Editing Germany (section)

==== Communist involvement ====
The [[Bolsheviks]], a Russian [[Communism|Communist]] movement led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], endorsed the German war effort, enacting a policy of [[revolutionary defeatism]] to weaken the [[Feudalism|feudalist]] order in [[Russia]] through a German victory.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1reY72ktEc The Russian Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 2)]</ref> Lenin himself wrote that:<blockquote>"During a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government. [...] Russia's defeat means desiring the victory of Germany."<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/jul/26.htm The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War]</ref> </blockquote>The German government likewise endorsed the Bolsheviks as a [[Revolution|revolutionary]] movement with potentional to weaken their Russian enemy. [[Marxism|Marxist]] leaders like [[Alexander Helphand]] within the Social Democratic Party, the ruling party of Germany at the time, openly promoted the idea that:<blockquote>"The interests of the German government are identical to those of the Russian revolutionaries."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hra5Gq8gF4&list=PLB2vhKMBjSxOBRaYtCTZ_MfV1njg2lGX1&index=3 In Dire Straits - Russia on Austro-Hungary's Doorstep I THE GREAT WAR Week 24]</ref></blockquote>However, the German Communists of the [[Spartacist League]] took the principle of revolutionary defeatism in reverse, fighting against the German war effort and German [[imperialism]]. [[Rose Luxemburg]], the leader of the Spartacist League, consistently wrote against the German war machine, even criticizing fellow socialists within the SPD for supporting it.<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1915/junius/ch08.htm Rosa Luxemburg: The Junius Pamphlet (Chap.8)]</ref> The [[Spartacism|Spartacists]] instead forged an alliance with the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (USPD), a [[Democratic socialism|democratic socialist]] movement formed in 1917 to oppose the perceived pro-war position of the SPD.<ref>[https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/revolution-191819/spartakusbund.html The Spartacus League]</ref>