• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

- : Clausewitlz - - t .:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~w w e.;.. .... ....... ..... ... .: . S. The A ir~~~~~~~~~~~~~........ ..... Mpilitarization of Marxismn, 19m14-i1921 ........1.k. by Jacob W. Kipp Kansas State University Carlvon Clausewitz. Lithograph by F. Michelisafterthe paintingby W. Wach, 1830. (Original in the possession of Professor Peter Paret, Stanford;used with permission.) EVEN the most superficialreading of Soviet militarywrit- old regime. On the one hand, reformersand revolutionaries ings would lead to the conclusion that a close tie exists shared the strong anti-militaristthrust of European Social between Marxism-Leninismand Clausewitz' studies on war Democracy, which viewed the militaryelite as the sources of a and statecraft.Although labeled an "idealist," Clausewitz en- vile and poisonous militarism.The professionalsoldiers' desire joys a place in the Soviet pantheonof militarytheorists strik- for glory,like the capitalists' search for profits,only brought inglysimilar to that assigned to pagan philosophersin Dante's sufferingto the workingclass. All socialists shared a com- Hell. Colonel General I. E. Shavrov, formercommander of the mitmentto a citizens' militiaas the preferredmeans of national Soviet General Staff Academy, has writtenthat Clausewitz' defense. In 1917 the Bolsheviks rode this anti-militaristsen- method marked a radical departurein the study of war: timentto power by supportingthe process of militarydisin- tegration,upholding the chaos of thekomitetshchina, and prom- He, in reality,for the firsttime in militarytheory, denied ising a governmentthat would bringimmediate peace.3 the "eternal" and "unchanging" in militaryart, stroveto These Social Democrats were also the heirs of examine the phenomenonof war in its interdependence the volumi- and interconditionality,in its movement and develop- nous writingson militaryaffairs of the two foundersof scientific ment in order to postulate theirlaws and principles.' socialism, Karl Marx and FriedrichEngels. As Peter Vigor has pointed out, these two life-longcollaborators employed a di- Soviet authorspoint to the fact that Lenin valued Clausewitz' vision of labor in theirmilitary writings. Engels, who considered workbut refuseto see Lenin's readingof Vom Kriege as having himselfan amateursoldier, dealt withtactics, strategy,and the any fundamentalconsequences forLenin's own views on war or impactof technologyon militaryaffairs. Marx dealt withinter- militaryaffairs.2 Soviet authorstake no note of when or in what national relations,the impact of war on domestic politics, and contextLenin read Clausewitz, nor do theyconsider the speci- the revolutionarypotential of a given conflict.4After Marx's fic mannerin whichLenin applied Clausewitz' concepts on war death Engels continued writingabout militaryaffairs, and in and statecraftto theformation of themilitary policy of his party. 1887penned a chillingprediction of whata generalwar would be It is the purpose of thisarticle to examine the intellectualbond like in capitalist Europe: between the Prussian officerand the Russian revolutionaryin This would be a universal war of order to understand better the between Soviet unprecedentedscope, relationship unprecedentedforce. From eight to ten million soldiers militaryscience and Marxism-Leninism. will destroyone anotherand in the course of doingso will The ideological baggage which Russian Social Democrats stripEurope clean in a way thata swarmof locusts could carried with them in 1914 would seem to suggest an undying never have done. The devastation caused by the Thirty distrustof any ideas coming fromprofessional soldiers of the Year's War telescoped into3-4 years and spread over the 184 MILITARYAFFAIRS entire continent,hunger, epidemics, the universal en- i.e., the alienation of labor, the fetishismof the commodity savagementof both troopsand the masses, broughtabout world, surplus value, exploitation,are not akin to sociological by acute need, the hopeless jumbling of our artificial facts,such as divorces, crimes,shifts in population,or business trade, industrial,and credit mechanisms; all this ending cycles. The fundamentalaspects of Marxian categoriesdefy any in general the collapse of old states and their bankruptcy, with describingand vaunted wisdom . the utter impossibility of foreseeing empirical science. i.e., one preoccupied how all thiswill end and who will emerge victoriousfrom organizingthe objective phenomenaof society. They appear as this struggle;only one resultis absolutelybeyond doubt: facts only to a theory that takes them in preview of their universal exhaustion and the creation of conditions for negation.Correct theory is nothingless thana consciousness of the final