The Communist International and the Contribution of Georg Lukács in the 1920s

Author(s): Károly Kókai

Source: Social Scientist , November–December 2017, Vol. 45, No. 11/12
(November–December 2017), pp. 63-72
Published by: Social Scientist

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 The Communist International and the
Contribution of Georg Lukâcs in the 1920s

Kâroly Kôkai

Georg Lukâcs is one of the best-known Marxist intellectuals of the twenti

eth century.1 He acquired this reputation during the 1960s, when so-called
western Marxism was considered a centrepiece of intellectual debate and
with which it was necessary to be familiar in order to participate in such
discussions. Since the so-called system change of 1989 in the Eastern Bloc
at the latest, intellectual interest has shifted to other subjects. Lukâcs is
now included in the textbooks of Anglo-American universities due to his
contributions to the theory of literature, that is, for his theory of realism
developed between the 1930s and the 1950s.
It is possible to consider the life of Georg Lukâcs as paradigmatic - not
least because he himself saw it that way. This became evident in an interview
project towards the end of his life. Erzsébet Vezér and Istvân Eôrsi recorded
a series of conversations with Lukâcs in 1971 and in the years before Lukâcs
produced extensive notes for it, and all this was published in German as
Gelebtes Denken: Eine Autobiographie im Dialogin 1981.2 What unfolds here
is the story of Marxism and communism in Central Europe between 1918
and 1971, beginning with Lukâcs' conversion to communism and ending
with his death. Due to the dictates of history, Lukâcs was a witness to and a
participant in the many turns of communism. His ties to the movement were
so close that it is possible to tell the story of communism in parallel to his life.
It is common knowledge that in late 1918, at the age of thirty-three,
he became a staunch communist overnight, which virtually immediately
meant illegality, since the cabinet of Mihâly Kârolyi banned the Party of the
Hungarian Communists in 1919 after its foundation a few months earlier.
The Communists gained power by a coup in March 1919 and established
a soviet or council republic. Lukâcs participated as a deputy commissar
for education and culture. Already a literary theorist and essayist, he dis
cussed his communist turn and problems of contemporary politics in a
series of newspaper articles, which were partly republished in the volume
Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein in Berlin in 1923.3 With the collapse of
the Hungarian Republic of Councils, he was forced to go into exile.
Throughout the 1920s he resided in Austria. He was a key member
of the exiled communists, first living in Austria, then in Germany and in
Russia or, after 1922, the Soviet Union. Among the chairmen were Béla
Kun, Jenô Landler, Ernô Pôr, Jenô Hamburger and Georg Lukâcs. These
five formed the Provisional Central Committee of the Party from late 191963

