the kapd was unable to reach even its founding congress prior to suffering its first split when the so-called national bolshevik tendency around fritz wolffheim and heinrich laufenberg appeared (this tendency has no connection with modern political tendencies in russia which use the same name). more seriously, the kapd lost most of its support very rapidly as it failed to develop lasting structures. this also contributed to internecine quarrels and the party actually split into two competing tendencies known as the essen and berlin tendencies to the historians of the left. the recently established communist workers international (kai) split on exactly the same lines as did the tiny communist workers party of bulgaria. the only other affiliates of the kai were the communist workers party of britain led by sylvia pankhurst, the communist workers party of the netherlands (kapn) in the netherlands and a group in russia. the aau-d split on the same lines and it rapidly ceased to exist as a real tendency within the factories.