Földvári Books

Rosa Luxemburg’s Scarce Writing on the Russian Revolution

Luxemburg, Rosa

[The Revolution in Russia] Rewolucja w Rosji. [In: Trybuna Ludowa. Organ Socjaldemokracji Krolestwa Polskiego i Litwy. No. 4. Rok I. (December 20, 1905)

[Warszawa]: [S.n. / St. Kucharski], 1905. First edition. Pages yellowed due to acidic paper. Artistically restored. In very good condition.

First edition of Rosa Luxemburg’s important article on the 1905 Russian Revolution.

“Almost all the writings of Rosa Luxemburg between February 1905 (when ‘After the First Act’ was published) and December 1905 elaborated the idea that the Russian revolution was not purely a bourgeois but a sui generis historical phenomenon combining bourgeois and proletarian features. […]. The most finished expression of this idea of a dual revolution is perhaps the current article.” (Day-Gaido, 2009 p. 522) The Revolution in Russia “was first published in the Warsaw-based periodical Trybuna Ludowa (Tribune of the People) on December 20, 1905, under the title “Rewolucja w Rosji”(The Revolution in Russia). Trybuna Ludowa was a legal publication during December 1905, after Tsar Nicholas II’s October Manifesto promised constitutional reforms in the midst of the general strike of October 1905. But that freedom of the press did not last long, coming to an end early in 1906. Many years later, in 1959, this article was reprinted in a Polish selection of Luxemburg’s writings (Wybór Pism—Selected Works). A German version of the article, not accompanied by any date, appeared in Luxemburg’s Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 2. pp. 5–10.” (Hudis et al, 2019 p. 472)

Simultaneously to the Polish, a German version of the text appeared in Berlin, in a 15-pages pamphlet of revolutionary writings titled 1649-1789-1905 (Buchhandlung Vorwärts, 1905). (Day-Gaido, 2009 p. 522)

Literature: Day, R. B., Gaido, D.: Witnesses to Permanent Revolution: The Documentary Record. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009.; Hudis, P., et al (ed.): The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg. On Revolution : 1897-1905 Volume III. London; New York: Verso, 2019.

Price: €1,000.00