#schiedemann

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Russian workers in Moscow burning an effigy of Philipp Scheidemann (SPD Chancellor of the Weimar Republic) following the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

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We Communists are eagerly striving onward in spite of all difficulties: we are going towards Communism through the dictatorship of the proletariat. But they [the social democratic parties], like the evil bourgeoisie, hate this dictatorship with all their hearts, libeling and lowering it whenever they can, proclaiming as their watchword: “Back to Capitalism!” We Communists say to the working class: “There are many thorns upon our path, but we must go onward, undaunted. The great revolution which is turning the old world upside down cannot go smoothly; the great revolution cannot be carried out in white gloves; it is born in pain. These birth pangs must be gone through with infinite patience; when duly born they will serve to free us from the iron grip of capitalist slavery.” And the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats stand aside, looking on at our mistakes and failings, and draw the conclusion of going back. “Let us return,” they say. “Give up everything to the bourgeoisie and content ourselves with a modest helping at capitalist tables.” No! Our road is not the same. These wretches try to scare us by the bogey of civil war. But there can be no revolution without a civil war. Or do they perhaps imagine that in other more advanced countries Socialist revolutions will take place without civil war? The example of Finland has proved the contrary. Thousands of murdered Finnish comrades afford the best evidence of civil war in advanced capitalist countries being ever more fierce, more bloody, more cruel and frenzied than ours proved to be. Now we can foresee that in Germany, for instance, the war between the classes will be extremely acute. The German officers are already shooting their soldiers and sailors by hundreds for the slightest attempt of rebellion. It is only through civil war and the iron dictatorship of the workers that Socialism can be attained. Such is the programme of the Communists. The demolition of the bourgeois Government, organisation of production by the working class, a wide road to Communism – such is the programme of the Communist Party. When we call ourselves Communists we not only draw a line to distinguish ourselves from the social traitors, such as Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, and followers of Scheidemann, and other bourgeois agents. We revert to the old name of the revolutionary party, at the head of which stood Karl Marx. His was the Communist Party.

Nikolai Bukharin, Programme of the World Revolution, “Conclusion (Why We Are Communists)”, 1918