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Zur nationalen Frage: Friedrich Engels und das Problem der "geschichtslosen" Völker
German
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
223 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
About the author
Roman Rosdolsky
17 books7 followersRoman Osipovich Rosdolsky (Russian: Роман Осипович Роздольский; Ukrainian: Рома́н О́сипович Роздо́льський Roman Osipovič Rozdol's'kyj) was an important Marxian scholar and political revolutionary.
As a youth, Rosdolsky was a member of the Ukrainian socialist Drahomanov Circles. He was drafted in the imperial army in 1915, and edited with Roman Turiansky the journal Klyči in 1917. He was a founder of the International Revolutionary Social Democracy (IRSD) and studied law in Prague. During World War I he founded the antimilitaristic "Internationale Revolutionäre Sozialistische Jugend Galiziens" (International Revolutionary Socialist Youth of Galizia). He became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia, representing its émigré organization 1921-1924 and a leading publicist of the Vasylkivtsi faction of the Ukrainian Communists. In 1925, he refused to condemn Trotsky and his Left Opposition, and was later, at the end of the 1920s, expelled from the Communist Party.
In 1926-1931, he was correspondent in Vienna of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, searching for archival materials. At that time, in 1927, he met his wife Emily. When the labour movement in Austria suffered repression, he emigrated in 1934 back to L'viv, where he worked at the university as lecturer. He published the Trotskyist periodical Žittja i slovo 1934-1938, and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, but survived internment for three years in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and Oranienburg. He emigrated to the USA in 1947, and worked there as independent scholar - failing to obtain a university post. He published also under pseudonyms such as "Roman Prokopovycz", "P.Suk.", "Tenet" and "W.S.".
Rosdolsky is mainly known in the Anglo-Saxon world for his careful scholarly exegesis The Making of Marx's Capital, a collection of essays some which had previously been published, which overturned many previous interpretations of Das Kapital. Yet he published much more, especially on historical topics (see below). During his life, he corresponded with numerous well known Marxist writers including Isaac Deutscher, Ernest Mandel, Paul Mattick, and Karl Korsch. Mandel called Rosdolsky's work on the National Question the only Marxist criticism of Marx himself.
As a youth, Rosdolsky was a member of the Ukrainian socialist Drahomanov Circles. He was drafted in the imperial army in 1915, and edited with Roman Turiansky the journal Klyči in 1917. He was a founder of the International Revolutionary Social Democracy (IRSD) and studied law in Prague. During World War I he founded the antimilitaristic "Internationale Revolutionäre Sozialistische Jugend Galiziens" (International Revolutionary Socialist Youth of Galizia). He became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia, representing its émigré organization 1921-1924 and a leading publicist of the Vasylkivtsi faction of the Ukrainian Communists. In 1925, he refused to condemn Trotsky and his Left Opposition, and was later, at the end of the 1920s, expelled from the Communist Party.
In 1926-1931, he was correspondent in Vienna of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, searching for archival materials. At that time, in 1927, he met his wife Emily. When the labour movement in Austria suffered repression, he emigrated in 1934 back to L'viv, where he worked at the university as lecturer. He published the Trotskyist periodical Žittja i slovo 1934-1938, and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, but survived internment for three years in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and Oranienburg. He emigrated to the USA in 1947, and worked there as independent scholar - failing to obtain a university post. He published also under pseudonyms such as "Roman Prokopovycz", "P.Suk.", "Tenet" and "W.S.".
Rosdolsky is mainly known in the Anglo-Saxon world for his careful scholarly exegesis The Making of Marx's Capital, a collection of essays some which had previously been published, which overturned many previous interpretations of Das Kapital. Yet he published much more, especially on historical topics (see below). During his life, he corresponded with numerous well known Marxist writers including Isaac Deutscher, Ernest Mandel, Paul Mattick, and Karl Korsch. Mandel called Rosdolsky's work on the National Question the only Marxist criticism of Marx himself.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 25, 2023
A thoughtful, detailed treatment of Marx and Engels’s backwards views on nationality, typified by Engels’s anti-Slav articles in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung during the revolutions or 1848. Limited by Rosdolsky’s Leninist perspective and consequent embrace of national-liberationism as the answer to national oppression, and a bit repetitive, probably because it originated as a doctoral thesis.
Rosdolsky initially wrote this as a defense of Engels’s views against the nationalism of his opponents within the Ukrainian left. He sided with the Bolsheviks in the armed conflict in Ukraine. Then came Stalin’s Terror, which murdered many of his comrades, and the Holocaust. All of this changed his views; he revised his thesis, added an appendix on the antisemitism that appeared in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and finally got it published.
The basic thesis here is that Engels’s view of nationality is derived from the older Hegel’s concepts of distinct “national minds” and “historic” vs. “non-historic” peoples, and is idealist: in other areas Marx and Engels derive their analysis from material conditions, but when they think about nationality they think in terms of metaphysical “national spirits.” Wulf D. Hund “Marx and Haiti: Notes on a Blank Space” takes the same view of Marx’s thinking on race. If you find Rosdolsky compelling, definitely read Hund.
Rosdolsky initially wrote this as a defense of Engels’s views against the nationalism of his opponents within the Ukrainian left. He sided with the Bolsheviks in the armed conflict in Ukraine. Then came Stalin’s Terror, which murdered many of his comrades, and the Holocaust. All of this changed his views; he revised his thesis, added an appendix on the antisemitism that appeared in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and finally got it published.
The basic thesis here is that Engels’s view of nationality is derived from the older Hegel’s concepts of distinct “national minds” and “historic” vs. “non-historic” peoples, and is idealist: in other areas Marx and Engels derive their analysis from material conditions, but when they think about nationality they think in terms of metaphysical “national spirits.” Wulf D. Hund “Marx and Haiti: Notes on a Blank Space” takes the same view of Marx’s thinking on race. If you find Rosdolsky compelling, definitely read Hund.
Displaying 1 of 1 review