The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg

There have been many biographies of Rosa Luxemburg, but none have done justice to her as a revolutionary. In the present, much-needed work, the real Luxemburg is brought to the fore.

This great revolutionary has often been misrepresented. Sometimes she is presented as an opponent of the October Revolution and an advocate for a ‘softer’, ‘anti-authoritarian’ Marxism as against that of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. At other times, she is presented as ‘bloody Rosa’, the violent revolutionary.

Citing extensively from Luxemburg’s own writings, this book reveals the true content of her political thought, and how it developed as the international class struggle unfolded. A class-conscious revolutionary and staunch defender of revolutionary Marxism, Luxemburg waged a battle against revisionism, opportunism, class-collaboration, national chauvinism and pacifism, always on the side of the socialist revolution.

In this book, Marie Frederiksen sets the record straight, examining Luxemburg’s ideas on the basis of what she actually wrote and examining her actions in their real context. This book reclaims Luxemburg as the revolutionary she was.