party as a movement of the youth. Within his rhetoric, Lenin linked both the<br />
youth and the Bolshevik Party with the future, depicting relations between the two<br />
movements as natural and complementary:<br />
Is it not natural that youth should predominate in our party, the revolutionary party We<br />
are the party of the future, and the future belongs to the youth. We are a party of innovators,<br />
and it is always the youth that most eagerly follows the innovators. We are a party<br />
that is waging a self-sacrificing struggle against the old rottenness, and youth is always<br />
the first to undertake a self-sacrificing struggle. 40<br />
As the war drew on, the Bolsheviks continued to court the socialist youth; their revolutionary<br />
positions gained attraction among the youth as pacifist initiatives failed to end the<br />
war. These experiences eventually led the SYI to leave the Second International, renaming<br />
itself the Young Communist International.<br />
The First Period (1919-1924): The Origins of the Leninist <strong>Youth</strong><br />
With the advent of the Russian Revolution, Lenin and the Zimmerwald Left founded a<br />
new International to lead a coordinated revolutionary offensive against capitalism and<br />
imperialism. The era of 1919-1924 in communist history is known as the "First Period."<br />
During this time, communists directed their attention to recruiting young socialists,<br />
relying heavily upon the revolutionary initiatives of youth. The Comintern courted the<br />
SYI to abandon the Second International, focussing on constructing a new Leninist<br />
Generation of youth. Communists urged youth to reject socialist traditions of class<br />
collaboration and compromise. Their propaganda played upon themes of martyrdom,<br />
betrayal, and revolution associated with the war. Socialist youth increasingly believed<br />
Bolshevism represented their generation's desires for both "peace and social revolution." 41<br />
Lenin challenged youth to carry forward a revolutionary "war against war" under the<br />
leadership of the Comintern.<br />
The SYI had its first official post-war meeting scheduled for August, 1919 in the<br />
Hungarian Soviet Republic. Throughout the months leading up to this meeting, representatives<br />
of the Comintern sent lengthy appeals to the SYI Executive to entice their organization<br />
to leave the Second International. Comintern leaders appealed to the socialist<br />
youth utilizing themes of sacrifice and martyrdom associated with the experiences of<br />
WWI. Gregory Zinoviev denounced the betrayals of the Second International, highlighting<br />
the suffering and martyrdom of youth: 42<br />
15