Research Catalog

Title

War and revolution : Lenin and the myth of revolutionary defeatism / Hal Draper ; edited by E. Haberkern.

Author

Draper, Hal.

Publication

Atlantic Highlands, N.J. : Humanities Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Haberkern, E. (Ernest)

Description

ix, 159 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

A great debate took place following the collapse of the socialist movement in the crisis of 1914. "Revolutionary defeatism" was the phrase used to define Lenin's antiwar position and to distinguish it, so it is claimed, from that of the other antiwar socialists including Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky. But what did "revolutionary defeatism" mean? It is generally with this question that discussion dissolves into vague generalities. Hal Draper demonstrates that the slogan coined by Lenin in 1914 was based on a myth - widely accepted in social democratic circles - that Marx and Engels would support a war against tsarist Russia, even one waged by a bourgeois government. In a critique of Lenin's polemics, Draper goes on to show that the phrase reflected the confusion throughout the Second International over the issues of war and revolution leading up to World War I and points out the deleterious effects of this slogan, which, despite Lenin, became a slogan for the communist movement and the Left in general. Finally, Draper contrasts revolutionary defeatism with the "Third Camp" views of Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky, which, he suggests, offered a more defensible, lucid, and no less militant argument for the antiwar position.

Series Statement

Revolutionary studies

Uniform Title

Revolutionary studies.

Subject

• Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924
• Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924
• Revolutions and socialism
• War and socialism

Note

• Revision of an essay published in 1953-1954.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-151) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Introduction to the Myth -- 2. The Myth About Marx's and Engels' War Policy -- 3. The "Special Russian Position" and the Second International Tradition -- 4. Defeatism in the Russo-Japanese War -- 5. Lenin in 1914: The Four Formulas -- 6. The Rest of the Record: Before 1917 -- 7. Comparison: Other Antiwar Socialists -- 8. The Abandonment of Defeatism in 1917 -- 9. After Lenin: Revival and Reinterpretation -- Appendix: Some Authorities on "Defeatism."

ISBN

• 039103930X
• 0391040022 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^95042979^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library