Page:Rosa Luxemburg - The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy (The "Junius" Pamplhet) - 1918.pdf/74

 72 made his treaty with Russia and strengthened its position in international politics.

Capitalist development, tenderly nurtured by Czarism with its own hands, finally bore fruit: in the 90's the revolutionary movement of the Russian proletariat began. The erstwhile "guardian of reaction" was forced to grant a meaningsless constitution, to seek a new protector from the rising flood in its own country. And it found this protector—in Germany. The Germany of Buelow must pay the debt of gratitude that the Prussia of Wrangel and Manteuffel had incurred. Relations were completely reversed. Russian support against the revolution in Germany is supersededby German aid against the revolution in Russia. Spies, outrages, betrayals—a demagogic agitation, like that which blessed the times of the Holy Alliance, was unleashed in Germany against the fighters for the cause of Russian freedom, and followed them to the very doorsteps of the Russian Revolution. In the Koenigsberg trial.of 1904 this wave of persecution was at its height. This trial threw a scathing light upon a whole historical development since 1848 and showed the complete change of relations between Russian absolutism and European reaction. "Tua res agitur!" cried a Prussian Minister of Justice to the ruling classes of Germany, pointing to the tottering foundation of the Czarist regime. "The establishment of a democratic republic in Russia would strongly influence Germany," declared First District-Attorney Schulze in Koenigsberg. "When my neighbor's home burns my own is also.in danger." And his assistant Casper also emphasized: "it is naturally not indifferent to Germany's public interests whether this bulwark of absolutism stands or falls, Certainly the flames of a revolutionary movement may easily spring over into Germany…"

The Revolution was overthrown, but the very causes that led to its temporary downfall are valuable in a discussion of the position taken by the German Social-Democracy in this war. That