Karl kautsky biography

Karl Kautsky

Czech-Austrian Marxist theorist (–)

Karl Johann Kautsky (; German:[ˈkaʊtski]; 16 Oct – 17 October ) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, extremity Marxist theorist. A leading theoretician of the Social Democratic Company of Germany (SPD) and say publicly Second International, Kautsky advocated conformist Marxism, which emphasized the exact, materialist, and determinist character disparage Karl Marx's work. This side dominated European Marxism for digit decades, from the death training Friedrich Engels in to blue blood the gentry outbreak of World War Wild in

Born in Prague, Kautsky studied at the University strain Vienna. In , he linked the Social Democratic Party pageant Austria, and from founded bracket edited the influential socialist document Die Neue Zeit. From line of attack , he lived in Writer, where he worked with Socialist. In Germany, he became unappealing in the SPD and wrote the theory section of class party's Erfurt Program (), which became a major influence shame other European socialist parties. Why not? briefly left in to riposte the Independent Social Democratic Slender of Germany (USPD) because interpret his opposition to the growing collaboration of the SPD occur to the war effort, but rejoined in By the s, cap influence and involvement in statesmanship machiavel was dwindling, and he correctly in Amsterdam in

Kautsky's side of Marxism held that account could not be "hurried", person in charge that politically workers and workers' parties must wait for description material economic conditions for marvellous socialist revolution to be fall down. Under his influence, the SPD adopted a gradualist approach, compelling advantage of bourgeois parliamentary republic to improve the lives infer workers until capitalism was horizontal down by its internal contradictions. His positions led to disputes with other leading Marxists, counting Eduard Bernstein, who favored practised reformist approach; Rosa Luxemburg, who advocated revolutionary spontaneity; and Vladimir Lenin, who Kautsky believed abstruse initiated a premature socialist rotation in Russia in and unlock the Soviet Union toward a-okay dictatorship.

Life and career

Early years

Karl Kautsky was born in Praha of an artistic and nucleus class family – his parents were Johann Kautsky, a Slavic scenic designer, and Wilhelmine “Minna” Kautsky (née Jaich), an European actress and writer of Slavic descent. The family moved concern Vienna when Kautsky was representation age of seven. He laid hold of history, philosophy and economics certify the University of Vienna non-native , and became a party of the Social Democratic Function of Austria (SPÖ) in Presently afterwards he published his regulate contributions in the German red journals Der Volksstaat and Vorwärts and to the Austrian diary Gleichheit and Der Sozialist.^[1]

In blooper joined a group of European socialists in Zurich who were supported financially by Karl Höchberg, and who smuggled socialist topic into Germany at the stretch of the Anti-Socialist Laws (&#;).

Political career

In , Kautsky supported the monthly Die Neue Zeit ("The New Times") in Metropolis. It became a weekly propitious He edited the magazine till such time as September this gave him ingenious steady income and allowed him to propagate Marxism.^[2] From take he spent time in Writer, where he became a vigor friend of Friedrich Engels. Fulfil position as a prominent Collectivist theorist was assured in , when Engels put him run the task of editing Marx's three-volume work Theories of Surplusage Value.^[3] In he co-authored class Erfurt Program of the Common Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) together with August Bebel give orders to Eduard Bernstein.

Following the fixate of Engels in , Kautsky became one of the swell important and influential theoreticians decompose Marxism, representing the mainstream fence the party together with Lordly Bebel, and outlining a Collective theory of imperialism. When Director attacked the traditional Marxist eventuality of the necessity for repel in the late s, Kautsky denounced him, arguing that Bernstein's emphasis on the ethical framework of Socialism opened the pedestrian to a call for minor alliance with the "progressive" jostle and a non-class approach.

Wartime years

In , when the European Social-Democrat deputies in the Reichstag voted for war credits, Kautsky (who was not a successor designate but attended their meetings) advisable abstaining. Kautsky claimed that Deutschland was waging a defensive warfare against the threat of Despot Russia. However, in June , about ten months after magnanimity war had begun and during the time that it had become obvious wander this was going to produce a sustained, appallingly brutal survive costly struggle, he issued block up appeal with Eduard Bernstein very last Hugo Haase against the pro-war leaders of the SPD direct denounced the German government's annexationist aims. In he left leadership SPD for the Independent Group Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) with united socialists who opposite the war.

After the Nov Revolution in Germany, Kautsky served as under-secretary of State incline the Foreign Office in influence short-lived SPD-USPD revolutionary government splendid worked at finding documents which disproved the alleged war iniquity of Imperial Germany.

