Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Nicolai Lenin, His Life and Work (1918).djvu/45

 for three years for circulating Lenin's appeals in Italy. Mehring, Clara Zetkin, the best among the German Internationalists, who used to fight Lenin in the old days, now render him the tribute of their greatest respect. Or listen to what has been said about Lenin by men like Gorter, Hoeglund, Blagoeff, Loriot, and Serrati. There can be no greater satisfaction for Comrade Lenin than the kowledgeknowledge [sic] that he, by his work, has captivated the minds and hearts of such men as all those prominent leaders of labor in various countries.

Comrade Lenin became the leader of the Third International, which is now being born. At first many virtuous so-called Socialists ridiculed the idea that Lenin should put forward his candidature for the leadership of the Third International, saying that he is aspiring to the honor of being the successor of Bakunin. But who will now laugh when we say that the leader of the Third International is none else than Lenin? The compromise-mongers have now no inclination to laugh. They would rather cry, because they know that the Third International is_a living fact, although owing to the state of siege it has not come into existence formally. And they also know that the new International has in the person of Lenin a sufficiently strong leader, far-seeing, courageous, such as the working class IternationalInternational [sic] properly needs.

The part played by Comrade Lenin from the beginning of the war has been quite exceptional. He was the first to begin collecting circles of Internationalists, and it was a remarkable sight how he was devoting his inexhaustible energy to this work in Switzerland. He lived first at Berne and then Zuerich. The Swiss Social Democratic Party was at that time soaked through and through by opportunism and patriotism, and only a small group of workers rallied round us. Comrade Lenin would spend much time and strength in order to organize some ten or twenty individuals belonging to the Zuerich working class youth. I lived at that time in another Swiss town, but I well remember the enthusiasm which Comrade Lenin devoted to this small work. He used to write us numberless letters, urging us all to