(DEDICATED TO THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH)

This March marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Luxemburg , an outstanding activist of the Polish, German and international labor movement, who wrote many glorious pages in its history. V. I. Lenin called her an outstanding representative of the revolutionary proletariat and unfalsified Marxism. He considered K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg "the best leaders of the workers." 1 In his works, he repeatedly noted the creative contribution of R. Luxemburg to the development of the revolutionary strategy and tactics of the labor movement. He particularly emphasized its achievements in analyzing the character, driving forces, and some tactical problems of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907, and in working out such issues as the attitude of the social-democratic parties of Western Europe to parliamentarism, to the mass strike, and other forms of proletarian action, and the struggle of the masses against militarism and military danger. At the same time, V. I. Lenin criticized R. Luxemburg's mistakes on the national question, on the organization of the proletarian party, and on several other problems. But he stressed that it is not its mistakes, but its great revolutionary achievements, that determine its face and place in the history of the working-class movement. He also took into account that she had corrected many of her mistakes. In his" Notes of a Publicist " (1922), V. I. Lenin gave an exceptionally high overall assessment of the revolutionary activity and literary heritage of R. Luxemburg. 2
Many researchers both in the USSR and abroad have dedicated their books to R. Luxemburg. Monographs devoted to R. Luxemburg were published in our country as early as 1925-1931 .3 In the late 1920s, the publication of her "Selected Works" 4 began . However, since the beginning of the 1930s, research papers on this topic have not been published for a long time, and in general works and textbooks, not the merits of R. Luxemburg were highlighted, but her mistakes, and the latter were exaggerated. Only since the beginning of the 60s, Soviet historians again began to study the views and activities of R. Luxemburg .5 Released in the GDR

1 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 38, p. 56; see also vol. 41, p. 371.

2 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 44, pp. 421-422.

3 A. Elnitsky. Rosa Luxemburg, L.-M. 1925; I. Alter. Rosa Luxemburg in the Fight against Revisionism, L. 1927; I. V. Gerchikov. Rosa Luxemburg. Genesis and design of socio-political views. Saratov, 1931.

4 Rosa Luxemburg. Selected Works. Vol. 1. Against reformism. Part 1. Moscow-L. 1928.

5 B. A. Aizin. Rosa Luxemburg-fighter against German militarism and imperialism (1913-1914). "Europe in the new and modern times", Moscow, 1966; R. Ya. Evzerov. Rosa Luxemburg-against German militarism on the eve of the First World War. "New and recent History", 1966, N 2; G. M. Derenkovsky. Rosa Luxemburg in Russia during the First Revolution. "History of the USSR", 1968, N 1; V. V. Chistyakov. Rosa Luxemburg on the tactics of the German proletariat (1898 -

page 65

A number of works and articles devoted to the analysis of R. Luxemburg's views have been published in the first volume of her Collected Writings .6 In Poland, the works of R. Luxemburg are also published, and articles covering the development of her views are published .7
Bourgeois historians, as well as reformists and revisionists of various kinds, make great efforts to portray R. Luxemburg as a principled opponent of V. I. Lenin and the Bolsheviks and to contrast her with the modern communist movement .8 To this end, it is precisely her erroneous statements that are brought to the fore and brought to the fore out of her large literary heritage of about 700 titles, and the bulk of her works in which she resolutely defended revolutionary Marxism and the militant, offensive tactics of the proletariat are hushed up. The bourgeois falsifiers of R. Luxemburg's views deliberately ignore the main thing in the ideological legacy of this outstanding revolutionary, what she had in common with V. I. Lenin: a Marxist worldview, boundless devotion to the cause of the working class, a resolute struggle against imperialism and various types of opportunism, loyalty to proletarian internationalism.

R. Luxemburg's activity in the international labor movement was multifaceted. It is impossible to cover this topic in detail in a short article. The author of these lines sets out to analyze R. Luxemburg's views on the strategy and tactics of the proletariat and to find out its place in the history of the international labor movement.

Rosa Luxemburg was born on March 5, 1871 in Zamostia, Kingdom of Poland, in the family of a merchant. After graduating from the Warsaw Gymnasium in 1888, she joined the Proletariat, a revolutionary Polish party. In 1889, to avoid arrest, she emigrated to Switzerland, where in 1890-1891 she studied at the University of Zurich, first at the Faculty of Philosophy, and then at the Faculty of Law. Since the formation of the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP)9

1907). "Imperialism and the Struggle of the working Class", Moscow, 1960. R. Luxemburg's struggle against militarism and military danger at the beginning of the XX century. "Soviet Slavonic Studies", 1968, N 3; his. Influence of the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 on the development of Rosa Luxemburg's views. "Yearbook of German History 1968", Moscow, 1969; Ya. V. Zaitsev. R. Luxemburg's struggle against Bernsteinism and Milleranism (1898-1904). Collection "Questions of Universal History", Ufa, 1970.

6 W. Bartel. Die Linken in der deutschen Sozialdemokratie im Kampf gegen Militarismus und Krieg. B. 1958; K. Stenkewitz. Gegen Bayonett und Dividende. B. 1960; H. Wohlgemuth. Burgkrieg nicht Burgfriede. B. 1963; ejusd. Die Entstehung der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschland. 1914 bis 1918. B. 1968; G. Radczun. Einige Probleme der Haltung Rosa Luxemburgs zur proletarischen Revolution. "Beitrage zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung", 1966, N 1; ejusd. Zu einigen Aspekten der Junius Broschure. "BzG", 1967, N l; A. Laschitza. Deutsche Linken im Kampf fur eine demokratische Republik. B. 1969; Rosa Luxemburg. Gesammelte Werke. Bd. 1. 1893 - 1905. I. und 2. Halb bande. B. 1970.

7 Roza Luksemburg. Wybor pism. T. I (1893 - 1907). T. II (1908 - 1919). Warszawa. 1959; Roza Luksemburg. Listy do Leona Jogichesa-Tyszki. T. I (1893 - 1899). T. II (1900 - 1905). Warszawa. 1968; W. Najdus. Z historii ksztaltowania sig pogladow SDKPiL w kwestii narodowej. "Z pola walki", 1962, N 3; M. Szlesinger. Roza Luksemburg a rewolucja memiecka 1918 r. "Z pola walki", 1966, N 3; Jan Dziewulski. Autoreferat pracy doktorskiej pi Spor wokol "Rozwoju przemyslu w Polsce" Rozy Luksemburg. Warszawa. 1969; ejusd. O rzeczywistej tresci i walorach naukowych teorii akumulacyi kapitalu R. Luksemburg. "Ekonomista", 1970, N 1.