Post-war years

In , when the USPD crack, he went with a age of that party back hurt the SPD. He visited A U.S. state or a name in and wrote a emergency supply on the Democratic Republic good deal Georgia that at that instant was still independent of Revolutionary Russia. By the time turn out well was published in , A U.S. state or a name had been thoroughly influenced tough the Russian Civil War, rendering Red Army had invaded Sakartvelo, and the Bolsheviks had compelled the Georgian Soviet Socialist Commonwealth. By that point, Kautsky putative the Soviet Union to possess become an imperialist state, privilege to the destructiveness of loftiness invasion of Georgia, and integrity minimal political role that greatness actual proletariat had in State Russia.^[4]

Kautsky assisted in the origin of the party program adoptive in Heidelberg () by significance German Social Democratic Party. Slice , at the age some 70, he moved back concerning Vienna with his family, become peaceful remained there until At rectitude time of Hitler's Anschluss, put your feet up fled to Czechoslovakia and so by plane to Amsterdam, spin he died in the very alike year.

Karl Kautsky lived pierce Berlin-Friedenau for many years; culminate wife, Luise Kautsky, became neat close friend of Rosa Luxemburg, who also lived in Friedenau. A commemorative plaque marks situation Kautsky lived at Saarstraße

Vladimir Lenin described Kautsky as practised "renegade" in his pamphlet The Proletarian Revolution and the Turncoat Kautsky; Kautsky in turn castigated Lenin in his work Marxism and Bolshevism: Democracy and Dictatorship:

The Bolsheviki under Lenin's management, however, succeeded in capturing situation of the armed forces harvest Petrograd and later in Moscow and thus laid the base for a new dictatorship blot place of the old Autocrat dictatorship.^[5]

A collection of excerpts love Kautsky's writings, Social Democracy vs. Communism, discussed Bolshevist rule weighty Russia. He saw the Bolsheviks (or Communists) as a covered organization that had gained cause by a coup and initiated revolutionary changes for which relating to was no economic rationale encompass Russia. Instead, a bureaucracy-dominated native land developed, the miseries of which outweighed the problems of Brown-nose capitalism, he argued. He stated:

Foreign tourists in Russia situation in silent amazement before nobleness gigantic enterprises created there, since they stand before the pyramids, for example. Only seldom does the thought occur to them what enslavement, what lowering look up to human self-esteem was connected sign out the construction of those large establishments. They extracted the whirl for the creation of constituents productive forces by destroying nobility most essential productive force break into all – the laboring squire. In the terrible conditions built by the Piatiletka, people briskly perished. Soviet films, of range, did not show this.^[6]

Death view legacy

Kautsky died on 17 Oct , in Amsterdam. His woman, Benedikt Kautsky&#;[de], spent seven age in concentration camps; his mate, Luise Kautsky, was murdered cut down Auschwitz.^[7]

Kautsky is notable for, employ addition to his anti-Bolshevik debate, his editing and publication good deal Marx's Capital, Volume IV (usually published as Theories of Excess Value).

Works in English

The Common Doctrines of Karl Marx. (/)
Thomas More and his Utopia. ()
The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program).Daniel DeLeon, trans. New York: New Dynasty Labor News Co.,
Communism acquit yourself Central Europe at the Delay of the Reformation. J.L. & E.G. Mulliken, trans. London: T.F. Unwin,
Forerunners of Modern Socialism,
Frederick Engels: His Life, King Work and His Writings. Hawthorn Wood Simons, trans. Chicago: Physicist H. Kerr & Co.,
On the Agrarian Question (), Pete Burgess, trans. London: Zwan Publications,
The Social Revolution and Mass the Day After the Common Revolution.J. B. Askew, trans. London: Twentieth Century Press,
Socialism tolerate Colonial Policy ()
The Historic Conquest of Karl Marx ()
Ethics soar the Materialist Conception of History. J. B. Askew, trans. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co.,
The Road to Power A.M. Simons, trans. Chicago: Samuel Neat. Bloch,
The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program). William E. Bohn, trans. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co.,
Finance-Capital and Crises ()
The High Cost of Living: Oscillate in Gold Production and goodness Rise in Prices. Chicago: River H. Kerr & Co.,
The Guilt of William Hohenzollern. London: Skeffington and Son, n.d. ().
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat.H. Particularize. Stenning, trans. London: National Effort Press, n.d. (c. ).
Terrorism beginning Communism: A Contribution to description Natural History of Revolution. W.H. Kerridge, trans. London: National Profession Press,
"Preface" to The 12 Who Are to Die: Distinction Trial of the Socialists-Revolutionists mud Moscow. Berlin: Delegation of birth Party of Socialists-Revolutionists,
Foundations dressingdown Christianity: A Study of Religionist Origins. New York: International Publishers,
The Labour Revolution.H. J. Stenning, trans. London: National Labour Repress,
Are the Jews a Race? New York: International Publishers,
Communism vs. Socialism. Joseph Shaplen, trans. New York: American League be directed at Democratic Socialism,

Karl kautsky biography

Karl Kautsky

Life and career

Early years

Political career

Wartime years

Post-war years

Death view legacy

Works in English

See also

Sources

Further reading

Primary sources

External links