Marxism and War: The Origins and History of Revolutionary Defeatism

*Marxism and War: The Origins and History of Revolutionary Defeatism*

*/On the formation and essence of Lenin’s program against imperialist war/*

/A Pamphlet by Michael Pröbsting, //RCIT, June 2026/

https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/origins-and-history-of-revolutionary-defeatism/

*/Contents/*

*Introduction*

*1.Marx and Engels: the origin of the concept of defeatism*

*2.Orthodox Marxists and the Second International about defeatism in 
reactionary wars*

*/The Congresses in 1907 and 1912/*

*3.Lenin’s elaboration of the doctrine of defeatism between 1904 and 1914*

*/The Russo-Japanese war/*

*/The Stuttgart Congress/*

*/At the Beginning of World War/***

*4.The three pillars of revolutionary defeatism*

*/The main enemy is at home/***

*/The defeat of one’s own bourgeoisie is the lesser evil/*

*/Transformation of the imperialist war into civil war/***

*5.Discussing various objections*

*/Supporting the victory of the imperialist rival?/*

*/Inverted social-imperialists/*

*/Advancing defeat of the imperialist bourgeoisie via sabotage?/*

*/Does revolutionary defencism result in “campism”?/*

*/Did Lenin later abandon the strategy of revolutionary defeatism?/*

*/Pacifism versus the strategy of civil war/*

*/Draper’s myth about Lenin’s confusion/*

*6.Excurse: Trotsky’s mistaken criticism of Lenin’s policy of defeatism 
in 1914-16*

*/Defeatism – a concession to the “political methodology of social 
patriotism”?/*

*/The slogan of “peace”/*

*7.The origin of the term “/defeatism/” and its acceptance by the 
Bolsheviks*

*8.The strategy of revolutionary defeatism in the programmatic documents 
of the Third and Fourth International*

*/The Left Opposition in 1926-27/*

*/The Communist International in the 1920s/*

*/Trotsky and the Fourth International/*

*9.Revolutionary defeatism and its application today*

*/Inter-imperialist conflicts/*

*/Imperialist wars against semi-colonial countries and oppressed peoples/*

*/Liberation wars against national oppression and dictatorships/*

*/Wars with combined or dual character/*

*/Conflicts between semi-colonial states/*

*10.Concluding remarks*



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