Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1974. 330 pp. Circulation 2000. Price 1 rub 77 kopecks.

The monograph of B. A. Aizin, a senior researcher at the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, is the fruit of his many years of research on the history of the German labor movement in the late XIX - early XX centuries. The author has studied numerous documents from the archives of both the Soviet Union and the GDR, analyzed the German and Russian social-democratic and bourgeois press, minutes of SPD congresses, congresses of the Second International, verbatim reports of Reichstag meetings, collections of documents, journalistic and epistolary heritage of prominent functionaries of the German labor movement, as well as memoirs and special scientific literature. The researcher focuses on complex and still insufficiently studied issues: the struggle of the SPD revolutionary forces against imperialism, militarism and the threat of war, the ideological and political division in the largest and most influential party of the Second International. The content of the work is wider than its title: Along with the views of the left wing of the SPD, much attention is paid to the political position of representatives of the revisionist and centrist trends.

The struggle of revolutionary German Marxists against revisionist-centrist pacifist ideology and politics, against imperialism and war is considered by B. A. Aizin in close connection with their theoretical views. Exposing representatives of bourgeois and social-reformist historiography who seek to oppose the German left to the Bolshevik Party, V. I. Lenin, and prove that the ideas of the revolutionary German social-Democrats were irreconcilably hostile to Leninism, the author comes to the reasoned conclusion that the left "went hand in hand with the Bolsheviks in developing the general anti-militarist, anti-war strategic line of the international workers' movement." The" i "movements have fulfilled to the end their national and international duty to the German and international proletariat, and they have remained steadfastly loyal to the banner of socialism, the principles of revolutionary Marxism and proletarian internationalism" (p.311). This conclusion follows from an analysis of the theoretical views and practical revolutionary activities, primarily of such leaders of the German left as K. Liebknecht, R. Luxemburg, F. Mehring, K. Zetkin, Y. Markhlevsky (I. Karsky) and others.

B. A. Aizin traces the process of forming a left-wing, revolutionary, internationalist trend, whose representatives "continued and developed in the new historical conditions the great traditions of the struggle for peace, democracy and socialism, the revolutionary anti-militarist traditions of K. Marx, F. Engels, A. Bebel and V. Liebknecht" (p.33). Against the background of the international tension of 1908-1910 and the aggravation of Anglo-German antagonism, the author shows the struggle of revolutionary Marxists against pacifist tendencies in the international labor movement.

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This was clearly demonstrated by the Copenhagen Congress of the Second International (1910) and the discussion on disarmament in German social-democracy (1911). While the revolutionary social-Democrats resolutely advocated the full development of extra-parliamentary mass forms of struggle against imperialism, reaction and militarism, the revisionist forces, more and more often than not, were not able to do so. drawing closer to the forces of centrism, they continued to advocate exclusively parliamentary forms of struggle. Not understanding the essence of imperialism (and this is well shown in the work based on the analysis of R. Hilferding's book "Financial Capital" and K. Kautsky's views), they were ready, starting from F. Hilferding, to accept the idea of imperialism. From Scheidemann to Kautsky, support the vicious idea of creating a United States of Europe "as a means of preventing wars and establishing lasting peace in Europe and throughout the world" (p. 164). The most prominent representatives of the German left fought against this idea. R. Luxemburg exposed the bourgeois, imperialist nature of this idea, subjecting it to a scathing criticism, and the thoughts she expressed on this subject have not lost their significance in our time. They, as the book emphasizes, "were in line with Lenin's assessments and in many essential respects coincided with Lenin's attitude to the problem of disarmament and to the idea of creating a United States of Europe" (p. 165). A step forward in the development of the anti-militarist views and tactics of the representatives of the left wing of the party was made, as B. A. Aizin notes, by K. Liebknecht (p.149).

On the example of the events connected with the first serious test for the SPD on the eve of the First World War, the Moroccan crisis of 1911, the German revolutionary Social Democrats are convincingly characterized as the only true inspirers of the mass anti - war movement that unfolded in the country. The author writes that although the German left did not realize at that time "the necessity of preparing and creating a new type of party, modeled on Lenin's Bolshevik party "(p.212), it was already at that time" taking the first, though still very timid, steps aimed at consolidating its ranks " (p. 187). However, for some reason the proofs of this extremely important thesis are given in footnotes (see pages 187, 191, etc.).