8 B. D. Wolfe. Introduction in "The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism by Rosa Luxemburg". Michigan. 1961; H. Weber. Von Rosa Luxemburg zu Walter Ulbricht. Hannover. 1961; J. P. Nette. Rosa Luxemburg. Vol. I and II. L. 1966; O. K; Flechtheim. Einfuhrung in "Rosa Luxemburg. Politische Schriften. I". Frankfurt- Wien. 1966; ejusd. Einleitung in "Rosa Luxemburg. Politische Schriften. III". Frankfurt- Wien. 1968; H. Weber. Einleitung in: "Der Grundungsparteitag der KPD. Protokoll und Materialien". Frankfurt-Wien. 1969.

9 Since 1900, this party has been called the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL).

page 66

In 1893, R. Luxemburg became its ideologue. She played a leading role in writing the party's Marxist program. At this time, it began to develop the Polish question independently, guided by the principles of Marxism. In 1898, she moved to Germany, joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and began her activities in this party, continuing to be one of the leaders of the SDKP. R. Luxemburg was the representative of Polish social Democracy in the International Socialist Bureau from 1904 to 1914. She participated in all the congresses of the Second International since 1893. Her articles regularly appeared in German and Polish social-democratic publications, including Die Neue Zeit, which at the beginning of the twentieth century was the theoretical organ not only of German but also of international social-democracy. Since 1905, R. Luxemburg became a leading theorist of the German left-wing social Democrats, and during the First World War - the main ideologist of the German internationalists. The crown of Luxemburg's political activity was her leading role in the formation of the Communist Party of Germany and in the development of its program.

R. Luxemburg was a multi-talented person. She was a major Marxist scholar, a prominent political figure, a remarkable publicist, and a brilliant public speaker. In addition, she was a literary critic, a skilled translator, well-versed in natural sciences, music, and excellent drawing. Klara Zetkin called her "an outstanding theorist of scientific socialism", and A. M. Kollontai - "a subtle, thoughtful analyst who is able to determine the main, and therefore the only correct historical line of development in the complex chaos of intersecting social and economic phenomena" 10 . The works of R. Luxemburg were distinguished by their harmonious construction, iron logic, clarity of presentation and figurative expressions. Her public speaking activity was characterized by a deep conviction in the correctness of her ideas, emotionality, the ability to find an approach to the audience and close contact with it. Her speeches at mass meetings and rallies were always very successful. R. Luxemburg was boundlessly devoted to the cause of the working class, to which she devoted her entire adult life. Klara Zetkin wrote: "The idea of socialism was an all-consuming, powerful passion of Rosa Luxemburg, a passion of the mind and soul. This passion absorbed her and turned into creativity. Preparing for the revolution that would pave the way for socialism was the task of her entire life and the only goal that this rare woman knew. To live to see the revolution, to take part in its battles, was the highest happiness she dreamed of. " 11
The characteristic features of R. Luxemburg were exceptional resilience and self-control. Even in the harsh conditions of prison, where she was thrown by the authorities for her revolutionary, anti-militarist agitation, she remained cheerful and cheerful. After one year and nine months of imprisonment, she reassured Sofya Liebknecht in a letter from the fortress of Wronke dated April 19, 1917, advising her: "We must accept life with all that it brings, and find everything bright and good. At least that's what I do. Not out of far-fetched wisdom, but just like that, by nature. I instinctively understand that this is the only correct way to accept life, and therefore I feel happy in any position. I would not want to erase anything from my life and experience anything differently from what it was or is now." At the same time, she chastised Luisa Kautskaya in a letter from

10 "Rosa Luxemburg". Collection of articles by K. Zetkin, A. Kollontai, Y. Markhlevsky and P. Levi, Moscow, 1921, pp. 4, 6.

11 Ibid., pp. 4-5.

page 67

April 15, 1917: "How can you, like a sad cicada, continue your sad song, while such a clear chorus of larks is heard from Russia?! Don't you understand that it is our own cause that wins there, that the history of the world itself fights battles there, and dances Carmagnola drunk with joy? Shouldn't we forget all our personal sorrows with such success in our common cause?"12. R. Luxemburg had great energy and enormous efficiency. K. Zetkin wrote: "Small, fragile Rose was the embodiment of unparalleled energy. She made relentless demands on her performance and achieved amazing results... Her work and struggle inspired her. It was rare to hear her say "I can't," but all the more often she said "I have to." Her morbid condition and unfavorable external circumstances had no power over her. " 13
Throughout her political activities, R. Luxemburg waged a resolute struggle against various kinds of opportunism. When the Bernstein controversy broke out in the SPD, she took a very active part in it. In her book "Social Reform or Revolution?" (1899), she subjected the views of Bernstein and his supporters to deep criticism and convincingly showed the scientific failure of revisionist illusions about the gradual evolution of capitalism into socialism through reforms. The book concludes that the founder of revisionism objectively moved to the position of bourgeois science, and, in essence, raises the question of his expulsion from the party, although no one in German social democracy spoke about it at that time. R. Luxemburg showed the great danger of revisionism for the SPD, emphasizing that in disputes with Bernstein It is "not a question of this or that method of struggle, not of this or that tactic, but of the fate of the social - democratic movement." She wrote that the activity of the reformist trend was an attempt to ensure the victory of the petty-bourgeois elements in the party. 14
In 1910. Kautsky, who had hitherto mainly supported Marxist positions, switched to centrist positions. He opposed R. Luxemburg's proposal to call on the working people to prepare for a mass political strike demanding the introduction of universal and equal suffrage in Prussia. Kautsky explained his position by saying that this strike could hinder the success of the SPD in the 1912 Reichstag elections. R. Luxemburg strongly condemned his position in the article " Exhaustion or struggle?" (June-July 1910). It declared that in the period of the upsurge of the political movement, the Proletarian Party must go at the head of the masses, lead them, and therefore, in the concrete situation of the summer of 1910, it should be able to do so. it must put forward the slogan of a mass political strike and prepare the working people for it .15 After this controversy, R. Luxemburg broke personal ties with Kautsky and in her articles began systematically criticizing his opportunist views.

