Article twenty of the terms of admission into the Communist International

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This article was proposed by Lenin at a sitting of the commission of the Comintern Second Congress on July 25, 1920, during the discussion of his theses on the terms of admission into the Communist International. Both the commission and the Congress approved the article. Lenin’s theses entitled “The Terms of Admission into the Communist International” and published before the Congress met contained 19 articles. The Congress adopted 21 articres, the last article reading as follows: "Party members who reject in principle the obligations and theses laid down by the Communist International shall be expelled from the Party.

Parties which now wish to join the Third International but have not yet radically changed their previous tactics, must do everything necessary, before joining the International, for at least two-thirds of their respective Central Committees and all the principal central Party bodies to be made up of comrades who came out publicly, prior to the Second Congress of the Communist International, with unambiguous-statements in favour of joining the Third International. Exceptions may be allowed with the consent of the Executive Committee of the Third International. The latter has the right to make exceptions also for representatives of the “Centre”, named in §7