ABSTRACT
The official report of the Zimmerwald conference mentioned the preliminary Berne meeting and stated explicitly that the task of the conference was not the creation of a new International but the launching of effective actions for peace by the international proletariat. The conference met at Zimmerwald in the Bernese Oberland from 5 to 8 September 1915; there were thirty-eight delegates. Organization had been chiefly in the hands of Robert Grimm, a left-wing Swiss Social Democrat and editor of the Berner Tagwacht. The Zimmerwald conference was also a milestone on the road to the worldwide schism in the socialist labour movement and the emergence of a new 'Communist' International. The 'Zimmerwald Left' sided with Lenin on most issues, but not invariably. Apart from Trotsky, there was Lenin's close collaborator Zinoviev, Karl Radek, a Lithuanian, two Swedes, a Dutchwoman, and a representative of the 'International Socialists of Germany'.
