The Theoretical basis for the Third or Communist International was worked out by Lenin in Switzerland during the first two years of the World War. From the very outbreak of the war in August, 1914, which he at once denounced as “imperialist,” Lenin called for the establishment of a new International purged of “social-chauvinists” who, in his opinion, had betrayed the international labor movement. “Against the chauvinists” and “for the union of the international proletariat” became the chief slogans of the Bolsheviks amidst the general war hysteria which had overpowered many outstanding leaders of the Second International.
On November 1, 1914, Lenin wrote in Social-Demokrat, the Bolshevik Central-Organ, published in Switzerland, that whereas the Second International had done useful preparatory work “during the long ‘peaceful’ epoch of the most cruel capitalist slavery” it was the task of the Third International to organize the forces of the proletariat “for a revolutionary onslaught on the capitalist governments, for civil war against the bourgeoisie of all countries, for political power, for the victory of Socialism.”