R. Luxemburg paid much attention to her theoretical work. Many of her works contain an analysis of new phenomena in the economy and politics of imperialism at the beginning of the XX century. Already in one of her early works, "Social Reform or Revolution?", she noted that monopolistic associations sharpen all the contradictions of capitalism, and described these associations as "a certain phase of capitalist development." She stressed that in the process of this process, the following factors will be taken into account:-

12 Rosa Luxemburg. Briefe aus dem Gefangnis. B. 1961, S. 23. See also the publication of R. Luxemburg's letters in the journal "International Review of Social History". 1963. Vol. VIII, part I, p. 103.

13 "Rosa Luxemburg", pp. 3-4.

14 "Sozialreform oder Revolution? Mit einem Anhang: Miliz und Militarismus. Von Rosa Luxemburg". Leipzig. 1899, S. 3 - 5, 57 - 58, 63.

15 "Die Neue Zeit", 1910. Bd. 2, S. 301 - 302.

page 68

The sphere of influence of the state is expanding, especially its intervention in economic life. R. Luxemburg understood that at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the capitalist world entered a new historical epoch, which she called the epoch of"world politics". By this term, she meant the era of imperialism. In the above-mentioned work, she formulated the following features: the development of economic ties on a global scale, the intensification of competition in the world market, the strong development of militarism, and the decline of bourgeois democracy .16 In her report to the Paris Congress of the Second International (1900), she supplemented this characterization with two more features: reaction along all lines and the emergence of a permanent military danger .17 R. Luxemburg's works "The Accumulation of Capital" (1913) and "The Crisis of Social Democracy" (1916) contained a detailed study of the peculiarities of imperialism and the imperialist era. They highlight the role of the state in the economic development of imperialist countries, in particular the role of militarism and the arms race in this development, as well as the importance of the struggle for foreign markets, especially for capturing colonies.

R. Luxemburg creatively worked out the problems of strategy and tactics of the proletariat. The leitmotif of its struggle against right-wing opportunism was the proof of the necessity of a proletarian revolution. In particular, she elaborated on this idea in her book "Social Reform or Revolution?", which defined the socialist revolution as a" seizure of state power", as a"violent coup". She wrote: "Since class society has existed and the class struggle has occupied an important place in its history, the conquest of political power has always been the goal of all rising classes, it has been the starting and ending point of any historical period." At the same time, R. Luxemburg noted that the proletarian revolution cannot be carried out artificially, that it can win only if its economic and political prerequisites are ripe, and that it must be preceded by a long and persistent struggle of the proletariat .18
In her work "Accumulation of Capital", R. Luxemburg set as her main task a theoretical study of the process of capital accumulation in the era of imperialism. At the same time, it drew the erroneous conclusion that the collapse of capitalism is inevitable with the disappearance of the non-capitalist environment. But neither in this work nor in other works did she develop the "theory of the automatic collapse of capitalism." This theory was attributed to her by O. Bauer and other critics. In fact, R. Luxemburg considered the disappearance of the non-capitalist environment to be the limit of the development of capitalism only in theoretical terms. As an outstanding revolutionary, she was convinced that capitalism would perish much sooner as a result of the aggravation of class contradictions, as a result of the world proletarian revolution. In The Accumulation of Capital, she wrote that as capitalist expansion proceeds on a global scale, " class contradictions and international economic and political anarchy escalate to such an extent that long before the extreme consequences of economic development are realized, that is, before the extreme consequences of economic development are realized." the absolute and undivided rule of the capitalist mode of production will be established throughout the world, and an uprising of the international proletariat against the rule of capital will break out."19
In many works and speeches, R. Luxemburg defended the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This provision is already found in the work "Social Reform or Revolution?", and in the pamphlet " Mass Strike-

16 "Sozialreform oder Revolution?", S. 13, 23 - 24, 47.

17 "Internationaler Sozialisten-Kongress zu Paris 1900". B. 1900, S. 27.

18 "Sozialreform oder Revolution?", S. 49, 53, 55 - 56.

19 R. Luxemburg. Die Akkumulation des Kapitals. B. 1923, S. 397.

page 69

The ka, the party and the Trade Unions "(1906) states with exhaustive clarity that"in the period of open political struggle of the masses of the people in Germany, we can only talk about the dictatorship of the proletariat as the last historically necessary goal." 20 R. Luxemburg considered that the use of bourgeois democracy is of great importance for the proletariat. In her opinion, only in the struggle for democracy can it realize its class interests and its historical tasks. In addition, it can use the political forms created by bourgeois democracy after the conquest of power as support points in the process of transformation of bourgeois society .21
R. Luxemburg recognized the parliamentary struggle for social reforms as one of the forms of class struggle of the proletariat. At the same time, it emphasized that the struggle for them and for the expansion of political democracy is only a means to guide the class struggle of the proletariat for the seizure of political power and the elimination of the capitalist system. She wrote: "For social democracy, there is an indissoluble link between social reform and social revolution; social reform is its means, and social revolution is its goal. 22 Consequently, already in 1899, R. Luxemburg formulated the idea, which was later repeated many times in her works, about the close connection between the struggle for democracy and the struggle for socialism. It strongly opposed the reassessment of parliamentary activity, which has been increasingly intensified since the beginning of the twentieth century in the SPD and other parties of the Second International. It emphasized that in the class struggle of the proletariat, the decisive role is played not by parliamentary, but by extra-parliamentary methods, that is, by mass forms of struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie. In her article "Social-Democracy and Parliamentarism" (1904), she wrote that " the real strength of social-democracy is not based at all on the influence of its deputies in the Reichstag, but is located outside it, in the people themselves, "on the street" ... " One of the possible forms of mass actions of the German proletariat, she considered general strike 23 .

