ABSTRACT
Through her long involvement in the German Communist party, Ruth Fischer amassed valuable material on its changing fortunes, the transformation of the Bolshevik party into a totalitarian dictatorship, and the degeneration of the Comintern. Drawing on this material and on her own vivid recollections, Fischer reconstructs the history of the German Communist party from 1918 to 1929. First published in 1948, this fundamental work opened up the study of the inner organizational life of a major revolutionary movement. In his introduction to the Social Science Classics edition, John Leggett reviews and summarizes the social, political, and economic issues and events that precipitated the revolution and those factors that contributed to its failure.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|2 pages
The Origins of German Communism
part 2|2 pages
National Bolshevism
part 3|2 pages
The Communist Uprising of 1923
part 4|2 pages
The Period of Transformation
part 5|2 pages
The State Party is Installed
part 6|2 pages
Summary and Conclusion