What do you think?
Rate this book
Witness to the German Revolution
"Serge searingly evokes the epochal hopes and shattering setbacks of a generation of leftists."Bookforum
Following in the wake of the carnage reaped across Europe by world war, German workers undertook a struggle that would prove decisive in determining the course of the entire twentieth century. In 1923 the fledgling Comintern dispatched Victor Serge, with his peerless journalistic skills, to Berlin to expedite the German Revolution and write these moving reports from the battlefront.
Victor Serge is best known as a novelist and for his Memoirs of a Revolutionary. Originally a participant in the anarchist movement, Serge became a committed bolshevik upon arrival in Russia in 1919 and lent his considerable talents to the cause of spreading the revolution across Europe. An eloquent critic of tyranny no matter its form, Serge was a leading member of the Left Opposition in its struggle against Stalin, a cause which ultimately resulted in his exile from Russia.
237 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2000
About the author
Victor Serge
106 books235 followersVictor Lvovich Kibalchich (В.Л. Кибальчич) was born in exile in 1890 and died in exile in 1947. He is better known as Victor Serge, a Russian revolutionary and Francophone writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919, and later worked for the newly founded Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator. He was openly critical of the Soviet regime, but remained loyal to the ideals of socialism until his death.
After time spent in France, Belgium, Russia and Spain, Serge was forced to live out the rest of his life in Mexico, with no country he could call home. Serge's health had been badly damaged by his periods of imprisonment in France and Russia, but he continued to write until he died of heart attack, in Mexico city on 17 November 1947. Having no nationality, no Mexican cemetery could legally take his body, so he was buried as a 'Spanish Republican.'
After time spent in France, Belgium, Russia and Spain, Serge was forced to live out the rest of his life in Mexico, with no country he could call home. Serge's health had been badly damaged by his periods of imprisonment in France and Russia, but he continued to write until he died of heart attack, in Mexico city on 17 November 1947. Having no nationality, no Mexican cemetery could legally take his body, so he was buried as a 'Spanish Republican.'
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 25, 2022
I had no idea that Victor Serge lived in Berlin in 1922-23 and wrote a weekly political column in French for a communist magazine. These reports offer a "frog's-eye view" (the German idiom for a "fly on the wall") of the hyperinflation, the Ruhr occupation, and the attempted "German October" in 1923. Serge relates, for example: "I am a trillionaire just like everyone else, which I assure you isn’t much fun…" He explains how the entire situation is marked by starvation: "Are you surprised that these people are slow to awaken to revolutionary consciousness? Remember that their vital energies have been undermined by famine…”
These reports really give you a sense for what it must have felt like as a rank-and-file communist during the revolutionary crisis. We see the debates on the workers' governments — which continue today — as they were developing. As the editor Ian Birchall points out, at this time the debates in the Communist Parties were still in the open.
From today’s perspective, the most interesting passages are about a clownishly reactionary upstart who was trying to proclaim himself dictator down in Bavaria. This offers a reminder who was responsible for fascism: “Hitler’s gangs were arming feverishly, financed by the very rich industrialist Hugenberg, and, it is said, by Mr. Ford, a citizen of the United States.” Henry Ford did in fact finance Hitler, and he somehow still has a building named after him at Berlin's Free University.
Serge makes fun of Hitler's ideology, which he sees as much less sophisticated than Mussolini's: "This German movement is indeed fascist, but already it is a degenerated, vulgarized, stupefied fascism … Terrible symptoms of the decadence of a capitalist regime which can no longer even provide the masses with an ideology worthy of the name!" It's scary to see Serge's predictions for the future of German fascism: "Contrary to what is being said, I don’t think their political role is over. One day we shall see them again amid civil war, at the head of gangs of murderers."
These reports lack the reflection that a book would provide, and there is some repetition. So it's best to read this after a general history of 1923 in Germany. Let me end my review with some borrowed self-criticism: "I’ve noticed that the intellectuals — I’m one of them — are the most suspicious about how things will turn out."
These reports really give you a sense for what it must have felt like as a rank-and-file communist during the revolutionary crisis. We see the debates on the workers' governments — which continue today — as they were developing. As the editor Ian Birchall points out, at this time the debates in the Communist Parties were still in the open.
From today’s perspective, the most interesting passages are about a clownishly reactionary upstart who was trying to proclaim himself dictator down in Bavaria. This offers a reminder who was responsible for fascism: “Hitler’s gangs were arming feverishly, financed by the very rich industrialist Hugenberg, and, it is said, by Mr. Ford, a citizen of the United States.” Henry Ford did in fact finance Hitler, and he somehow still has a building named after him at Berlin's Free University.
Serge makes fun of Hitler's ideology, which he sees as much less sophisticated than Mussolini's: "This German movement is indeed fascist, but already it is a degenerated, vulgarized, stupefied fascism … Terrible symptoms of the decadence of a capitalist regime which can no longer even provide the masses with an ideology worthy of the name!" It's scary to see Serge's predictions for the future of German fascism: "Contrary to what is being said, I don’t think their political role is over. One day we shall see them again amid civil war, at the head of gangs of murderers."
