Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Report of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1921).pdf/14

 ment. The printed record of the proceedings of the Second Congress has appeared in German translation only during the last few days. I hope that the technical apparatus will work more efficiently this time, so that perhaps we may have the record of the Third Congress within a month. The German comrades will at least be able to read the record of the Second Congress, Now, while perusing the record and scrutinising the attitude of Serati and the Italian comrades, one cannot help asking the question: How could we ever entertain any illusions, how could we hope that Serati would belong to us?

The Record contains a table showing how frequently the various speakers had spoken. Serati had spoken four times on questions of principle, the national question, the agrarian question, the question of the 21 conditions, and on the question of the principal tasks of the Communist International. As you see, all these comprise the most important questions discussed at the Congress. Serati made declarations upon all these questions, stating every time that he would vote against or abstain. He would then continue for another ten minutes reciting anecdotes, but the trend of his remarks upon these four very decisive questions was directed against the Congress. We had thought at the time that these were merely misunderstandings, and did everything possible to convince him. Later events have shown the error of our judgment. We even had to publish a special book upon the question of the relations of the Socialist Party of Italy to the Communist International.

That book mainly consisted of articles, declarations and resolutions by Serati himself. We regret that we have to report to-day upon this question in the absence of representatives of the Italian Socialist Party. But we have done everything possible to get them here, we have informed them three months and a half in advance, inviting them and requesting them to arrive at the appointed time. Upon the arrival of