The Russian Revolution of 1905 - 1907 had a strong influence on the development of R. Luxemburg's views on the strategy and tactics of the working-class movement. Recalling this period later, V. I. Lenin noted that " such outstanding representatives of the revolutionary proletariat and unfalsified Marxism as Rosa Luxemburg immediately appreciated the significance of this practical experience and made a critical analysis of it at meetings and in the press..."24 In her speeches at meetings, R. Luxemburg introduced the working masses to the course of the first Russian Revolution. In articles published in the Polish and German workers ' press, she analyzed the nature and peculiarities of the revolution and the significance of its experience for the proletariat of Western Europe. Already at the beginning of 1905. it correctly understood that although this revolution is bourgeois in its character and immediate tasks, it is not the bourgeoisie, but the proletariat, that is in the vanguard of it. Since November 1905. It also noted the active participation of the peasantry in the revolution. Well aware of the international significance of the 1905 revolution, R. Luxemburg sought to draw lessons from its experience for the German labor movement. As early as the spring of 1905, in her speeches at meetings and meetings, describing the mass political strikes in Russia, she called on the German workers to apply this form of class struggle in their work.

20 "Sozialreform oder Revolution?", S. 54; R. Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. I. B. 1951, S. 233.

21 "Sozialreform oder Revolution?", S. 53.

22 Ibid., S. 3.

23 R. Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. II. B. 1951, S. 198.

24 V. I. Lenin. PSS. T. 41, p. 371.

page 70

country. She defended the same idea in 1905 in a speech at the Jena Congress of the SPD .25
On December 31, 1905, R. Luxemburg came to Warsaw to take a direct part in the revolution in the Kingdom of Poland. There, she played an important role in the work of the SDKPiL Main Board and the editorial board of the party's press organ, the newspaper Czerwony Sztandar. In early March, 1906. she was arrested, but in June the party secured her release on a large monetary bail. Once free, she obtained permission to leave Warsaw for medical treatment, settled in Kuokkala (near St. Petersburg), and from there often traveled to St. Petersburg and met with Russian social Democrats. At the end of July, R. Luxemburg took part in a meeting of the Bolsheviks on tactics, which was led by V. I. Lenin. In August 1906, she met with V. I. Lenin at the Vaza dacha in Kuokkala and discussed with him the problems of the Russian and international labor movement .26
During her stay in Kuokkala, R. Luxemburg wrote the work "Mass Strike, Party and Trade Unions", in which she made an attempt to summarize the experience of the first Russian Revolution. This pamphlet was published in 1906 in Germany and in Russia27 . It analyzed in detail the strike movement of the Russian proletariat and drew the following important conclusion:"The mass strike is not a specifically Russian phenomenon... but a general form of the class struggle of the proletariat, which is the result of the present stage of development of capitalism and modern class relations." Recognizing that the socio-economic relations, history and state of the working-class movement in Germany and Russia are completely different, R. Luxemburg noted that the situation of the proletariat and the tasks of its struggle in these two countries have much in common. She sharply criticized the reformists in the SPD and argued that in Germany, as in Russia, economic and political demands would inevitably be intertwined during the rise of the strike movement .28
In the pamphlet under consideration, R. Luxemburg concluded that armed uprisings are inevitable in the future in the countries of Western Europe as well. She wrote: "The December days in Moscow conclude the first eventful year of the revolution as the culmination of the rising line of political struggle and the mass strike movement. At the same time, the Moscow events show on a small scale the logical development and future of the revolutionary movement as a whole: its inevitable end in an open general uprising." Emphasizing that mass strikes will play an increasingly important role in the class struggle of the proletariat, R. Luxemburg noted that this circumstance does not at all make an armed insurrection unnecessary. She wrote: "The main form of struggle in former bourgeois revolutions - the barricade struggle, the open clash with the armed forces of the state-in the modern revolution is only the highest point, only a moment in the process of mass struggle of the proletariat." 29
R. Luxemburg's work "The Mass Strike, the Party, and the Trade Unions" shows what she drew from the experience of the first Russian Revolution.-

25 Rosa Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. II, S. 8, 244 - 246, 252.

26 See N. K. Krupskaya. Memoirs of Lenin, Moscow, 1957, p. 120; G. M. Derenkovsky. Op. ed., pp. 65-67; Petrogradskaya Pravda, 19. I. 1919.

27 Rosa Luxemburg. Massenstreik, Partei und Gewerkschaften. Hamburg. 1906; Rosa Luxemburg. The general strike and German Social democracy. With the author's preface to the Russian edition. Kiev, 1906.

28 Rosa Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. I, S. 217 - 220, 228 - 229.

29 Ibid., S. 195, 228.

page 71

V. I. Lenin gave the following assessment of this work: "The best presentation in German: Rosa Luxemburg (in connection with the Western European peculiarities of the struggle)"30 . At the Mannheim Congress of the SPD (1906), R. Luxemburg, referring to the experience of the Russian revolution, sharply criticized the speeches of K. Legin and E. David, who proved the impossibility of holding a mass political strike in Germany. It resolutely opposed the draft resolution of A. Bebel-Legin on a mass strike, which effectively nullified the resolution of the Jena Congress of 1905 on this question .31
In May 1907, R. Luxemburg took an active part in the work of the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP as a delegate from the SDKPiL. At this Congress, as is well known, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had almost equal representation. Therefore, the victory of the Bolshevik line was possible only if it was supported by the national parties that were part of the RSDLP (SDKPiL, Social Democratic Party of the Latvian Region, Bund). R. Luxemburg was one of the speakers at the congress (from SDKPiL) on the issue of non - Proletarian parties. In her report and closing remarks, she showed the inconsistency of the Menshevik point of view on the question of the driving forces of the revolution and supported the Bolsheviks. She revealed the counter-revolutionary nature of the Russian bourgeoisie and justified the leading role of the proletariat in the revolution, drew attention to the active participation of the peasantry in it, while at the same time noting the utopian-socialist coloring, confusion and inconsistency of the demands of this class. R. Luxemburg made the following conclusion: "Peasant movements are completely unable to play an independent role and in every historical situation are subject to leadership other, more active and determined classes... It is clear that political leadership and influence over the chaotic movement of the peasantry is now the natural historical task of the class-conscious proletariat in Russia. " 32 R. Luxemburg's report was a strong support for the Bolshevik line at the Congress, as V. I. Lenin repeatedly noted in conversations with the Bolshevik delegates to the Congress. 33 Later, the SDKPiL and SD delegations of the Latvian Region supported Lenin's draft resolution on non-Proletarian parties, which made it possible for the Congress to adopt it.

