Kautsky, Karl Johann (1854–1938)

Karl Johann Kautsky became the leading German socialist theoretician at the time of the Second International and the authoritative exponent of ’orthodox Marxism’. He was a close associate of Engels, editor of Die Neue Zeit from 1883 until 1917, and author of numerous political, historical and theoretical works. He clashed with Bernstein in the ‘revisionist debate’ in the late 1890s and with Lenin during the Russian Revolution.