Written: 1893. Published in Rosa Luxemburg, Gesammelte Werke, Band 1/1, 1970, S. 5–13. as Bericht an den III. Internat. Socialistischen Arbeiterkongress in Zürich 1893 über den Stand und Verlauf der socialdemokratischen Bewegung in Russisch-Polen 1889–1893, erstattet von der Redaktion der Zeitschrift Sprawa Robotnicza (Arbeitersache), Organ der Socialdemokraten des Königreichs Polen.
Source: MIA Rosa Luxemburg German-language archive
Note: The report is unsigned. A footnote in Rosa Luxemburg's article "Social
Patriotism in Poland" (see Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 1, p. 39) states that she was largely responsible for drafting it. The report was not officially delivered to the Congress; see A last word on the question of the Polish mandate for the context.
Translation: Graham Seaman for MIA, Feb 2026
Notes: Original notes from the Gesammelte Werke; additional notes signed MIA
Last updated: 13 Feb 2026
Comrades! This is the first time that Polish Social Democrats from the Russian-subjugated parts of Poland[1] have participated in your congress.
From the gloomy realm of political despotism and rigid reaction, the workers of Warsaw and Łódź send their delegate, who is also our delegate, to participate in the workers' parliament of the two hemispheres.
We send you our fraternal greetings and the good news that here too social democratic principles have taken root, and despite the persecutions by the bourgeoisie allied with a brutal police force, the red banner of social democracy has become the guiding star for the Polish working masses in their struggle for emancipation. While you in the West march from victory to victory, we in the East, true to the principles of international social democracy, are leading a relentless struggle against Russian despotism, that last and most formidable bastion of European reaction. The fundamentally different political circumstances drive us from one form of struggle to another. Forced by necessity, we shroud our ceaseless labours in conspiratorial methods, constantly risking our freedom and our lives, and therefore cannot act as freely and openly as you do. For the time being we can only use your methods in particular cases, such as the May Day celebrations. Evidently the ways and means of this struggle must be different too. Therefore, only a few of the decisions you make in your important and fruitful deliberations over the ways and means that will lead the proletariat of both hemispheres to the highest goal, to the victory of socialist ideas, are applicable in our situation.
The socialist movement in so-called Congress Poland[2] dates back almost 15 years; however, until the last four years, it could not be called social democratic.[3] The revolutionary party Proletariat,[4] which has the great merit of having given expression to the first socialist currents and of having combined them into an organic whole, and which led the movement until 1889, formally adopted the general principles expressed in the Communist Manifesto; although it was not easy to implement these principles under new conditions in a state whose political circumstances were so wholly different from those of Western Europe. That party has failed to accomplish this task. It is important to keep in mind the influence that the heroic struggle of the Russian revolutionary party Narodnaya Volya has had on our movement. This heroic duel between the revolutionaries and the all-powerful autocrat generated the highest admiration throughout Europe and instinctively awakened hopes. It is therefore not surprising if the Polish Socialist Party, starting from the correct standpoint of a common struggle with the Russian revolutionaries, fell completely under the influence of that party. The consequence of this was that the practical activities and tactics of the Proletariat, in spite of its formal program, were the expression of a utopian, conspiratorial Blanquism.
In the terms of the revolutionaries of that time, the overthrow of the Tsarist regime would coincide with the social revolution. Just like their sister party, Narodnaya Volya, the revolutionaries of that time were convinced that revolution could be brought about by a number of determined, energetic, and purposeful conspirators. The vast majority of the proletariat was relegated to the role of supporting the socialist conspirators at the decisive moment.
In accordance with this premise, the party's agitation was almost exclusively directed toward arousing revolutionary sentiments through proclamations and terrorist acts; little or no thought was given to raising the intellectual and material level of the working masses within the existing social order. They completely failed to consider the extraction of provisional social and political concessions from the contemporary state as the next goal, as the workers' parties of all [other] countries do. The party thereby limited itself to winning over individuals—so contributing greatly to facilitating later social-democratic agitation—and, on the other hand, to awakening hatred against despotism and the existing social order among the masses; living in a despotic state, the party worked directly towards a social revolution in the immediate future. The party was frequently forced, albeit contrary to the general nature of its activities, to join in with the independently declared movements of the masses, directed towards economic or political goals; just so did it take part in the May Day celebrations of 1890.
