NOTEBOOK “EGELHAAF”

EGELHAAF, HISTORY OF RECENT TIMES [1]

Gottlob Egelhaaf , History of Recent Times from the Peace of Frankfurt to the Present Day , 4th edition, Stuttgart, 1913.

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| | Preface, November 1912 | |
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The author is a scoundrel, a Bismarckian. But the book is nonetheless very useful as a summary of facts and reference source. His simple summary provides a picture of imperialism and democratic movements as the chief distinguishing features of the epoch . (N.B. extremely important for an understanding of the epoch!!). Very little about socialism, owing to the author’s hidebound reactionariness.

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| | | | Has a number of historical works, including a bulky volume on Wilhelm I and on Bis- marck ; also Outlines of History —in three parts: ancient times, the Middle Ages, and the recent period, 1905-1909 (published in Leipzig), and Annual Political Surveys , 1908 etc. up to 1912. |
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| | It is highly characteristic that this idiot of an author, who with pedantic accuracy gives the dates, etc. of all minor monarchs, their relatives, the miscarriages of the Queen of the Netherlands (sic! p. 440 ), etc., has not a word about the 1907 peasant uprising in Rumania (*)!! |
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(*) Incidentally. In the Europäischer Geschichtskalender for 1907 there are only government reports about the uprising (p. 340), which state that Russian sailors from the battleship Potemkin were “a dangerous element of ferment” (sic!!)....

The “Chronological Table” appended to the book has been compiled in an idiotic way, being a dry, unsystematic enumeration.

The following merits attention (outside the general system):

p. 5: Out of 5,000 million francs of the French indemnity (1871), the Germans used 120 million for the “war fund”

| 12 million—“for monetary rewards (grants) to 28 meritorious generals and to the Presi- dent of the Imperial Chan- cellery, Delbrück”. | | | | | sic! monetary rewards for generals , etc. | ⎞ ⎠ |
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| 350 million—for fortresses and bar- racks.... |
| 17 million—to “shipowners who suf- fered losses owing to the war”, etc | | | | | civilised war and plunder | ⎞ ⎠ |

| | p. 7... “In the 1874 Reichstag elec- tions, ten ultramontanes and five opponents of union were elected (in Alsace-Lorraine). On February 18 they attempted post factum to secure the holding of a popular referendum on whether the area should be part of France or Germany; the proposal was rejected without a debate by all against 23 votes.” | |
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| | | | | N.B. !! !! | | | on the question of self- deter- mination |
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| | ((Interesting to know who were these 23 ? In the Reichstag elected on January 1, 1874, there were 15 “Alsace autonomists” + 9 Social- Democrats. 15 + 9 = 24?? (there was one Dane, 14 Poles, 4 Welfs). Probably the Alsatians + the Social-Democrats voted for . Find out! Where? From Bebel?)) | |
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| results of colonial wars : (rob the land and become landowners!) | | | The revolt of the Hereros (South- West Africa)—1904-December 1905. Their song: “To whom does Hereroland belong?” and the refrain: “Hereroland belongs to us.” The German troops numbered up to 17,000 (pp. 298-99). The Hereros were “for the most part wiped out ” (sic!)—“a serious loss for them and for us” (299), for “work- ing hands” are lacking (!!).... “That the country is not without value and attraction is shown by the fact that, according to an official report of October 1906, 591 men of the colonial army decided not to return to Germany, but to remain in the country as farmers and cattle- breeders. The number increased con- siderably in the following months, and since on May 10, 1907 the new Reich- stag voted the farmers 5 million marks compensation for war losses, rehabilitation could begin” (299). |

| 1908, the British together with Germans in a colonial war!! | | | | The uprising of the Hottentots (also in South-West Africa) from September 1904 to 1907. Some bands continued to resist until late December 1908 “necessitating renewed joint punitive measured by the German and British authorities” (300). |

| | The French Republic’s hatred of Italy (because of the Pope, among other reasons) (and also this example): “in August 1893 Italian workers in Aigues Mortes were beaten half dead by their French competitors” (345). |
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| (workers of different countries) | | | |

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| | | Number of voters (millions) | | | | Electoral Reforms in Britain |
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| 0.8 | ...1st 1832 | (abolition of the “rotten boroughs”. Electoral qualification. Increase in the number of voters from about 400,000 to 800,000) | | Electo- ral re- forms in Britain |
| | 1.5 | ...2nd 1867 | (number of voters in- creased from 1,056,000 to 1½ million. House- owners and householders). |
| | 4 | ...3rd 1884 | (number of voters in- creased 75%), from 1½ to 4 million. Qualifica- tion—annual payment of rates. Domestic ser- vants, lodgers and oth- ers excluded. “Thus, out of about six million adult males in Britain, about two million were still voteless until 1912” (368). |
| | 6.5 | ...4th 1912 | (all males over 21 years of age, without the former distinctions; qualification— half- yearly payment of rates (p. 377) (cf. Schul- thess’s Europäischer Ge- schichtskalender )) |
| | | Introduced June 17, 1912 ( passed July 12, 1912 to come ) into force June 1, 1914 ((1832-1912, i.e., 80 years!)) |
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| criminal activity | | | | A “trifle”: Edward VII (1841-1910) “in early years was insatiable in dissipation often of a punishable kind (sic!!) and in sport” (425). |

| | The military campaign (1900-01) against the Boxer uprising in China (of the allied forces of Russia, Japan, Ger- many, France , Britain and the United States ) was appraised by the French general Frey as follows: this campaign “has for the first States time translated into reality the dream of idealist politi- cians—a United States of the civilised world ” (469).... ((Letters of the Social-Democrats—“Huns’ letters”— were, he says, lies or forgeries! (467) Well, of course!)) |
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| “United States of the civilised world” (!!!) | | | |
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| | When the Korean prince (Yi Yong) ap- peared before the Second Hague Conference (which opened on June 15, 1907) with a complaint against the Japanese and a declaration of the independence of Korea, the Japanese deposed the Korean emperor, put his son on the throne, and on July 24, 1907, concluded a “treaty” with him, pro- viding that all diplomatic relations shall be through the Japanese ambassador in Seoul. |
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| The Hague Conference and Korea!!!! | | | | |
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| Concerning the defeat of the revisionists at the Nuremberg Congress (1908) (258 to 119 against voting for the budget), the author, Egelhaaf, remarks: “The revisionists , however, only differ from the radical Social-Democrats in their cautious tactics, meant not to frighten away the bourgeois masses and to go as far as possible with the bourgeois Lefts. They do not differ as regards the ultimate goal; complete socialisation, and because they claim to be moderate, they are basically more dangerous than the ‘wild men’ of the extreme Left ” (523). Bismarck favoured a republic in France for the sake of separating (N.B.) her from monarchical Russia—and the ambassador Count Harry Arnim , who “oper- ated” in Paris for restoration of the monarchy, was recalled in 1874 (March 1874) and in 1875 was condemned to five years’ penal servitude (!) for publishing a secret state document (he fled to Nice) (p. 93). | |
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| | | [N.B.] opinion of a bourgeois: revisionists are “more dangerous than radical Social- Democrats” [N.B.] |
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| | | Bismarck for a republic in France |
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| Ireland: in December 1796 General Hoche with an army of 20,000 appeared before the island and only storms prevented a landing (p. 380). (The French revolution evoked a movement in Ireland.) | | | N.B.!! |

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| United States: 1775-83—war of liberation “with the help of France and Spain”. 1819—“Spain sold her possession ... the peninsula of Florida to the United States for five million dollars” (p. 453). | | | not bad! (“ally”— and “buyer”) |
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Literature cited: Gilbert, The South African War , Paris, 1902.

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Notes:
[1] Lenin obtained Egelhaaf’s book from the Zurich Cantonal Library. Two request cards filled in by Lenin establish the approximate date of his work on this book. He made his request for the book on August 4, 1916; the library answered that it could supply it “towards the end of October”. On October 4, 1916, Lenin asked for another (1908) edition and received the same answer. The time of his work on the book can be put as October-November 1916.