Arthur Rosenbergs „Geschichte des Bolschewismus“:

Abstract

Arthur Rosenberg (1889–1943) became, after a short political career in the Communist Party of Germany, famous as a historian of contemporary Germany and of international communism. His “History of Bolshevism” was one of the fi rst serious academic treatments on the subject in Germany. He considered the Bolshevik doctrine and actions to be historically progressive for Soviet Russia. But what was progressive for Russia was reactionary for the West, where the bourgeois revolution had been completed, and where a well-trained industrial proletariat and an educated middle-class constituted a majority of the population. In his book Rosenberg pointed out that the Soviet leadership under Stalin, despite its revolutionary rhetoric, was sacrifi cing the cause of the international proletariat for the state interest of the USSR.