The author comprehensively analyzes the theoretical views and practical activities of K. Liebknecht, R. Luxemburg, J. Markhlevsky and others, their contribution to the ideological treasury of revolutionary Marxism, to the development of strategies and tactics of the anti-militarist, anti-imperialist struggle on the eve of the First World War. Thus, having considered the ideological heritage and revolutionary practical activity of Yu.Markhlevsky, the author came to the conclusion that the works of this remarkable figure of the German and international labor movement "were a major step forward in clarifying the nature of the epoch, in the creative development of Marxism" (p. 216). Although Yu. Markhlevsky failed to give a classical formulation of the essence of imperialism (this was done by V. I. Lenin), he nevertheless came close to understanding the nature of imperialism.

B. A. Aizin also convincingly refutes the widely held view (including in Marxist literature) that R. Luxemburg was a supporter of the theory of the "automatic collapse" of capitalism. It shows that the revolutionary woman saw the transition to socialism as nothing other than the active, transformative activity of the masses, led by the party, as the result of the socialist revolution. At the same time, the author does not ignore the weak points of R. Luxemburg's theoretical views, which were especially clearly manifested in the fact that she "failed to find out the deep economic basis of imperialism", did not realize "the deep connection between opportunism and imperialism". The book notes that R. Luxemburg's inaccurate treatment of some of the fundamental problems of modern capitalism is closely related to his mistakes in the peasant and national questions, as well as in the question of wars in the era of imperialism (pp. 246, 247).

The author emphasizes that the consistently Marxist line of the leaders of the German left had nothing in common with the line of the K group. Radek, P. Lensch, and partly A. Pannekoek, who defended erroneous, doctrinaire-sectarian positions on the struggle against imperialism and war. While the leaders of the left, in their struggle against imperialism and war, "came particularly close to the revolutionary platform of the Leninist Bolshevik Party" (p. 310), the supporters of the above-mentioned group only harmed the revolutionary forces of the SPD by their doctrinaire attitude and, in essence, "made it easier for the centrist and revisionist forces-

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to our leaders the struggle against the line of the left" (p. 225).

Of course, not all relevant issues could be equally fully and comprehensively covered and addressed in a single monograph. Some of them are only put forward by the author or are only planned and are still waiting for a thorough study. Thus, the events of 1910, which were connected with the development of the pre-revolutionary situation in Germany, and which were essential for the evolution of German social-democracy, for the development of its revolutionary forces and their struggle against reaction, imperialism and militarism, are of considerable interest. It is well known that the German left was already trying to find concrete practical connections between this struggle and democratic and socialist goals. In January 1910, Karl Liebknecht justified at the Congress of Social Democrats of Prussia the position that it was necessary to democratize all public life in Prussia, and first of all the state apparatus. In turn, R. Luxemburg, almost simultaneously with K. Liebknecht, began to propagate the slogan of the abolition of the monarchical system and the conquest of the republic as the immediate goal of the German labor movement. Here the leaders of the left wing of the party were indeed approaching a correct concretization of the question of how the working class could gain power. After all, in Germany and at the beginning of the twentieth century, because of the survival of the remnants of feudalism, the struggle for democracy made it possible to create the best conditions for the country's progress towards socialism. Unfortunately, this question is not properly reflected in the book. The author only casually mentions the slogan of a republic near the Luxembourg River (p. 131).

Of interest, of course, are the speeches of the German left against the wetting of Germany (especially the great merits in this regard belong to F. P. Blavatsky). In the case of the revolutionary Social-Democrats, they were an integral part of the struggle against Junker-bourgeois imperialism and militarism. However, the book does not pay much attention to this issue.

While providing a wealth of material on the German left's actions against the threat of war, the author does not always follow in sufficient detail their connections with the left forces of the workers ' parties of other countries, and the coordination of their joint actions, including those against militarism.

In general, the reviewed monograph is a notable phenomenon in the Marxist historiography of the German labor movement on the eve of the First World War.

G. V. Pavlenko

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