Z pola walki.
[LUXEMBURG, Rosa]. Z pola walki. Wydanictwo Socialdemokracji Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy. [Krakow], February 9, 1905 – June 30, 1905.
Together with:
Dodatek do Nr. 11-go “Z pola walki”. [Krakow, Władimir Teodorczuk, August 28, 1905].
Five extremely rare issues and one supplement, of From the Battle Field; printed wrappers, fragile; unbound as issued. This irregularly appearing news bulletin reports the events of the 1905 revolution in Poland, with announcements of strikes, mass actions, activities of the enemy, and reports on deaths. Z pola walki was printed in Krakow on hymn book paper in order to be smuggled into the centres of revolutionary activities in Russian Poland.
All in all thirteen issues of this news bulletin, published on behalf of the S.D.K.P.i.L., appeared between January and October 1905. The first three issues were supplements to the Czerwony Sztandar; from number 4 onwards the issues were published directly by the S.D.K.P.i.L. The editor-in-chief was Luxemburg’s partner Leo Jogiches, among the prominent contributors are the leaders of the party, Feliks Dzierżyński, Julain Marchlewski, and, of course, Luxemburg, as the bibliographer Kormanowa states. Due to the rarity of this publication, not many texts found their way into editions of her collected works.
The issues are:
No. 3, February 9, 1905, supplement to Czerwony Sztandar issue no. 24; pp. 6; unbound; a few minor marginal tears. – After an article titled General Strike there are reports on strikes in Warsaw, Łodz, Częstochowa, and other places.
No. 4, February 18, 1905, pp. 6. – More reports on the widening insurrection, including the events in Lithuania, in line with Rosa Luxemburg’s internationalism.
No. 6, March 20, 1905, pp. 8, the entire sheet. – The colophon at the end reads from the people’s printshop in Krakow. The leading article is titled Atmosphere of War in Poland; this is followed by reports on the widening impact of the revolution, the beginning of the school strike, and the reaction.
No. 7, March 29, 1905, pp. 8, the entire sheet. – Printed by Władimir Teodorczuk. At the end is a flaming appeal for mass mobilisation of the workers to join the revolution.
No. 10, June 30, 1905, pp. 16, the first page printed in red and black. p. 13 with one illustration (a banner commemorating two martyrs of the revolution); one tiny spot on the final page; the entire sheet; mid 20th century Russian stamp of the Library of the Lenin Institute in Moscow and accession number in ink on the first page. – This is the only issue to be printed in red and black. According to Kormanowa the Austrian authorities seized this issue.
Supplement to No. 11, August 28, 1905, pp. 4, the first page with one portrait; the entire sheet. – This supplement contains obituaries of victims of the reaction, and gives an account of the progress of the Tsarist troops and their numbers and movements.
Żanna Kormanowa, Materiały do bibliografii druków socjalistycznych, p. 96; we were able to locate issue no. 3 in Berlin State Library, issues 4, 5, 8 and supplement to number 5 in the Polish National Library, the Hoover Institution for War Peace and Revolution at Stanford University holds only a 1988 reprint. The German union catalogue of periodicals (Zeitschriftendatenbank) lists issues 1-3 at four German libraries.
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