The Polish Question in the Light of the Polish Social Democracy

What it is

This is a book printed in Warsaw in 1907 under the title Kwestya polska w oświetleniu „Socyaldemokracyi” polskiej, by Feliks Perl. It is written in Polish and opens with epigraphs from Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky. The scanned copy is held by the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

Luxemburg and the Polish socialists argued about whether Polish independence should be a goal for the working-class movement. This book takes a critical position in that debate and shows how sharply socialists disagreed in the years before the First World War. The opening pages also show that the publisher did not take responsibility for the views of its authors.

Look closer

• Who is the author, and what position does the book argue against?
• Why do the epigraphs from Marx and Kautsky matter to the argument?
• Whose voice is missing from this debate, and how might Luxemburg have answered?