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 Social Scientist

to early 1920. Kun left Austria after eleven months in July 1920 and arrived
ο
fS in Russia shortly afterwards. In Vienna the dominance of the so-called
ί
α) Landler faction increased; it is considered a counterpart to the Kun faction
-Ω
ε in Moscow (which included Jôzsef Pogâny, Endre Rudnyânyszky and Béla
<υ
υ Szântô).4 According to this formula the Kun faction argued for radical and
ω
Û the Landler faction for soft solutions to the topical political issues of the
ι time - for instance, regarding conduct towards other leftist organisations
<υ
JO such as the social democrats, or regarding armed campaigns.
ε
ν In the early 1920s the Hungarian Communists constituted a special
>
ο case among individual national communist movements. They were the
Ζ only ones, besides the Bolshevists of Russia, to come out on top, to orga
<Ν nise a 'communist revolution' in their own homeland, to gain victory and
I to take power. However, they were able to maintain this position only for
a few months, from late March to late July 1919, suffering military defeat
1/1
Ο and ending up in prison, in illegality or in exile. The fall inevitably resulted
Ζ in fingers being pointed, faction fights, and in explicit and implicit accusa
LO tions. They lived scattered throughout Austria, Germany and increasingly
in Russia or the Soviet Union. And they participated actively in the prepa
rations for world revolution, in the work of the Communist International.
£
The First International, the International Workingmen's Association,
was established in London in 1864, with the participation of Karl Marx
in order to coordinate the international struggle of the proletariat against
capitalist oppression. It was marked by complicated and dynamic devel
opments, since the labour conflict changed significantly during the long
decades from its foundation until the 1920s - inter alia because the lessons
of Marxism were learned by states, political parties and groups, and by capi
talist enterprises (to soften the explosive nature of the class conflict), because
the historical situation changed, especially during and shortly after World
War I and because the different political workers' organisations followed
different strategies. One of these developments was that there was more
than one International. The First International ran from 1864 until 1876;
the Second was established in Paris 1889, ceased in 1914 and was revived
in 1922; the Third was founded in 1919 in Moscow with the participation
of Lenin and called the Communist International; and the International
Working Union of Socialist Parties5 was formed in 1921 in Vienna with the
participation of the Austrian Social Democrat Viktor Adler, and integrated
into the recently founded Labour and Socialist International in 1922.
The Bolshevik state of Russia identified itself as the leader of the interna
tional class struggle, since it saw itself as the example of the victorious end to
such fights. Hence it criticised all alternative approaches to the problem, espe
cially the non-communist Internationals, since the latter were an obstruction
to unity, made compromises with the local circumstances, and thus, from the
Bolshevist perspective, reduced the chances of finding a complete solution.
64 The Third International acted according to its name and built an

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 The Communist International and the Contribution of Georg Lukâcs

international network. The centre in Moscow launched local bureaus, 7s

ν
-ι
started newspaper projects, sent out representatives and organised con ο_
gresses. A Scandinavian Bureau, a Southern Bureau in Kiev, the Vienna
*
Bureau, the Balkan Bureau, the Amsterdam Bureau and the Secretariat for ο

Western Europe were all set up. In Vienna the magazine Kommunismus
was launched. Among the representatives in Vienna we find Gerhard
Eisler, Béla Kun, Karl Frank and Georg Lukâcs, all associated with the
magazine. Congresses took place in Russia, the second in July-August
1920 and the third in June-July 1921.6
So far we have listed a series of points of reference: first, Lukâcs was
a member of the Hungarian Communist Party from the end of 1918 and
emigrated to Austria after the defeat of the Hungarian Republic of Councils
in the summer of 1919; secondly, the Hungarian communists belonged to
the Comintern, the Third Communist International; and thirdly, we have
Lukâcs' publications. Miklôs Mesterhâzi collected Lukâcs' texts published
between 1920 and 1922, that is, in the first three years of his emigration,
around 140 papers running to over a thousand pages7 - which, since they are
part of a debate, are virtually incomprehensible without a thorough under
standing of the broader context (i.e. other texts such as articles in magazines,
speeches, minutes, etc.). In this paper I will concentrate on the first years of
Lukâcs' emigration, and within it only on publications in a single magazine,
due to the danger of becoming lost in the plethora of arguments.
In Vienna, Lukâcs was very active as a journalist. His texts appeared
mostly in the magazines Kommunismus (German) and Proletar (Hungarian)
- both in Vienna, as well as in Kassai Munkas (Hungarian, Kosice) and
Elôre (Hungarian, New York). For 1921 we have to add the magazines
Jugend Internationale (German), Internationale (German) and Vôrôs Ujsag
(Hungarian). In early 1922 he published in Rote Fahne, Ropiratok and
Munkas (along with Proletar and Vôrôs Ujsag). As this variety indicates,
part of the conspiracy was parallel work in different magazines. Another
aspect of the conspiratorial and activistic strategy was to be prepared for
publications being banned by the state.
Kommunismus, as I would like to discuss in greater detail here, was
published as a weekly magazine of the Communist International for the
Lands of South-Eastern Europe from February 1920 onwards by the pub
lishing house of the Communist Party of German Austria,8 with the address
Vienna 8 Alserstrasse number 69. The editor in chief was Gerhart Eisler. He
was not only a nominal employee but also published in the magazine - e.g.,
Ά Draft of the Constitution' in 1920.9 The authors rarely put their names to
a piece, but signed using abbreviations like B.K. The texts without authors
were editorials, and Lukâcs was, according to established scholarly opinion,
one of the editors. He published in the magazine regularly; his first signed
article was 'On the Issue of the Organisation of the Intellectuals',10 by G.L.
Each issue of the magazine contained a section titled 'International 65