victoryof the workingclass.' a praxis that aims at changingthe world.7Marx put the prop- osition succinctlyin his eleventh thesis on Feuerbach: "The Engels had littleto say about what would follow this crisis. philosophershave only interpretedthe world in various ways; Its very magnitude pointed towards a general revolutionary the point, however, is to change it."' crisis across Europe and a rapid social transformationfrom What Marxistsacross Europe faced in the Summerand Fall of capitalism to socialism. Once the exploiting and exploited 1914 was an anomaly so glaringthat realityseemed to negate social classes had disappeared,the proletarianstate would have existingtheory. In the face of its proclaimed internationalism no need forthe militaryas the instrumentof the state's monop- and pacifism,the Social Democrats of Europe had to confronta oly on violence since the state would have neitherexternal nor general European war, which their theory had held to be an internalthreats with which to contend. impossibility.The Second Internationaland worker solidarity were supposed to prevent a general war among the powers. True, as in the case of analogous circumstanceassociated with TWENTY-SEVEN years passed between Engels' prediction scientificrevolutions, observers in the decades prior to the and the onset of thatgreat European war. In the meantime outbreakof WorldWar I had noted anomalies in maturecapital- the heirs of Marx and Engels had become powerfulpolitical ism, which did not fitthe essential paradigmoutlined by Marx forcesin manystates of Europe. Some parties,most notably the and Engels. But the shock of modernwar, i.e., praxis, set offa GermanSocial Democratic Party,had abandoned revolutionary deep crisis in theory.9 action, althoughthey continuedto mouththe rhetoricof class In Lenin's case, this crisis had a profound,but largelyunac- confrontation.European socialists had in 1890created the Sec- knowledged consequence, for Soviet militaryscience. For ond International,and theyexpected it to providethe organiza- Lenin, the committed revolutionary,the ramificationsof a tional expression for a workers' solidarity,which was to pre- general European war were no abstract concern. On the con- ventthe outbreakof such a war. But in the Summerand Fall of trary,because he was committedto changingthe world. Lenin 1914 the socialist parties of Europe, with the exception of the requiredof theorythat it granthim "scientificforesight" - the Serbian, actively or passively supported their governments' abiltyto foreseethe war's course and outcome. On theone hand. entryinto the war. To the disgust of Lenin, the majorityof this led Lenin to review the substantialbody of socialist litera- Russian Social Democrats were willingto defend Russia, no ture on financecapitalism and imperialistrivalries. culminating in 1916 withhis syntheticwork, Imperialism the Hi,g4hestState matterhow much theydespised the tsaristregime. But Engels' "' vision came back to haunt them all. Total war graduallytore oflCapitalism. On the other hand. Lenin was concerned with assunder both socialist ideology and European society in the the problemof theoryreconstruction, a task made essential by same mannerthat the massed guns tore apart land and men. the apparentfailure of accepted Marxism to predictor prevent In readingLenin's early writingson militaryaffairs, one must the war. It is most typical of Lenin that in the face of such be conscious of the extent to which these views have been earth-shakinghistorical events, he should returnto philosophy accepted without deep reflection or consideration. Lenin's in orderto finda theoreticalframework upon whichto analyze observations on the colonial wars of the late nineteenthand these events and to guide his actions. early twentiethcenturies, especially the Russo-Japanese War, Unlike the dry and largelyahistorical exposition of Lenin's reflectthe preeminentconcerns found in the worksof Marx and views to be found in most Soviet works, this process is in- Engels: the politics of war and the impact of new technology tellectuallyintriguing and highlyrelevant to our concern, the upon war in capitalist society. development of Soviet militaryscience. This process in- Withthe outbreakof World War I, Lenin's speculationsand volved a fundamentalrestructuring of Lenin's generaltheory.2 writingsabout war underwenta radical transformation.Ideo- Down to 1914,for all his declarationsabout dialecticalmaterial- logies, like the paradigms of a scientificdiscipline, begin to ism, Lenin never transcendedthe historicalpre-Marxian, me- disintegratewhen the exceptions or anomalies startto threaten chanistic materialismof the Enlightenment.In one of his ear- the very core of the model. Normal ideological discourse, like liest writings(1894),

Load more

  8

Copy Link