Rosa Luxemburg's Views On The Russian Revolution

232 Pages·2017·54.29 MB·English

by  Clara Zetkin

CLARA ZETKIN
Rosa Luxemburg’s
Views on the
Russian Revolution

Rosa Luxemburg’s
Views on the
Russian Revolution
1922
First published by the Communist International
Republished in the United States
in 2017 by Red Star Publishers
www.RedStarPublishers
Translation in the United States copyright © Red Star Publishers
and in India copyright © Revolutionary Democracy
The cover picture shows Clara Zetkin (left)
and Rosa Luxemburg in 1910
Contents
Introduction to U.S. Edition
Foreword...........................................................................................
1. Rosa Luxemburg’s Life Work....................................................
Its meaning and coherence
Its vilification by the reformist opponents due to Levi's ‘posthu­
mously published pamphlet’
History of the ‘posthumously published pamphlet’
II. Rosa Luxemburg's Views on the Russian Revolution
in September 1918........................................................................... 12
"The Russian Revolution, the mightiest event of the World War"
The Russian Revolution, an issue of the international proletariat
"The elementary duty of socialists to unearth the treasures of ex­
periences and lessons of the Russian Revolution"
The utopian and anti-revolutionary core of the Menshevik and
Kautskyan view of the Russian Revolution
The historical merit of the Bolsheviks
Critique of the Bolshevik agrarian policy
Critique of the Bolshevik nationality policy
Critique of the Bolshevik attitude to the Constituent Assembly
Critique of the electoral franchise in relation to the Soviets
Criticism of the Bolshevik policy of the proletarian dictatorship in
its relation to ‘terror’ and ‘democracy’
III. Against a Reformist Use of Rosa Luxemburg’s
September Critique......................................................................... 30
The leitmotif of the September critique
Adolf Warski’s analysis of Rosa Luxemburg’s view of Bolshevist
policy on the Nationality Question and of Levi’s assertion that
Rosa Luxemburg did not change her position
The fundamental difference between Rosa Luxemburg’s position
and that of the reformist socialists on the issue of’democracy’
The incompatibility of the Constituent Assembly and the Soviet
system
fhe fundamental importance of the Soviet electoral franchise
Proletarian dictatorship anil terror as means of revolutionary self-
defence
*
I
The creators, advocates and beneficiaries of the counter­
revolutionary terror legends
The reality of Bolshevist terror and the actual conditions for its in­
evitability
The problem of bureaucracy in the Russian Soviet state
The relationship between the Bolshevik party and the class of the
proletariat
IV. Rosa Luxemburg’s Attitude towards the Russian
Revolution after the November Revolution in Germany.........
58
Rosa Luxemburg’s ‘revised’ opinion of the problems of the Russian
Revolution, a product of historical analysis
The Rote Fahne, the classic testimony for this
The Rote Fahne as the leading organ of the German Revolution,
Rosa Luxemburg’s work and her political testament
The Rote Fahne against the National Assembly, the German Con­
stituent Assembly, and in favour of the Power of Councils
Criticism of the Congress of Councils and its position regarding
proletarian dictatorship and bourgeois democracy
The Councils’ Constitution as a means of overcoming ‘separatism’
Civil liberties and terror
Position on the January Uprising in Berlin and criticism of the ‘In­
dependent’ leaders during the struggle
Non-discussion of the theories and methods of the Bolsheviks, their
practice under the banner of the Russian Revolution
The Paul Levi of 1918/19 against the Paul Levi of 1922
The collaboration of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht during
the months of the revolution, a proof of Rosa’s change in atti­
tude to the Russian Revolution
Rosa Luxemburg’s alleged ‘fundamental’ rejection of terror
V. Further Evidence of Rosa Luxemburg’s
Revised Viewpoint..........................................................................
99
Excerpts from characteristic articles of Rosa Luxemburg in the Rote
Fahne
Excerpts from the "Speech on the Programme" at the Founding
Congress of the Communist Party
Leo Jogiches on Rosa Luxemburg's and his own change of attitude
to Bolshevik policy
Rosa Luxemburg's entire political activity since the November Up­
rising. an expression of her changed attitude to the Russian
Revolution
VI. Paul Levi’s ‘Introduction’ - a Misuse of Rosa
Luxemburg’s September Critique.............................................. 125