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 Social Scientist

Review', dealing with countries such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, the

ο
«Ν Balkans, England, France, Italy and 'America'. The focus of the magazine
ί
α) thus went beyond the borders of Southeastern Europe. What we can also
-Ο
ε see here is a plethora of short-lived magazines belonging to different leftist
<υ
υ fractions and actual political subjects from different countries, analysed as
ω
manifestations of crises.
Q
ί It is striking that the magazine was established shortly after the arrival
<υ
χι of the Hungarian communists in Vienna in early 1920, and that the pub
ε
ω lication ceased shortly after the Third Congress of the Comintern in July
>
ο 1921. In scholarly as well as popular disputes regarding the magazine it is
Ζ
usually emphasised that it was considered a discussion forum for the com
OJ munist left wing, and even attracted the attention of Lenin, who criticised
Τ it for deviation to the left.

Lukâcs published seventeen articles in the magazine: On the Issue of the

</)
ο Organisation of the Intellectuals',11 'The Latest Overcoming of Marxism',12
ζ 'On the Question of Parliamentarianism',13 'Organisational Issues of the
un Third International',14 'Class Consciousness',15 'The Moral Mission of the
-<r
Communist Party',16 'Capitalist Blockade, Proletarian Boycott',17 'The End
5 of Boycott',18 'Opportunism and Coupism',19 'Legality and Illegality',20
'The Crisis of Syndicalism in Italy',21 'Kassel and Halle',22 'Old Culture and
New Culture',23 'The Congress of the German Communist Party',24 'Rosa
Luxemburg as a Marxist',25 'Ukrainian National Consciousness'26 and
'Before the Congress'.27
The articles dealt with discussions on the defeated Republic of Council
Workers - or Soviet Hungary, as it is called in the articles - with the lessons
learned during the fights of individual nations cited as examples of the prob
lems of class struggle. They were concerned with the practical problems of
political work and the theoretical problems of Marxism - some of the the
articles reappeared in 1923 in the volume History and Class Consciousness,28
These seventeen articles provide insights into a period that seems to
be remarkably inaccessible. Since Lukâcs resided in Austria as an exiled
communist in the 1920s, he was forbidden from active involvement in
any political work, and he as well as his comrades were forced to eliminate
all traces of their operations. In the post-1920s historical turmoil, most
of the preserved documents were lost. What have survived are published
articles identified as Lukâcs', the documents made available in the course
of scientific research regarding the Comintern - which has taken on vast
dimensions since the opening of the Comintern Archives in the 1990s, and
the results of his practical experiences in his theoretical work.
The main focus of the articles published in the magazine of the
Communist International for the Countries of South-Eastern Europe was
overcoming isolation and establishing common ground. The authors were
looking for a common programme, a shared theoretical foundation and a
66 common language. All of Lukâcs' texts were subordinated to this aim.

