ABSTRACT
Two momentous events, which decisively affected the course of the First World War, had taken place between Kienthal and Stockholm: the February revolution in Russia, and the USA's entry into the war. Bread riots and strikes broke out in Petrograd on 8 March 1917. Within a few days army units mutinied in the capital. The Petrograd soviet, which was to play a crucial part in the events of that year, met for its first plenary session at the end of March 1917 and appealed to workers of all countries to embark on joint mass action for peace. The Zimmerwald commission had invited affiliated organizations to a third Zimmerwald conference, also to be held in Stockholm, before it became clear that a general conference would not meet. Lenin objected not only to Bolshevik attendance at the general Stockholm conference, he was totally opposed to participation in the third Zimmerwald conference.
