The Impact of the Anglo–Boer War on Russian Marxists before the October Revolution

Abstract

ABSTRACT Various political movements in Russia followed the Anglo–Boer War of 1899–1902 (also known as the South African War). The reasons why the Russian Marxists, who later carried out the first socialist revolution in history, sympathised with the Boers and ignored the reactionary and exploitative nature of their regimes in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State remained unexplored. Russian Marxists were reluctant to join the mass pro-Boer effort. However, they participated in the pro-Boer campaign conducted by the Second International. Poorly informed about the oppression of Africans in the two republics, the social democrats regarded the Boers as freedom fighters whose experience deserved to be studied and applied to the confrontation with tsarist autocracy. Russian Marxists used information on Boer commando tactics and other aspects of the South African War for instruction, training, and dissemination of their ideas. They campaigned for an introduction of a militia in Russia and studied the methods and organisation of Boer military units. Although Russian Marxists had little in common with members of burgher commandos, lessons of the Boer resistance to British imperialism served the cause of a Russian revolution.