Zimmerwald movement

Reactions and aftermath

In February 1916, the ISC planned a second Zimmerwald Conference, the Kiental Conference. It took place from April 24 to the night of April 30 – May 1. The manifesto adopted in Kiental, "To the People Driven to Ruin and Death", represented a leftward shift relative to the Zimmerwald movement's previous statements. In 1916, dissatisfaction with the war grew. On May 1, large demonstrations against the war, which defied the socialist majorities which supported their countries, took place in several European cities, with 10,000 marching in Berlin. Hunger strikes and more demonstrations followed in the summer. This tide of militancy confirmed the left's position, according to Lenin. The left was able to expand its numbers and its influence within the Zimmerwald movement. Conversely, several socialist parties that supported the war saw their membership decline. The German SPD, for instance, lost 63 percent of its members between August 1914 and 1916. This wave of protest culminated in the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, which toppled the Czarist government.Nation 1989, p. 171 The gulf between the left and right of the Zimmerwald movement widened and the movement effectively collapsed during the months between the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The decline of the movement was partly a result of the infighting between the left and the center and the left's splitting tactics. The historian David Kirby also attributes it to the fact that peace was starting to become a real possibility and the ISB was resuming its activity and the majority of the Zimmerwald movement sought nothing more than peace. In addition, Grimm, the figure most capable of unifying and leading the movement, left. In June, an international diplomatic scandal forced him to step down from the ISC and control over this organization was in effect handed to the left. Balabanoff became the ISC's secretary and Höglund, Nerman, and Carl Carleson members. At the Third Zimmerwald Conference, held in Stockholm in September, the positions of the left, which was still only a minority in the Zimmerwald movement, gained traction with many delegates.