Questions of War and Peace in the Theoretical Views of Karl Kautsky

Abstract

The views on the problem of war and peace of one of the leading theorists of the Social Democratic movement Karl Kautsky is discussed in the article. The evolution of his views on the issues of the origin of wars, their types, methods of achieving peace, models of political power and the creation of global international systems is traced. A comparative analysis of the views of K. Kautsky with the views of representatives of other directions in Marxist ideology, its influence on the theoretical views of modern scholars is carried out. It covers the period from the beginning of the 20th century to the completion of the formation of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations, designed to consolidate the new world order, as well as the beginning of its collapse. The novelty of the study is that the social democratic concept of war and peace and K. Kautsky’s theoretical views on this problem have not been sufficiently studied in modern Russian historiography. The author concludes that the concept of K. Kautsky, as well as the socialist theory as a whole, based on an understanding of the essence of war, laid down in the writings of the founders of Marxism, and close to a realistic school, have evolved in matters of peace and the post-war world order to liberalism. At the same time, K. Kautsky made a significant contribution to the theory of international relations, and his concept became the basis not only for neo-Marxism, but also enriched with some conclusions the theory of political realism and liberalism, as well as modern science as a whole.