Abstract
Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) was the leading theorist of Marxist orthodoxy during the two decades following the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895. Kautsky also was a leader of German social Democracy from 1890 until 1914. At the beginning of World War I, he was among those pushing the Social Democratic Party of Germany to support the imperial government's declaration of war and subsequent war effort, which diminished his previous prominence in the eyes of many socialists, even though he later opposed the war. Immediately after the Russian Revolution, Kautsky began to reject the role, politics, and goals of the Bolshevists, inciting Lenin to denounce him as a “renegade” of the socialist movement. Kautsky's standing as a Marxist scholar and politician did not recover from Lenin's attack, but he continued to be a prolific writer and strong proponent of orthodox Marxism who retained a measure of influence in socialist circles, especially in Germany and Austria, and among dissident socialists in the Soviet Union.
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