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    Rosa Luxemburg: The Russian Revolution

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    Martin Thomas
    Edition published by the Socialist Review group in 1959 with a preface by Tony Cliff

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    Rosa Luxemburg: The Russian Revolution

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    Edition published by the Socialist Review group in 1959 with a preface by Tony Cliff

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    Edition published by the Socialist Review group in 1959 with a preface by Tony Cliff

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    Rosa Luxemburg: The Russian Revolution

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    Martin Thomas
    Edition published by the Socialist Review group in 1959 with a preface by Tony Cliff

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    THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION rosa luxemburg 1/6 subaitt Using without it to x 1 It was clear to her revolution caused by ¢ Russian ney, ust lead to disto utionary sun foven th onal revol= w of the prolctariat ia a si tost sacrifices A in a uaze of contradicti becone entangled After pointing out clearly uncovers their is couprohensible « eets, the starti Gerzan proleteriat Tt would blunders, Rosa t t like or, that h in Russia # causes and eff- ‘A arc: the failure of the dro ciel nocd the ult usl clear that deiandir sia by Ger: eo F ® superhy = aon {f ve should expect we “ot Perhuian fron Lenin and hie Mecd by conjure forth the finost dae giser such cireuastancos they should the coll of the proletariat and» f1apcre* le liost oxenplary dictatorship rt ind erained revolutionary stand, theta eo octetiet ceonony, By their det- ++ssoedal trot their unt ributed w strong akeble loyaliy ¢ ntover eould adi tio and dozen i hard ch devilishly » Subjective geinioa, 1i 5 over "The dange: re soublane life, i i t to froo the iv 1 ate ublic 1 rc forced upon t by rty lo : ti to the internat t city in x 8 do the loadi d an clite of was sw lock, rout th i nes Las, y @ who , Tov Sa's paiphlet on the un 4 tho el Was a belicf in the t tatorsh: ©) arc capable of over=, belicved that workers Although dircetca plete 2 class anc that tho torship is this: Rich a roady-uade na Pocket of’ thal reyoluta h C zy which enor jgisally in p This is, un- a atoly = not the ro: boing practical reclization , polled, the eial ane juridical in the nists of the ut a fow nain sig to look tor the neem tive in character Chapter 1 Fundauental significance of the Russ an Revolution The Russian Revolution is the wightiest event of the World Wars Its outbreak, its unoxamplod vadicalica, its enduring consequences, constitute the clearest condemnation ofthe lying phrascs which off= ial Social-Denocracy sv zcalcusly supplied at the D nning of the war as an idoolosical cover for Geraan imperialism's campaign of con= quest. I refer tu the phrai the mission of Geraan bay= onets, im Czarisn and frec its oppreased peoples. The wighty swoep of the revolution in Russia, the profound results which have transforacd all class relationships, raised all social and ceonouic problows, and, with the fatality of their own inner logic, developed consistently fron the first phase of the bourgeois republic to ever nore advanced stages, finally reducing the fall of Czarisn to the status of a more minor episode = all these things chow as plain as day that the frceing of Russia was not an achievouent of the war and the uilitary defeat of Czarisn, aot sone service of "Geraan bay= nets in Gorman Liebe," as Meus Zeit under Kavtsky's editorship once prouised in an editorini. “They chow, on tae contrary, that the freeing of Russia had its roots doop in the soil of its own land and s fully natured internally. The nilitury alveuture of Gernan imp= erialisn under the idcological blessing of German Sociel-Donocracy did not bring about revolution in Russia but onky served to int= errupt it at first, to postpone it fcr a while aftgr its first stormy concernin ch were to overthrow Ru rising tide ia the ye for it the uost dizri loreover, 1gl1-13, and then, after its outbreak, created ult and abnormal conditions, r every thinking observer, © developments are a docs isive refutation of the doctrinaire thuory which Zautsky sharcd with the Goveriisent Social-Donocrats,* uecording to which Russia, 2s an eeononieally backward ane predominantly agrarian Land, was not to be ripe tor social revolution and prolctarian dictatorships This theory, which regards only 2 bourgcois revolution as feasible in Russia, is also the theory of the opportunist wing of the Russian labour novenent, of the so-called Mensheviks, under the expericneed jeadership of Axolrod and Dan, And from this conception follow the tactics of the coalition of the socialists in Ru liberalisu, On this basic conception of the Ru which follow autoutically their detailed pos: tactics, both the Russian ond the Ge: in agrosnent with the Gcraaa Govormient Socialists, According to the opinion of all three, the Russian Revolution should havo called a halt at the stage wnich Geman inperialiaa in its ocnduet of the War had sot as its noblo task, according to the nytholozy of the Gorman Social-D.nocracy, isc.) it shculd have stopped with the ever= fhrow of Czarisa. According to this viow, if the revolution has gone beyond that point and has set as i k the dictatorship of the proletariat, this is sinply of the radical wing of the Russian labour novenent, the Bolsheviks, And all difficulties which supposed a with bourgeois an Revolution, fron itions on questions of jan opportunists find thenselves the revolution has not with in its furthor cuurso, and all disorders it has suffered, are pictured as purcly a rosult of this fateful eeror. Theoretically, this doctrine (recamionded as the fruit of "Marxist thinking" by the Yorwiirts of Stanpfor and by Kautsky alike) follows fron the original "Marxist" disecvory ihut vue socfalist revolution is a national and, so to speak, a doheatic affair in cach nedern country takon by itse. Of course, in tae blue 1 ists of abstract foraulae, a Kautsky very well how to trace the world-wide econ= onic connections of : al which make of all odern countries a single in ¢ The problems of the Russian Revolution, moreover = a product of interaational developnonts plus the agrarian question = cannot possibly be solved within the linits of bourgeois society, Practically, this sane doctrine reprosents an attoapt to got rid of any responsibility for the course of the Russian Revolution, 50 far as that responsibility concerns the internationa + and especially toe German, prolotariat, and to deay the internation 1 connections of this revolution, It is not Russi S unripeness which has been proved by the events of the war and the Russian Revolution, but the eee * During the war the Gorman Social-Denocracy divided into threo fac= tions: the najority leadership, which openly supported and entered into the Inperial goverment; the Kautsky section, which declined rosponsibility for the conduct of the war but supplica nany of the thooretical ments for those who accepted such responsibility; and the section led by Rosa Luxorbury and Karl Licbknecht, which openly ed the war und counterposed international solidarity snd prol= an revolution to it, its hist of a crit~ unrip; orie tasks, And to cake this fully clear is the fi jeal oxniiination of the Russian Rovolution, . e fate of the revolution in Russia depended fully upon interna= vents, That the Bolsheviks have basod their policy entirely upon the world proletarian revolution is the clearest proof of their political i and firznoss of principle and of the bold scope of their policies, In it is visible the mighty advance which capitalist developuent has made in the last decade. The revolution of 1905-0? roused only a faint echo in Rurope. ‘herefore, it had eon renain a mere opening chapter. Continuation and conclusion were tie with the further development of Europe. °P Giourly, not uncritical apologetics put penetrating and thoughtful criticism is slone capable of bringing out the treasures of exper= jonces and teachings, Dealing as we are with the very first exper= iment in proletarian dictatorship in orld history (and one taking place at that under the hardest conceivable conditions, in the midst of the world-wide conflagration and chaos of the imperialist mass slaughter, caught in the coils of the most reactionary military powcr in Europe, and accompunied by the complotest failure on the part of the international working class), it would be a crazy idoa to think that every last thing dono or left undono in an experiment with the dictatorship of the prolotariat under such abnormal con= ditions reprecated the very pimeele of perfection, Un the con trary, clementary conceptions of socialist polities and an insight inte their historically necessary prercquisites foree us to under= stand that under such fatal coaditions oven the aost gigantic ideal= isa and the nost storn—tested revolutionary cnergy are incapable of roalizing denocracy and socialism but only distorted attoapts at either. To nake this stand out clearly in ali its fundauontal aspocts and consequences is the cleuentary duty of tho socialists of all countries; for only on the background of this bitter