The Twenty-one Conditions, officially the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International, are the conditions, most of which were suggested by

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

, to the adhesion of the

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

parties to the

Third International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internation ...

(Comintern) created in 1919. The conditions were formally adopted by the Second Congress of the Comintern in 1920.

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The conditions were:

SFIO congress

During the December 1920 Tours Congress of the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

(SFIO), the 21 conditions were rejected although the majority, led by

Fernand Loriot Fernand Loriot (; 10 October 1870 – 12 October 1932) was a French teacher who was active in forming the teachers' union. He took a pacifist stance during World War I. He was one of the founders of the French Communist Party. Early years Loriot ...

, Boris Souvarine, Marcel Cachin, and Ludovic Frossard, adhered to the Third International, creating the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC), which would later take the name of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

(PCF).

PSOE congress

At the July 1920 PSOE congress, Fernando de los Ríos proposed that the PSOE should join the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

only if defined conditions were met. He and Daniel Anguiano were appointed to visit the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republik to discuss membership of the PSOE in the Komintern. Their trip lasted from 17 October to 13 December 1920. While in Moscow de los Ríos met Lenin, who answered a question by de los Ríos about the compatibility between personal freedom and the length of the dictatorship of the proletariat with the often-quoted answer, "Freedom, what for?". De los Rios, who believed in a Fabian-humanist form of socialism, told his hosts in Russia that the PSOE should have the right to pick and choose from the Twenty-one Conditions, and should be completely independent of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. This was completely unacceptable to the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. At the PSOE Extraordinary Congress in April 1921, Anguiano gave a positive report on the Moscow visit and de los Ríos gave a negative report. The congress voted to reject the Twenty-one Conditions demanded by Moscow. Supporters of the

left the PSOE and formed the Spanish Communist Workers Party, which combined with the Spanish Communist Party to form the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain (; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of L ...

References

{{Authority control Comintern Vladimir Lenin

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SFIO congress

PSOE congress

See also

References