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 The Communist International and the Contribution of Georg Lukâcs

Lukâcs' articles in the magazine Kommunismus dealt with specific ρ,

political questions and problems, which of course differed depending Ο

on which country they examined. The issues were the political situation
7S
in Italy (the failure of the Syndicalists in October 1920)29, Ukraine (the Ο

national Social Democratic party - the Mensheviks - wanted to separate Ζ

themselves from the Russian Bolsheviks), and first of all in Germany (the
March Action, Party Congresses). Another issue was of course Hungary
(the boycott of 1920) and Austria (the controversy with the social demo
crats)30. A further focus was on the role of intellectuals in the movement of
the proletariats. Lukâcs also wrote about the tactics of communism31 (that
is, on the question of what communist parties elected to parliaments - as
for instance in Italy - should do: should they participate in or boycott par
liamentary work?). Another issue was the Comintern.
In order to take a closer look at the many different voices of Lukâcs,32
let us examine the one he used to serve the aims of the Comintern, through
the following three quotations.

... the conscious will to unity must express itself organisationally in the
proletariat. . . . The Third International has to preserve its full unity in basic
questions. But this unity can only prevail in reality after it has established the
factual unification of the proletariat with actions, with tactical unification in
immediate ardent questions.... The Second International knew only national
movements, bracketed together in the illusory unity of the International. The
Third International establishes a living connection of the movements already
crossing national borders.33

Lukâcs' contributions are non-fictional texts, which nevertheless tell a story:

the story of the class struggle. The Second and the Third International are
stages in this story. The Second International is the unity of the social demo
cratic parties, which failed in 1914. The Third is the unity of the communist
parties, which have to be centralised under the leadership of Russia. What is
at stake here is thus the grand history.
Next:

... the big lesson to learn from the Third International was that each gen
uine proletarian, genuine revolutionary action must be at the same time an
essentially international action, that the so-called immediate interests of the

proletariat cannot be differentiated from the interests of the totality of the

workforce, that the enemy to be fought is world capitalism, which nevertheless
can only be defeated by combating the direct suppressors, it can only become
part of the consciousness of the proletariat in actions like this boycott.34 If
the boycott can affect only such educational, propagandistic aims in the con
sciousness of the proletariat, in this very way it will become a terrible and
insurmountable weapon of the class struggle. In actions like this the proletariat
disciplines itself to the unity of action, raises the steps of its self-disciplining
67

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Social Scientist

to terrible blows against capitalism, ultimately destroying it. The proletariat

ο
(S can constitute itself as a class only in the true class struggle. That this process
1_
α>
makes huge steps forward over the heads of the so-called thinkers and leaders
XI
is shown by this boycott. The incurable severe crisis of world capitalism pushes
ε
<υ
υ
the world with uncompromising force into the two camps of revolution and
ω
counter-revolution.35
Û
I What we see here is a narrative of the communist revolution in the language
ω
χι
ε of ideology. The phrases 'genuine proletarian, genuine revolutionary action',
ω
> 'the enemy to be fought is world capitalism', 'terrible and insurmountable
Ο
Ζ weapon of the class struggle', 'terrible blows against capitalism, ultimately
destroying it', 'the proletariat can constitute itself as a class only in the true
ΓΜ
class struggle' and 'incurable severe crisis of world capitalism' attest to that.
Third:

to
Ο
. . . the International of action can only be realised in the unity of the com
Ζ munist parties, and communist parties are essentially international in all their

ΙΛ
aspects ... the question of autonomy is the question of opportunism; for the
International on a much bigger scale than for the individual parties. The real

£ will of revolution can be effective in terms of organisation only in the will for
centralism. . . . Since any sort of organisation is only a weapon, only a link
in the totality determining, deciding everything: the totality of the process of
revolution.36