knowledge can we measure the chormous magnitude of the responsibility of the international proletariat Ltself for the fate of the Russian Rev- olution, Furtheraore, it is only on this basis that the decisive importance of tho resolute intornationsl action of the prolotarian revolution can becoue effective, without which action as its nec esaary support, oven the greatest cnergy and the greatest sacrifi- cos of the prolotariat in a single country aust inevitably become tangled in a maze of contradiction and blunders. ‘There is no doubt citacr that the wise heads at the helm of the isn Revolution, that Lenin end Protsky on thoir thorny path bow by traps of all kinds, havo taken neny a decisive stop only with greatest inner hesitation and with uost violent inner oppositions i surely nothing can be tarthor frou their thoughts than to believe all the thiugs they have done or left undone under the conditions bitter compulsion and necessity in tho aldst of, eae shou arded by the International. as a. sl Poonple of eoclaiiat pol Loy Sevand Hick obtt haett peal naneentoa and zealous imitation arc in order, It would be no less wrong to fear that 9 critical oxanination of the Foal so far taken by tha Russian Revolutio& would sorve to woaken the spect for and the attractive power uf the oxauple of the Russian Rev= Slution, watch e ena overcouc tho fatal, inertia of the German mass= e8- Nothing is farther fro: the truth, An awakening of the revolution= ary cnergy of the working in Geraany enn never again be colled perth in the spirit of the guardianship ucthods of the Geraan Social= pouecrecy of Iatunlascated nouory, It can never again bo conjured perth by any spoticss authority, be it taut of our own "hishor come ittoce" or that of "the Russian ¢xaz plo." Not by the creation of a Pivplutdonary hurrah-spirit, but quite thc contrary: only by an ine eaGut imbo ali the fearful Seriousness, all tie conploxity of the tasks involved, only as a rosult of political naturtly aml independence of spirit, only as a result of a capacity for critical judgiont on the part of the maz hich capacity was systematically killed by the Pperal-Denccracy for decades under various pretexts, only thus can apacity for historical action be born in the Geruan prol- ftariat. to conccrn onoself with a critical analysis of the Russian Revolution in all its historical conncctions is the bost training for the Gertien and the international working class for the tasks which confront thea as an outgrowth of the progont situation, dhe first period of tho Russian Revowgtion, fron its beginning in March to the Uctobur Revolution, corresponds exactly in ite genocal guetines te the course of development of both the Great English Rove olution and the Great Fronch Revolution, It ig the typieel course covery first zuncral reckoning of the’ revolutionary forces begotten within the womb of bourgcois socicty its developnent moves naturally in an ascending line: from modorate PeGinnings to cver-groatcr radicalization of ains, and, parallel with that, from 2 coalition of classes and partics to the sole rule of the radical party, At the outset in March 1917, tho "Cadets," that is, the liboral pourgeostc, stood at the hend’ of the revolution,® ‘Tho firet gencral with Geo) Lhe Fevolutionary tide swopt overy one and overything along with its The Fourth Dune, ultra-roactionory product of tho ultra~ Troegenary four-clase right of suffrage and arising out of the coup dtotat, was suddonly converted into an organ of the revolutions ~ALY rourBcois partics, even those of the nationalistic right, suddenly formed a phalanx against absolutisn, The latter fell at the first attack alnost without a struggle, like an organ that hed died and areded only to be touched to drop off, Tho brief effort, too, of the Liberal bourgcoisie to save at loast the throne and the dynasty coll= apsed within a few hours, The swooping warch of ovents leaped 4n days and hours over distancos that formerly, in Franes, took decades to traverse, In this, it became clear that Ruscia was realizing tho result of a contury of European devclopacnt, above all, taat the revolution of 191? rect continuation of that of 1905-07, and not a gift of tho German "Liberator," fhe novenent of March 1917 eS * Cadets, an abbreviation derived fron the Russian initials of the party calling itsolf the Constitutional Deuocrats, 10 linked itsel¢ its work had be irectly onto the point where, ten ycars carlior, n oft, The democratic republic was the complete, internally ripened product of the very first onset of the revolutions New, however, began tue second and nore difiicult task. From the very first nonent, the driving force of the revolution was