(In my book Stalin, and Other Family, the Lenin and Rosa chapter opens the section devoted to World War II. Here, however, perhaps, just for the sake of doing it differently, I am including it in the Lenin subsection, which comes early on, thus keeping this entry thematically with Lenin, but losing its organic connection to Germany and World War II. Chronologically, of course, it is in the right place here.)
Lenin and Rosa were enemies... In my book of world history this seemingly irrelevant fact is essential to the understanding of the extraordinary series of events, culminating in World War Two.
Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish-born leader of German Marxists at the time of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, is hardly a household name today. Yet, she holds the key to one of the greatest misconceptions of the twentieth century.
I was once told that Lenin hated his Communist Comrade Rosa so much that he could not even pronounce her name without stuttering, and this was after poor Rosa had already been dead for a couple of years.
His hatred was by no means ungrounded. In her writings and public speeches Rosa had been calling Lenin some choice bad names, like an opportunistic scoundrel bent on personal dictatorship, rather than on World Revolution. The two had understood each other too well, for Lenin’s comfort.
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist radical. While the real Karl Marx had somewhat mellowed with age, and--- had he lived for another hundred years,--- would have felt at home in modern European capitalist society, this was not good enough for Rosa and her friends. Their Karl Marx had forever remained a youthful rebel.
Young Marx, old Marx, Lenin did not give a damn. He was developing his own, much improved version of Karl Marx. Preparing for an apocalyptic struggle with the reactionary forces of world capitalism, he saw himself as the Communist commander-in-chief, and wanted all his Marxist competitors either to start toeing the line, or else, to get out of his way in a hurry.
The authentic Russian Marxists used to be well-mannered and well-dressed intellectuals who all worshipped Western Europe and suffered from an acute inferiority complex. With the death of their leader Plekhanov in Finland in 1918, their breed had become extinct.
Lenin was, of course, a Marxist impostor. But, by virtue of having snatched the political power in Russia, he could now pass himself off with impunity as the real thing: nobody should argue with success!
On the other hand, those German Marxists were giving him headaches. Not only did they possess a mind of their own, but their very existence did not fit in well with his international grand strategy: Lenin wanted to become cozy with the official leaders of postwar Germany, using the German animosity toward the French and the British as the Soviet trump card in Europe. And his wish was indeed coming true. Under the cloak of moderate secrecy, the government of Germany was quickly becoming the Bolsheviks’ best friend, being allowed to raise and train German armed forces on Russian soil, which was undoubtedly a violation of the strict ban imposed on Germany by her victorious capitalist enemies: France, Great Britain, and the United States.
As for Rosa Luxemburg and her comrade Karl Liebknecht, their days were already numbered. Many of their followers naïvely believed that Rosa was paranoid toward Lenin, and that their best bet was to accept the friendship and support of Soviet Russia. Without openly challenging their leaders, they privately offered their allegiance to Lenin, who immediately proceeded to set them up. The disastrous uprisings of German Communists in 1918 and 1919 were most certainly provoked by Lenin, who suddenly started sending insane International Telegrams to the governments and to the presses of the world, informing “All!... All!... All!---” that a wholesale Communist Revolution had successfully taken place in Germany!!!
For some reason, Western historians (to say nothing of Soviet historians, for whom this particular subject was virtually taboo) have been unwilling to see Lenin’s outrageous behavior in this instance as a murderous act of betrayal and have preferred to leave it unexplained. (The commonly accepted alternative, which does not make sense to me, has been that Lenin had become so delirious with his own success that he effectively lost his head!). It is a well-known fact, however, that the German Communists were completely misled by Lenin’s “red herring.” There were confused and disorganized uprising attempts in Berlin and elsewhere, as a result, and they were very easily subdued, causing a very unpleasant anti-Communist backlash throughout Germany. Rosa had no control over her duped Parteigenossen, but reluctantly joined their clumsy uprising, only to save face. After a complete rout, the police in Berlin arrested Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, after which they were gruesomely murdered.
Now, the German Communist Party was in great disarray. There was a lot of blame going around. Because many German Communist leaders were Jews, the legend was born of a vast Jewish-Communist conspiracy that had deliberately brought about the collapse of Germany in the Great War, and the nation’s subsequent humiliation at the hands of the West. (One needs to realize that with the Bolsheviks taking power in Russia, and the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty signed in March 1918, lifting the curse of a two-front war, the German mood was quite upbeat, with the fortunes of war seemingly turning decisively in Germany’s favor. Thus, the second-in-a-row reversal of fortune swiftly leading to Germany’s total collapse, was immediately attributed to sabotage on the part of the Jews and their radical accomplices.)
