Karl Kautsky
Encyclopedia
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician
. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism
after the death of Friedrich Engels
in 1895 until the coming of World War I
in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of Marxism." Following the war, Kautsky was an outspoken critic of the Bolshevik Revolution and its excesses, engaging in polemics with V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky
on the nature of the Soviet state
.
to artistic middle-class parents, moved with his family to Vienna
at the age of seven. He studied history
, philosophy
and economics
at the University of Vienna
from 1874, and became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria
(SPÖ) in 1875. In 1880 he joined a group of German socialists in Zurich
who were supported financially by Karl Höchberg
, and who smuggled socialist material into the Reich
at the time of the Anti-Socialist Laws
(1878- ). Influenced by Eduard Bernstein
, Karl Höchberg
's secretary, he became a Marxist and in 1881 visited Marx and Engels in England.
("The New Times") in Stuttgart
, which became a weekly in 1890. He edited the magazine until September 1917: this gave him a steady income and allowed him to propagate Marxism.
From 1885 to 1890 he spent time in London
, where he became a close friend of Friedrich Engels. In 1891 he co-authored the Erfurt Program
of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
(SPD) together with August Bebel
and Eduard Bernstein
.
Following the death of Engels in 1895, Kautsky became one of the most important and influential theoreticians of Marxism
, representing the mainstream of the party together with August Bebel
, and outlining a Marxist theory of imperialism
. When Bernstein attacked the traditional Marxist position of the necessity for revolution in the later 1890s, Kautsky denounced him, arguing that Bernstein's emphasis on the ethical foundations of Socialism opened the road to a call for an alliance with the "progressive" bourgeoisie and a non-class approach.
voted for war credits, Kautsky (who was not a deputy but attended their meetings) suggested abstaining. Kautsky claimed that Germany was waging a defensive war against the threat of Czarist Russia. However, in June 1915, about ten months after the war had begun and when it had become obvious that this was going to be a sustained, appallingly brutal and costly struggle, he issued an appeal with Eduard Bernstein
and Hugo Haase
against the pro-war leaders of the SPD and denounced the German government's annexationist aims. In 1917 he left the SPD for the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
(USPD), which united Socialists who opposed the war.
After the November Revolution in Germany, Kautsky served as under-secretary of State in the Foreign Office in the short-lived SPD-USPD revolutionary government and worked at finding documents which proved the war guilt of Imperial Germany.
. In 1920, when the USPD split, he went with a minority of that party back into the SPD. In 1924, at the age of 70, he moved back to Vienna with his family, and remained there until 1938. At the time of Hitler's Anschluss
he fled to Czechoslovakia
and thence by plane to Amsterdam
, where he died in the same year.
Karl Kautsky lived in Berlin
-Friedenau
for many years; his wife, Luise Kautsky, was a close friend of Rosa Luxemburg
, who also lived in Friedenau. A commemorative plaque marks where Kautsky lived at Saarstraße 14.
Vladimir Lenin
described Kautsky as a "renegade" in his classic pamphlet "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky"; Kautsky in turn castigated Lenin in his 1934 work Marxism and Bolshevism: Democracy and Dictatorship:
Both Lenin and Trotsky, however, defended the Bolshevik Revolution as a legitimate and historic social upheaval akin to the French Revolution, casting themselves and the Bolsheviks unashamedly in the role of the Jacobins, viewing the "opportunism" of Kautsky and similar figures as a function of "social bribery" rooted in their increasing intimacy with the privileged classes.
Kautsky's work Social Democracy vs. Communism discussed Bolshevist rule in Russia. In Kautsky's view, the Bolsheviks (or Communists) were a conspiratorial organisation which gained power by a coup and initiated revolutionary changes for which there was no economic rationale in Russia. Instead, a bureaucracy-dominated society developed, the miseries of which outweighed the problems of Western capitalism
. The attempts undertaken by Stalin to build a working and affluent socialist society failed.
Theoretician (Marxism)
A theoretician is a term from the vernacular of Marxism relating to an individual who observes and writes about the condition or dynamics of society, history, or economics, making use of the main principles of Marxian socialism in the analysis....
. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism
Orthodox Marxism
Orthodox Marxism is the term used to describe the version of Marxism which emerged after the death of Karl Marx and acted as the official philosophy of the Second International up to the First World War and of the Third International thereafter...
after the death of Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
in 1895 until the coming of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of Marxism." Following the war, Kautsky was an outspoken critic of the Bolshevik Revolution and its excesses, engaging in polemics with V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
on the nature of the Soviet state
Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia usually refers to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union. It may also denote:* Soviet Russia , magazine of the Friends of Soviet Russia in the United States...
.
Early years
Karl Kautsky, born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
to artistic middle-class parents, moved with his family to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
at the age of seven. He studied history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
from 1874, and became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
(SPÖ) in 1875. In 1880 he joined a group of German socialists in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
who were supported financially by Karl Höchberg
Karl Höchberg
Karl Höchberg was a German social-reformist writer, publisher and economist, who acted under the pseudonyms Dr. Ludwig Richter e R.F. Seifert. In 1876 he became a member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany . From 1877 to 1878, he was responsible for editing the Zukunft magazine...
, and who smuggled socialist material into the Reich
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
at the time of the Anti-Socialist Laws
Anti-Socialist Laws
The Anti-Socialist Laws or Socialist Laws were a series of acts, the first of which was passed on October 19, 1878 by the German Reichstag lasting till March 31, 1881, and extended 4 times...
(1878- ). Influenced by Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...
, Karl Höchberg
Karl Höchberg
Karl Höchberg was a German social-reformist writer, publisher and economist, who acted under the pseudonyms Dr. Ludwig Richter e R.F. Seifert. In 1876 he became a member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany . From 1877 to 1878, he was responsible for editing the Zukunft magazine...
's secretary, he became a Marxist and in 1881 visited Marx and Engels in England.
Political career
In 1883, Kautsky founded the monthly Die Neue ZeitDie Neue Zeit
Die Neue Zeit was a German socialist theoretical journal of the Social Democratic Party of Germany that was published from 1883 to 1923. Founded by leading socialist politicians and theorists, it became the most important organ of the SPD competing with Sozialistische Monatshefte...
("The New Times") in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, which became a weekly in 1890. He edited the magazine until September 1917: this gave him a steady income and allowed him to propagate Marxism.
From 1885 to 1890 he spent time in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he became a close friend of Friedrich Engels. In 1891 he co-authored the Erfurt Program
Erfurt Program
The Erfurt Program was adopted by the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the SPD congress at Erfurt in 1891. Formulated under the political guidance of Eduard Bernstein, August Bebel, and Karl Kautsky, it superseded the earlier Gotha Program....
of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(SPD) together with August Bebel
August Bebel
Ferdinand August Bebel was a German Marxist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.-Early years:...
and Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...
.
Following the death of Engels in 1895, Kautsky became one of the most important and influential theoreticians of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, representing the mainstream of the party together with August Bebel
August Bebel
Ferdinand August Bebel was a German Marxist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.-Early years:...
, and outlining a Marxist theory of imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
. When Bernstein attacked the traditional Marxist position of the necessity for revolution in the later 1890s, Kautsky denounced him, arguing that Bernstein's emphasis on the ethical foundations of Socialism opened the road to a call for an alliance with the "progressive" bourgeoisie and a non-class approach.
Wartime years
In 1914, when the German Social-Democrat deputies in the ReichstagReichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
voted for war credits, Kautsky (who was not a deputy but attended their meetings) suggested abstaining. Kautsky claimed that Germany was waging a defensive war against the threat of Czarist Russia. However, in June 1915, about ten months after the war had begun and when it had become obvious that this was going to be a sustained, appallingly brutal and costly struggle, he issued an appeal with Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...
and Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase was a German politician, jurist and pacifist.-Biography:Haase was born in Allenstein , Province of Prussia, the son of Jewish shoemaker and small businessman, Nathan Haase, and Pauline née Anker. He studied law in Königsberg and established himself as a lawyer...
against the pro-war leaders of the SPD and denounced the German government's annexationist aims. In 1917 he left the SPD for the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
(USPD), which united Socialists who opposed the war.
After the November Revolution in Germany, Kautsky served as under-secretary of State in the Foreign Office in the short-lived SPD-USPD revolutionary government and worked at finding documents which proved the war guilt of Imperial Germany.
Polemics with the Bolsheviks
After 1919 Kautsky's prominence steadily diminished. He visited Georgia in 1920 and wrote a book in 1921 on this Social Democratic country still independent of Bolshevist RussiaRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
. In 1920, when the USPD split, he went with a minority of that party back into the SPD. In 1924, at the age of 70, he moved back to Vienna with his family, and remained there until 1938. At the time of Hitler's Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
he fled to Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and thence by plane to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, where he died in the same year.