the mass of the urban proletariat, However, its denands did not limit them= selves to the realization of political democracy but wore conecrned with the burning question of international policy = imuediate peaces At the sane tine, tho revolution cubraced hass of the arny, Waieh raised the same deaand for immediate peace, and the nass of the peasants, who pushott the agrarian question into the foreground, that agrarian question which since 1905 had been the very axis of the revolution, Tnuediate peace and land = frax these two ains the in~ ternal split in the revolutionary phalanx followed inevitably. Tho donand for immediate peace was in most irreconcilable opposition to the imperialist tendencies of the liveral bourgeoisie for whoul dyukev was the spokesman, On the otiter hand, the land question was a terrilying speetre for the other wing of the bourgooisie, the rural landowners, And, in addition, it represented an attack on the sacred principle of private property in goneral, a touchy point for the ontire properticd clas: Thus, on the very day aftcr the first victorios of the revolution, there began an inner strug le within it ovur the two burning quese tions = peace dand, The liberal bourgcoisie entercd upon the tactics of drascing out things and evading thom, ‘Tho labouring nassos, the amy, the peasantry, prossed forward over wore inpet= uously. There can ve no doubt that with the questions of peaco and laad, the fate of the political domocracy of the republic was linked up. The bourgeois classos, carricd way by the first stormy vave of the revolution, had pernittod thousclves to bo dragged along to tho point of republican yovermient, Now they began to sock a base of support in the rear and silently to organize a countere revolution, The Kalodin Cossack caupaign against Potersburg was a clear expression of this tendeney, Had the attack been successful, then not only the fate of the peace and land questions would have been sealed, but tho fate of the ropublic as well. Military dict= atorship, a reign of terror against the prolotariat, and then row turn to monarchy, would have boon the inovitable results, Frou this we can judge the utopian and fundanentally reactionary character of the tactics by which the Russian "Kautskyans" or Mone sheviks permitted thoselves to bo guided, Hardened in their add= iction to the ayth ef tho bourgeois charactor of tho Russian Revol« ution - for the tino being, you soc, Russia is not supposed to be pe for the secial revolution! = thoy clung desperately to a coale ition with the bourgeois liberals, But this itcans a union of olon= onts which had been split by the natural internal devolopuont of the revolution and had conc into the sharpest conflict with ouch other, The Axelrods and Dans wanted to collaborate at all costs with thoso classes and parties fro which cauo the greatest throat of danger to the revolution and to its first conquest, democracy It is especially astonishing to observe how this industrious nan coy Coutsky), by his tiroless labour of peaceful and methodical writing during the four years of the World War, has torn onc hole after ano= ther in the fabric of socialien, It is q labour fron which socialisn emerges riddled like a sieve, without a waole spot left in it, The uns eritical indifference with which his followers regard this industrious labour of their official thcorctician and swallow cach of his new diss coveries without so much as batting an eyclash, finds its only counters part in the indifference with which the followors of Scheidewann and Co, look on while the latter punch sociolisn full of holos in practise. Indeed, the two lnbours completely supplomcnt oach other, Since the outbreak of the war, Kautsky, the official guardian of the teuple of Marxisay has really only been doing in theory tho sane things which the Scheidcuanns have becn doiag in practise, nanely: (1) the Inter= national an instrunent of peace; (2) disaraanent, the League of Nations and nationalisa; and finally (3) deticcracy not socialism In this situation, the Bolchovik tendency perforns the historic service of having proclained frou the very beginning, and having foll- owed with iron consistency, those tactics whoch alone could save den~ ccracy and drive the revolution ahead, All power exclusively in the hands of the worker and peasant asses, in tho hands of the sovicts « this was indeed the only way out of the difficulty into waich the rev~ olution had got; this was the sword stroke with which they cut the Gordian knot, freed the revolution fron a narrow blind-alley and opened up for it an untrannelled path into the free and open fioldse The party of Lonin thus the only one in Russia which