B e b e l, in 1886, in favour of a war against Russia.
Die Neue Zeit, 1886 (November 1886) (4th year (No. 11)), pp. 502-15, carried an article by Bebel: “Germany, Russia and the Eastern Question.”
It advocates a (so to speak) “preventive” war of Germany against Russia and France.
In 1878, “one should have gone still further” (p. 513, column 1), i.e., not only moderate Russia’s demands, but snatch the newly founded Balkan states from under Russian domination and set up a “Balkan alliance” (sic).
“Russia’s refusal to comply with these conditions should have been answered by war, which would have crippled Russia’s power for decades” (513, column 2)....
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In 1886 (or 1885), after Prince Alexan- der’s return to Bulgaria (evidently after the Bulgarian revolution of September 18, 1885), when both Serbs and Rumanians feared the strengthening of Russia, there should have been formed “an independent alliance of Balkan states supported by Germany and Austria-Hungary”. |
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the entire country, all classes in Germany, are dissatisfied with foreign policy: 511, column 2 |
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“If Russia had then ventured to declare war, Germany would have stood against her more unitedly than ever before, and in alliance with Austria, the Balkan states and, possibly, Turkey, she could wage war against Russia and France with the best prospects of success, a war which in any case she will be compelled to wage later on, but possibly—indeed even probably—under much more unfa- vourable conditions” (513, column 2). |
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| Bebel’s italics |
[1] August Bebel’s article, “Deutschland, Russland und die orientalische Frage” (“Germany, Russia and the Eastern Question”), was published in 1886 in Die Neue Zeit (4th year, No. 11). Lenin apparently read it in connection with a lecture by the Bundist Kosovsky (M. Y. Levinson). The lecture was delivered between October 10 and 20, 1914 (see Lenin Miscellany XIV, p. 132).
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