The Red Years

European Socialism versus Bolshevism 1919–1921

Albert S. Lindemann

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520308770
• eBook ISBN: 9780520313255
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Politique européenne

The Red Years: European Socialism versus Bolshevism, 1919–1921 traces the turbulent aftermath of World War I, when socialist movements across Europe confronted the challenge—and temptation—posed by the Bolshevik Revolution. In the biennio rosso, the “two red years” between 1919 and 1921, revolutions, strikes, factory occupations, and general uprisings shook Germany, France, Italy, and beyond. At the same time, socialist parties long rooted in parliamentary traditions faced Lenin’s new model of revolutionary politics, crystallized in the Communist International. This book situates the confrontation in comparative perspective, weaving together the debates, polemics, and organizational crises that fractured European socialism. By following figures such as Karl Kautsky, Filippo Turati, Antonio Gramsci, and Paul Levi alongside Lenin and his Bolshevik comrades, it illuminates both the intensity of ideological conflict and the pragmatic struggles of movements trying to navigate postwar upheaval.

Drawing on archives, memoirs, and cross-national sources, the study reconstructs the pivotal encounters at Comintern congresses, the efforts at compromise through “reconstructionist” internationals, and the decisive splits that created communist parties across Western Europe. Episodes such as the Spartacist uprising in Germany, the Italian factory occupations, and the French general strike reveal the lived stakes of the socialist–communist divide, as theory and revolution collided. The book underscores the paradox at the heart of Lenin’s triumph: Bolshevism gained ascendancy over European socialism only as revolution in the West faltered, leaving Moscow both victorious and isolated. The enduring takeaway is that the Red Years mark not just a historical schism but a cautionary lesson in how movements for emancipation can fracture when ideals of democracy, revolution, and discipline collide in moments of crisis.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Before the Biennio Rosso: The Deeper Roots of the Socialist-Communist Conflict
• The SPD, SFIO, and PSI in the generation before the war
• Trends of the prewar socialist parties
• Prewar socialism in Russia
• The trauma of war
• Lenin and the problem of war
• War’s end and the radicalization of western socialist parties
• The Russian “Spark”
• Revolution in Russia
• The spread of revolution to Germany
• The failures of revolutionary socialists in Germany
• The Bern Conference
• The First Congress of the Communist International
• Leninism and the First Congress of the Comintern
• The PSI and the Comintern
• Comintern policy in 1919
• The response of the USPD and SFIO to bolshevik doctrine in early 1919
• Impasse at Lucerne: The USPD in search of a new international
• The reconstructionist movement
• The Leipzig Congress
• November elections in France and Italy
• The advance of the reconstructionist movement
• The Strasbourg congress
• Paths to Moscow
• The USPD opens negotiations: A letter from Moscow
• The SFIO approaches Moscow
• Cracks in the Maximalist majority
• Adjustments in Comintern policy: The extreme left
• Adjustments in Comintern Policy: The Centrists
• In the Land of Revolution
• The delegates of the SFIO
• The delegates of the USPD
• The delegates of the PSI
• En route to Petrograd
• Moscow
• Cachin and Frossard before HYPERLINK \l "noteT_1_7" 1‘ the most redoubtable of tribunals”
• Voyage down the Volga
• The late arrival of the USPD delegation
• The Second Congress of the Communist International
• The opening days of the Second Congress
• Cachin and Frossard opt publicly for the Comintern
• The SFIO and USPD delegates before the Committee on Conditions
• New pressures from the bolsheviks
• Serrati versus the bolsheviks
• The compromise with Cachin and Frossard
• The attack of the extreme left
• The split in the USPD delegation
• Bordiga at the Second Congress
• The Campaign for Communism
• Cachin and Frossard return to Paris
• The return of the USPD delegates
• The return of the Italian delegation
• Factory occupations and municipal elections
• The Twenty-one Conditions in France
• The new factions of the PSI
• Serrati and centrism
• The Split in Western Socialism
• The Halle Congress
• Negotiations at Halle
• The factions of the SFIO
• The Congress of Tours
• The Congress of Leghorn
• Paul Levi and the Comintern
• Epilogue and Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index