IGCSE HISTORY REVISION: ROSA LUXEMBURG. Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist.

1. ROSA
LUXEMBURG
IGCSE HISTORY
REVISION

2. PROFILE
Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish
and German revolutionary
socialist, Marxist philosopher
and anti-war activist.
Luxemburg was one of the
first writers to notice the
1905 revolution's potential
for democratisation within
the Russian Empire. In the
years 1905-1906 alone, she
made in Polish and German
over 100 articles, brochures,
appeals, texts, and speeches
about the revolution.

3. Question 1
Was Rosa Luxemburg a communist?

4. Answer 1
If not a communist, at least a socialist aspiring to become a communist.

5. Question 2
What were some of her main
socialist/communist activities?

6. Answer 2
Luxemburg led the Spartacists.
She proclaimed the Free Socialist Republic in Berlin in November 1918.
She set up and edited a newspaper called the ‘Red Flag’.
She founded the Communist Party of Germany in January 1919.
She set up soviets.

7. Question 3
Rosa Luxemburg defended the people
with capital punishment. How?

8. Answer 3
She wrote an essay called ‘Against Capital Punishment’.
In it she demanded the amnesty for political prisoners and the end of capital
punishment.

9. Question 4
Rosa was busy in her Reichstag activities.
What was her involvement
in the political arena?

10. Answer 4
Her Communist Party took part in the Weimar National Assembly.
Being constantly outvoted, Luxemburg suggested boycotting the
elections.
She was against Ebert’s democratic government.
Luxemburg encouraged a revolution in Berlin in January 1919.
Her attempts at revolution were halted by the Freikorps.
She was killed.

11. Important
Luxemburg and Liebknecht were extensively idolised as communist
martyrs by the East German communist government.
Luxemburg and Liebknecht were abducted in Berlin on 15 January 1919
by the Freikorps.
They were questioned under torture and then they were summarily
executed.
Lenin praised Luxemburg after her death as an "eagle" of the working
class.