V. I. Lenin

Speech at a Protest Rally Following the

Murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg

January 19, 1919 [1]

Brief Newspaper Report

Today the bourgeoisie and the social-traitors are jubilating in
Berlin-they have succeeded in murdering Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg. Ebert and Scheidemann, who for four years led the
workers to the slaughter for the sake of depredation, have now
assumed the role of butchers of the proletarian leaders. The
example of the German revolution proves that "democracy" is only
a camouflage for bourgeois robbery and the most savage violence.

Death to the butchers!

Endnotes

[1]
On January 15, 1919, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were
murdered by officers of Noske’s counter-revolutionary troops
with the connivance of the government of the Right
Social-Democrats Ebert and Scheidemann. News of the murder
reached Moscow on January 17 and on the same day it was
announced by Y. M. Sverdlov by to a joint session of the
All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the Moscow Soviet and
All-llussia Congress of Trade Unions. On January 18 Izvestia and
Pravda published an appeal “To All Soviets in Germany and
All Workers” signed by Sverdlov on behalf of the joint session. The Party’s Central Committee and the All-Russia
Central Executive Committee called on all Party organisations
and all Soviets to hold demonstrations and protest meetings. On
January 19 Moscow workers and Red Army units assembled in
mourning on Sovetskaya Square. Lenin, Sverdlov, Lunacharsky and
others addressed the demonstrators from the balcony of the
Moscow Soviet building.