Spartacist League

:This article is about the Spartacist League which existed in post-World War I Germany. See International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) for the group currently named the Spartacist League.

Related Topics:
World War I - Germany - International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)

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The Spartacist League (Spartakusbund in German) was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during and just after the politically volatile years of World War I. It was founded by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg (nicknamed "Red Rosa") along with others such as Clara Zetkin. Its greatest period of activity was during the German Revolution of 1918, when it sought to incite a revolution similar to that of the Bolsheviks in Russia by circulating illegal subversive publications, such as the newspaper Spartacus Letters. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion in the history of the Roman Republic. In December of 1918, the League joined the Comintern and renamed itself the Communist Party of Germany (usually abbreviated "KPD", for Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands); on January 1, 1919, the Spartacist League/KPD executed a short-lived Communist revolution in Berlin (against the protests of Luxemburg and Liebknecht), which was easily crushed by nationalist elements.

Related Topics:
German - Marxist - Germany - World War I - Karl Liebknecht - Rosa Luxemburg - Clara Zetkin - German Revolution - 1918 - Bolshevik - Russia - Subversive - Spartacus - Roman Republic - Comintern - Communist Party of Germany - January 1 - 1919 - Berlin

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