S. V. Kretinin, A. O. Semenova Private correspondence as a source on the history of German and international Social Democracy: on the publication  Eduard Bernsteins Briefwechsel mit Karl Kautsky (1912–1932) / E.B. Görtz hrsg. Campus Verlag: Frankfurt am Main / New York, 2011. 633 S.

Abstract: The article reviews the solid publication of the correspondence between E. Bernstein and K. Kautsky, which sheds light on many points in the biographies of these two leading theoreticians of the German Social Democracy movement in the period between the wars (1918–1932). This book also contains vast information on the history of the Socialist movement of practically all the European countries. The letters of Bernstein and Kautsky are an extremely valuable historical source that will be useful to modern, as well as to the future generations of researchers in Social Democracy and Socialism histories. The study of the publication is based methodologically on the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity. The biographical method, also applied to this private correspondence, has allowed reconstituting in a most complete form the biographical information of E. Bernstein, K. Kautsky, and of other leaders of German Social Democracy. Examining the letters and their content evolution through conceptual constructions permits to view this source body as a certain social reality. The analysis of the correspondence led the authors of the review to conclude that both Bernstein and Kautsky after 1918, and certainly in the 1920s – beginning of the 1930s, had to be content with the status of cabinet theoreticians, being honored for their past contributions, but their role and influence on the political line and ideology of Social Democracy were not great. This makes all the more valuable the comments on the events of the 1920–1930s in their correspondence (such as on the question of the restoration of the Social Democratic International and its functions, the formation of new states and the national question, attitude towards Fascism).

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