grasped the true interest of the revolution in that first period, It was tho eletiont that drove the revolution forward, and, thus it was the only party which roally carriod ou a socialist policys * Here, as at various points in the as ; script, the passage is still in the furm of rough notes which Rosa Luxemburg intended to expand and complete later, Her nurder by military agonts of the SocialDomocratic coalition governuent provented her fron completing and revising the works The expression, "the Intcrnational an instruient of peace" re= fers to tho excuses Kautsky gave for its bankruptcy during the war (Man instrument of peace is not suited to tines of war"), It probably refers also to the thoory that the International, being peaceful, is not an instruncnt for rcvolutionary struggle, Kautsky substituted utopian talk of disarnauent (without the renoval of the causcs and roots of war) for a revolutionary struggle against war, He provided apologetics for the League of Nations which was supposed to have ban= ished war fron the world, And he justificd the socialists of each couns try when thoy abandoned internationalisa, supported their own governients and ruling classes, and becume in thoory and practice nationalists instead of internationslists, Whon the struggle fir socialism began in earnest, the Scheideunnns defended capitalisn against socielism in practise, while Koutsky did so in thoory by pretending that capitalist "democracy" was cnocracy in the abstract, and that they were defending "democracy." Hence the third point moans: the advocacy of denocracy as against socialisn, The passage in slightly expanded forn might road something as follows: "(1) tho International as an instruient for peace-time only and for the naintonance of peace; (2) advocacy of the doctrines of disarmament, apolo~ getics for the League of Nations and nationalisn as against international. isn; (3) and the advocacy of "denocracy" as against secialisns 12 It is this whi ‘kes clear, too, why it was that the Bolsheviks, ugh they wero ab tho bevinnin: ol the ruvolution a persecuted, nderet aud hunted sinority attacked on all sides, arrived within the shortost tine to the head of the revolution and were able to bring under their banner all the genuine nasses of the people: the urban proletariat, the aray, the peasants, as well as the revolution= Louunts enoeracy, the left wing of the Sucialist~Revolu- tionaries.* Tho real situation in which the Russian Rovolution found itself, narrowed down in a ionths to the alternative: victory of the counter-revolution or dictatorship of the proletariat - Kaledin or Lenin, Such was tho objective situation, just as it quickly prosents itself in every rovolution after tho first intoxication is over, and as it presented itself in Russia as a rosult of tho conerote, burning questions of peace and land, for which thero was no solution within the framework of bourgoois revolutions in this, the Russian Revolution has but confirmed the basic less= on ef every great revolution, the law of its being, which decrces: either the rovolutica nust advance at a rapid, stormy and resolute toupoy break Sown all barricrs with an iron hand and place its goals over farther ahead, or it is quite soon thrown backward bohind its fecble point of departure and suppressed by counter-revolutions To stand still, to nark tine on ono spot, to bo contented with the first goal it happens to reach, is noyer possible in rovolution, And he who tries to apply do wisdon derived from parle ianentary battles botwo S and nice to the field of revolu- tionary tactics only shows thereby that the very psychology and laws of existence of revolution are alien to him and that all hist= orical experience is to h bock scaled with seven soals, Take the course of the Revolution from its onsct in 1642, hore the logic of things it necessary that the first fecble vacillations of the Presbyterians, leaders deliberately evaded a decisive battle with Charles I and victory over hin, should iney— ‘bly be replaced by t uts, who drove thea out of Parle d the power for es. And in the some way, hin the aray of the Ina ois mass of the soldiers, the Lilburnian "Lovcllors" constituted the driving furee of the cutive Indopendent novenent; just as, finally, the prol~ etariun clomunts within the nass of tae soldiers, the clenents that went farthost in their aspirations gor social revolution and who found their oxpression in the Digger novenent, constituted in their turn the loaven of the dowocratic party of the "Levollcrs." * Tho Socialist-Rovolutionarics were a party 1 hone: de up largely of potty bourgeois anc declassed intellectuals and peasants. It was not a Marxist party. Its progran