<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > introduction</h1>
In the first half of 1919, the working class throughout Germany continued to wage various forms of struggle for the defence and development of the gains of the revolution, for the socialization and the recognition of soviet power, and in some cases attempts were made to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.
At a time when the struggle in Berlin was raging, the struggle between Rhine-Westphalia and the Ruhr was raging. The goal of the struggle was to demand socialization, and the Ruhr's Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets, without waiting for the decision of the Socialization Committee, declared the socialization of the Ruhr mines and organized special committees with the participation of Social Democrats, independent Social Democrats and Communists to administer the mines. From January 8 to 10, workers in Düsseldorf dispersed the police and took control of the city. On the tenth day, the Soviet of Engineers and Soldiers of Essen occupied the coal mine syndicate and the Federation of Mine Owners, and set up a supervisory committee here. Ruhr workers also sent representatives to Weimar to demand that the government take action to socialize.
In February, the Ruhr miners launched a general strike to protest the army's march into the Ruhr area, demanding punishment for General Watt, the commander of the local garrison who had ordered the dissolution of the Minster Soldiers' Soviet, and the restoration of the disbanded Soviet, and on February 20 alone, 180,000 people took part in the strike struggle. But at this time, the Social Democrats withdrew from the Special Committee for the Socialization of the Ruhr Region. At the beginning of March, the National Assembly passed another decree on socialization, and the general strike in the Ruhr region was temporarily quelled by the soft and hard government.
But by early April, workers discovered that the government had no intention of enforcing the socialization decree, and 350,000 people resumed a general strike. They insisted on the socialistization of the mines, the recognition of workers' and soldiers' soviets, the creation of a revolutionary workers' army, the dissolution of the "Free Regiment", the introduction of a six-hour working day, and the establishment of political and economic relations with Soviet Russia. The general strike lasted nearly four weeks, and the government sent troops to suppress it, declared a state of emergency, arrested members of the Socialization Committee and the strike leaders, and sentenced them to more than ten to fifty years in prison. At the same time, the government appointed the Social Democrat Severin as commissioner of the Ruhr, promising a seven-hour working day and increasing the ration of miners.
In late April, the anger of the Ruhr strike was extinguished. In northwestern Germany and along the coast, the struggles of workers and soldiers were also in full swing. As early as late December 1918, the Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets in Bremen rejected the decision of the All-German Congress of Soviets to hand over power to the National Assembly. The government tried to disband the Workers' And soldiers' Soviets here by force, but was unsuccessful. In January, in Bremen, the government, organized jointly by the Social Democrats and the Independent Social Democrats, was officially divided.
On January 10, Bremen proclaimed the establishment of a socialist republic, established a committee of people's plenipotentiary representatives composed of Communists, independent Social-Democrats and soldiers' representatives, and promulgated a series of revolutionary measures, the inspection of the bourgeois press, democratic reforms, the increase of unemployment benefits and the introduction of new wage scales. The Committee of Plenipotentiaries of the People of Bremen demanded the resignation of the Government of Albert Scheidemann. At the end of January, Northk sent Colonel Göstenberg with the "Freedom Corps" to suppress the Revolution in Bremen. The Bremen workers appealed to the Workers of Hamburg for help, and Ernst Thärmann, an independent Social Democrat of Hamburg, led a part of the workers to the aid of Bremen despite the obstruction of the Social Democrats.
Because the Right Wing of the Social Democratic Party, which led the strike of the railway workers, did not cooperate under the pretext that the transport of reinforcements would "sabotage the strike", Thiermann's party had to advance on foot and failed to arrive in time. On February 4, the Soviet Republic in Bremen was suppressed, about three hundred people were sacrificed or arrested, and a socialist-democratic regime was established. In other parts of Germany, the flames of struggle were also ignited. The Saxon workers staged a general strike demanding the ouster of the Albert-Sheldmann government, socialization and workers' management of the factories, without recognizing the powers of the National Assembly and the State Assembly.
In the struggle, the influence of the Communist Party and the independent Social-Democratic Party expanded, and five-member soviets were formed, which took over the power of the states. In mid-April, demonstrators killed the Saxony State Army Minister. Subsequently, the Norsks sent troops into Saxony and suppressed the revolutionary movement there. In late February, general strikes also took place in many cities in central Germany, such as Erfurt, Halley, Gotha, Eisenach, Meiningen, Ugdeburg, demanding immediate socialization, recognition of the Soviets, and fighting with reactionary forces that had come to suppress them in many places. In February, the workers and soldiers of O'Shafenborg announced the establishment of a Soviet republic.