However, in order to attain its future significance and become the true manifestation of the workers' class struggle, socialism had to definitively break with Blanquist traditions and align itself with the Western European labour movement. This transformation in the perspectives and tactics of socialists began in 1889 and ultimately led to an independent social democratic movement. It was finally recognized that the role of the social democratic party was the conscious guidance of the developing struggle of the proletariat against the existing social order, a struggle that was developing with elemental force under capitalism; and that the struggle in the economic sphere for the everyday interests of the working classes, the struggle for democratic forms of government, was the school the proletariat necessarily had to pass through before it was capable of overthrowing present-day society. The new organization consistently maintained this perspective in its work.
Like every socialist party, Social Democracy in our country endeavored to attract and group around itself the best and most energetic elements of the working class; however, the focus was not on producing leaders of the coming revolution, but rather purposeful agitators and leaders of the working class in all its tasks and struggles.
The miserable material situation of the ruthlessly exploited Polish workers inevitably led to a desperate economic struggle; the Social Democrats took the lead, gave it a unified plan and organization, and sought to endow it with purpose.
In the last three years, there have been some 30 strikes, affecting almost as many trades.[5] These strikes, in most cases essentially successful, were fought under the active leadership of the social democratic organization. This number, which would hardly be worth mentioning in Western Europe, has a very special significance for us because the strikes here were more than elsewhere an excellent means of shaking up the indifferent masses, of orienting them to resistance, of educating them. These were our first practical successes; they clearly and vividly demonstrated the importance of solidarity and class consciousness, revealing the fundamental conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, exposing the class character of the government and pointing to the unavoidable necessity of fighting both. To regulate and facilitate this struggle, the Social Democratic Party had to establish appropriate organizations. Thus, trade associations were founded, which, pursuing immediate economic benefits, simultaneously provided a solid ground for socialist propaganda. For the same purpose libraries and reading circles were established.
In both our main industrial centres, organized strike funds were established, which hundreds of workers joined. These funds are of particular importance to us because they directly focussed on the everyday material interests of the workers, and so resonated with the broadest social strata and kept their members constantly active simply through their administration, while at the same time providing excellent points of contact for socialist agitation.
In this way, the Social Democrats gradually became the real leaders of the workers' movement, gaining popularity and the trust of the broad masses.
The resolute stance adopted by the workers forced the bourgeoisie and the government to make many concessions; here and there the workers achieved higher wages or shorter working hours, the government perforce assumed the role of protector of labour, overseeing compliance with the most basic labour protection legislation, and thereby alleviating at least some of the most glaring problems; the number of factory inspection districts and of inspectors was increased. Of course, as in all states that pursue "social policy from above," this was primarily the maintenance of appearances and nothing fundamental was achieved.
The political struggle was forced upon the proletariat by the government's stance on economic issues; for on the one hand, this government hypocritically promotes policies of labour protection, offering petty palliative measures that largely remain on paper, while on the other hand, it seeks to crush any independent movement of the exploited classes with the brute force of the police. Strikes are prohibited by special decrees, and if they nevertheless occur, the police and military are ready to suppress them. Workers' associations and strike funds are also forbidden, and those involved face long prison sentences if discovered. Every fact of this kind is a new practical lesson in the necessity of political struggle for the workers and confirms the teachings of social democracy; for each of these facts clearly shows that absolutism is a barrier that makes any improvement in the current situation of the working class impossible, just as it stands in the way of socialist aspirations in general; they show that all efforts of the proletariat must be directed toward overthrowing this barrier; that all forces must be exerted to wrest a democratic constitution from the Tsarist regime. This slogan of Social Democracy, the political struggle, the struggle for rights and freedoms for working people, resounds most loudly on May Day.
May Day has, from the very first moment, gained its full significance among our proletariat. As early as 1890, around ten thousand workers, mainly in Warsaw, celebrated in common with workers from all over the world. By the following year the number had already risen to between 25,000 and 30,000, and the workers celebrated not just in Warsaw but in the industrial centres of Zyrardów and Łódź. The May Day celebration in 1892, in which 80,000 workers in Łódź alone stopped work, and which ended so bloodily as a result of police provocations, attracted the attention of all of Europe at the time. Even in that year, despite the terrible bloodletting the party had suffered through countless arrests, and despite the sophisticated cruelty and police spying used by the government, several thousand workers raised the banner of the eight-hour working day, and only by deploying the full force of the military in the factory towns was it possible to "restore calm".