included tho advocacy of a dcnoc= ratie revolution in Russia, Whon Rosa Luxcuburg spoaks hore of the revolutionary clcuents of denocracy," sho is referring to the left wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary party which joinod with the Bol= shoviks in the strugsle for peaco, tho scizure of tho land, and the transfor of power to the sovicts, Thoy later broke with the Bolshey~ iks, principally on the issue of the signing cf tho Brost-Litovsk Treaty, 3 Without the soral influence of th ents on the gener: ut the pressure of the deuveratic wiass ci the scldiors upon the bourgevis upper layers of the party of the Independents, thure woul, been no "purse of The tons Parliancat of its Prosbyterians, nor any victorious ending to the war with the arny of the C: end Scots, nor any trial and cxeeution vf Charlos I, nor o£ the Howse of Lords and proclwnation of a ropublice And what happened in the Groxt Fronch Revolution? Here, after four years of stiugsle, the seizure of powor by the Jacobins proved bo be ‘the only onus of saving the conquests of the revolution, of gehioving a republic, of mashing feudalisn, of organising a rovelue Honary defense agaiast inner as voll as cuter focs, of suppres ing the conspiracies of c.unter-revolution and spreading the rovolutionary wave frou France to all Europes Koutsky and his Russian eorcligionists who wanted to see the Russian Revolution keep the “bourjoois character" of its first phase, are an cxaet counter those Goran and Baclish liberals of the pregyding contury who distinguished betwecn the two well-known poriodg gi the Great French Revolution: the "good" revolution of the tibet Girondin phase and the "bad" one after tho Jacobia uprising Tho bibs eral shallownes: this cone.ption of history, to bu sure, dousn't revolutionary proletarian ¢1 i one 185 of the soldiors, wit s hav care to underst t, wivhoat the uprising of the "innodoratem dacobins, oven the first, tinid and half-hearted achiovenents of the Girondi 56 would soon have buen buried under tie ruins of the Uthat the veal alternative to Jacubin dictatorship = the fron course of historical devolopucat posed tho question tn 1793 = was aot "nodernto" Ys but..srestoration of the Bourbons! The Mgolden wean" ecnat be unintalaes in’any rcvolutions Tho Lag of its nature d tans a quick decision: cither the loconotive drives forvard full steam ahoad to the uvst oxtruue point of the historival ascent, of it rolls back of its om weight again to the starting point te bolton; and those who would k ep it with their wook pow= ers halt way up the hill, it but cracs down with it irredvenably into the abyss, Thus it ic clear tint in ovory revoluti able of seizing the leadership and power which has the courage to dscne the appropriate watchwords ivr driving the revolution aheady and the courage to draw all the nce: nclusions fron the situs ation, This nakes clear, too, the n blo rele of the Russian Hon- sheviks, tho Dens, Zeretallis, ete. d enornous influence on the wineses at tho ovjianing, but, after thoir prolonged wavering and after thoy had fousht with both hands and foet against taking over power and responsibility, wore driven ignobly off the stagce The party of Lenin was the only ono which grasped the uandate and duty of a truly revolutionary party which, by the slogan = "All power in the hands of the prolctariat and peasantry" - insured the continued developient of the revolution, Thereby the, Bolsheviks solved the fanous problon of "winning a maj= grity of the people," which problci has ever weighed on the Gernan Soc~ ial-Doweracy liko a nightnare, brod-in-thesbone disciples of va only that party is caps 14 parlicnentary cretinivny® these Geraan Social-Donocrats havo sought pply to rovolutions tie hono—aace wisden of the perliauentary i r tu carry anything, you nust first have a majoritye soy, applies te revolution: first let's becoue a © true dialectic of rovoluticas, however, stands _ vlinicntary noles on its h not through a naje ority to revolutionary tactics, but through revolutionary tactics to a majority - that is the way the vo Only 2 party which kmovs how to lead, that is, to advance things, wins support in storay tines, Tho determination with which, at the decisive uoucnt, Lonin and his courades offered the only solution which could advance things ("all power in the ds of the proletariat and peasantry"), transfurucd thon alnost overnight fron a persecuted, slandcred, outlawed nincrity whose leader had to hide like Marat in cellars, into the absolute waster of the situation, Moreover, the Bolsheviks inaociately sot as the ain of this scigure of power a cou.letey far-reaching revolutionary progrant not the safeguarding