Marxist socialism in the 1890s

The extent to which Bernstein's “revisionism” shook the world of socialist theory is difficult to imagine today. The Marxism that had given the workers' movement its ideological coherence during many years of underground work was being attacked at its very core. As Rosa Luxemburg underscored on several occasions, Bernstein's critique of “socialist reason” was not about “this or that method of struggle, or the use of this and that set of tactics, but the very existence of the social democratic movement.” Nothing less than the “correct” meaning of socialism – as proclaimed by the guardians of Marxist orthodoxy – was at stake. But what exactly did “Marxist socialism” mean, given Marx's own sarcastic admission that he did not consider himself a “Marxist?” Which of his and Engels' many, often contradictory publications contained the crucial elements of Marxist doctrine? As became clear in the course of the revisionist controversy, both Bernstein and his orthodox critics could readily produce appropriate citations from the founders' work which seemed to substantiate their opposing claims equally. In fact, Bernstein's steadfast interpretation of Marx's teachings as a “theory of social evolution” leaned heavily on selected passages from Marx's Capital and Engels' later writings, allowing him to build a somewhat credible defense of his declaration that he was merely attempting a “revision, vision, and clarification of Marxist socialism.”