Page:Rosa Luxemburg - The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy (The "Junius" Pamplhet) - 1918.pdf/72

 70 1914, and called them to arms, arm in arm with Prussian junkerdom against the Russia of the Great Revolution of 1905.

This is where a revision should have been made; the slogans of the March Revolution should have been brought into accord with the historical experiences of the last seventy years.

In 1848 Russia Czarism was, in truth, "the guardian of European reaction." The product of Russian social conditions, firmly rooted in its medieval, agricultural state, absolutism was the protector and at the same time the mighty director of monarchical reaction, This was weakened, particularly in Germany, where a system of small states still obtained. As late as 1851 it was possible for Nicholas I, to assure Berlin through the Prussian consul von-Rochow "that he would, indeed, have been pleased to see the revolution destroyed to the roots when general von Wrangel advanced upon Berlin in November, 1848." At another time, in a warning to Manteuffel, the Czar stated, "that he relied upon the Imperial Ministry, under the leadership of His Highness, to defend the rights of the crown against the chambers, and give to the principles of conservatism their due." It was possible for the same Nicholas I to bestow the Alexander Nevski order on a Prussian Ministerial President in recognition of his "constant efforts … to maintain legal order in Prussia."

The Crimean war worked a noticeable change in this respect. It ended with the military and therefore with the political bankruptcy of the old system. Russian absolutism was forced to grant reforms, to modernize its rule, to adjust itself to capitalist conditions. In so doing, it gave its little finger to the devil who already holds it firmly by the arm, and will eventually get it altogether. The Crimean War was, by the way, an instructive example of the kind of liberation that can be brought to a downtrodden people "at the point of the gun." The military overthrow at Sedan brought France its republic. But this republic was not the