of bourgocis democracy, but a dictatorship of the proletariat for the purpose of realizi suclalisns Thereby thoy von for thensclves tho inperishable historic distinction of having for the first tine proclained the final aim of secialisi as the ircet progran of practical politics, bated Ae era party could offer of courage, revolutionary far= sightedness and consistency in an historic hour, Lenin, Trotsky and the other coi) es have given in good measur, All the revole utionary honour and capacity which westorn Social Doro acy lacked was represented by the Bolshcviks, Thvir Octoucr uprising was not only the actual salvation of tho Russian Revolution; it was also the salvation of the honour of intcrnational socialisms Chapter 2 The Bolshcvik land policy The Bolsheviks are the historic heirs of the English Levellors and the French Jacobins, But the coneroto task which faced thon after the seizure of power was inconparably nore difficult than that of thelr historical predecessors, (Importance of the agrarian ques= tion, Even in 1905, Thon, in the Third Duna, tho right-wing peas= ants} Tho peasant question and defense, tho aray.**) . Surcly the solution of the problon by tho dircet, imucdiate seizure and distribution of the land by the peasants was the shortest, * 4 tera first applied by Marx to those parlianentarians who think that all history is decided by notions, votes and points of ordor in parliaientary dcbate, 0 Heros ag in eauberyOrscenen places, the nanuscript consists only of rough notes which Rosa Luxcuburg intended to expand lator, As tho weaning of those pascages is in general clear, I have pre= ferred to translate thon literally, just as the author left then, 15 Simplest, most clean-cut foraul, break down large Land-ovne to the revolutionan proletarian socialist Unfortunately, hove consis in the 2 ants has in gene A socialist tr things so far as agra In the first place, ouly the estates, as the technically iost advanced and most concentrated means and ethods of agrarian production, can serve as the point of departure for the socialist modo of production on the vurse, it is not necessary to teke away fron the snall po of land, and Be oan with confidence Leave hin to be von over voluntarily by the supe erior advantages of social production and to be persuaded of the advane first of.unton ti-.cooporatives and then finally of inclusion in the general socialized oconony as a wholc, Still, every socialist co- on the Land y with large and nediun re the p ust first of all be turned r to ha socialint governuent, affords the poss= agricultural ion in accord with tho require- of interrelated, large-scale socialist preduetion “oreover, in the second placey it is one of the pro: transformation, that the separation between rural eco which is so characteristic of bourgeois socicty, sho uch a way as to bring about a nutual intcrponotration and fusion of both, to clear the way for the pla f both asraria i industrial produ ecording to i of view, tever individual whether through sovermiental centre introduced fron the tust be preceded by the natioualization of the of the large and niddle-sized estates and ieee © are two fundatontal reque noaic refora, without which thero is no alist economy, tionships presupposes tyo ge Landed thing; for quisites of this nd industry cal ceunouie a: urban conmunes, as sone propose, or dix > in any cvent, it cust be preceded by a refor centre, and lond, he ernment 4 é Russia has not carricd through these nighty reforms ~ who can reproach then for that! Tt would b dest indeod to donand or oxpect of Lenin and his comrades that, in bricf period ei their rule, in the centre of the gripping whirkpool of doacstie and foreign struggles, ringed about by countless foos and opp= ononts - to expect that under such cireunstane. they should already have solved, or even tackled, o f the difficult ks, indeed, wo can safely f tho socialist transfo ation of socivty! st favourable conditias, once we have coi. tany a tooth on this hard nut bofore we out of the worst of housands of couplicated diff= iculties of th: © tusk? A socialist yovernaent which has o powory to powcr nust in any event do 16 iust ta hich lead in the direction of that prerequisite for a later socialist refora of agriculture; everything wv ay bar the way to those asure FY a launched by the Bolsheviks, im:e@iate seizure and distribution o: nd by the peasants, necessarily tended in the opposite direction, Not only is it not a socialist measure; it even cuts off the vay to such ueasures; it piles up insurnountable ob~ stacles to the socialist transforiation of agrarian relations. The seizure of the landed estates by the peasants according to the short and