Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Twelve Days in Germany (1921).pdf/69

 from the ranks of the K.A.P.D. Our acquaintance with the representatives and leaders of the German Communist Party in Germany itself has confirmed our opinion. We reckoned upon appearing in Berlin at the general meeting of the Berlin organisation of the German Communist Labour Party. But unfortunately this became impossible owing to the interference of the police.

The Communist International has a definite policy with regard to this party, and we are going to carry it out systematically and persistently. This summer the Executive Committee of the Communist International demanded from the German Communist Party the expulsion of nationalists like Laufenberg and Wolfheim. We are pleased to state that this demand has now been complied with. This showed us that the best proletarian elements of that party desired to meet the wishes of the Communist International, and to remove all obstacles to a friendly understanding between us. Otto Rhule, who fled from the Congress of the Communist International, on his return to Germany started a counter-revolutionary agitation against Soviet Russia after the fashion of Dittmann. He is a typical intellectual apostate, completely muddle-headed. At the same time he seems to be desperately fond of self-advertisement. The day before my arrival in Germany, Rhule announced by a special poster in Halle that he challenges me to a public debate. The public flocked in large numbers to his meeting. But I was of course absent, as I had not arrived at Halle at that time. Even if I had, I do not think it was worth my while to discuss matters with that gentleman.

It is a satisfaction to note that the workers who form the bulk of the German Communist Labour Party decided at once to exclude Rhule as well, as soon as they saw that he had started a counter-revolutionary agitation against Soviet Russia. Among the leaders of the K.A.P.D. there are some pure syndicalists. There are also people embittered by the internal strife through which they have passed, people who are therefore unable to take an impartial view of things. Many of these leaders will probably be lost to the proletarian revolution. But the bulk of the workers who form the K.A.P.D. will all the same become our comrades.