Comrade and Lover

A revolutionary, a Marxist, and one of the leaders of the world socialist movement, Rosa Luxemburg fought for social justice and for the man she loved with equal passion and determination. This skillful and sensitive translation of her letters to Leo Jogiches reveals an affair which came to be seen as “the greatest and most tragic love story of Socialism.” Leo Jogiches was Luxemburg’s political alter ego and the only man she loved and admired. They first met in 1890 when they were both students at the Zurich University, and together they founded the first important Polish Marxist workers’ party—the antecedent of Poland’s contemporary ruling party. Comrade and Lover reveals that, unlike Golda Meir or Indira Gandhi whose political careers took precedence over their personal lives, Rosa Luxemburg would not choose one over the other—love and work were inseparable in her life. These letters reveal a fascinating woman, one who was moody and passionate, proud and independent, who struggled to reconcile her political career with her wish to have a child and a quiet, peaceful homelife with Jogiches. Rosa Luxemburg wrote nearly a thousand letters to Leo Jogiches between 1893 and 1914, but they were kept from scholars and the public for several decades in the Marx-Lenin Institute in Moscow. This selection marks their first translation from Polish into English.