In late 1918 , the British Labour Party called for the establishment of an international conference of socialist parties , the Labour and Socialist International . Lenin saw this as a revival of the Second International , which he had despised , and formulated his own rival international socialist conference to offset its impact . Organised with the aid of Zinoviev , Trotsky , Christian Rakovsky , and Angelica Balabanoff , the First Congress of this Communist International ( " Comintern " ) opened in Moscow in March 1919 . It lacked global coverage ; of the 34 assembled delegates , 30 resided within the countries of the former Russian Empire , and most of the international delegates were not recognised by any socialist parties in their own nations . Accordingly , the Bolsheviks dominated proceedings , with Lenin subsequently authoring a series of regulations that meant that only socialist parties endorsing the Bolsheviks ' views were permitted to join Comintern . During the first conference , Lenin spoke to the delegates , lambasting the parliamentary path to socialism espoused by revisionist Marxists like Kautsky and repeating his calls for a violent overthrow of Europe 's bourgeoisie governments . While Zinoviev became Comintern 's President , Lenin retained significant influence over it
First Congress
1st Congress of the Comintern
Vladimir Lenin