On April 8, a general strike broke out in Brunswick, and they declared the establishment of a Soviet republic with demands such as "the transfer of all power to the Soviets", "the removal of the Albert-Scheidemann government", and "the realization of socialization". The government adopted a counter-revolutionary two-handed tactic in these struggles, promising to accelerate the socialization and recognition of the status of the Soviets, while sending troops everywhere to suppress them. In early March, the struggle in central Germany was suppressed. In April, the struggle against Brunswick also failed. The Berlin working class once again waged a heroic struggle in March. As early as the end of February, in order to counter the White Terror, defend the gains of the revolution, and support the struggle of the Workers of the Ruhr and Central Germany, the workers of Berlin hatched strikes.
The Social Democratic government is both soft and hard. On the one hand, it promised to proceed with socialization in a short period of time, convened the Second Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets, exhorted the workers to be patient, and arrested the officers who killed Liebknecht and Luxemburg as civilian indignation; on the other hand, the Berlin Garrison Command, with the threat of force, banned street rallies and demonstrations, searched the Red Flag newspaper, and in March sent additional troops to Berlin to prepare for force suppression. All this did not prevent the workers from starting a strike, and on March 3 the Executive Committee of the Berlin Soviet passed a resolution to immediately hold a strike, and some members of the Social Democratic Party, dissatisfied with the policies of Albert Sherdemann's government, also supported the strike.
After the strike, they demanded the following demands to the Government: recognition of the Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets; immediate implementation of hamburg's Seven Points demand; the release of political prisoners, the abolition of the military trials, the dissolution of military tribunals; the immediate arrest of all those involved in political murders; the immediate establishment of a revolutionary workers' army; the immediate dissolution of the "Free Regiment"; and the immediate establishment of political and economic relations with Soviet Russia. On this day, the Red Flag newspaper also published an article demanding that the government abolish the National Assembly and that all power be vested in the Soviets. At the same time, the German Communist Party warned the workers "not to take part in pointless shootings, which Noske so desperately desired, in order to shed a great deal of new blood."
Despite Noske's special warning that the uprising would be suppressed severely, the workers did not hesitate to throw themselves into battle, attacking the police stations on the evening of the third day and occupying many police stations and railway stations. Many policemen and soldiers sided with the workers in fighting the reactionary army and the "Freedom Corps". On the fourth day, the scope of the battle was further expanded. Berlin is full of barricades, with particularly fierce fighting in places like Lichtenburg and Alexanderplatz in the east of the city. On March 9, Nosque issued an order for a bloody massacre: "Whoever opposes the government with weapons, once caught, shall be killed." Thus the counter-revolutionary army, with its sophisticated armament, massacred the insurrectionary workers.
The workers lacked military training, poor organization and inferior weapons to stop the counter-revolutionary army from attacking, and on March 16 the battle in Berlin was defeated. All the troops suspected of sympathizing with the workers were also attacked by the "Freedom Regiment". The People's Naval Division fought on the side of the workers and was disbanded, killing all the captives, including Commander Doronbach. Jogis, one of the leaders of the German Communist Party, was killed on March 10, and hundreds of innocent people in the workers' quarters were shot dead. Nosker himself estimated that as many as 1,200 people were killed in the suppression of the March uprising in Berlin.
In the republican government established in Bavaria in November 1918 headed by the independent Social-Democrat Kurt Eisner, due to the important role played by the Right Social-Democrats, it remained essentially a bourgeois government, achieving only bourgeois democratic reforms such as the abolition of aristocratic privileges and the proclamation of democratic freedom and universal suffrage. During the revolution, Bavaria also established workers' and soldiers' peasant soviets. But the Eisner government believed that there could only be a bourgeois revolution at this stage, so it retained the old officials, declared the protection of private property, maintained "law and order", convened the State National Assembly, and advocated the integration of the National Assembly with the Soviets.
In the elections of the Bavarian National Assembly in mid-January 1919, the vast majority of seats fell to the bourgeois parties and the right-wing Social-Democratic Party. On February 16, the Communist Party organized a mass demonstration of fifty thousand people demanding that all power be vested in the Soviets and that the Social-Democrats and bourgeois deputies be expelled from the government, but the reactionary forces, not to be outdone, demanded that Eisner recognize the election results, hand over power, make way for parliamentary rule, and that the right-wing Social-Democrats prepare to govern jointly with the Bavarian People's Party. In this case, Eisner had to prepare to resign.