…Even with his nemesis Rosa gone, Lenin did not want such a hot potato under his banner. Let the German Marxists (who still claimed Karl Marx as their paisano and had not forgotten their idol’s condescending and outright dismissive attitude toward Russia) dwindle away, while he would be quietly throwing his support behind some fresh, newly-evolving political entity: many of these had been spawning all over Germany at that time.
Soviet agents, assisted by opportunistic German Communist defectors to Lenin’s side, were now scouting in Germany, in search of a nifty new little party, which should be much easier to patronize than the old bunch of arrogant unrepentant fools who would have always believed that they had seniority over the Russians just because they and Karl Marx happened to be from the same country.
The name National Socialist German Workers’ Party sounded about right. Considering that it was a brand-new entity, there was a better chance to cultivate it, and eventually to take control of it, than with an already established political entity. Besides financing it indirectly, it was also possible, at this early stage, to insert some reliable people into its leadership. In the early days, those were a handful of Soviet friends, who were not so crazy about Bolshevism, as sincerely convinced that a friendship with Russia was the right course for Germany. (Even Prince von Bismarck, no stooge of Russia, would have said amen to that, and, in fact, he had, as he saw friendship with Russia as the cornerstone of German politics and of Germany’s greatness!)
Under the circumstances, Moscow had a large pool of candidates to choose from. In the autumn of 1920, as the Nazi Party was just beginning to grow, Moscow encouraged a sizable exodus of German Communist defectors to the side of Parteigenosse Hitler, in an effort to dilute the anti-Soviet element in the Nazi Party, and thus make it more manageable. However, this windfall enlargement of his cohorts was viewed by the Führer with some suspicion, and in June 1934, after securing political power in Germany, Hitler preferred to get rid of most of them, in the infamous Night of Long Knives.
(To put the record straight, Soviet Russia was by no means the only country getting very much interested in Hitler’s new Party. Several Western powerhouses took an active interest in it as well, none of which ought to be a revelation to those familiar with the standard business of all practitioners of Realpolitik.)
Lenin and Rosa were enemies... In my book of world history this seemingly irrelevant fact is essential to the understanding of the extraordinary series of events, culminating in World War Two.
Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish-born leader of German Marxists at the time of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, is hardly a household name today. Yet, she holds the key to one of the greatest misconceptions of the twentieth century.
I was once told that Lenin hated his Communist Comrade Rosa so much that he could not even pronounce her name without stuttering, and this was after poor Rosa had already been dead for a couple of years.
His hatred was by no means ungrounded. In her writings and public speeches Rosa had been calling Lenin some choice bad names, like an opportunistic scoundrel bent on personal dictatorship, rather than on World Revolution. The two had understood each other too well, for Lenin’s comfort.
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist radical. While the real Karl Marx had somewhat mellowed with age, and--- had he lived for another hundred years,--- would have felt at home in modern European capitalist society, this was not good enough for Rosa and her friends. Their Karl Marx had forever remained a youthful rebel.
Young Marx, old Marx, Lenin did not give a damn. He was developing his own, much improved version of Karl Marx. Preparing for an apocalyptic struggle with the reactionary forces of world capitalism, he saw himself as the Communist commander-in-chief, and wanted all his Marxist competitors either to start toeing the line, or else, to get out of his way in a hurry.
The authentic Russian Marxists used to be well-mannered and well-dressed intellectuals who all worshipped Western Europe and suffered from an acute inferiority complex. With the death of their leader Plekhanov in Finland in 1918, their breed had become extinct.
Lenin was, of course, a Marxist impostor. But, by virtue of having snatched the political power in Russia, he could now pass himself off with impunity as the real thing: nobody should argue with success!
On the other hand, those German Marxists were giving him headaches. Not only did they possess a mind of their own, but their very existence did not fit in well with his international grand strategy: Lenin wanted to become cozy with the official leaders of postwar Germany, using the German animosity toward the French and the British as the Soviet trump card in Europe. And his wish was indeed coming true. Under the cloak of moderate secrecy, the government of Germany was quickly becoming the Bolsheviks’ best friend, being allowed to raise and train German armed forces on Russian soil, which was undoubtedly a violation of the strict ban imposed on Germany by her victorious capitalist enemies: France, Great Britain, and the United States.