Why bring out the ‘posthumous pamphlet’?
The non-Marxist method of the ‘Introduction’
The frank characterization of the ‘new policy’ as an imposed policy
of concessions to capitalism and an incisive formulation of the
communist ideal by the Bolshevists
1 he need tor the Bolshevist policy to consider the mentality of the
Russian small peasant
1 he tragic historical contradiction of the Russian Revolution as the
background for the Bolshevik policy of concessions
VII. Bolshevik Agrarian Policy................................................... 136
Bolshevik agrarian policy as a basic prerequisite of the Russian
Revolution
The unfolding of the Russian agrarian revolution
Formation of a large class of middle peasants and the consequences
thereof
The pressure to satisfy peasant land hunger
The absence of an advanced technological production system and a
modern rural proletariat, and what it means for the agrarian
revolution
The initial weakness of the central revolutionary authority and how
it affected the agrarian revolution
‘War Communism’ and ‘commodity shortage’ strengthen ‘inborn
ownership psychology’
Economic and social forces of development directed towards mass
industrialisation and communism
Historical difference between French and Russian peasant emanci­
pation
Nationalisation of land, and steps taken towards integration of small
farms into the national economy
Contrast between the proletariat and the middle peasantry in Soviet
Russia
Growing solidarity between workers and peasants
VIII. Difficulties and Dangers of the Bolshevik Policy
of Concessions............................................................................. 160
Persistence of class antagonism between capitalists and the proletar­
iat within the workers’ State
Soviet leadership as guide to the trade unions and for labour legisla­
tion
The Soviet state as employer
Significance of the appropriation of political power by the class­
based party of the proletariat for the further development to­
wards communism
IX. Soviet Power, Proletarian Class Rule and
Party Dictatorship........................................................................ 169
Does the proletarian system of government guarantee proletarian
class rule?
The relation between the revolutionary proletarian class party and
the masses as a decisive factor of the content of the proletarian
system of government
The contrast between the Jacobin-Blanquist centralisation ol the
dictatorship from above and the revolutionary self­
centralisation by the most active masses
The supposed ‘mechanisation’ of the lives of the party and masses
due to excessive centralisation of the system of organisation by
the Bolsheviks and its devastating consequences
The Kronstadt mutiny of 1921 - no evidence of the Soviet govern­
ment having lost its proletarian class base
The relationship between the Russian industrial proletariat and the
Bolshevik party
The epic historical mission of the revolutionary proletariat and its
leading class party
Reasons for the distance between the Bolshevik party and a section
of the industrial proletariat
X. Increasing Development of the Soviets and their
Firm Alliance with the Industrial Proletariat and
its Class-based Party...................................................... 192
Growing electoral participation in All-Russian Soviet Congresses.
District and Provincial Conferences; growing party member­
ship; profession, educational qualification and gender of the
elected representatives
Party membership and professions of the members of the Soviet
Executive Committees
Function of the Soviets as expression of the will of the masses and
their actions under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party
The Bolshevik Party as a conscious expression of the will, activity
and progress of the proletariat
XL The Significance of the Russian Revolution
for the World Proletariat.......................... 202
lhe repudiation of Bolshevik politics with its great universal ap­
proach is a cover for abandoning the proletarian revolution it­
self
The myth of the "mechanical’ transfer of Bolshevist politics to
countries with other historical conditions
The lessons and the example of the Russian Revolution for the
world proletariat
The safeguarding of the Russian Revolution through the proclama­
tion of its proletarian character and its approach to the world
revolution
Soviet Russia as the first great state, which advocates the abolition
of private property and the right of common property
The duty of the international proletariat towards Soviet Russia
List of Newspaper and Parties
212