Draft:Pseudopedia/Revisionism

Revisionism represents various ideas, principles, and theories that are based on a revision of Marxism. By revision of Marxism, it means the revision of the most basic principle of Marxism, which is not seeking the emancipation of the proletariat.

Revisionism is bourgeoise ideologies which presents itself under a marxist coat of paint.

Origins of the Term

Revisionism began to be used as a term in Marxist circles at the end of the 19th century, after Eduard Bernstein, previusly an acquaintance of Engels and Marx, published several books which where seen as revisionist, he also attacked communist revolutionaries Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg.

Types

Times of Marx

While Marx and Engels engaged in two-line struggle against many rivals, such as the Young Hegelians, Bakunin, Feuerbach and Ferdinand Lassalle, these people are not considered revisionists, as they did not claim to uphold Marxist philosophy, dialetics and political economic theories.

Dühring

Eugen Dühring was a relatively unknown author and economist. After a less than noteworthy critique of Das Kapital and an exchange of letters with Marx, he reappeared in 1865 and began publishing several books. His ideas directly contradicted Marx and Engel's conception of socialism, Dühring was influenced by Positivism. Dühring rejected materialism by believing that human intellect is enough to understand matter and reality, with the laws of nature being intertwined with the laws of human tough, rejecting Kant and his separation of phenomenon and noumenon.

Dühring was a proponet of morality and ethics, being a follower of August Comte and Positivism, Dühring was critised by many on his stance on morality, including Nietzsche.

Dühring was also a rabid anti-semite, being one of the first proponents of the extermination of Jewish people. In his work "The Jewish Question as a question of race, morals and culture" he ploclaims that jews where in a state of perpetual racial antagonism, and advocated for their elimination. Marx responded to Dühring with his on work "On the Jewish Question". Dühring's ideas where completely demolished and discredited on Engel's "Anti-Dühring", a book wich analysed and criticised every aspect of his tough. His ideas faded into obscurity and Engel's critique of Dühring became more famous than the men himself.

Kautsky and the Second International

Karl Kautsky was a czech-german journalist, being one of the most prominent figures of the Second International, Kaustky, togheter with Bernstein, was the main figure in the "right wing" of the German Social-Democratic Party (SPD). Since the very start of his career, Kautsky was a proponent of reform and peaceful transition, going as far as publishing a book that included an out of context quote by Engels which implied he was a defender of "legality and non-violence", which Engels repudiated in a private letter.

At the start of the First World War, Kautsky, aswell as much of the Social Democratic parties, broke with the Marxist principle of opposing imperialist war. Kautsky and Bernstein both ploclaimed that the causes of the war where not clear, and as such, the right to "defend the fatherland" was ploclaimed. This was widely denounced by Vladimir Lenin, which broke with the Second International and formed a Third One with explicit anti-imperialist orientation. During the war, much of the right wing of the SPD would backtrack on their claims about the war and instead support France and England.

After the October revolution, Kautsky engaged in rabid attacks against the Bolsheviks and the Russian SFSR, claiming that the dictatorship of the proletariat, defended by Lenin, brought "harm that outweighted the problems of capitalism" and that "the bolshevik dictatorship imposes economic policies that have no rationale on a backward country like Russia." Kautsky also claimed in a letter to Lenin that interwar Weimar Germany was a state more worthy of being called socialist than the Soviet Union.

After 1919, he faded into irrelevancy and obscurity, in private, he critised the Workers uprising against the Nazi government in 1934, claiming:

"we do not in any way regard ourselves as driven to the necessity of answering the destruction of democracy by an armed insurrection."

Kautsky died in 1938 Amsterdam.

Bernstein

Eduard Bernstein, after the death of Engels, wrote several works which where compiled in english as "Evolutionary Socialism". In the book, Bernstein attacked the Marxist conception of the state, and called for peaceful transition to socialism. According to Bernstein, violent revolution only produced reactionary sucesses, such as the counterrevolution in France in 1848. To Bernstein, the flaws of capitalism would correct themselves as it developed, bringing in opportunity to peaceful transition.

Bernstein was also sympathetic to Colonialism. According to Bernstein:

"races who are hostile to or incapable of civilisation cannot claim our sympathy when they revolt against civilisation" "savages [must] be subjugated and made to conform to the rules of higher civilisation".

Bernstein was repudiated first by both Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin. Rosa's criticism was fundamental, as himself, aswell as the entirety of the "right wing" of the SPD where expelled. Bernstein later rejoined the party and became a member of the reichstag until 1928.