Abstract:
The outbreak of the First World War in Europe in August 1914 was a turning point in the
history of the international socialist and radical labour movement. The war precipitated the collapse of
the International Socialist Bureau (the "Second International") of socialist and labour parties, with
almost all sections supporting the war efforts of their national governments. The only Second
International groupings which proved exceptions to this general pattern -a violation of every basic tent
of the international socialism, as well as the formal anti-war commitments of the Second International -
were the Russian Bolsheviks, the Serbian socialists, and anti-war minorities in a few of the belligerent
parties.
