Letter to Julian Marchlewski, September 30, 1918

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Author(s) Rosa Luxemburg
Written 30 September 1918


Original in Polish.
RZBSDNG, Moscow.
Published by Feliks Tych in Internationale wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeitebewegung (IWK), September 1991, II. 3, p.363-66.
Keywords : Letter, Julian Marchlewski

Prison in Breslau, 30.9.1918

Dear Julek,

Many thanks for the note, greetings and information. I know that Leo’s [Jogiches] case is difficult[1] but every effort must be made. I am counting on you and Joz[ef]. – NB: I have learnt from Bronka’s [Marchlewska] letter to someone else that some malicious rumours about L[eo] have even penetrated as far as your place of residence. At the time, L[eo] wrote to me about it, I sent an appropriate letter to that crazy fool Led[er],[2] who is the source [of the rumours], in which I demanded either proof or a public retraction (i.e. in front of witnesses). L[eo], as you know him, of course confiscated the letter; he did not want to “wallow in filth”. It turns out that one should not allow such things to go unpunished. I can now formally demand a tribunal from Led[er] in which I would choose the ambassador[3] as arbiter so that Led[er] provides an explanation or solemnly withdraws [the accusations]. Inform me immediately to what extent you think that suitable or what else could be done.

Your situation as you describe it appears just the same to me from afar. A dire situation. It is clear that under such conditions, i.e. on every side gripped by the imp[erialists], neither soc[ialism] nor the dictatorship of the prol[etariat] can be achieved but at most a caricature of both. However, I fear that these things are only clear to you, me and a few others. On the other hand, I fear that Jozef has been carried away [if he believes] that one can fill the economic and political void by vigorously tracking down ‘conspiracies’ and by murdering ‘conspirators’. The idea of Radek e.g. of “slaughtering the bourgeoisie” or even just a threat in this sense,[4] is certainly idiocy summo grado; only a compromising of soc[ialism], nothing more. Then the official articles in Izvestia[5] and Vechernia Izv[estia] on the occasion of the ‘codicil’ to [the] Brest[-Litovsk Peace Treaty], were already a downright scandal. That is not incompetence and sloppiness, as you say, but misleading public opinion. Schünfürberei trotz eines Norddeutschen![6] For me it is a symptom of how far the Beki government has been thrown off course since Brest. Their whole foreign policy since Brest makes a most equivocal impression. For example, Jozef’s latest ‘masterpiece’: the constant discovery of Anglo-French conspiracies[7] and his appeal to the ‘civilised world’, only give rise to an ironic shrug of the shoulders in view of the question: well, what about the Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic States?[8] On account of this crazy behaviour,[9] in comparison with which the Anglo-French conspiracies are a trifle, did you not then manage to open your gobs, did you not then appeal to the civilised world? This one-sidedness of the policy since Brest – the boundless submissiveness regarding the atrocities of one side and the loud cries over the crazy behaviour[10] of the other – undermines any moral authority of the policy and makes it nolens volens into a tool of one of the two camps. I know the reason for this is the complete military helplessness, but in that case just be passive towards both sides. Or if one after all must takes sides then at least not for the wrong one! ...

Here the work has gone to the dogs since L[eo’s] illness.[11] They are all sissies[12] and, in addition, still have no ‘time’, particularly if the work is not paid for in cash. They have time for the ‘work’ in the embassy[13] – sheer silliness, nothing more – since it is well paid. But the paper and the leaflets, for which a tumultuous demand exists, must be written solely by Maciej Rozga,[14] no one else wants to lift a finger. Neither is there time for writing reasonable information about the situation for Maciej, one has to make it up off the top of one’s head or get it from the cables of the WTB.[15] But what can one say, you know these people. No doubt dreadful things have to happen before these people stir themselves. However, slowly it looks that way. The scandal of the soc[ialists] is complete if again guns – this time American – [and] not the action of the proletariat dictate the peace. Nevertheless, perhaps something will move under the influence of events. Four week[s] ago[16] it looked like great events in the Rhineland but naturally our fools achieved nothing politically and the strike fell apart.

