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Rosa Luxemburg, woman, Marxist and pacifist advocated for "a world where we are socially equal, humanly different and totally free." Her spirit, the socialist ideal, was an overwhelming passion that overwhelmed everything. And they murdered her, for being a communist.
Rozalía, daughter of a wood merchant, was born on March 5, 1871 in a small town –Zàmosc- in the part of Poland, occupied at that time by the Russians. As a child, she suffers from a misdiagnosed illness that leaves her with a slight limp for her (short) life.
In Warsaw he carried out his first studies, in a school environment that was actually intended exclusively for the Russian upper bourgeoisie, where he obtained excellent results, as he learned four languages with surprising ease and, at a very young age, showed his inclination to write texts. of a certain political content, which soon makes him have both great friends and enemies.
At the same time, and since she was little, she lived the bitter experience of discrimination, as a Jew and as a Pole, in a "Russified" Poland. At only 15 years old, she joined the socialist movement, just when several socialist leaders were sentenced to death by hanging.
This fact impacted her deeply, but did not frighten her, because even though she was a brilliant student, she was not awarded the gold medal for academic achievement, due to her political inclinations. In fact, at that time, she had already signed her own sentence. Death sentence.
Knowing that she was in the crosshairs of the feared police, Rosa, in 1889, fled to distant Switzerland to continue her studies there at the University of Zurich, which at that time was the only one where female students were admitted. . To begin with, she studied Natural, Political and Economic Sciences and, in 1897, she obtained her doctorate - as the only woman - among the children of manufacturers, of future politicians, of statesmen.
It would not take long for him to become a member of the Proletarian Revolutionary Party, and that is when he met the person who would be his love and companion during his short but intense life, Leo Jogiches. Although she had countless lovers.
After graduating in Political Science – something unusual for a woman at that time – in that same year, Rosa became the co-founder of a new political party: the Social Democrats of the Kingdom of Poland.
Soon, Rosa moves to live in Germany where she will be part of the Socialist Party that represents the political core of the Second International and where she will meet Clara Zetkin, a German of Jewish origin who was the firmest and bravest of all the fighters for women's equality and the one that established in 1911 that March 8 would from then on be International Women's Day.
The Russian Revolution of 1905, the first great social explosion in Europe after the defeat of the Paris Commune, was a breath of fresh air for Rosa, as she wrote articles and attended rallies until she managed to sneak into Warsaw to participate directly in the fight against the ruling class, the "capitalists".
During her attendance at the International Socialist Congress in 1907, together with "Comrade Lenin", who called her "the eagle of the Revolution" or the "Red Rose", they developed an "anti-war" program and, likewise, worked as teacher at the Berlin Socialist School. The son of her great friend Clara Zetkin is her lover. Yes, Rosa loves life in all its facets.
During the spring of 1914 and as a result of her fiery conferences in pursuit of peace and against war – which would effectively soon be World War I that was about to break out – she was once again sentenced to prison.
Her defense lawyer is her new lover and during the two years she was imprisoned, she tirelessly wrote writings and pamphlets, through which she expressed her joy and satisfaction with the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia.
And, at all times, in his calls, his writings, addressed to the people, he does not stop warning, alerting of a possible imminent danger of a Bolshevik dictatorship, but it will not be until 1922 when this document reaches the hands of the general public. . A surprise, without a doubt.
The agitation against the First World War is a crucial moment in the life of Luxemburg, as German social democracy supported its own bourgeoisie.
Rosa was brilliant at public speaking and, as a writer, she was emotional, sharp, and even sarcastic. In 1911, Rosa published a writing, written during one of his many stays in prison, in which he relentlessly criticized social democracy, taking up a phrase from Engels, stating that if there is no progress towards true socialism, only barbarism remains.
On January 15, 1919, a new arrest occurred, as a group of soldiers came to arrest Rosa and her friend and "comrade" Karl Liebknecht. She takes a small basket, full of books, thinking that this is another of the many arrests she has already suffered.
Upon leaving the doors of the elegant Eden Hotel, suddenly and all at once, the soldiers drag Rosa and her partner Karl down the stairs. And they do not stop hitting them on the head, all over their bodies, with the butts of their rifles, until they both succumb to the unexpected attack. Then, both bodies are thrown into the gloomy waters of the canal. It was three months later when they found the remains. And they received burial.
With all honors, but that was much later, when in the city of Berlin, and after the end of World War II, the victors had built a Wall, which they would later call the Wall of Shame.
A year before the tragic event, in a letter from prison, on the eve of December 24, Rosa wrote in her Diary: "It is my third Christmas behind bars, but I do not consider it a tragedy... here I am, still and alone. And serene, as always, wrapped in those multiple black cloths of the darkness of captivity".