precise slogan of Lenin and his friends ~ "Go and take the land for yourselves" = sinply led to the sudden, chaotic con= Version of large landownersuip into peasant landownership, What was created is not social property but a now form of private property, nauely, the breaking up of large estates into uediun and suall est= ates, or rclatively aavanced large units of production into prinitive saall units which operate with technical means fron the tine of the Pharaohs that all! Through these neasures and the chaotic and purely anner of their execution, diiferentiation in landed prop= frou being eliniaated, was even further sharpened, Although peasantry to forn peasant conni ttees obles estates aight, in sone fashion, be act, yet it is clear that this gonoral advice ring da the reul practise and real relations of 1 or without committees, it was the rich poa- ade up the village bourgeoisie posse 1 power reir hands in ev.ry Russian village, that surely becasic the chief beacficidries of arian revolution, Without being there to sce, any one can f out for hinselr that in the course of the distribution of the land, social and economic inequal= was not eliminated but rather increased, and curt arpened, This shift of powor, viage of the interests of the prol= ;, there vas only a snall caste of and a suall minority of rich socialist reforn on the land, And their ex,ropriation by a revolutionary mass novenent of the people ere child's play. 8 after the "seizure," as an opponent of any aitonpt at socialization of agrarian production, there is an noriious, newly developed and powerful aass of owning poasants who etariat and o noble and capi village bourgeo to oppo will defend their newly won property with tooth and nail against ialist attack, The question of the future socialization rian eeonony = that is, any socialization of production in gen+ Russia = has now beco.e a question of opposition and of strug.le between the urban prolctariat and th of the antry. How sharp this antagonisu has alr becone i wn by the peasant yeott of the citics, in which they withhold the moans of existence carry on speculation in tien, in quite the sane way as the Prussian ker do The F ch sual peasant bocaue the boldest defender of © Great ve Freach Revolution whieh d given hin land ec cated frou the enigras, As Hapolconic soldicr, ho carricd the banner of Franco to victory, erosse rope a d foudalion to pieces in onc land after another. a and his fricuds night have expected a sinilar resul¢ frou their agrarian slog Howe noy that tie Russian peasant has seized the land with his oun fist, he does act even dre ending Russia anc the rovelution to wich he owes the land, lie fi 6 obs tinately into his new possessions a 1 cncnics, the ctate to decay, the urban population to fanine, Qbonin's speech on the necessity of contralization in industry, nate jonlization of banks, of trade and of industry. Why not of the lanay Hore, on the contrary, decontralization and private property. (oenin's own agrariun progras bafore the revolution was different, The slogan taken over fron the auch condeunod Socialist-Revolutionars ios, or rather, frou the s.ontancous peasant noveriont. (In order to introduce socialist principles into agrarian relations, the Sovict now socks to ercate agrarian conmiunes out of proletarians, uostly city unemployed. But it is casy to sec in advance that tho results of these efforts ust roaaia gnificant as to disappoar when uicaskred against the whole scope of agrarian relations, After the nost appropriate «tarting points for socialist eccnony, the large estates, have becn brokcn up into siall units, now they are trying to build up comiunist iodel yroduction units out of petty beginnings, Under the circuiistanccs these comunes can clain to be considered only a5 experiuents and not as a general social roforn, Grain nonopoly with boantios, Mow, post-festun, they want to introduce the class war into the village!*) d abandoned the revolution to its ru has @eated a aww and poworful layer sn on the countryside, cnomies whose rese ore dangerous and stubborn than that of the noble of popular enenics of istanee will be auch large landowners, Chapter 3 The Wationalitics question Tho Bolehoviks sro in part responsible for the fact that tho milit= ary defeat was transforned into the collapse and breakdown of Russia, Morcover, the Bolsheviks thensclves have, to a groat extent, sharpened the objective difficulties of this situation by « slogan which they pleevd in the foreground of their policios: the somcalled right of self-detersinatioa of pooples, or - scnothing which was really impli- cit in this slogun = the

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