Thus, under the influence of the first Russian Revolution, Lenin's ideas and the activities of the Bolshevik Party, R. Luxemburg's views on the strategy and tactics of the labor movement developed significantly. It took positions close to the Bolsheviks on the most important strategic and tactical problems of the revolution of 1905-1907. V. I. Lenin wrote in 1909 that Rosa Luxemburg was ideologically conquered by the Bolsheviks .34 It drew valuable lessons from the experience of the first Russian Revolution for the working-class movement in Germany and other Western European countries. The most important of these lessons were the conclusions about the great significance of the mass political strike in these countries and that in some of the Western European countries the proletarian revolution would take the form of armed uprisings.

In 1910, during the rise of the movement in Prussia for the introduction of universal and equal suffrage, R. Luxemburg in her articles justified the provision on the preparation of a mass political strike.

30 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 54, p. 481.

31 R. Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. II, S. 256 - 259.

32 " The Fifth (London) Congress of the RSDLP. April-May 1907, Protocols", Moscow, 1963, pp. 432-435.

33 See " About Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Memories. 1900-1922 years". Moscow, 1963, p. 70.

34 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 19, p. 105.

page 72

At the Magdeburg Congress of the SPD (1910), she spoke in favor of discussing the issue of holding a mass strike in order to introduce universal and equal suffrage in Prussia and some other German states. At the Jena Congress of 1913, R. Luxemburg, together with other left - wing social-Democrats, officially submitted a proposal to recognize a mass political strike as an effective means of struggle of the German proletariat. But all these proposals did not receive the support of the SPD congresses.

As for an armed insurrection, R. Luxemburg expressed the idea of its inevitability in the future in a somewhat veiled form, in addition to the pamphlet "Mass Strike, Party and Trade Unions", and in some other works and speeches .35 But she did not elaborate on this point in detail. This was primarily due to the fact that there was no revolutionary situation in Germany or in other Western European countries before 1918, and the question of an armed "uprising" was not on the agenda. In addition, under the conditions of Kaiser's Germany, it was impossible to write directly or speak publicly about this without exposing the SPD to the danger of reprisals by the authorities. German social-democracy, which used bourgeois legality to its advantage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tried to preserve it, which V. I. Lenin considered quite expedient for that time .36
An important aspect of Luxemburg's activity was her struggle against militarism and military danger. She waged this struggle systematically starting in 1899, when her article "Militia and Militarism" appeared, directed against the social Democrat M. Schippel, who essentially justified German militarism. She also criticized Schippel's views at the SPD Congress in Hanover in 1899. At the Paris Congress of the Second International (1900), R. Luxemburg made a report on "Peace among nations, militarism and the standing Army". In this report, she described the international situation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, emphasizing that its characteristic features are the strong development of militarism, the struggle for colonies, and the emergence of a constant danger of world war. The speaker defended the idea of organizing an international movement of the working class against the aggressive policies of the imperialist States .37 The resolution on this report identified the following practical measures for this fight:: 1) the education and organization of young people by the socialist parties for the struggle against militarism and colonial policies; 2) the vote of socialist members of Parliament against all military expenditures and against the costs of colonial expeditions; 3) the creation of a permanent international socialist commission, which in case of international crises will be charged with calling on the socialist parties to organize a movement in according to a single plan.

During the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International (1907), V. I. Lenin, who headed the Bolshevik delegation, organized meetings of Bolsheviks, Polish social Democrats, and some leftists from other delegations. At these meetings, in which R. Luxemburg also participated, the positions of the revolutionary Social-Democrats on the issues on the agenda of the Congress were agreed upon. In particular, it was decided to make important amendments to A. Bebel's draft resolution on militarism, and R. Luxemburg was instructed to come up with a justification for these amendments. August 21, 1907 she spoke at a meeting of the commission on militarism on behalf of the Russian Federation and Poland.-

35 See, for example, her speech at the People's Assembly in Mannheim on September 25, 1906 (Luxembourg city. Rechi. M.-L. 1929, pp. 32-33).

36 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 20, pp. 15-17.

37 "Internationaler Sozialisten-Kongress zu Paris 1900", S. 27.

page 73

It also called on the social-democratic parties to learn from the experience of the first Russian Revolution, not only on the question of a mass political strike, but also on the question of their attitude to war. Explaining this idea, she stressed that " the Russian revolution was not only generated by the war, but also contributed to its end." In conclusion, she stated that the Russian and Polish delegations had developed amendments to the Bebel resolution on militarism, which proposed that "in the event of war, our agitation should be directed not only at ending the war, but also at using it to accelerate the overthrow of class rule in general."38 The next day, August 22, the well - known amendments of V. I. Lenin and R. Luxemburg were submitted to the Commission on militarism. The third of these amendments stated the need to educate the working youth in the spirit of fraternity of peoples and socialism and to develop their class consciousness. This proposition was a development of the idea expressed by R. Luxemburg in his report to the Paris Congress of the Second International. The Fourth Amendment was extremely important. It stressed that the workers must do everything possible to prevent war, but if it does break out, they must advocate for its speedy end and "strive with all their might to use the economic and political crisis caused by the war to awaken the political activity of the masses of the people and to accelerate the overthrow of capitalist class rule."39 There is no doubt that the author of this amendment was V. I. Lenin, since it was based on the tactics of the Bolsheviks in relation to the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. This was a fundamentally new formulation of the question of the connection between the imperialist war and the proletarian revolution. This amendment was a vivid example of the influence of V. I. Lenin on R. Luxemburg and other left-wing social Democrats who participated in the congress.

In addition to her journalistic activities and speeches at the SPD congresses and two congresses of the Second International, R. Luxemburg exposed the militarism and aggressive foreign policy of Germany and other imperialist powers at meetings and workers ' meetings. For her courageous anti-militarist actions, she was prosecuted three times - in December 1906, in February and in late June - early July 1914, and during the First World War she was imprisoned for more than three years. All this shows that R. Luxemburg fought against militarism and the military danger from the standpoint of revolutionary Marxism and proletarian internationalism. It defended the need to involve the broad masses of the people in this struggle and to use the most decisive means.