Do write often, we really must stay in contact. I also had a message from Florian.[17] Do write to me about Wesoly,[18] how his health is, how he looks and what he is doing. Kindest regards to Bronka and a request for news. A thousand greetings to all our brave Polish lads. Keep well! Always put letters to me in a sealed envelope!

yours,

R

What is the matter with Adolf?[19] Where is he? Have you any contact with him?

  1. ↑ The direct cause of Jogiches imprisonment in March 1918 was his leading role in printing and distributing anti-war material amongst the troops and the organising of strikes in January 1918 in various armaments factories for which the death penalty could be imposed. The German authorities were probably not keen to allow his departure for the Soviet Russia in an exchange of prisoners.
  2. ↑ Wladyslaw Leder (1880-1938). A leading figure in the SDKPiL. The nature of these accusations is unknown.
  3. ↑ Adolf Joffe.
  4. ↑ A reference to Radek’s article The Red Terror in Izvestia, no.192, 6.9.1918, p.1. On 2.9.1918 the All-Russian Central Executive Committee had announced that the government would respond to any attack upon a Soviet representative with “red terror against the native bourgeoisie and its agents”, and would take hostages from “among the bourgeoisie” to be shot as a reprisal for any murdered Soviet representative.
  5. ↑ Report of the People Commissar for Foreign Affairs, G.V. Chicherin, at the session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee about the Russo-German supplementary treaty of 2.9.1918, published in Izvestia, no.190, 4.9.1918. Three supplements to the original treaty were agreed in Berlin between Russia and Germany on 27.8.1918, the last of which pledged Russia to pay out 6 million marks in various forms to Germany, a heavy burden considering the state of the country. Soviet organs particularly Izvestia embellished the circumstances.
  6. ↑ In English, “Embellishment in spite of a North German.” The significance of this reference is unknown.
  7. ↑ This refers not just to Dzierzynski personally but to the whole Soviet Government. The so-called ‘Lockhart conspiracy’ was one example.
  8. ↑ Rosa’s criticism regarding the territories abandoned by Soviet Russia is taken up in her critical essay written in 1918 and reflects her position on the National Question.
  9. ↑ The word used in the German text, Fatzkereien, is a derivative that is not usually to be found in a German dictionary. The word stems from Fatzke, Berlin dialect for a stuck-up twit. Literally, Fatkereien would be the activities of stuck-up twits. In the Berlin region the word is synonymous with Spinnereien, i.e. crazy behaviour.
  10. ↑ See the previous footnote.
  11. ↑ She refers here to the imprisonment of Jogiches from March 1918.
  12. ↑ The German word used,Waschlappen, can be translated a number of ways. The word also means softies or cowards. Each of these possibilities could be correct in this context.
  13. ↑ The Soviet Embassy in Berlin.
  14. ↑ One of RL’s Polish pseudonyms. The reference is to the Spartacus-Briefe and leaflets.
  15. ↑ Wolffs Telegraphenbüro.
  16. ↑ In the summer of 1918, not only in the Ruhr region but in other industrial regions of Germany, a great strike wave broke out in protest against the drastic deterioration in living standards and the continuation of the war.
  17. ↑ Stefan Bratman-Brodowski’s pseudonym in the SDKPiL.
  18. ↑ Bronislaw Wesolowski (1870-1919) a cofounder with Rosa Luxemburg and Marchlewski of Polish Social-Democracy. In tsarist prisons (1894-1903) and (1908-1917). Liberated by the February Revolution. 1917-1918 a member of the Bolshevik Party secretariat. Led the Soviet Red Cross mission to Warsaw in late 1918 to negotiate POW exchanges. Murdered by the Polish Military Police on the return journey.
  19. ↑ Adolf Warski (1868-1937). Together with Rosa Luxemburg and Marchlewski he belonged to secret socialist circles in Warsaw in the latter 1880s. A cofounder of Polish Social Democracy of which he was a leader. A leader of the CP of Poland. Murdered in 1937 on Stalin’s orders along with the rest of the CPP leadership
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