Page:Rosa Luxemburg - The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy (The "Junius" Pamplhet) - 1918.pdf/78

 76 difficulty in understanding that the "German gun," when it descends upon their heads, brings not liberty, but death.

To couple the legend of Russian liberation with its Marxian heritage is worse than a poor joke on the part of the German Social-Democracy. It is a crime. To Marx, the Russian revolution was a turning point in the history of the world. Every political and historical perspective was made dependent upon the one consideration, "provided the Russian revolution has not already broken out." Marx believed in the Russian revolution and expected it even at a time when Russia was only a state of vassals. When the war broke out the Russian revolution had occurred. Its first attempt had not been victorious; but it could not be ignored; it is on the order of the day. And yet our German Social-Democrats came with "German guns," declaring the Russian revolution null and void; struck it from the pages of History. In 1848 Marx spoke from the German barricades; in Russia there was hopeless reaction. In 1914 Russia was in the throes of a revolution; while its German "liberators" were cowed by the fists of Prussian junkerdom.

But the liberating mission of: the German armies was only an episode. German imperialism soon raised its uncomfortable mask and turned openly against France and England. Here, too, it was supported valiantly by a large number of the party papers. They ceased railing against the bloody Czar, and held up "perfidious Albion" and its merchant soul to the public disdain. They set out to free Europe, no longer from Russian absolutism, but from English naval supremacy. The hopeless confusion in which the party had become entangled, found a drastic illustration in the desperate attempt made by the more thoughtful portion of our party-press to meet this new change of front. In vain they tried to force the war back into its original channels, to nail it down to the “heritage of our masters"—that is, to the