Introduction to Rosa Luxemburg’s Pamphlet The Russian Revolution
Preface
I believe that I am right, in every respect, to publish this pamphlet. Its origins are as follows. In summer , Rosa Luxemburg sent the Spartakusbriefe arti- cles from her prison in Breslau, in which she took critical issue with the policies of the Bolsheviks. This was the period after Brest-Litovsk, the time of the Zusatzverträge.1 Her friends saw their publication as inopportune at that time, and I agreed with them. Since Rosa Luxemburg stubbornly insisted on their publication, I travelled to see her in Breslau in Sep- tember , where, after long and detailed discus- sion in the prison, though I did not convince her, she agreed to refrain from publishing a recently written article against Bolshevik tactics. In order to convince me of the correctness of her criticism, Rosa Luxemburg wrote the following pamphlet. She informed me of the broad lines of its content from prison by way of a trusted woman- friend,2 remarking that she was busily at work writ- ing a detailed critique of what had happened in Russia. ‘I am writing this pamphlet for you,’ Rosa
1. [The Zusatzverträge [supplementary treaties] that the Soviet government was compelled to sign on August recognised effective German suzerainty over Finland, Ukraine and Georgia. The collapse of the German army less than two months later put paid to these treaties.] 2. [Mathilde Jacob.] Introduction to ‘The Russian Revolution’ •
Luxemburg added, ‘and if I convince only you, I shall not have done this work in vain.’ As material for the pamphlet, she used not only German news- papers, but all the Russian newspapers and pamphlets that had reached Ger- many through the Russian embassy, and that trusted friends had smuggled in to her in prison. I expect two reproaches: from some people, that I am publishing it only now, and, from others, that I am publishing it already, indeed publishing it at all (the pamphlet was indeed condemned to the flames by a certain party).3
As for the timing of publication, it goes without saying that this was inde- pendent of differences that I have had with the Bolsheviks on a well-known occasion. In my view, the timing is firstly determined by the fact that the rule of the Bolsheviks in Russia is more secure now than at any previous time, and as secure as it can be so long as the Western proletariat does not relieve Russia from its isolation. And, secondly, it is determined by the fact that the present Bolshevik policy involves the most serious consequence for the European workers’ movement, and that everything must be done to promote independent criticism of Russian developments. Only those who think criti- cally are able to separate truth from lies, the permanent from the accidental, the gemstone from the rubble. This publication therefore seems to me both possible and urgent. Rote Fahne will cry ‘anti-Bolshevism!’. That is something I cannot prevent, it is up to its editors. As is readily apparent, the pamphlet is not complete. There are certain pas- sages where the train of ideas is sketched only lightly, though still clearly. I would have liked to have added a faithful development of this summary, but have refrained from this so as not to leave room for any misunderstandings. There are just a few quotations that in the manuscript were given only by
3. [According to Clara Zetkin, who devoted a short book to rebutting the content of Luxemburg’s pamphlet, Leo Jogiches advised her after Luxemburg’s death to burn the manuscript, though Zetkin makes clear that this was not from unwillingness to offend the Bolsheviks, but because Luxemburg had not had access to sufficient material in prison, and intended, in due course, to write a fuller critique of Bolshevik policy. The accusation was also made that Levi, in reproducing a copy of Luxemburg’s text, had not accurately published her original manuscript, which had not yet been found. In the event, when this eventually reappeared in , it turned out to be only margin- ally different from the version Levi published.]