Abstract
The essay concerns the highly controversial pamphlet of Rosa Luxemburg The Russian Revolution (1918/1922), in which Luxemburg criticizes Lenin’s post-revolutionary policies, in particular his dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, an elected body. The essay reviews the history of the text’s publication and the intense debate, which continues to this day, over whether or not Luxemburg changed her mind on its central critique. At stake in the argument is not only Luxemburg’s evaluation of Lenin’s actions but also the correct weighting to be given to the two components in the central Marxist–Leninist dialectic of revolution: spontaneity and consciousness. In elaborating this point the essay brings in examples from the writings of Lukács and Stalin, and also discusses the dialectic’s centrality in socialist realism.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bronner, S. E. (1981). A revolutionary for our times: Rosa Luxemburg. London: Plato Press.
Ettinger, E. (1986). Rosa Luxemburg. A life. Boston: Beacon Press.
Frölich, P. (1967). Rosa Luxemburg: Ideas in action (3rd revised ed.), tr. Johanna Hoornweg. London: Pluto Press.
Hudis, P. et al. (2011). Did Rosa Luxemburg take back her critique of the Russian Revolution?—A debate among P. Hudis, J. Rose, C. Cutrone, et al. Retrieved July 5, 2018 from https://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/rosa-luxemburg-critique-russian-revolution.
Lenin, V. I. (1988). What is to be done? Translated by Joe Fineberg and George Hanna. London: Penguin Books.
Lenin, V. I. (1992). The state and revolution. Introduced and translated by Robert Service. London: Penguin Books.
Levi, P. (1922). “Einleitung” in Rosa Luxemburg. In Die Russische Revolution. Eine kritische Würdigung aus dem Nachlass von Rosa Luxemburg, Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Paul Levi. Berlin: Verlag Gesellschaft und Erziehung G. m. b. H.
Lukács, G. (1999). History and class consciousness: Studies in Marxist dialectics, Trans. Rodney Living-stone. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Luxemburg, R. (1922). Die russische revolution. Eine kritische Würdigung. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Paul Levi. Berlin: Verlag und Gesellschaft G.m.B.H.
Luxemburg, R. (1970). The Russian revolution and Leninism or Marxism? With a new introduction by Bertram D. Wolfe. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Luxemburg, R. (1971). Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften, Ausgewählte politische Schriften in drei Bänden (Vol. 2). Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Marxistische Blätter GmBH.
Luxemburg, R. (2004). Social reform or revolution. In P. Hudis & K. B. Anderson (Eds.), The Rosa Luxemburg reader. New York: Monthly Review Books.
Luxemburg, R. (2008). The essential Rosa Luxemburg. Reform or revolution and the mass strike. Edited by Helen Scott. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Luxemburg, R. (2010). Socialism or barbarism: The selected writings of Rosa Luxemburg l. L. Paul Blanc & H. C. Scott (Luxemburg ed.). New York: Pluto Press.
Luxemburg, R. (1970–75). Gesammelte Werke in 5 volumes, ed. A. Laschitza & E. Müller. Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag.
Nettl, J. P. (1969). Rosa Luxemburg (Abridged ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Radek, K. (1918). Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Leo Jogiches, Retrieved August 5, 2018 from https://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/radek/1921/rosakarlleo/luxemburg.html.
Stalin, I. V. (1951). O nekotorykh voprosakh istorii bol’shevizma. Pis’mo v redaktsiiu zhurnala ‘Proletarskaia Revoliutsiia’. Sochineniia, volume 13. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo politicheskoi literatury.
Warski, A. (1922). Rosa Luxemburgs Stellung zu den taktischen Problemen der Revolution. Hamburg: Hoym.
Weil, F. (1928). Rosa Luxemburg über die russische Revolution. Einige unveröffentlichte Manuskripte Mitgeteilt und eigeleitet von Felix Weil (Frankfurt n. M.), Archiv für die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung herausgegeben von Dr. Carl Grünberg, vol 13. Leipzig: Verlag von C. L. Hirschfeld.
Zetkin, C. (1922). Um Rosa Luxemburgs Stellung zur russischen Revolution. Hamburg: Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Clark, K. Rosa Luxemburg, “The Russian Revolution”. Stud East Eur Thought 70, 153–165 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-018-9305-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-018-9305-5