Lenin was heavily involved in the socialist response to the conflict, attending the leftist anti-war Zimmerwald Conference in September 1915, and a second Kiental conference in April 1916, although neither were well attended. Lenin urged socialists across the continent to convert the "imperialist war" into a continent-wide "civil war" with the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. To achieve this, he encouraged the fraternisation of troops on opposing sides of the conflict, revolutionary strikes, the development of new revolutionary socialist organisations, and the criticism of nationalism. He also lambasted the Russian army and praised German advances against Russia, believing that it would weaken the Tsarist authorities. He justified this by asserting that Tsarism was "1000 times worse than [German] Kaiserism", and that the Tsarist authority was so reactionary that its removal was necessary for the proletariat revolution to succeed.