Underground or not, the “civil war” continued. The cramped quarters did not hinder the oratorical artillery. The inter-Party strife became fantastically bitter. Moscow did not like either this bickering or the enforced underground work. The Kremlin wanted a single, unified Party, able to operate legally (above ground) as well as illegally (underground). Communism simply could not thrive on factional fights or in stuffy undercover cellars. Moscow intervened through the Third International, an organization designed by the Soviets to control Communist Parties in other nations and to serve as an instrument of world revolution. The founding Congress of the Comintern, which opened March 2, 1919, in the Kremlin, was a bizarre affair. The “delegates” were chiefly make-believe, picked from prisoners of war, visitors in Moscow, or “rubber-stamp” friends. The main problem was to find as many nationalities as possible. This was an “international” organization. That these individuals were not truly representative of their “home” groups did not matter. England was “represented” by a Russian emigré; Hungary by a prisoner of war. The proceedings were impromptu. It is related that Lenin, during one session, sent Angelica Balabanoff (later to become General Secretary of the Comintern) a note on a scrap of paper instructing her to take the floor and announce the affiliation of the Italian Socialist Party with the International. She replied that she could not. She had not been in contact with Italian Socialists. They were “loyal.” There was no doubt of that, but she could not speak for them. Lenin’s answer was prompt, scribbled in another note: “You read _Avanti_ [their newspaper] and you know what is going on in Italy.” The Comintern soon became a powerful weapon of communist control. The Second World Congress of the Communist International, held in Russia during July-August, 1920, adopted the notorious twenty-one points of admission for Comintern membership. These were basic rules that every Communist Party must accept before being admitted. The twenty-one points established an ironclad discipline, a single type of Party structure from which there could be no dissent. Here are some of the conditions: —All party publications must have communist editors. —If communists cannot carry out their work legally, “a combination of legal and illegal work is absolutely necessary.” —Vigorous and systematic communist propaganda must be carried on in the army. If forbidden by law, it must be pursued illegally. —Each Communist Party must develop communist agitation in rural areas, within trade unions, workers’ councils, and other mass organizations. —“Parties belonging to the Communist International must be built upon the principle of democratic centralism,” that is, “organized in the most centralized manner,” controlled by “iron discipline,” and with a leadership possessing power and authority.