However, before he could resign, on 21 February he was assassinated by the monarchist Count Arco Valle on his way to the National Assembly. In mid-March, the state parliament authorized johannes Hoffman, a right-wing Social Democrat, to form a government as prime minister. The rampant reactionary forces and the assassination of Eisner aroused the anger of the working class and intensified the contradiction between the independent Social Democratic Party and the right Social Democratic Party. Workers in Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and other places went on strike, demanding severe punishment for the counter-revolutionaries and the return of all power to the Soviets. In the struggle many workers broke away from the right Social-Democracy and joined the Independent Social-Democracy, and the prestige of the Communist Party grew.
The establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Bela Kuhn in March greatly encouraged the Bavarian workers. In this situation, the independent Social-Democrats and anarchists seized power in Munich, proclaimed Bavaria a Soviet Republic on April 7, and organized the government headed by the anarchist Randauer and the independent Social-Democrat Torrell, in which the Communists did not participate. At the same time, a number of other bavarian cities declared the establishment of Soviet power. The bourgeoisie cannot tolerate the existence of this government.
The Hoffmann government, which had fled to Bamberg in the north, with the support of the central government in Berlin, declared itself still the "legitimate" Bavarian government, and instigated the Munich garrison to launch a riot on 13 April, overthrowing the Torrell government and attempting to suppress the Communists, who, in the face of the riots of the reactionary army, led the workers on a general strike and took up arms to fight the rioters, finally defeating the rioters. On the evening of the thirteenth, the factory soviets and the soldiers' soviets in Munich delegated all their powers to the action committees they had established. Leading the action committee was the executive committee of four members, including the communist Eugen Levine. The Action Committee approved the programme of action proposed by the German Communist Party.
The real Bavarian Soviet Republic, headed by the Communists, was established. The Bavarian Soviet Republic, in a very short time and under extremely difficult conditions, adopted a series of revolutionary measures: the establishment of the Enterprise Soviets, the establishment of a system of workers' control of enterprises, the nationalization of banks, factories and large commerce, the confiscation of grain and weapons, the establishment of the Purge Committee, and the organization of the Red Army and the Red Guards. Thirty thousand workers and peasants and their sons joined the Red Army. The Bavarian Soviet Republic sent a letter of tribute to Soviet Russia.
On 27 April, Lenin replied with a congratulatory letter and raised a series of questions to the Bavarian Communists that should be paid attention to, such as the disarmament of the bourgeoisie, the arming of the working class, the improvement of the living conditions of the workers, the peasants and the peasants, the confiscation of the property of the capitalists, the exertion of the enthusiasm of the Soviets of workers, peasants and small peasants, and so on. However, under the conditions of the time, the Bavarian Soviet Republic was not able to know the contents of the letter. The Government of the Social-Democratic Party decided to suppress the Government of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Noske declared, "Settle accounts with the lunatics of Munich, even if it causes heavy bloodshed." He ordered an army of 20,000 men to move south, and together with the reactionary forces in Württemberg and Bavaria, including von Eppe's "Free Regiment", he assisted the Hoffmann government in launching a rampant attack on Munich.
These reactionary armies, under the unified command of General von Owen of Prussia, fought fiercely with the Red Army in places such as Dachau north of Munich in mid-April, and the counterrevolutionary army suffered heavy losses. At this critical moment, the Bavarian Soviet Republic was divided. At the Congress of Soviets held on 26 April, the independent Social Democrats Torrell and other anarchists refused to cooperate with the Communists. They also decided to allow bourgeois newspapers to be published, to allow the old police to exist, and to demagogically advocate the formation of a so-called "local" government to expel all non-Bavarians, targeting the Communists.
This decision was adopted at the Soviet Congress, and the Communists were forced to withdraw from the Action Committee. Subsequently, a new action committee headed by Torrell and others was formed. At the same time, the commander of the Independent Social-Democrats ordered the front-line soldiers to retreat, and the Bavarian Soviet Republic suffered a fatal blow from within. At the end of April, the German Communist Party in Munich issued a call to defend the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The appeal pointed out that the actions of the Independent Social-Democratic Party "abandoned the dictatorship of the proletariat" and "opened the way for rebellion"; called on the workers to join the Red Army and defend the revolution. But at this time it was impossible to save the Soviet Republic from the danger of being attacked by the reactionary army. On 1 May, the reactionary army marched into Munich.
