The Russian Revolution (pamphlet)

The Russian Revolution
Cover of Rosa Luxemburg's pamphlet "The Russian Revolution" (Die Russische Revolution)
AuthorRosa Luxemburg
Original titleDie Russische Revolution
TranslatorBertram Wolfe (English edition published 1940 by Workers Age Publishers, New York)
LanguageGerman
GenrePolitical philosophy
PublisherPaul Levi
Publication date
1922
Publication placeGerman Empire
Media typePrint

The Russian Revolution (German: Die Russische Revolution) is a pamphlet written in 1918 by Polish-German Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg. It was posthumously published in 1922 by fellow Spartacist Paul Levi.[1]

Summary

Luxemburg discusses the 1917 February and October revolutions in Russia. Her three major criticisms of the policies implemented by the Bolshevik Party were its korenizatsiya policy of self-determination for ethnic minorities, its distribution of land to individual peasant farmers instead of immediate collectivization, and its anti-democratic dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly.[2] In general, Luxemburg was critical of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin's centralization of power and creation of a single party state,[3] and the suppression of civil liberties such as freedom of the press, association and assembly.[4]

Sections of the work include:

  • Fundamental Significance of the Russian Revolution
  • The Bolshevik Land Policy
  • The Nationalities Question
  • The Constituent Assembly
  • The Question of Suffrage
  • The Problem of Dictatorship
  • The Struggle Against Corruption
  • Democracy and Dictatorship

References

  1. ^ Rosa Luxemburg (1940). "The Russian Revolution". Workers Age Publishers (New York).
  2. ^ Katerina Clark (2018). "Rosa Luxemburg, "The Russian Revolution"" (PDF). Springer Nature B.V.
  3. ^ Ottokar Luban (September 12, 2012). "Rosa Luxemburg's Critique of Lenin's Ultra Centralistic Party Concept and of the Bolshevik Revolution". Critique. 40 (3). Journal of Socialist Theory: 357–365. doi:10.1080/00111619.2012.697760. S2CID 144441489.
  4. ^ PIETER C. VAN DUIN (January 2018). "Political life is dying out: Rosa Luxemburg's critique of Bolshevism and the Bolshevik revolution" (PDF). Studia Politica Slovaca.