Unity, centralism and totality are his battle-cries. They are meant to facil
itate a big project called Third Communist International and have to pre
pare the path of the world revolution.
This Third International was invoked not only in the texts of the
communists Béla Kun, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Antonio Gramsci and Georg
Lukâcs, it manifested itself not only in Central Committees and Congresses,
but also in the plans to erect a monument. The blueprints were drawn up
in 1919, the prototype was presented in 1920: Vladimir Tatlin's Project for
a Monument to the Third International was regarded as an architectonic
symbol of the new world emerging in the communist fights. Tatlin's tower
is an open structure, to be built using the modern materials steel and con
crete, and has a dynamic form. Regarding the scale, different ideas existed.
The final plans budgeted for a height of 400 metres. It is not clear whether it
was a conscious reference or not, but the project resembles in both its form
and content a previous project depicted in numerous artworks, such as one
that can be seen in Vienna: Pieter Bruegel's Construction of the Tower of
1563. Tatlin's prototype was first exhibited in Moscow, and became widely
known after its presentation in Paris in 1925. The plan was never realised.
What we can see in the short-lived periodical Kommunismus is that the
project of unity had to be cancelled. The Babylonian linguistic confusion
continues to prevail - which justifies not only the approach of comparative
68

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 The Communist International and the Contribution of Georg Lukâcs

literary studies and not only proves once again the impossibility of commu π
ft)'
-ι
nism, but paves the way for every serious research project on Georg Lukâcs. o_
X
The complexity of such a project is so great that it can be realised only in
a comprehensive undertaking with the participation of many scholars - as o

in the one under preparation at the Department of Finno-Ugric Studies at sr

the University of Vienna.37
For a project to meet such a challenge, it must do justice to all phases of
Lukâcs' career, since it is only in their inter-relationships that these phases
result in the complex from which the individual phases can be interpreted.
Beginning with the young Lukâcs contributing as a literary theoretician
and essayist to the formation of modernity in Hungary, through the dif
ferent phases of the development of the communist Lukâcs - from the
messianistic revolutionary through the realpolitiker and party functionary,
the theoretician of socialist realism, the Stalinist cultural policy maker,
and the free rider of real socialism betrayed in its ideals in the Kâdâr era,
up to his establishment as a neo-Marxist thinker in the west. The first half
of the 1920s constitute an interesting case. We can gain insights into these
times through the memoirs of Victor Serge, published in English in 1963.38
Antonio Gramsci spent important years in Vienna as a staff member of
the Comintern, before leaving for Italy hoping for immunity as a member
of parliament in 1924.39 In 1925, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno spent a
few months in the Vienna of Arnold Schônberg and Alban Berg studying
composition. He met with Lukâcs, whose Theory of the Novel of 1916 and
History and Class Consciousness of 1923 - two central volumes from two
different phases of Lukâcs' creative work - he appreciated.40
History and Class Consciousness is regarded as the most important
output of Lukâcs' first communist phase. In this collected volume we can
find translations from his Hungarian period and republished texts from the
magazine Kommunismus. In the volume reification is discussed as one of
the main categories - it is this aspect to which a great deal of attention was
paid in the neo-Marxist discourse of the 1960s. Concerning a reappraisal of
Lukâcs' work - just to give one example - we might ask the research ques
tion as to the link between Lukâcs' use of the concept in a seemingly purely
political discourse, on the one hand, and the self-proclaimed objectivity
of the emerging literature of Neue Sachlichkeit in the German-speaking
countries, including Austria, on the other.
To summarise, this paper refers to numerous aspects of the situation
of the exiled communists or left-wing intellectuals in Vienna on the basis
of documents such as memoirs, letters, contemporary reports, especially
regarding Lukâcs' relationships to Antonio Gramsci, Theodor Wiesengrund
Adorno and representatives of Austro-Marxism. Further, it discusses
the political literature using the tools of narratology, referring to articles
written by Lukâcs and first published in the magazine Kommunismus and
then collected in the volume History and Class Consciousness. Employing 69

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 Social Scientist

the tools of literary studies, I have tried to grasp the main objective of the
ο
(Ν communists of the 1920s, the anticipation of the world revolution mani
L.
υ fested in ideologically informed writings as 'one voice'. The result can be
_ο
Ε summed up as follows: to be able to understand the texts Lukâcs published
υ
υ
in Kommunismus, we have to consider the international constellations.
υ
Û What exactly happened here, who knew whom, how the individual political
L and theoretical ideas unfolded, amounted to a world-view, a philosophy,
α»
_η can only be reconstructed fragmentarily. The contributions in the magazine
Ε
Kommunismus constitute an important part of this multifaceted, colourful,
H
ο illegal and semi-illegal field, not least because the fifty issues of the magazine
Ζ are available to us and allow us to study the discussions referenced in their
ΓΜ entire extent and depth.
Τ
Notes and References