The character and meaning of the May Day celebration in our country is closest to that in Austria; however, it has an even greater significance for us because it is the only opportunity for public mass demonstration. The May Day celebrations rouse the broad masses of the proletariat and awaken them from their deep slumber. Due to our situation, this can take no other form for us than a work stoppage. This concrete, unsubtle form of demonstration is the only one capable of arousing enthusiasm and exerting influence; it bears, as in Austria, the character of a political demonstration. Given the complete lack of political freedoms and rights, it combines with the demand for The eight-hour day, the demands for universal suffrage, the right of assembly and association, freedom of conscience, language, speech, and writing. All the posters printed for this occasion contain such demands. Finally, the May Day celebration is the only concrete way in which international solidarity becomes apparent to our masses; it is almost the only opportunity on which our proletariat can feel and act as a member of the mighty international workers' army.
This is a portrayal of the activities of our social democracy over the last four years. Based on the principles of international social democracy, it has relentlessly pursued its goal; every step it takes has had to be hard-won. Within a short period of four years, hundreds of comrades lost their freedom; of the four last May Day celebrations, two of them ended similarly to the one in Fourmies,[6] in a bloody clash with the military. In 1891, the workers were celebrating calmly and solemnly, as everywhere else, when the military attacked them and provoked a bloody battle. The following year, 80,000 workers in Łódź put up a veritable battle against the soldiers, again as a result of provocation by the police. Arrests tear comrades from the ranks of the fighters almost daily; the Warsaw "Citadel"[7] often lacks the space to accommodate all the prisoners, and despite these losses, the struggle continues steadfastly. Recently, it has been given the service of a new weapon in the form of the social-democratic workers' newspaper Sprawa Robotnicza[8], published abroad.
The workers' movement in the Kingdom of Poland gradually became the most important phenomenon of our social system. Devoid of any historical tradition, our bourgeoisie completely surrendered itself to the lust for profit and, in exchange for the mess of pottage that was a promise of protection of its material interests by the government, with cynical transparency abandoned all patriotic and political aspirations. The Russian market, which allows it to realize the surplus value extorted from Polish workers, has made it a loyal supporter of "throne and altar"; it does not exist as an independent political power. The Polish petty bourgeoisie is still most deeply imbued with patriotic-revolutionary traditions; its clash of interests with the large scale industry that developed as a result of the political alliance with Russia ignites its patriotic fervor and make it a fanatic for Polish independence. But the petty bourgeoisie is no more independent than the big bourgeoisie. The only truly oppositional element in our society is the working class. Naturally, every political idea, every oppositional impulse seeks to make the working class its vehicle. Even our patriotic "intelligentsia," which unconsciously espouses petty-bourgeois ideals in social matters, seeks to steer the workers' movement into patriotic waters; hence the recent attempts by this "intelligentsia" to merge the programme of restoration of an independent Polish state with the social-democratic programme in a synthesis of social patriotism. However, the first practical attempt to impose a semi-patriotic character onto this year's May Day celebrations failed due to the energetic resistance of the class-conscious social-democratic working class.
The patriotic tendency, the ideal of an independent Polish realm, has no prospects of winning over the social democratic working class. The economic and social history of the three parts of the former Kingdom of Poland has organically incorporated them into the three major annexing states,[9] creating distinct aspirations and political interests in each. Given the chronic oversaturation of the world market, the large-scale industry of Congress Poland exists and develops today only as a result of its political coexistence with Russia, which has forged an economic bond between the two countries. The Russian government is constantly reinforcing this economic bond with guileful policies, promoting Polish industry partly to win over the capitalist class in the interest of Russification, and partly in its own economic self-interest. In light of this economic interdependence, rooted in the insurmountable logic of capitalism, the endeavour to call into being a capitalist Polish state lacks any real basis. Given these facts, patriotism becomes a programme whose foundations are the subjective wishes of its creators, and whose means of realization are the unpredictable eventualities of a European war. The support of European democracy, on which our patriots are counting, despite its enormous moral importance, cannot compensate for the missing material basis of this programme.
The programme to restore an independent Poland cannot, since it does not account of reality, lead to any political activity that corresponds to the needs of the proletariat. A common minimum political program for the working class of the three Polish states—one of which possesses relatively broad political freedom with universal suffrage, the second of which, possessing some meager political rights, still has to fight for universal suffrage, and the third of which is completely under the yoke of absolutism—such a common program is a practical impossibility today, since the political activity of the workers' party must always correspond to the existing political forms. To accept such a political programme today would be tantamount to wanting to renounce all political activity. But the working class must engage in such activity; it can only be won over to real demands, to those that already today generate a practical struggle in the name of real, visible, and significant needs. Such political action based on real conditions is for the proletariat of Galicia today the struggle for universal suffrage, a struggle it shares with the proletariat of all Austria. For the proletariat of Posen and Silesia, the political programme is to march with German Social Democracy. For the proletariat of Russian Poland, it is the slogan common to the entire proletariat of the Russian Empire, reflecting its actual conditions of life—the overthrow of absolutism. This programme arises from the requirements of the everyday economic struggle of the proletariat as well as its socialist aspirations in general. This programme makes it possible for the proletariat, in aiming to win those political rights that best correspond to its local interests, to simultaneously protect itself from the government's Russification policies. Finally, this program leads the working class directly to the triumph of socialism and at the same time brings it closer to the moment when, with the definitive abolition of all oppression, the subjugation of the Polish nationality will also be finally eliminated and the basis of all cultural oppression will be removed.
The programme, which sets the overthrow of the Tsarist regime as its next political task, does not rely on random upheavals in European politics for its implementation, its existence is not due to the wishes and ideals of individuals and classes that are fading from history. Rather, it is produced by the objective course of history, which eroded the patriarchal peasantry and thereby undermined the material conditions of the Tsarist regime, which simultaneously developed capitalism and thereby created the political power that would overthrow it—the proletariat.
Striving to achieve a new political form in its own interest, our working class has the sublime awareness that it is working for the common cause of the international proletariat, that by fighting the most powerful stronghold of European reaction it is truly contributing to the triumph of the great goals which today unite thousands of comrades throughout the world in one thought and one feeling.
1. The official Polish delegation included 2 representatives from Prussian Poland, 1 from Russian Poland (Marchlewski, aka Karski), 3 from Austrian Poland, and 4 from the emigré communities in London and Paris. [MIA] [Return]
2. . Congress Poland refers to the Kingdom of Poland, created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna and which existed until 1915. It was governed by Russia under direct rule by the Czar. [Return]
3. In 1889, the Union of Polish Workers (Zwiazek Robotników Polskich) was founded in Warsaw under the leadership of the Social Democrats Julian Marchlewski and Jan Leder. It initially focused on the economic struggle, carried out extensive educational work among the proletariat, and demanded an alliance with the Russian Social Democrats. The association merged in 1893 with a part of the "II. Proletariat" to form the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP). [Return]
4. The first Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party in the Kingdom of Poland, founded in 1882 by Ludwik Waryński and called the "I." or "Great" Proletariat, was crushed in a massive wave of arrests in 1886. The “II.” or “Little Proletariat”, founded by Marcin Kasprzak, existed from 1888 to 1893. [Return]
5. From May 1, 1890, the strike movement grew large, encompassing most sectors of Warsaw's metalworking and chemical industries, the textile industry in Łódź, the coal and metallurgical industries of Dabrowa, and the weaving mills of Zyrardów. It reached its peak in the Łódź Uprising on May 5, 1892, with approximately 80,000 strikers. [Return]
6. Fourmies is a mining town in northern Fance. During a series of miners' strikes in 1891 troops opened fire on a peaceful crowd, killing one. The event became symbolically linked with May 1st. [MIA] [Return]
7. The Warsaw Citadel was a prison built by Czar Nicholas I to hold political prisoners after the Warsaw uprising of 1830. [MIA][ Return]
8. Sprawa Robotnicza ("Workers' Cause") was a socialist newspaper based in Paris with initial funding from Leo Jogiches and Rosa Luxemburg as a primary contributor and editor. The first issue appeared very shortly before the Zurich Congress of the 2nd International. The paper was published from 1893-1896. [MIA] [Return]
9. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 split Poland into 3 parts: "Congress" Poland, part of the Russian Empire and ruled directly by the Czar; Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire; and Posen, incorporated into Prussia. The Polish Socialist Party of the 1890s was most closely linked with Galicia. [MIA] [Return]