Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

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