The Communist Egerhofer led the Red Army to resist stubbornly, defending street by street, and the battle lasted for several days, but finally lost because of the outnumbered, and Egelhofer was sacrificed. On May 5, fighting in the city ended, and hundreds of communists and the masses, including the leader of the Bavarian Communist Party organization Levine, were brutally killed, and more than 6,000 people were arrested and imprisoned. After that, the reactionary forces occupied Munich, and Bavaria entered a period of extremely conservative and reactionary. With the suppression of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, the revolutionary struggle of the German working class gradually ceased. The nosque counter-revolutionary ranks restored "order" throughout the country, and the rule of the exploiting classes was preserved. The November Revolution was over.
The November Revolution was the largest revolutionary mass movement that took place after the Great German Peasants' War, a revolutionary movement against imperialism and militarism with the working class as the mainstay, which overthrew the semi-authoritarian system, struck a certain degree against the Junker landlords, the monopoly capitalist giants and the militarist forces, established a bourgeois parliamentary republic, and realized bourgeois democracy and freedom. This revolution brought about a certain adjustment of the forces within the ruling class, strengthened the position of the bourgeoisie, and turned the joint dictatorship of the Junkers-Junkers bourgeoisie into a joint dictatorship of the bourgeois-Junckers.
But the November Revolution, after completing some of the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, came to a standstill and did not develop further into a proletarian socialist revolution; it was only a bourgeois-democratic revolution. This revolution shows that in order to achieve the simultaneous victory of the proletarian socialist revolution, it is necessary to have a proletarian revolutionary party armed with the theory and principles of Marxism-Leninism, capable of applying scientific strategies and tactics, and capable of integrating the principles of Marxism-Leninism with the revolutionary practice of its own country. Without such a party, the proletariat cannot lead the revolution to complete victory. During the November Revolution, Germany lacked precisely such a proletarian revolutionary party.
Social-Democracy is not a revolutionary party, but a social reformist party, an opportunist party. During the November Revolution, instead of leading the proletariat to the complete victory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and thus to the socialist revolution, it carried out a rebellious policy of restricting the revolution and opposing it, and it did not hesitate to collude with the extremely reactionary and conservative forces and bloodily suppress the revolutionary left forces. Although there are many sincere revolutionary fighters in the independent Social Democratic Party, the composition of this party is not pure, the ideology is not unified, and the people who hold the leadership of the party are not real revolutionaries, but "centrists" in the name of Marxism, who always compromise and waver and turn their backs on principles on key issues. So independent Social-Democracy is not a proletarian revolutionary party either.
The Spartacus were transformed into an independent party only after the first stage of the revolution had passed, and with many serious shortcomings that it could not overcome in a short period of time and become a mature proletarian revolutionary party, and therefore could not lead the proletariat and the masses of the people to a complete victory in the revolution. The experience of the November Revolution shows that for the proletariat to win the victory of the revolution, it must unite as one, must be free from the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie and opportunism, and must form a firm alliance with other working people in urban and rural areas, especially with the working peasants.
During the November Revolution, the German working class was divided mainly by the rebellious policies of the Right Social-Democracy. A considerable number of people are influenced by the bourgeois concept of the state and the reformism of the Social-Democratic Party, and although many people are not satisfied with the policies of the Social-Democracy, they are under the influence of independent Social-Democracy and are unlikely to quickly shake off the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie and embark on the correct road of the socialist revolution. Although the Spartacus (later the German Communist Party) put forward correct revolutionary propositions, they were not accepted by the whole proletariat, and they failed to gather the whole proletariat under its banner.
At the same time, the German Communist Party did not formulate a correct rural policy and did not win over the peasants to form an alliance of workers and peasants. In the face of a split state of the proletariat, neither free from the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie and social-democracy nor the support of the peasantry, although the advanced elements of the proletariat headed by the Spartacus have fought heroically and fearlessly to completely accomplish the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and thus realize the socialist revolution, they have not been able to break the strongholds of the reactionary forces and achieve their own goals.
The November Revolution shows that only by thoroughly smashing the old state apparatus and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat can the revolutionary socialist transformation of society as a whole be gradually realized. When the revolution has not yet smashed the old state apparatus and destroyed the foundations of the old system, suppressing the revolutionary demands of the masses and achieving the aims of the socialist revolution by restoring "order", conducting so-called legal elections and "socializing" will only lead the revolution to half-aborted and go astray.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > conclusion</h1>
Although the old military bureaucracy was dealt a major blow in the November Revolution and the Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets were established in the Revolution, the Social-Democratic Party and the Independent Social-Democratic Party retained the old military bureaucracy and, in collusion with them, limited and resisted the power of the Soviets, and finally replaced it with the National Assembly, leading to the birth of a bourgeois republic.
Resources:
The Founding of the German Communist Party
The Complete Works of Lenin