Study Aids for Second Comintern Congress, 1920

Appendix to “The Comintern’s Second Congress: A Centennial Introduction“

As noted in my introduction to the Communist International’s Second Congress, the online version of the Congress proceedings available on Marxists Internet Archive (MIA) is not complete. Sessions are enumerated inaccurately, and two sessions are left out entirely. The MIA version also omits the 21 appendices published in a 1934 Russian version, all of which are included in the Pathfinder edition.

The notes below offer a comparison of the list of congress sessions found in each of these editions, followed by a list of the appendices in the Pathfinder edition.

Comparison of List of Sessions

The following table indicates, in the first column, the list of congress sessions as given in the original German edition of 1921, the authoritative text issued by the Comintern itself and utilized by the Pathfinder Press edition (PP). The second column shows the session number as listed in Marxists Internet Archive (MIA). The third column gives the main topic of that session.

PP     MIA    Topic

1        1        World Situation
2        2        Role of Communist Party
3        3        Role of Communist Party
4        4        National and Colonial Question
5        5        National and Colonial Question
6        6        Conditions for Admission
7        6a      Conditions for Admission
8        7        Conditions for Admission
9        8        Parliamentarism
10      8a      Parliamentarism
11      9        Trade Unions
12      9a      Trade Unions
13    10        Agrarian Question
14    10a      Statutes
15    11        Trade Unions, Workers’ Councils
16    13        Tasks, Conditions for Admission
17    15        Closing Rally

List of Second Congress Appendices

The following is a table of contents of the appendices found in the Pathfinder Press edition of the Second Congress of the Communist International: Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite: Proceedings and Documents of the Second Congress, 1920, ed. John Riddell, New York: Pathfinder Press, 1991 and 2013.

Appendix 1. Organizing the congress

• Minutes of the Credentials Commission
• Preliminary list of delegates
• Composition of Presiding Committee and commissions

Appendix 2. National and colonial questions

• The editing of M.N. Roy’s draft theses
• Theses by Ahmed Sultanzadeh
• Article and theses by Pak Chin-sun
• Excerpt from the discussion at July 25 commission meeting
• Comments by Lenin on Sultanzadeh’s report
• Note by Lenin on a proposal by Paul Levi
• “Revolutionary Ireland and Communism” by Thomas Darragh

Appendix 3. Conditions for admission

• Minutes and notes of commission meetings
• Letter to the French Socialist Party from the Presiding Committee

Appendix 4. Trade unions and factory committees

• Appeal to the Industrial Workers of the World
• Formation of the International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions
• Provisional statutes of the International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions
• To the trade unions of all countries by the Executive Committee

Appendix 5. The agrarian question

• The agrarian question and the world revolution, by Julian Marchlewski
• Preliminary draft theses on the agrarian question by V.I. Lenin

Appendix 6. Communist Women’s Movement

• To the working women of the world from the First International Working Women’s Conference
• Theses for the Communist Women’s Movement edited by Clara Zetkin

See also “The Comintern’s Second Congress: A Centennial Introduction“