Lenin, Trotsky, Germany and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The ...

Lenin, Trotsky, Germany and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsknot necessarily have to begin there, but its victory in Germany seemed to allrevolutionaries to be a prerequisite of success. The Social Democratic rhetoric ofthe time did not allow for any other conception of the world revolution. And theRussian revolutionary Lenin, prior to March 1917, saw no greater role for himselfthan that of the leader of the extremist wing of Russia’s Social Democraticmovement, which was unquestionably secondary and subsidiary to the Communistmovement in Germany.In the days leading up to the war, it was to Germany’s Social Democratic movementthat the eyes of all the socialists in the world were turned. It seemed that byvoting against giving the government war credits in the Reichstag, the GermanSocial Democratic Party could stop the impending tragedy. The German socialists,however, voted in favor of the war credits, in part because they hoped thatthe war would topple the monarchy in Russia, which they regarded as the principalenemy of the international socialist movement. 2By voting for the war credits, Germany’s socialists gave a free hand to the socialistsof other countries. A Social Democratic newspaper owned by Menshevikdefencists commented on these events as follows:The International has turned out to be weak. Germany’s Social Democracy, theInternational’s most powerful component, not only did not oppose its governmentwhen the government declared war on Russia and France and threw its army atsmall, neutral Belgium, but used all its strength to support its Kaiser... It is ridiculousand naive, therefore, to count on a German revolution. The socialists ofRussia, France, England, Italy, Belgium, and so on, must, therefore, take part inthe defense of their countries and struggle for victory over the central empires. 3However, if the Menshevik defencists (whose newspaper was French-funded andpublished in France) became disillusioned with Germany’s Social Democracy,most of the Menshevik Party still continued to pin its hopes on nothing other thanthe German revolution. These hopes were so great that when the prominent SwedishSocial Democrat Karl Branting arrived in Petrograd in the spring of 1917, 4 hecould only warn the Mensheviks against being overly optimistic in expecting thatthe German workers would arise “under the influence and in support of the Russianrevolution,” … while German soldiers stick their bayonets in the ground.”Branting believed that as long as the German army was winning, hopes of a revolutionaryexplosion were utopian.Branting was regarded as someone who was well acquainted with the views ofthe leaders of the German Social Democratic Party. And what he said came asunpleasant and unexpected news for the Mensheviks. At a meeting convenedduring Branting’s visit, Irakli Tsereteli read an impassioned speech, calling on“the European socialist proletariat” to “rescue the Russian revolution” by “activelyseeking to put an end to the war as soon as possible by means of a demo-6