French Socialists Against the German National War Against Russia

Every one of the great powers framed world war one as a war of national defense, and so too did the leaders of the various socialist parties. The socialists had always drawn a distinction between aggressive imperial wars and defensive wars to protect a country from foreign invasion. So they believed it was the duty of french socialists to help defeat germany, not in the name of france, but in thename of socialism. And so they chose what they believed to be the lesser of two evils, supporting the german national war effort against russia. If you head west, you find french socialist leaders making all these same calculations and arguments, except replacing the russian czar with the german ka