Throughout her political activities, R. Luxemburg firmly supported the position of proletarian internationalism. Even in her earliest works devoted to the creative interpretation of the Polish question, she proceeded from the Marxist position on the need for a class approach to the national question. The idea of the necessity of a close alliance between the Polish working class and the Russian proletariat in the struggle first for the overthrow of tsarism, and later for the overthrow of capitalism, runs through R. Luxemburg's work on the Polish question. V. I. Lenin considered that one of the major achievements of the SDKPiL was that it proclaimed "the principle of the closest union of the Polish and Russian workers in their class struggle of the greatest importance" 40 . Being a staunch supporter of proletar-

38 "Ifiternationaler Sozialisten-Kongress zu Stuttgart 18. bis 24. August 1907". B. 1907, S. 97.

39 Ibid., S. 102.

40 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 25, p. 298.

page 74

In addition to the European internationalism, R. Luxemburg has always opposed nationalism of any kind. It denounced the great-power policy of tsardom in Poland and the Germanizing policy of the Kaiser's government in the Polish lands of the German Empire. At the same time, it systematically fought against the petty-bourgeois nationalism of the PPS. It denounced national oppression everywhere and everywhere. It devoted much effort to exposing the colonial expansion of the imperialist Powers in Asia and Africa.

R. Luxemburg was characterized by a feeling of solidarity with the revolutionary movement in various countries. It enthusiastically welcomed the Russian revolution of 1905-1907 and called on the German workers to support it by intensifying the class struggle in their country. At the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP, she delivered a welcoming speech on behalf of the SPD, in which she said that as the period of violent political struggle in Germany approaches, "the German proletariat is following the struggle of its Russian brothers with redoubled attention, seeing in them its vanguard fighters, the vanguard of the international working class." She stressed that the German workers expected their Russian class brothers to enrich their proletarian tactics during the revolution, and that the German proletariat in its coming revolution would be guided not by the experience of the German revolution of 1848-1849, but by the experience of the Russian revolution of 1905 and 1907. 41 R. Luxemburg followed closely the development of the revolutionary situation in Russia and She called on the German workers to give practical support to the cause of the revolution in Russia.

From the very beginning of the First World War, R. Luxemburg took an internationalist position. In the spring of 1915, while in prison, she wrote a book, The Crisis of Social Democracy, which became known as the Junius Pamphlet. Its most important provisions formed the basis of the Theses on the tasks of International Social-democracy, adopted by the first Imperial Conference of German Internationalists on January 1, 1916, as their platform. This book refuted the false social-chauvinist thesis about the defensive nature of the First World War on the part of Germany and convincingly revealed its imperialist character. R. Luxemburg showed that the SPD leadership in August 1914 betrayed the fundamental interests of the proletariat. It proved the position that the main task of the international working-class movement at that time was to organize an active struggle against the imperialist war.

V. I. Lenin explained in the following words why his article "On the Junius Pamphlet" is mainly devoted to criticism of this work by R. Luxemburg: "In devoting further criticism to the shortcomings and mistakes of Junius, we must strenuously emphasize that we are doing this for the sake of the necessary Marxist self-criticism and comprehensive verification of the views that should serve as the ideological basis of the Third International. Junius 'pamphlet is, on the whole, an excellent Marxist work, and it is quite possible that its shortcomings are to a certain extent accidental." 42 Lenin noted that this work did not reveal the connection between social-chauvinism and pre-war opportunism in the SPD and in the Second International. national liberation wars in the era of imperialism. V. I. Lenin showed the inevitability of such wars on the part of colonial and semi-colonial countries. R. Luxemburg's mistake also consisted in calling on the German proletariat during the war to fight for the creation of a unified German proletariat.

41 " The Fifth (London) Congress of the RSDLP. April-May 1907 Protocols", pp. 100, 103.

42 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 30, p. 2.

page 75

instead of putting forward the slogan of civil war against the bourgeoisie, for socialism, although it has come close to this slogan .43
At the end of his article, V. I. Lenin expressed confidence that the Spartacists would be able to follow the right path. His hopes were fulfilled. The Spartacists launched active anti-war activities, and in the process of doing so, they became increasingly close to the Bolsheviks. This also applies to R. Luxemburg, who was imprisoned from July 1916 until the beginning of the November Revolution in Germany, but took an active part in writing leaflets and "Letters of Spartacus". It came to the conclusion that the only way out of the war for the German and international proletariat is a proletarian revolution. In No. 5 of the Letters of Spartacus (May 1917), she wrote: "At this moment, for the international proletariat, for the German proletariat, a slogan is once again being raised, a call that can only be brought by the great hour of the turning of world events: imperialism or socialism! War or revolution! The third is not given! " 44 .

There were, of course, serious errors in R. Luxemburg's views on the strategy and tactics of the working-class movement. From the very beginning of her revolutionary activity, her writings showed an underestimation of the importance of the national question. In 1893 - 1894, she began to work independently on the Polish question and made many valuable contributions to it. In various articles, and especially in the work " Development of Industry in Poland "(1898), she convincingly showed that the Kingdom of Poland at the end of the XIX century was a typically capitalist country, and its ruling classes (landlords and bourgeoisie) supported the policy of tsarism. It defended the Marxist propositions about the subordinate importance of the national question for the Polish proletariat in relation to the tasks of its class struggle and the necessity of an alliance of Polish and Russian workers in the struggle against tsarism and capitalism. But, as the experience of history has shown, it was wrong in its categorical denial of the possibility of restoring Poland's independence before the victory of the European proletarian revolution. Underestimating the urgency of the national question, it limited the demands of Polish social-democracy on the national question for the period up to the proletarian revolution only to the autonomy of Poland within the Russian Empire. These mistakes of R. Luxemburg were shared by the SDKPiL, which seriously weakened the position of this party in the working class and prevented it from gaining influence on other strata of the working people.

V. I. Lenin showed an example of a deep approach to the mistakes of historical figures and political parties. While subjecting these errors to a principled, reasoned criticism, he always took into account the historical situation in which they arose, and found out the objective and subjective reasons for the appearance of certain incorrect views. Speaking about the mistakes of R. Luxemburg on the Polish question in the 90-ies of the XIX century, it is necessary to recall that at that time the SDKP was waging an extremely intense and sharp struggle against the nationalism of the PPP, and in the process of this struggle it fell into the opposite extreme. this sometimes leads to such a fierce struggle against the nationalism of a given nation that the perspective is distorted and the nationalism of the oppressing nation is forgotten."45
In the following years, the Luxemburg Republic continued to hold incorrect positions on the national question. In 1903. it opposed the inclusion in the RSDLP Program of the requirement to grant the right to-

43 See ibid., pp. 4-15.

44 "Spartakusbriefe", V. 1958, S. 329.

