Dancing with the Devil: Rosa Luxemburg's Conception of the Nationality Question in Polish Socialism

Abstract

Rosa Luxemburg is probably one of the best-known and most ardent Marxist opponents of everything national—she has become synonymous with revolutionary internationalism. She epitomized Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's international cosmopolitanism, economism and belief in the inevitable progression of the historical forces towards a workers’ revolution. When Luxemburg entered politics in the early 1890s, she encountered a blossoming socialism of the Golden Age. Yet her intellectual evolution quickly became defined by the growing divide over the issue of nationalism. In Polish socialism, this division translated into a partisan confrontation between supporters and opponents of the restoration of Polish statehood. Emerging as a leading figure of the latter camp, Luxemburg carried the mantle of international revolutionism, economic determinism and anti-nationalist rhetoric. Unfortunately, Luxemburg's obsession with the battle against Poland's independence—embodied in the conflict between the Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party) and the Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy (Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania)—carried her towards determinism. Moreover, Luxemburgism, which opposed Polish independence, became one of the key factors that prevented the spread and popularity of Communism in the interwar Second Republic. Throughout the interwar years, it was the inability and unwillingness of the Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski (Communist Workers’ Party of Poland) to construct a viable nationality policy—inspired by adherence to Luxemburgism—that prevented the party from achieving solid grassroots loyalty.