As for Rosa Luxemburg and her comrade Karl Liebknecht, their days were already numbered. Many of their followers naïvely believed that Rosa was paranoid toward Lenin, and that their best bet was to accept the friendship and support of Soviet Russia. Without openly challenging their leaders, they privately offered their allegiance to Lenin, who immediately proceeded to set them up. The disastrous uprisings of German Communists in 1918 and 1919 were most certainly provoked by Lenin, who suddenly started sending insane International Telegrams to the governments and to the presses of the world, informing “All!... All!... All!---” that a wholesale Communist Revolution had successfully taken place in Germany!!!
For some reason, Western historians (to say nothing of Soviet historians, for whom this particular subject was virtually taboo) have been unwilling to see Lenin’s outrageous behavior in this instance as a murderous act of betrayal and have preferred to leave it unexplained. (The commonly accepted alternative, which does not make sense to me, has been that Lenin had become so delirious with his own success that he effectively lost his head!). It is a well-known fact, however, that the German Communists were completely misled by Lenin’s “red herring.” There were confused and disorganized uprising attempts in Berlin and elsewhere, as a result, and they were very easily subdued, causing a very unpleasant anti-Communist backlash throughout Germany. Rosa had no control over her duped Parteigenossen, but reluctantly joined their clumsy uprising, only to save face. After a complete rout, the police in Berlin arrested Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, after which they were gruesomely murdered.
Now, the German Communist Party was in great disarray. There was a lot of blame going around. Because many German Communist leaders were Jews, the legend was born of a vast Jewish-Communist conspiracy that had deliberately brought about the collapse of Germany in the Great War, and the nation’s subsequent humiliation at the hands of the West. (One needs to realize that with the Bolsheviks taking power in Russia, and the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty signed in March 1918, lifting the curse of a two-front war, the German mood was quite upbeat, with the fortunes of war seemingly turning decisively in Germany’s favor. Thus, the second-in-a-row reversal of fortune swiftly leading to Germany’s total collapse, was immediately attributed to sabotage on the part of the Jews and their radical accomplices.)
…Even with his nemesis Rosa gone, Lenin did not want such a hot potato under his banner. Let the German Marxists (who still claimed Karl Marx as their paisano and had not forgotten their idol’s condescending and outright dismissive attitude toward Russia) dwindle away, while he would be quietly throwing his support behind some fresh, newly-evolving political entity: many of these had been spawning all over Germany at that time.
Soviet agents, assisted by opportunistic German Communist defectors to Lenin’s side, were now scouting in Germany, in search of a nifty new little party, which should be much easier to patronize than the old bunch of arrogant unrepentant fools who would have always believed that they had seniority over the Russians just because they and Karl Marx happened to be from the same country.
The name National Socialist German Workers’ Party sounded about right. Considering that it was a brand-new entity, there was a better chance to cultivate it, and eventually to take control of it, than with an already established political entity. Besides financing it indirectly, it was also possible, at this early stage, to insert some reliable people into its leadership. In the early days, those were a handful of Soviet friends, who were not so crazy about Bolshevism, as sincerely convinced that a friendship with Russia was the right course for Germany. (Even Prince von Bismarck, no stooge of Russia, would have said amen to that, and, in fact, he had, as he saw friendship with Russia as the cornerstone of German politics and of Germany’s greatness!)
Under the circumstances, Moscow had a large pool of candidates to choose from. In the autumn of 1920, as the Nazi Party was just beginning to grow, Moscow encouraged a sizable exodus of German Communist defectors to the side of Parteigenosse Hitler, in an effort to dilute the anti-Soviet element in the Nazi Party, and thus make it more manageable. However, this windfall enlargement of his cohorts was viewed by the Führer with some suspicion, and in June 1934, after securing political power in Germany, Hitler preferred to get rid of most of them, in the infamous Night of Long Knives.
(To put the record straight, Soviet Russia was by no means the only country getting very much interested in Hitler’s new Party. Several Western powerhouses took an active interest in it as well, none of which ought to be a revelation to those familiar with the standard business of all practitioners of Realpolitik.)
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