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Karl Kautsky

From ProleWiki, the proletarian encyclopedia
Karl Kautsky
BornPrague, Austrian Empire
16 October 1854
Died17 October 1938 (aged 84)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Political orientationReformism
Political partySecond International


Karl Johann Kautsky (16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian socialist and the main political theorist of the Second International.[1] Although he identified as a Marxist, he rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat in favor of reformism.[2] In 1930, he labelled the Soviet Union a fascist state and called for the overthrow of its government by the peasantry.[3]

Views on imperialism[edit | edit source]

Unlike the Bolsheviks, Kautsky advocated for defending the Russian Empire during the First World War.[4] During the war, he also proposed the concept of super-imperialism, a globally organized stage of capitalism which would lack war and peacefully grow into socialism.[5] He believed imperialism was a policy and not a stage of capitalism.[1]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Vladimir Lenin (1916). Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: 'Imperialism as a Special Stage of Capitalism'. Moscow: Progress Publishers. [MIA]
  2. Vladimir Lenin (1918). The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky: 'How Kautsky Turned Marx Into a Common Liberal' (Russian: Пролетарская революция и ренегат Каутский). Moscow: Kommunist Publishers. [MIA]
  3. Ludo Martens (1996). Another View of Stalin: 'Collectivization' (p. 68). [PDF] Editions EPO. ISBN 9782872620814
  4. Vladimir Lenin (1918). The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky: 'What Is Internationalism?' (Russian: Пролетарская революция и ренегат Каутский). Moscow: Kommunist Publishers. [MIA]
  5. Political Economy: 'Economic Doctrines of the Capitalist Epoch; The Economic Theories of the Opportunists of the Second International and the Right-wing Socialists of Today' (1954). [MIA]