Held in tandem with the Third Comintern Congress, the Young Communist International meets in Moscow during July, 1921.

‘The Second Congress of the Young Communist International’ by Willi Münzenberg from Moscow. No. 38. July 10, 1921.

Comrade Zinoviev has stated that the Second Congress of the Communist International was in fact I’s first congress. This applies with even greater justice to the Second International Congress of the Young Communists International, the official opening of which took place Yesterday.

Even if we consider it merely from the numerical and organisational standpoint, the Congress of Young Communists International appears the first really great and really International World Congress. All the former international young socialists congresses such as those of Stuttgart in 1907, of Copenhagen in 1910, of Bern in 1915 and of Berlin in 1919, were only international conferences as far as their composition was concerned. None of these gathering numbered more than 20 delegates from relatively few countries. But the present congress will be attended by well over 100 delegates. And not as at the former conferences from 8 to 10 central European countries, but even by actual representatives of the young communists organisations of Mexico, Northern America, Scandinavia, all the Balkan States, Italy and Portugal from the Far East, Khiva, Bokhara, Korea, China and elsewhere. The congress becomes the starting point of a new period of the young proletarian movement even more by reason of the questions of principles and tactics which will be discussed, than owing to its unexpectedly large and representative membership. The importance of the first congress of the Young Communists International which took place in Berlin in November 1919, lies in the liquidation of the last Social Democratic remnants in the International and the transformation of the Iatter into a Communist organisation, also in the open and definitive conversion to communism and the official affiliation to the Communist International. The present great international Congress of young communists will have to concern itself first and foremost with the further development of vital questions.

The report will be read at the congress on the III Congress of the Communist International. The Young Communists took part in the III Congress and they will have an opportunity of once more expressing their agreement with it and its resolutions, the most important point of the agenda is the second point, which deals with the relations of the Young Communists Organizations to the Communist Parties. The new position of Young Communists will be made specially clear in this connection.

From the theses proposed by the Executive Committee of the Young Communists International, it can be seen, that the young communist understand very well, that now, at a time of development of strong communist mass parties, it can no longer be their task as during the war to form independent political parties with correspondent political functions but that its first and foremost duty consists in collecting the millions of young workers of all countries into Young Communists Organizations, to train and teach them in these organizations and then bring them to Communist parties as trained, capable and communist tried revolutionaries and fighters. The means of gaining millions of young communists is above all an economic struggle, which as proposed by the Executive Committee of the Young Communists International will soon take a very prominent part in the work of the Young Communists’ Organizations. The Young Communists’ International which in the years 1917, 1919 and even 1920 has proved by its intensive revolutionary propaganda and far reaching communist agitation, by the active cooperation in the construction of communist parties, how well it understood the requirements of the moment, and which had the courage to and live up to their convictions, will prove the truth of their views at the Second Congress. The Young Communists will attach the foremost importance to become an integral part of the Communist International. They will thereby show their appreciation of the necessity of the strictest centralization and an iron discipline in the communist movement. The young Communists are precisely that part of the revolutionary proletariat which is best hated and most persecuted by the bourgeoisie of all countries. The International White terror is picking out its victims precisely in the ranks of young communists. In Hungary Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Esthonia, Spain, Italy and Germany thousands of youths were killed and shot, tortured to death, burned and buried alive, at the present time thousands of young communists a are imprisoned in all the countries. In all the countries, with France at their head, the bourgeoisie is preparing new exceptional laws and campaigns for the persecution of the young revolutionary communists.

The composition, the course and the result of the Second Congress of the Young Communists International will once more prove to the bourgeoisie, that no persecutions, no barbarian penalties, no white terror will prevent the revolutionary youth from doing their duty as young communists, as successors of the imperialist war and the first proletarian revolution of Russia. Young Communists are fully conscious of the task which history has imposed on them, which was scientifically expounded by Marx and Engels, the realisation of which was attempted by Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknect and which now the Russian Revolution has started to realise, to emerge from the state of necessity and enter the realm of freedom.

Moscow was the English-language newspapers of the Communist International’s Third Congress held in Moscow during 1921. Edited by T. L. Axelrod, the paper began on May 25, a month before the Congress, to July 12.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/3rd-congress/moscow/Moscow%20issue%2038.pdf