Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

174V. I. LENINobject to this opinion most decisively. To postpone it onthis account (I presume that there are no other reasons fordelay; no one, for instance, demanded a postponement onaccount of inadequate preparation of our Party materialfor the revision) would be equivalent to our delaying thefoundation of the Third International. The foundation of theThird International ought not of course to be understoodformally. Not until the proletarian revolution has triumphedin at least one country, or until the war has come to an end,may we hope for a speedy and successful advance in conveninga great conference of internationalist revolutionaryparties of various countries; or for their consent to a formaladoption of a new programme. In the meantime we mustadvance our cause on the initiative of those parties whichare now in a more favourable position than the others andcan take the first step—not viewing it, of course, as the laststep, not necessarily opposing their programme to other“Left” (i.e., internationalist revolutionary) programmes, butworking directly towards the formulation of a general programme.Outside of Russia there is at present no othercountry in the world where there is comparative freedomfor internationalists to meet, and where there are as manycomrades well informed on subjects concerning internationalmovements and programmes as there are in our Party.This is why we must take the initiative upon ourselves.This is our immediate duty as internationalists.Apparently Comrade Bukharin views this matter in exactlythe same way. At the beginning of the article he says that “theParty Congress which has just been concluded [it waswritten in August] recognised the necessity of revising theprogramme” and that “a special congress will be called forthis purpose”. We conclude from this that Comrade Bukharinhas no objections to the adoption of a new programme atthat congress.If so, then we have perfect unanimity on this question.Hardly anyone would be against the proposition that ourcongress, upon adopting a new programme, express a desireto draw up a single general programme for the Third International,and take certain steps in that direction—hastenthe conference of the Lefts, publish a collection of articlesin several languages, set up a committee for the purpose