45 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 25, p. 317.

page 76

the right of nations to self-determination to the extent of secession to the peoples of the Russian Empire, arguing that this requirement is supposedly practically impossible under capitalism and that it will contribute to the strengthening of nationalism among the oppressed peoples of Russia. In her work The Crisis of Social - Democracy, she put forward the erroneous proposition that national liberation wars are impossible in the era of imperialism. V. I. Lenin, in a number of works, and especially in Critical Notes on the National Question (1913), On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1914), and On the Junius Pamphlet (1916), thoroughly criticized these errors. In particular, he pointed out the subjective reason for the negative attitude of R. Luxemburg to the proclamation of the right of nations to self - determination in Russia-her abstract approach to this issue, ignoring the peculiarities of the national question in Russia at the beginning of the XX century. V. I. Lenin convincingly showed the need to recognize the right of nations to self-determination in order to different nationalities in the class struggle for socialism 46 .

R. Luxemburg also made mistakes on the question of the Proletarian party, sharing the views generally accepted in the SPD and in other parties of the Second International. In her article "Organizational Questions of Russian Social-Democracy" (1904), she opposed a number of provisions of V. I. Lenin's book " One Step Forward, Two Steps Back "and defended the principle of autonomy of local party organizations in relation to the party leadership. N. Lenin's reply to Rosa Luxemburg "showed that her work did not contain a concrete analysis of the views of various trends in the RSDLP and that she was unable to apply Marxist dialectics to the question of the organization of the Proletarian party." 47 In 1912-1914, R. Luxemburg, as a member of the International Socialist Bureau, advocated the unification of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks into a single party, clearly underestimating the depth of differences between them. V. I. Lenin gave her an answer on this issue in the articles "Also" unifiers "(1913) and in the "Report of the Central Committee of the RSDLP at the Brussels Conference" (1914).

R. Luxemburg was characterized by an underestimation of the leading role of the proletarian party in the labor movement. It believed that the party should be the vanguard of the proletariat, but interpreted this position one-sidedly, only in the sense of political leadership. In her opinion, the party should outline the goals of the struggle of the working class, develop its tactics, and put forward concrete slogans for its struggle. But it thought that the party could not lead the proletarian masses organizationally, could not prepare and carry out practical leadership of mass strikes and armed uprisings. 48 R. Luxemburg did not pay due attention to the question of the proletariat's allies in the future socialist revolution, in particular the peasant question, and put forward incorrect propositions in this area. The draft program of the KKE written by her demanded the confiscation of land not only for the landlords and kulaks, but also for the middle peasants, and said nothing about allotting land to landless and landless peasants.

R. Luxemburg's mistakes in questions concerning the organization of the proletarian party, its role in the working-class movement, and the peasant question were shared by the German left social-Democrats and Spartacists. Their objective roots were the influence on these currents of political activity.-

46 See ibid., p. 258, 264 - 266, 308, 316 - 320.

47 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 9, pp. 38-65.

48 See Yearbook of German History 1968, p. 136; Rosa Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften Bd. I, S. 208, 224 - 225.

page 77

This was not a revolutionary situation in Germany until 1918, and the traditions of the SPD, which was a proletarian party of the old type, in contrast to the Bolshevik party - a party of the new type. The above-mentioned erroneous views were also characteristic of the Polish Social Democrats, and Poland had its own objective reasons for this. But R. Luxemburg's mistakes were also explained by subjective reasons. As V. I. Lenin pointed out, it was not able to fully master the dialectical method of analyzing social phenomena. 49 However, it should be borne in mind that in the course of her revolutionary activity, R. Luxemburg revised her erroneous views on a number of issues. Since 1905. she began to be influenced by Lenin's ideas. In 1906 and later, she repeatedly met with V. I. Lenin and corresponded with him. She collaborated with him at the Stuttgart and Copenhagen Congresses of the Second International.

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the views of the Spartacists, Polish Social Democrats and their theorist R. Luxemburg on Leninism began to evolve. Just two weeks after the victory of October, on November 24 (according to the new style), 1917, she described this revolution in a letter to L. Kautskaya as "an act of world-historical significance, the traces of which will never disappear." In No. 11 of the Letters of Spartacus (September 1918), R. Luxemburg called on German workers and soldiers to support Soviet Russia by means of an armed uprising against German imperialism. She wrote that the only solution to the problem was " an uprising in the rear of German imperialism, a mass uprising in Germany as a signal for the revolutionary end of the war on a global scale. Saving the honor of the Russian revolution at this crucial hour also means saving the honor of the German proletariat and world socialism."50
A major shortcoming of the internationalist movement in Germany during the First World War was the absence of a revolutionary, Marxist party. As is known, the Spartacists remained in the ranks of the SPD until the spring of 1917, and in April they joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, retaining their ideological and organizational independence. It was only after the start of the November Revolution that they found it impossible to remain in the NSDPG any longer and began preparations for the creation of an independent party. On December 14, 1918, the newspaper Die Rote Fahne published a draft program of the future Communist Party of Germany developed by R. Luxemburg, entitled " What does the Spartak Union want?". The Founding Congress of the KKE, which opened on December 30, 1918, adopted this draft with minor changes.

The KKE's program was revolutionary, Marxist in nature. It stated that the Communists considered it their main task in the near future to fight for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the form of Soviet power in the country. Despite the mistakes made in the program on the agrarian question, V. I. Lenin generally appreciated it highly. In a letter to G. V. Chicherin (December 1918), he proposed to base the ideological and theoretical platform of the future Third International on the program documents of the RCP (b) and the draft program of the "Spartak Union". He also noted that this Union belongs to parties and groups "which we have every reason to consider already standing on the basis of the Third International." 51
Recent speeches by R. Luxemburg convincingly attest to-

49 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 25, pp. 258, 264-267.