These reports lack the reflection that a book would provide, and there is some repetition. So it's best to read this after a general history of 1923 in Germany. Let me end my review with some borrowed self-criticism: "I’ve noticed that the intellectuals — I’m one of them — are the most suspicious about how things will turn out."
September 30, 2014
An interesting collection of articles on Germany written by Serge under the name R. Albert for the Communist press, most of all the French-language Correspondence internationale. Contains a lot of valuable material on matters such as the French occupation of the Ruhr, the early economic and political crises of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of Nazism- Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch was attempted just toward the end of the period of Serge's residence in Germany. Serge had a keen eye for the detail in an everyday encounter or conversation that could encapsulate contradictions in all of society, and is hence a model of the revolutionary journalist. Though he wrote for a Communist and Communist-sympathizer audience, a lot of criticism of the movement we would have liked to see from such a careful mind had to be self-censored since the authorities were watching, though there is an interesting balance sheet of the KPD's failure to seize initiative in the German October of 1923. Highly recommended.
September 3, 2011
great book! i love serge's writings and this one doesn't disappoint. he does a good job of conveying the desperation felt in germany during this time while also making a sober account of not just the economic situation but also the political one. it is interesting too to see how echos of germany in the early 20's are present in the us today. the recession and the resulting malaise reflected in art and discourse in general. i am not arguing, nor do i believe, that we are heading towards some sort of incipient fascism but the feelings and manifestations of an economic melt down in larger culture seem to be similar in a lot of ways... recommended!
August 9, 2019
Εκπληκτικό ιστορικό ντοκουμέντο με την φοβερά γλαφυρή γραφή του Βίκτορ Σερζ!
November 13, 2021
I’m a big fan of Victor Serge. I see him as one of the greatest writers of the last century, or any century. I’ve read most of his novels and a lot of his non-fiction, which includes his memoirs and his accounts of the Russian Revolution and the Stalinist Terror. This book is a collection of articles that Serge wrote while he was working for the Comintern in Germany in 1923. That year is best remembered for the ruinous hyperinflation that inflicted utter misery on the vast majority of Germans, while bankers and currency speculators cleaned up. At one point a loaf of bread cost literally trillions of marks.
Despite the title, there was no revolution in Germany in 1923, at least not a communist revolution. However, we did get Adolf Hitler’s beerhall putsch, a laughable attempt at insurrection by the future Fuhrer and a bunch of drunken thugs. That, of course, led to Hitler’s rather cosy imprisonment, which gave him an opportunity to write Mein Kampf. It’s interesting to see what Serge makes of the early Hitler. The answer is, not much, or at least not much in what he published. Like most people at the time, Serge seems to have grossly underestimated both Hitler and the appeal of nazism. Thus he assumes that fascism could only appeal to a disgruntled petty bourgeois minority – shopkeepers and the like. At one point he refers to Hitler as “colonel” rather than “corporal”, which suggests how little was known about the man at the time.
So Serge was wrong about Hitler, but he was spot on about the suffering of the German people during the hyperinflation, and about the daft solutions of the politicians. These included issuing several alternative currencies that turned out to be worth less than the paper they were printed on and rolling back advances that the workers had made in the previous century, such as swapping the eight-hour day for the ten-hour day. He was also probably right in his belief that a communist revolution in Germany in October 1923 would almost certainly have failed and would have led to the needless deaths of thousands of workers.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed reading Victor Serge’s novels, and to anyone who is interested in an alternative account of this period in German history.
Despite the title, there was no revolution in Germany in 1923, at least not a communist revolution. However, we did get Adolf Hitler’s beerhall putsch, a laughable attempt at insurrection by the future Fuhrer and a bunch of drunken thugs. That, of course, led to Hitler’s rather cosy imprisonment, which gave him an opportunity to write Mein Kampf. It’s interesting to see what Serge makes of the early Hitler. The answer is, not much, or at least not much in what he published. Like most people at the time, Serge seems to have grossly underestimated both Hitler and the appeal of nazism. Thus he assumes that fascism could only appeal to a disgruntled petty bourgeois minority – shopkeepers and the like. At one point he refers to Hitler as “colonel” rather than “corporal”, which suggests how little was known about the man at the time.
So Serge was wrong about Hitler, but he was spot on about the suffering of the German people during the hyperinflation, and about the daft solutions of the politicians. These included issuing several alternative currencies that turned out to be worth less than the paper they were printed on and rolling back advances that the workers had made in the previous century, such as swapping the eight-hour day for the ten-hour day. He was also probably right in his belief that a communist revolution in Germany in October 1923 would almost certainly have failed and would have led to the needless deaths of thousands of workers.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed reading Victor Serge’s novels, and to anyone who is interested in an alternative account of this period in German history.
February 18, 2021
Serge's bombastic journalistic style is very mich the language of the revolution. Some good insights here about potential moves within Germany, but his perspective seems a bit muted possibly by pressure from the external organs of the Soviet influence.
December 17, 2024
Vital insights from the coalface of revolution and the early days of the Soviet state. Don't make shit worse while trying to make shit better. Probably the progenitor of a lot of bad takes on party discipline though.
November 22, 2020
no unbiased reporter, he, yet Serge's writings provide great insight into the seething politics of Weimar Germany
December 2, 2022
Excellent and terrifying.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews