I do not remember the exact date when the proposal of the
Berne International Conference to send a Commission of
Enquiry to Russia became known in Moscow, but on
February 20th everybody who came to see me was talking
about it, and from that date the question as to the reception
of the delegates was the most urgently debated of all political
subjects. Chicherin had replied immediately to Berne,
saying that "though they did not consider the Berne
Conference either socialist or in any degree representative of
the working-class they nevertheless would permit the
Commission's journey into Russia, and would give it every
opportunity of becoming acquainted from all sides with the
state of affairs, just as they would any bourgeois commission
directly or indirectly connected with any of the bourgeois
governments, even with those then attacking Russia."
It may well be imagined that a reply in this style infuriated
the Mensheviks who consider themselves more or less
affiliated to the parties represented at Berne. What, they
shrieked, Kautsky not a socialist? To which their opponents
replied, "The Government which Kautsky supports keeps
Radek in irons in a gaol." But to me the most interesting
thing to observe was that Chicherin's reply was scarcely
more satisfactory to some of the Communists. It had been
sent off before any general consultation, and it appeared that
the Communists themselves were widely divided as to the
meaning of the proposal. One party believed that it was a
first step towards agreement and peace. The other thought it
an ingenious ruse by Clemenceau to get
"so-called" socialist condemnation of the Bolsheviks as a
basis for allied intervention. Both parties were, of course,
wrong in so far as they thought the Allied Governments had
anything to do with it. Both the French and English
delegates were refused passports. This, however, was not
known in Moscow until after I left, and by then much had
happened. I think the Conference which founded the
Third International in Moscow had its origin in a desire to
counter any ill effects that might result from the expected
visit of the people of Berne.
Litvinov said he considered the sending of the Commission
from Berne the most dangerous weapon yet conceived by
their opponents. He complained that he had been unable to
get either Lenin or Chicherin to realize that this delegation
was a preparation for hostilities, not a preparation for peace.
"You do not understand that since the beginning of the war
there has been a violent struggle between two Internationals,
one of which does not believe in revolution while the other
does. In this case a group of men already committed to
condemn the revolution are coming to pass judgment on it.
If they were not to condemn the revolution they would be
condemning themselves. Chicherin ought to have put a
condition that a delegation of Left Socialists should also
come. But he replied within an hour of getting the telegram
from Berne. These idiots here think the delegation is
coming to seek a ground for peace. It is nothing of the
sort. It is bound to condemn us, and the Bourgeois
Governments will know how to profit by the criticism,
however mild, that is signed by men who still retain authority
as socialists. Henderson, for example (Henderson was at
first named as one of the delegates, later replaced by
MacDonald), will judge simply by whether people are
hungry or not. He will not allow for reasons which are not
in our control. Kautsky is less dangerous, because, after all,
he will look below the obvious." Reinstein remembered the
old personal hostility between Lenin and Kautsky, whom
Lenin, in a book which Reinstein thought unworthy of him,
had roundly denounced as a renegade and traitor. The only
man in the delegation who could be counted on for an
honest effort to understand was Longuet.
As the days went on, it became clear that the expected visit
had provided a new bone of contention between the Russian
parties. The Communists decided that the delegates should
not be treated with any particular honour in the way of a
reception. The Mensheviks at once set about preparing
a triumphal reception on a large scale for the people whom
they described as the representatives of genuine socialism.
Demian Biedny retorted in an extremely amusing poetic
dialogue, representing the Mensheviks rehearsing their parts
to be ready for the reception. Other Communists went to
work to prepare a retort of a different kind. They arranged
a house for the Berne delegates to live in, but at the same
time they prepared to emphasize the difference between the
two Internationals by the calling of an anti-Berne
conference which should disclaim all connection with that
old International which they considered had gone into
political bankruptcy at the outbreak of the European war.