1st Congress of the Comintern

Late in December 1918, the leadership of the Russian Communist Party decided that the time was ripe for the convocation of a new international association of radical political parties to supplant the discredited Second International. On December 24 a radio broadcast was made from Moscow calling upon the "communists of all countries" to "rally around the revolutionary Third International." Lenin sought to invite only those organizations which stood for a break with the more conservative elements in their group and who stood for immediate socialist revolution and the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat and a Soviet-style form of government. The formal convention call was composed by People's Commissar of War Leon Trotsky and listed invited political organizations by name. In addition to these, from the United States were invited the American Socialist Labor Party, "left forces of the American Socialist Party (especially the current represented by the Socialist Propaganda League)," the Industrial Workers of the World in America, and the SLP-affiliated Workers International Industrial Union. The call was published in the press, however, in Soviet Russia on January 24, 1919, and in Austria and Hungary by the end of the month. Two prospective delegates – Fritz Platten of Switzerland and Karl Steinhardt of Austria – were arrested and briefly jailed in transit. As a result, the vast majority of those who sat as delegates to this founding congress of the Communist International had no formal status with the parties which they claimed to represent and the delegates initially decided that the session would be a preparatory conference rather than a formal foundation convention. This initial decision was later overturned by the assembled delegates and the Third, Communist International was declared established. ==Delegate composition==

Over the six days of the congress a total of 51 delegates were registered, representing 35 organizations in 22 countries. Most of these delegates had already been residing in Soviet Russia, however, with only 9 of those attending the founding congress managing to break through the allied blockade of the country from abroad. With regard to the English-speaking world, no representative of the various parties and tendencies of Great Britain which were invited were in attendance at the founding congress. There were no delegates in attendance in either a voting or consultative status from the English-speaking countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. The delegates were, in general, younger than had been typical at previous international socialist gatherings. Of the 43 delegates for whom an age is known, 5 were in their 20s and 24 were in their 30s, with only the American Boris Reinstein over the age of 50. ==Congress location==

The Founding Convention was held at the Kremlin in Moscow in a small hall in the Courts of Justice. The long, narrow hall was barely large enough for 100 people, with the delegates seated upon flimsy chairs at small tables spaced throughout the room. ==See also==