Twenty-one Conditions

SFIO congress

During the December 1920 Tours Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), the 21 conditions were rejected although the majority, led by Fernand Loriot, Boris Souvarine, Marcel Cachin, and Ludovic Frossard, adhered to the Third International, creating the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC), which would later take the name of the French Communist Party (PCF).

PSOE congress

At the July 1920 PSOE congress, Fernando de los Ríos proposed that the PSOE should join the Communist International only if defined conditions were met. He and Daniel Anguiano were appointed to visit the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to discuss membership of the PSOE in the Comintern. Their trip lasted from 17 October to 13 December 1920. While in Moscow de los Ríos met Lenin, who answered a question by de los Ríos about the compatibility between personal freedom and the length of the dictatorship of the proletariat with the often-quoted answer, "Freedom, what for?". De los Rios, who believed in a Fabian-humanist form of socialism, told his hosts in Russia that the PSOE should have the right to pick and choose from the Twenty-one Conditions, and should be completely independent of Moscow. This was completely unacceptable to the Bolsheviks.

At the PSOE Extraordinary Congress in April 1921, Anguiano gave a positive report on the Moscow visit and de los Ríos gave a negative report. The congress voted to reject the Twenty-one Conditions demanded by Moscow. Supporters of the Comintern left the PSOE and formed the Spanish Communist Workers Party, which combined with the Spanish Communist Party to form the Communist Party of Spain.