Karl Kautsky lived in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
-Friedenau
Friedenau
Friedenau is a locality within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. Per population density it is the highest one into the city.- Etymology :...
for many years; his wife, Luise Kautsky, was a close friend of Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
, who also lived in Friedenau. A commemorative plaque marks where Kautsky lived at Saarstraße 14.
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
described Kautsky as a "renegade" in his classic pamphlet "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky"; Kautsky in turn castigated Lenin in his 1934 work Marxism and Bolshevism: Democracy and Dictatorship:
"The Bolsheviki under Lenin’s leadership, however, succeeded in capturing control of the armed forces in Petrograd and later in Moscow and thus laid the foundation for a new dictatorship in place of the old Czarist dictatorship."
Both Lenin and Trotsky, however, defended the Bolshevik Revolution as a legitimate and historic social upheaval akin to the French Revolution, casting themselves and the Bolsheviks unashamedly in the role of the Jacobins, viewing the "opportunism" of Kautsky and similar figures as a function of "social bribery" rooted in their increasing intimacy with the privileged classes.
Kautsky's work Social Democracy vs. Communism discussed Bolshevist rule in Russia. In Kautsky's view, the Bolsheviks (or Communists) were a conspiratorial organisation which gained power by a coup and initiated revolutionary changes for which there was no economic rationale in Russia. Instead, a bureaucracy-dominated society developed, the miseries of which outweighed the problems of Western capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
. The attempts undertaken by Stalin to build a working and affluent socialist society failed.
- "Foreign tourists in Russia stand in silent amazement before the gigantic enterprises created there, as they stand before the pyramids, for example. Only seldom does the thought occur to them what enslavement, what lowering of human self-esteem was connected with the construction of those gigantic establishments."
- "They extracted the means for the creation of material productive forces by destroying the most essential productive force of all-the laboring man. In the terrible conditions created by the Piatiletka, people rapidly perished. Soviet films, of course, did not show this." (chapter 6 of Is Soviet Russia A Socialist State?)
Death and legacy
Karl Kautsky died October 17, 1938 in Amsterdam. His son, Benedikt spent seven years in concentration camps, while his wife Luise died in Auschwitz.Works in English
- The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx. (1887/1903)
- Thomas More and his Utopia. (1888)
- The Class Struggle. Daniel DeLeon, trans. New York: New York Labor News Co., 1899.
- Communism in Central Europe at the Time of the Reformation. J.L. & E.G. Mulliken, trans. London: T.F. Unwin, 1897.
- Frederick Engels: His Life, His Work and His Writings. May Wood Simons, trans. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1899.
- On The Agrarian Question (1899)
- The Social Revolution and On the Day After the Social Revolution. J.B. Askew, trans. London: Twentieth Century Press, 1903.
- Socialism and Colonial Policy (1907)
- Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History. John B. Askew, trans. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1909.
- The Road to Power: Personal Reflections on Growing into the Revolution. A.M. Simons, trans. Chicago: Samuel A. Bloch, 1909.
- The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program). William E. Bohn, trans. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1909.
- Finance-Capital and Crises (1911)
- The High Cost of Living: Changes in Gold Production and the Rise in Prices. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1914.
- The Guilt of William Hohenzollern. London: Skeffington and Son, n.d. (1919).
- The Dictatorship of the Proletariat. H.J. Stenning, trans. London: National Labour Press, n.d. (c. 1919).
- Terrorism and CommunismA Contribution to the Natural History of Revolution. W.H. Kerridge, trans. London: National Labour Press, 1920.
- "Preface" to The Twelve Who Are to Die: The Trial of the Socialists-Revolutionists in Moscow. Berlin: Delegation of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionists, 1922.
- Foundations of Christianity: A Study of Christian Origins. New York: International Publishers, 1925.
- The Labour Revolution. H.J. Stenning, trans. London: National Labour Press, 1925.
- Are the Jews a Race? New York: International Publishers, 1926.
- Communism vs. Socialism. Joseph Shaplen, trans. New York: American League for Democratic Socialism, 1932.
External links
- Karl Kautsky Internet Archive, Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/
- Kautsky post card