V) 1 I thank Miklôs Mesterhâzi for discussions during the preparation of this pa

Ο
2 Georg Lukâcs, Record of a Life: An Autobiographical Sketch, London: Verso,
ζ
The Hungarian original was not published until 1989, eight years after the G
LTt edition. As the title suggests, the book contains two parts, the edited intervi
Lukâcs, Vezér and Eorsi, and Lukâcs' text written in German, 'Gelebtes De

£ 3 Georg Lukâcs, History and Class Consciousness, London: The Merlin Press,
4 Significantly, there is no comprehensive scholarly monograph on Kun or La
For two short portrayals, see Agnes Szabo, Landler Jend, Budapest: Aka
Kiadô, 1974; and Gyôrgy Borsânyi, Kun Béla, Budapest: Akadémia Kiadô, 1
5 Also known as the 'Two and a Half International' and 'Vienna Internationa
6 First Congress of the Third International, 2-6 March 1919, in Moscow; S
Congress of the Third International, 19 July - 8 August 1920, in Petrogr
Moscow; Third Congress of the Third International, 22 June - 12 July 19
Moscow; Fourth Congress of the Third International, 5 November - 5 Dec
1922, in Petrograd and Moscow; Fifth Congress of the Third International,
- 8 July 1924, in Moscow. At the Congresses the communists operating i
tionally met, resolutions were passed, and shifts in directions were discussed
reflected inter alia in the publications of Lukâcs.
7 http://www.Lukâcsgyorgyalapitvany.hu/publicisztika- 1920-22/cimlap
8 After the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, the Republic of G
Austria was formed. It lasted from 11 November 1918 to 10 September 1919
it was followed by the Republic of Austria.
9 Gerhart Eisler, 'Ein Verfassungsentwurf, Kommunismus, vol. I, no. 5, 22 Fe
1920, pp. 142-46.
10 The original title reads: Zur Organisationsfrage der Intellektuellen.
11 Georg Lukâcs, 'Zur Organisationsfrage der Intellektuellen', Kommunis
February 1920, vol. I, no. 3, pp. 14-18.
12 Georg Lukâcs, 'Die neueste Ûberwindung des Marxismus', Kommunism
February 22, 1920, vol. I, no. 5: 155-156.
13 Georg Lukâcs, 'Zur Frage des Parlamentarismus', Kommunismus, 1 Marc
vol. I, no. 6, pp. 161-72.
14 Georg Lukâcs, Organisationsfragen der dritten Internationale', Kommunis
March 1920, vol. I, no. 8-9, pp. 238-50.
15 Georg Lukâcs, 'Klassenbewusstsein', Kommunismus, 17 April 1920, vol. I,
pp. 415-23 and 24 April 1920, vol. I, no. 25, pp. 468-73.
70

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 The Communist International and the Contribution of Georg Lukâcs

16 Georg Lukâcs, 'Die moralische Sendung der kommunistischen Partei', τ;

6>,
Kommunismus, 1 May 1920, vol. I, nos. 16-17, pp. 482-88. S
17 Georg Lukâcs, 'Kapitalistische Blockade, proletarischer Boykott', Kommunismus, 6 *<

June 1920, vol. I, nos. 25-26, pp. 847-54.

Ο"
18 Georg Lukâcs, 'Das Ende des Boykotts', Kommunismus, 17 August 1920, vol. I, no.
32, pp. 1096-97. £~

19 Georg Lukâcs, 'Opportunismus und Putschismus', Kommunismus, 17 August

1920, vol. I, no. 32, pp. 1107-15.
20 Georg Lukâcs, 'Legalitàt und Illegalitât', Kommunismus, 9 September 1920, vol. I,
no. 35, pp. 1259-64 and 18 September 1920, nos. 36-37, pp. 1324-33.
21 Georg Lukâcs, 'Die Krise des Syndikalismus in Italien', Kommunismus, 16 August
1920, vol. I, no. 40, pp. 1432^0.
22 Georg Lukâcs, 'Kassel und Halle', Kommunismus, 26 October 1920, vol. I, no. 41,
pp. 1466-73.
23 Georg Lukâcs, 'Alte Kultur und neue Kultur', Kommunismus, 7 November 1920,
vol. I, no. 43, pp. 1538-49.
24 Georg Lukâcs, 'Der Parteitag der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands',
Kommunismus, 20 November 1920, vol. I, no. 44, pp. 1561-64.
25 Georg Lukâcs, 'Rosa Luxemburg als Marxist', Kommunismus, 15 January 1921, vol.
II, nos. 1-2, pp. 4-19.
26 Georg Lukâcs, 'Ukrainischer Nationalbolschewismus', Kommunismus, 21 February
1921, vol. II, nos. 5-6, pp. 185-87.
27 Georg Lukâcs, 'Vor dem dritten Kongress', Kommunismus, 15 May 1921, vol. II,
nos. 17-18, pp. 583-92.
28 'Class Consciousness', 'Legality and Illegality', 'Rosa Luxemburg as a Marxist'.
29 The Syndicalists (from syndicate, that is, assembly or council) in Italy attempted,
during the Biennio Rosso, the two red years of 1919 and 1920, to take over
the means of production, which ended in a compromise between employers
and employees in September 1920. This resulted in the establishment of the
Communist Party of Italy in January 1921. What followed was the Biennio Nero,
the fascist years, with the march on Rome in October 1922.
30 The so-called Two-and-a-Half International, the International Working Union of
Socialist Parties, was established between 22 and 27 February 1921 in Vienna, at a
time when the magazine Kommunismus was already trying to influence the organ
isation of the labour movement for many months, and can be read as a forum for
discussion with the ideas and practices of the Austro-Marxists.
31 L(âszlô) R(udas), 'Fragen der kommunistischen Taktik' / 'Questions of Communist
Tactics', Kommunismus, 22 Februaryl922, pp. 130-35, started the discussion.
Lukâcs contributed 'On the Question of Parliamentarianism'.
32 This paper is based on a lecture given at the conference 'The Many Languages
of Comparative Literature', International Comparative Literature Association,
Vienna, 25 July 2016, as part of a panel on 'The Many Voices of Georg Lukâcs'.
33 Georg Lukâcs, 'Organisationsfragen der dritten Internationale', Kommunismus, 15
March 1920, vol. I, nos. 8-9, pp. 248 ff; translation by Kâroly Kôkai. The original:
'. . . der bewufite Wille zur Einheit mufi sich im Proletariat selbst organisatorisch
ausdriicken. . . . Im prinzipiellen Fragen mufi die dritte Internationale ihre vol
lstândige Einheit bewahren. Aber diese Einheit kann sich in der Wirklichkeit
nur durchsetzen, nachdem sie die tatsâchliche Vereinheitlichung des Proletariats
durch Handlungen, durch taktische Einheitsbildung in unmittelbar brennenden
Fragen zustande gebracht hat Die zweite Internationale kannte blofi nationale
Bewegungen, die in die Scheinheit der Internationale zusammengefafit wurden.
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 Social Scientist

Die dritte Internationale schafft lebendige Zusammenfassungen der bereits uber

ο
<Ν
die "nationale" Beschrànktheit hinausgehenden Bewegungen.'
ί 34 On 20 June 1920, the International Trade Union Confederation and the
α)
-Ω International Transport Workers' Federation in Amsterdam (in Lukâcs' formu
ε lation: the Amsterdam Trade Union International) called for a boycott because of
<υ
υ the ongoing white terror in Hungary. The boycott lasted seven weeks.
«υ
Û 35 Georg Lukâcs, 'Kapitalistische Blockade, proletarischer Boykott', Kommutiismus, 6
J. June 1920, vol. I, nos. 25-26, pp. 847-54; translation by Kâroly Kôkai. In the origi
<D nal: '... die grofie Lehre, aus der die III. Internationale entstehen mufite (war), dafi
-Ο

ε jede echt proletarische, echt revolutionâre Handlung eine wesentlich internation

ι
ale Handlung ist, dafi die sogenannten unmittelbaren Interessen des Proletariats
sich gar nicht von den gemeinsamen Interessen der Gesamtarbeiterschaft unter
ζ
scheiden, dafi der zu bekampfende Feind stets der Weltkapitalismus ist, dafi es
(Ν aber nur durch die Bekàmpfung der unmittelbaren Unterdrucker niedergerungen

Τ werden kann, kann nur durch Handlungen wie dieser Boykott36 im Bewufitsein
des Proletariats lebendig werden. Wenn der Boykott vorerst nur eine derartige
<Λ
erzieherische, propagandistische Wirkung des Bewufitmachens haben kann, so
Ο wird er gerade dadurch zu einer furchterlichen und unuberwindbaren Waffe
ζ des Klassenkampfes. Indem das Proletariat sich in solchen Aktionen zur Einheit
LO
der Tat erzieht, steigert es diese Stadien seiner Selbsterziehung zu furchterlichen
^r Schlàgen auf den Kapitalismus, durch die es ffiiher oder spàter sicher vernichten
wird. Das Proletariat kann sich nur im wirklichen Klassenkampf zur Klasse
konstituieren. Dafi dieser Prozefi iiber die Kopfe der sogenannten Denker und
Fiihrer hinweg gewaltige Fortschritte macht, zeigt der Boykott. Die unheilbar akut
gewordene Krise des Weltkapitalismus treibt mit unerbittlichem Zwang die Welt
in die beiden Lager der Revolution und der Konterrevolution.'
37 Georg Lukâcs, 'Vor dem dritten Kongress', Kommunismus, 15 May 1921, vol.
II, nos. 17-18, pp. 590 ff; translation by Kâroly Kôkai. The original: '. . . die
Internationale der Tat kann nur als Einheit der kommunistischen Parteien ent
stehen, und kommunistische Parteien sind ihrem Wesen nach in jeder Beziehung
international. ... die Frage der Autonomie ist die Frage des Opportunismus; fiir
die Internationale noch mehr als fur die einzelnen Parteien. Der wirkliche Wille
zur Revolution kann sich organisatorisch nur in dem Wille zum Zentralismus
aufiern. .. . Denn jede Organisationsform ist nur ein Kampfmittel, nur ein Glied
der ailes bestimmenden, ailes entscheidenden Totalitât: der Totalitât des revolu
tionâren Prozesses.'
38 For more information see the website http://georg-Lukâcs.univie.ac.at/
39 Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, London: Oxford University Press, 1963.
First complete English edition, New York: New York Review of Books Classics,
2012. The original was published as Mémoires d'un révolutionnaire 1901-1941,
Paris: Le Seuil, 1951.
40 Giovanni Somai, Gramsci a Vienna: Ricerche e documenti 1922-1924 / Gramsci in
Vienna: Research and Documents 1922-1924, Urbino: Argalia, 1979.
41 Heinz Steinert, Adorno in Wien: Ûber die (Un-)Moglichkeit von Kunst, Kultur und
Befreiungl Adorno in Vienna: On the (Im)Possibility of Art, Culture and Deliverance,
Vienna: Verlag fur Gesellschaftskritik, 1989.

Kâroly Kôkai teaches Hungarian in the Institute of European Languages

and Literatures, University of Vienna, Vienna.
72

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