Reflection on the symptoms of the separation of the ultras and the majority social-chauvinists (1914-1917) [antikvár]

János JemnitzREFLECTIONS ON THE SYMPTOMS OF THE SEPARATION OF THE "ULTRAS" AND THE "MAJORITY" SOCIAL-CHAUVINISTS (1914-1917)There is a great deal to be added to the historiography of the working class movement during World War I, from an international point of view as well as with regard to the history of the individual countries. It has always been evident for both the participants of the working class movement and the scrutinizers of history that the era of World War I caused terrible shocks and also pointed a sériés of lessons towards the understanding of the post-war world. At the same time, the working class movement is simply incompréhensible without taking into account the transformations which took place pre-cisely during the war. These transformations have countless aspects, of which only one is going to be analysed here, an aspect we find instructive in our days, too, and which, it seems, has not always been marked off distinctly enough in historiography. This is the historical career of the "ultras" who criticized from the right even those party leaderships which were supporting the governments.The symptoms of the séparation of the "ultras"When examining the phenomenon indicated in the subtitle, first of ail, we must try to answer the question: whom do we class among the "ultras"? It seems that this question cannot be answered with full précision since différences will inevitably appear according to countries, periods and personalities, and exceptions will, in this respect, rather weaken than strengthen the rule. Let us point out, however, as it were by way of introduction, what we consider as the two most characteristic features of the "ultras": nationalism gaining the upper hand over internationalism and the récognition of the policy of Burgfriede, of "class peace".1Of these two criteria, nationalism had a longer historié tradition in the working class movement while a pronounced appearance of the idea of "class peace" was a new or, properly speaking, a war phenomenon. Although, as a matter of fact, this conception, too, had its forerunners in a certain sense, it had never been vigorous as a trend before 1914. When submitting this trend to a thorough analysis we shall have to point out later a différence which seems to be of great importance. The policy of "class peace" was, in fact, adopted as it is well known, by the German and the French "majority" and by the leaders of the British Labour Party. In this respect, however, a clear line of distinction can be drawn between the views of Scheidemann on the one hand, and of Sudekum or the extreme revisionist writers' group on the other hand. This1 Burgfriede, the French L'Union Sacrée and the Hungarian "class peace" are not entirely équivalent notions. The idea of Burgfriede refers more to the period of the war while "class peace" foreshadows further perspectives.