The VSVR 1855-1860
What is to be done?
This was the question put to Karl Marx as he stepped up to become the 2nd Chairman of the VSVR and extraordinarily he took the step to publish a small pamphlet of the same title to answer this question.
This government of the people was more responsible than any government in history to inform its people of why and how decisions are made – Marx understood this and in a tone that the average worker could understand he went through his program point by point. A swathe of social reforms were quickly put into place which would improve the lot of the worker whilst tending to the needs of the old and the infirm. The system of taxation was changed to ensure that the very richest paid copious amounts in tax (twice as much as the poor) to try to push the VSVR towards a more equitable society whilst tariffs were abolished so that the Rhineland’s powerful industries could reap more profits.
In foreign policy the Marxists claimed that the Republic would have to expand or face utter destruction – they supported intervention in both Flanders and Germany (by this stage Blanqui’s agents had made great progress in forcing the Prussians out of Hessen whilst in Hannover both British and Prussian influences were on the rocks).
For all his great ambitions to do good the first major incident in Karl Marx’s term as Chairman was of the most unsavoury nature – the former Chairman, Wilhelm Weitling, was found to be guilty of siphoning off public funds into a bank account in Switzerland. The accusations were first made as early as March 1855, at first Weitling attempted to shrug off the charges but by the summer the weight of evidence had become too much and the Central Committee voted almost unanimously (unsurprisingly Weitling voted against) to put the former Chairman on trial. Feuerbach, now the most senior and respected German Socialist, quickly organised for Weitling’s removal from the faction in order to lessen the already severe blow to its credibility. Weitling was put on trial in front of jury of his proletarian peers and found guilty of abusing his position and stealing public funds. Originally some in the public had gone so far as to call for execution (this was after all a man they had trusted to lead them towards paradise) but the cool headed Commissar for Justice (Liebknecht) called for exile – this allowed the state to nimbly avoid a pro-Weitling backlash whilst seeming to be harsh on corruption.
The obvious man to take charge of the German Socialists was of course Feuerbach. However the un-ambitious theoretician refused to take on the role as the faction’s leader and instead looked to his own political protégé – the popular, youthful, German-Jew Ferdinand Lassalle.
Born in 1825 Lassalle was just 30 years old and had cut his teeth for the revolution fighting in the streets during the Rhineland Revolution. Like Liebknecht he subsequently skyrocketed through the ranks of the Party so by 1855 he was a leading figure – now he was Commissar for Finance and the leader of one of the three great factions in VSVR politics. There had been fears that Lassalle could be held back by his Jewish roots, after all anti-Semitism was still rife amongst both the proletariat and the lower ranks of the party, and this led to many major German Socialist figures opposing his appointment as leader. Only the unerring support of Feuerbach and the supportive attitude of both the Anarchists and Marxists allowed the young Lassalle to rise to the third most influential office in the Republic.
In June 1856 one of the greatest dreams of the Marxist faction was accomplished as the First Congress of the First International took place in Cologne (from 1856 onwards there would be yearly congresses). The First International was designed to bring together all the workers party the world over so they could unite against their enemies and spread the revolution worldwide. Around 100 foreign delegates were at the conference with the most important parties being the French Workers League (a mixed Anarchist-Marxist group), the German Communist League (a pan-German Marxist faction whose main aim was union with the VSVR), the Czech Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Italy, the Communist Party of America, The Catalan People’s Front and the Brazilian Socialist Party (this comparatively moderate Socialist Party was actually in power in Brazil). The International agreed to a united policy with most parties aligning themselves very closely to Cologne and to Marx (whilst within the VSVR the Marxists were one of several major factions outside the Republic the Marxists were the most dominant leftist force).
The International also agreed to an anthem which was soon adopted as the national anthem of the United Socialist People’s Republic –
Die Internationale
One of the main aims of Marx had always been to expand the Republic territorially and in late 1856 his opportunity finally arrived. Blanqui and his agents had been undermining Prussian influence in Western Germany for some years but despite several states ejected much of Prussia’s influence most still maintained alliances with Berlin – mostly out of fear of Cologne. In October 1856 Hesse-Kassel ended its alliance with Prussia and within a weak 18,000 Republican troops had poured into the Duchy. In February the Duchy was officially annexed into the Republic.
This annexation brought 656,000 Germans into the Republic, the vast majority of whom were farmers. Although such a large intake of rural workers was shunned by many party figures who favoured a more urban Republic Hesse-Kassel provided the VSVR with something it desperately needed – grain. At the declaration of war grain was the number one import in the VSVR (with tea being a distant second) and even after peace it remained the most important imported good. Reducing the reliance of the Republic on foreign food supplies was seen as something of paramount importance to the Republic’s future.
In May 1857 France declared war upon Spain, forcing them to remove most of their Northern garrison and while the cats away ....
In August Weydemeyer’s army strode across the border into Belgium. The Belgian Army was defeated after just 6 days but the war dragged on until December when Flanders was officially annexed. Like Wallonia before it the annexation was a controversial move. Not only did the 4 million people of Flanders have a much lower literacy rate but they were also impoverished (it took a substantial government stimulus to get the region’s once proud factories back online). Worse still as the Republic entered 1858 the Germans were in a narrow minority causing dissatisfaction with many German Nationalists within the Party and the Republic. However the region had immense potential and most importantly of all great ports in the form of Antwerp and Brugge – the Republic would never again have to rely on the goodwill of the Dutch, French, Belgian or Hanoverian governments to import goods from overseas.
In February 1858 Blanqui unveiled the paramilitary wing of the AKVD – 9,000 elite troops. The powerful Frenchman was effectively free to do with them what he wished. In April 1858 what he wished was to invade the Duchy of Nassau. The tiny Duchy (traditionally the ancestral homeland of the Dutch ruling dynasty of Oranje-Nassau but now an independent Duchy) had for years been heavily saturated with Blanqui’s agents. However in March the Duchy’s state police launched a major crackdown on the Communist influences in Nassau leading to several thousands of executions (many of those executed were not even Communist). This crackdown forced thousands onto the streets in Nassau’s towns and the Duchy’s local Communist Party sent a plea to Cologne for intervention. Marx gave Blanqui permission to march into Nassau. At this point Prussia’s stance towards Nassau was still unclear, the alliance between the two states had expired but the Prussians had become increasingly aware of the VSVR following the invasions of Hesse-Kassel and Belgium. However when 9,000 AKVD troops entered Nassau Prussia decided that Nassau was not worth war and the Duchy fell to the Republic.
Nassau was quite similar to Hesse-Kassel in that it had a relatively small population (405,000) that was overwhelming made up of farmers. However like Hesse-Kassel these farmers were very well educated and the region provided more much needed agricultural produce for the Republic.
At this stage the Republic was on a high. The well being of the common man had increased noticeably during Marx’s short tenure whilst the Republic had likewise increased in strength. At this point the VSVR had what was probably the most popular government on earth, yet there was trouble brewing in an important sub-faction of the People’s Party. Ever since they had joined with the Socialists to form the People’s Party the leadership of the Anarchists had been forced to compromise time and time again as government continued to expand in size and important one wing of the Anarchist faction had had enough. Around 1856 a group known as the Young Anarchists was formed under the leadership of Comrade Kadon. Whilst remaining a small group the faction drew support from the Anarchist fundamentalists but on July 3rd 1848 the group exploded into the public eye.
On July 3rd an agent of Kadon’s Young Anarchists threw a bomb into a carriage carrying Johann Eccarius, Friedrich Engels and Wilhelm Liebknecht (all members of the Central Committee). Engels and Liebknecht, amazingly, escaped unscathed but Comrade Eccarius was gravely injured and on July 5th died. This event would have a major impact on VSVR politics.
Eccarius’ United Trades Unions had long been in terminal decline and the loss of the leader, the only man really holding the group together, meant the disbanding of the organisation. By this stage barely 25% of Unions were still members of the group so the disbanding of the Union had little lasting impact. More important was the government reaction to the attack. Within a couple of months Kadon and the main figures within the Young Anarchist movement had been placed under arrest, most of the party called for their immediate execution as enemies of the People whilst some even called for a purging of the Anarchist faction as a whole. Blanqui was the leader of the section of the Party and was deeply offended when Marx refused Blanqui on both the call for a purge of the Anarchists (after all estimates showed that almost half of the Anarchists still in the party had Young Anarchist sympathies) and the call for executions. Instead Marx opted to hold the offending person imprisoned indefinitely. Whilst Blanqui stopped just short of breaking entirely from the Marxists with his large base of supporters he was growing increasingly divided from the faction’s paternal leader.
Around July 1859 after an impassioned plea was submitted by the soldier’s Council of Brussels (a body that represented the 24,000 soldiers who guarded the border with France) Marx accepted the request for the Republic’s recently created pension system to have its funding significantly increased.
Industrially things had improved considerably faster than they had during Weitling’s tenure. Whilst between 1850 and 1855 industry grew by 50% between 1855 and 1860 it grew by an impressive 100%. Whilst, naturally, a significant portion of this growth took place in the Ruhr it was actually Westphalia, the lower Rhineland and Wallonia that drove the growth. New industries were emerging outside of the traditional steel and cement of the Republic as alcohol, textiles and arms became important parts of the economy (at the same time a small string of shipyards had been built in Flanders to produce the new steamers that were fast replacing wooden ships).
On December 19th 1859 Blanqui initiated one of the most extraordinary acts of any politician of the era. Without any order from the Central Committee, and indeed without even informing them, he initiated a revolution spanning 3 states. In Hesse-Darmstadt, Frankfurt and across Bavaria around 40,000 Communist agents rose up in an effort to overthrow their governments and unite with the VSVR.
In Hesse-Darmstadt they were successful and on December 24th the new Communist government applied for union with the VSVR – a proposal which the Republic accepted. Elsewhere in Frankfurt the state forces were still fighting hard to keep the Communists from taking control whilst in Bavaria there was open civil war across the country. The move seemed to be a significant success already but it enraged Marx.
Whilst the Blanquists argued that the ingenious Minister for Intelligence was acting on his own accord to secure worldwide revolution most of the Central Committee supported the view that he had wilfully started a major war that put the lives of the Republic’s proletariat at risk without so much as consulting the People’s appointed government. On December 27th Blanqui, faced with heavy pressure from the left-Marxists, left the Marxist faction with his not insignificant number of supporters to form the Centrist faction. Whilst Karl Marx was still massively popular Blanqui had just turned himself from a symbol of fear to a symbol of bold revolutionary vigour by reignited the fires of worldwide revolution.