50 Rosa Luxemburg. Briefe an Karl und Luise Kautsky. B. 1923, S. 193; "Spartakusbriefe", S. 460.

51 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 50, pp. 228-229.

page 78

They tell us about its departure from its erroneous positions on some important issues and about its evolution towards Leninism. In her report on the party's program at the founding Congress of the KKE, she spoke of the international significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution and expressed her conviction that wherever proletarian revolutions begin in the future, their first act will be the formation of workers 'and soldiers' Soviets. In the same report, R. Luxemburg spoke of the need for the Communist Party to pay serious attention to the countryside and expressed regret that so far too little attention had been paid to it. She stressed that the German bourgeoisie could mobilize against the revolution the peasantry, which is a fanatical supporter of private property, and continued: "Against this threatening counter-revolutionary force, there is only one means, namely, to introduce the class struggle into the countryside, to mobilize the landless proletarians and small peasants against the rest of the peasantry." It proposed to introduce representatives of agricultural workers and small peasants to the workers 'and soldiers' Soviets .52 R. Luxemburg for a long time considered the organization of an armed uprising impossible. But in her last articles, published at the beginning of January 1919 in Die Rote Fahne, she argued for the need for organizational leadership of the masses at the time of an armed insurrection .53
On January 15, 1919, during the suppression of the workers ' insurrection in Berlin, the counter - revolutionary military unit villainously killed K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg, the leaders of the German proletariat. Their closest associate Leo Jogijes (Jan Tyszka) reported this tragic event to V. I. Lenin in one phrase: "Karl and Rosa fulfilled their revolutionary duty to the end" 54 . Romain Rolland later said: "Germany has killed its forerunners." On January 18, 1919, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee appealed to all party organizations and Soviets to hold demonstrations and rallies everywhere to protest the murder of Karl Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg. On January 19, such a demonstration took place in Moscow, and a rally of workers and Red Army soldiers was held on Sovetskaya Square. V. I. Lenin, Y. M. Sverdlov, A. V. Lunacharsky, A. M. Kollontai and other speakers addressed the participants from the balcony of the Moscow City Council 55 . On July 19, 1920, V. I. Lenin delivered a speech in Petrograd on Dvortsovaya Square at the laying of the monument to K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg . Streets in a number of cities in our country were named after them. In Moscow, in 1923, the name of R. Luxemburg was given to a silk-weaving factory (now the Red Rose silk Factory named after R. Luxemburg).

In developing the theory, strategy, and tactics of the class struggle of the proletariat in the era of imperialism, Lenin summarized the experience of the international labor movement and made creative use of the achievements of revolutionary Marxist theorists, including R. Luxemburg. He knew many of her works. In his writings and letters, there are numerous references to her works. In his library in the Kremlin there were 27 editions of the works of R. Luxemburg. In the study of V. I. Lenin there were 9 of her works, and among them her main works: "Development of industry in Poland", " Social reform or revolution?", "Mass strike, party and trade unions", " Economy-

52 Rosa Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. II, S. 668, 669 684 - 685.

53 Ibid., S. 696, 701.

54 Clara Z etkin. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. II, B. 1960, S. 444.

55 See Pravda, 21. I. 1919. For a recording of V. I. Lenin's speech, see: V. I. Lenin, PSS. vol. 37, p. 434.

56 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 41, p. 158.

page 79

capital Management", as well as "Letters to Karl and Luisa Kautsky "and"Letters from Prison" 57 .

In" Notes of a Publicist " (1922), V. I. Lenin strongly opposed the attempt of the renegade P. Levy to use the mistakes of R. Luxemburg in order to portray her as an opponent of Bolshevism. He stressed: "But in spite of these mistakes, she was and remains an eagle; and not only will her memory always be valuable to communists all over the world, but her biography and the complete collection of her works (with which the German Communists are always late, excused only in part by the unheard-of number of victims in their hard struggle) will be most useful lessons for the education of many generations of Communists around the world " 58 .

There is currently a sharp political struggle going on around the literary legacy of R. Luxemburg. It is claimed by representatives of various political movements-reformists, revisionists of the right and" left " sense. All of them try to portray R. Luxemburg as their ideological predecessor, a principled opponent of Bolshevism and the modern communist movement. To do this, they raise her erroneous statements on the billboard, primarily on the issue of the party. Contrary to historical truth, our ideological opponents claim that the Bolsheviks and R. Luxemburg allegedly took opposite positions on this issue, that the latter allegedly rejected the leading role of the party in principle. However, an objective analysis of her writings shows that this outstanding representative of revolutionary Marxism, who became one of the founders of the KKE and, in Lenin's words , a "great communist"59, belongs to the international communist movement.

Many of Luxemburg's ideas are also relevant to the modern revolutionary labor movement. Her work, which is devoted to criticism of revisionism and other forms of opportunism, is also useful in the fight against modern opportunism, both right and "left". Of great importance are her thoughts on the essence of proletarian internationalism, on the harm of nationalism of any kind in the working-class movement, and on its incompatibility with the fundamental interests of the proletariat. Her words, written as early as 1915, are instructive: "The class struggle in the bourgeois states against the ruling classes and the international solidarity of the proletarians of all countries are two inseparable principles of the working class in its world liberation struggle. There is no socialism without international solidarity of the proletariat, no socialism without class struggle. The socialist proletariat cannot, either in time of peace or in time of war, renounce the class struggle or international solidarity without committing suicide."60 Even now, R. Luxemburg's statements about the decisive importance of mass action in the struggle against the capitalist system, about the working class using bourgeois democracy in its own interests, and about the connection between the struggle for democracy and the struggle for socialism are quite correct. Her speeches on the dangers of militarism and the arms race, on the need to involve the broad masses of the people in the struggle against the aggressive policies of imperialist states, for the preservation and consolidation of peace, are also topical. R. Luxemburg rightfully occupies an honorable place in the galaxy of outstanding figures of the international revolutionary labor movement.

57 See " V. I. Lenin's Library in the Kremlin. Catalog". Moscow, 1961, pp. 166, 174, 191, 246.

58 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 44, p. 422.

59 Ibid.

60 Rosa Luxemburg. Ausgewahlte Reden und Schriften. Bd. I, S. 398.

page 80

Permanent link to this publication: