ABSTRACT
Revolution and imperialism were the twin issues around which the neo-Marxist movement grouped itself; Eastern Germany, Austria, and Russia were the areas of its greatest strength; and the war of 1914-18 was the test of its doctrines. Beyond Central and Eastern Europe the new school at first could count on scattered support only from the more radical Syndicalists, who for different reasons were becoming critical of 'reformist' Socialism. On the eve of 1914 Marxist radicalism was still for the most part an East European phenomenon. The radicals were Marxists who had gone through the revisionist controversy and come out at the other end not merely unshaken in their faith, but more determined than ever to salvage the revolutionary core of Marxism from the temporary accretions of political reformism. The task of underpinning the embryonic theory of imperialism suggested in the writings of Kautsky fell to another member of the Viennese group who had the advantage of being a trained economist.
