Collected here in this volume are the vital materials relating to the early years of international communism from left-wing social democracy before World War 1 through the revolutionary flare-ups of 1919 in berlin, Budapest, Munich & Vienna to the defeats of 1923 in Bulgaria & Germany. These documents highlight the outstanding events in the communist movement during the era of Lenin. The book is imaginatively divided into four roughly equal parts, which trace the developments, conflicts and splits of the national communist parties against the background of the growing and centralising Communist International. Besides an introduction placing the Lenin years of international communism in historical perspective by measuring their impact on the Stalin years to follow, the author provides before each part a concise narrative which ties together and explains the documents.