Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Balkan Wars from Contemporary Perception to Historic Memory pp 197–215Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Deviationist Perceptions of the Balkan Wars: Leon Trotsky and Otto Neurath

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

The chapter deals with Leon Trotsky and Otto Neurath as contemporary observers of the Balkan Wars. Both were sent into the Balkan region as correspondents to describe, analyze, and explain the warfare to their readers at home in Tsarist Russia and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a fellow of the Carnegie Endowment, Neurath aimed to document and analyze the economy in the Balkan region in the context of his peculiar theory of war economy. Trotsky had been asked by the editor of the newspaper “Kievan thought” to go to the Balkans as special correspondent. Both men developed deviationist approaches with respect to their own countries. While Neurath opposed Austria’s anti-Serbian politics and propaganda, Trotsky pseudonymously attacked the converse policies pursued by the Russian press and politics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Richard C. Hall, The Balkan Wars 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War (London: Routledge, 2000); Katrin Boeckh, Von den Balkankriegen zum Ersten Weltkrieg. Kleinstaatenpolitik und ethnische Selbstbestimmung auf dem Balkan (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1996).

  2. 2.

    George Frost Kennan, “Introduction: The Balkan Crises: 1913 and 1993,” in idem, ed., The Other Balkan Wars. A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect with a New Introduction and Reflections on the Present Conflict by George F. Kennan (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment, 1993), 3–16.

  3. 3.

    Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879–1921 (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), 201.

  4. 4.

    Otto Neurath to Ferdinand Tönnies, undated [July–August 1909], Estate of Ferdinand Tönnies, Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbibliothek Kiel.

  5. 5.

    The classic, partisan, pro-Trotsky biography is Isaac Deutscher’s three-volume study, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879–1921; The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921–1929 (London: Oxford University Press, 1959); The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky 1929–1940 (London: Oxford University Press, 1963). The most recent of the critical and (especially in this case) hotly disputed biographies is Robert Service, Trotsky: A Biography (Basingstoke: Pan, 2009). See, for example, the harsh critique of Service’s book by Trotskyite author David North, In Defense of Leon Trotsky (Oak Park, MI: Mehring Books, 2010).

  6. 6.

    Leon Trotsky, My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography (New York: Scribner, 1930).

  7. 7.

    Ibid., 207.

  8. 8.

    George Weissman, ed., The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: The Balkan Wars 1912–13 (New York: Monad Press, 1980), 57.

  9. 9.

    Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, 185.

  10. 10.

    For further biographical information, see Marie Neurath and Robert S. Cohen, eds., Otto Neurath: Empiricism and Sociology (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1973); Nancy Cartwright et al., Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Paul Neurath, “Otto Neurath (1882–1945)—Life and Work,” in Elisabeth Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler, eds., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996), 15–28. The first biography of Neurath was recently published by the author of this essay: Günther Sandner, Otto Neurath. Eine politische Biographie (Vienna: Zsolnay, 2014).

  11. 11.

    Friedrich Stadler and Thomas E. Uebel, eds., Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis (Vienna: Springer, 2012).

  12. 12.

    Thomas E. Uebel, Vernunftkritik und Wissenschaft. Otto Neurath und der erste Wiener Kreis (Vienna: Springer, 2010).

  13. 13.

    Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, 186.

  14. 14.

    As far as I know, there is no reliable source to verify that this episode actually happened.

  15. 15.

    Otto Neurath, “Zur Anschauung der Antike über Handel, Gewerbe und Landwirtschaft,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, vol. 34, no. 2 (1907), 145–205.

  16. 16.

    In his memoirs, Mises wrote about these seminars and characterized Neurath in not-very-friendly terms as someone who always put forth absolute nonsense with fanatical forcefulness. Ludwig von Mises, Erinnerungen (Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer, 1978), 24.

  17. 17.

    Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ed., Yearbook for 1913–1914 (Washington, DC: Adams, 1914), 92.

  18. 18.

    Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, ed., Yearbook for 1911 (Washington, DC: Adams, 1912), 93.

  19. 19.

    Trotsky, My Life, 230.

  20. 20.

    Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, 184.

  21. 21.

    Trotsky, My Life, 230.

  22. 22.

    Otto Neurath to Ferdinand Tönnies, undated [1913], Estate of Ferdinand Tönnies, Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbibliothek Kiel.

  23. 23.

    Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, 201–209.

  24. 24.

    Trotsky, War Correspondence, 90.

  25. 25.

    Ibid.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., 192–97.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 57–60.

  28. 28.

    Otto Neurath, “Serbia’s Successes in the Balkan War: An Economic and Social Study” [1912], in: Thomas E. Uebel and Robert S. Cohen, eds., Otto Neurath, Economic Writings: Selections 1904–1945 (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2004), 200–61, here 201.

  29. 29.

    Trotsky, War Correspondence, 90.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 14.

  31. 31.

    See, e.g., the article “The Bulgarian and Serbian Social Democrats,” in Trotsky, War Correspondence, 29–36.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 257–60.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 272.

  34. 34.

    See Trotsky’s article “The Jewish Question,” ibid., 494–504.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 63.

  36. 36.

    Otto Neurath, “Through War Economy to Economy in Kind,” in Neurath and Cohen, eds., Empiricism and Sociology, 123–57.

  37. 37.

    Neurath, “Serbia’s Successes,” 227.

  38. 38.

    Otto Neurath, “Österreich-Ungarns Balkanpolitik” [1912], in Rudolf Haller and Ulf Höfer, eds., Otto Neurath. Gesammelte ökonomische, soziologische und sozialpolitische Schriften, Teil II (Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1998), 14–30.

  39. 39.

    Neurath, “Serbia’s Successes,” 202.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., 203.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 227.

  42. 42.

    Hall, The Balkan Wars 1912–1913, 136.

  43. 43.

    Trotsky, War Correspondence, 311.

  44. 44.

    Trotsky, My Life, 227.

  45. 45.

    Neurath, “Serbia’s Successes,” 226.

  46. 46.

    Ibid.

  47. 47.

    Ibid.

  48. 48.

    Otto Neurath, “Total Socialisation: Of the Two States of the Future to Come” [1920], in Uebel and Cohen, eds., Otto Neurath, Selected Economic Writings, 371–404.

  49. 49.

    Günther Sandner, “Nations without Nationalism: The Austro-Marxist Discourse on Multiculturalism,” Journal for Language and Politics, vol. 4, no. 2 (2005), 273–91.

  50. 50.

    Service, Trotsky, 127. Service gives no reference for Trotsky’s quotation.

Bibliography

  • Boeckh, Katrin. 1996. Von den Balkankriegen zum Ersten Weltkrieg.Kleinstaatenpolitik und ethnische Selbstbestimmung auf dem Balkan. Munich: Oldenbourg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 1912. Yearbook for 1911. Washington, DC: Adams.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1914. Yearbook for 1913–1914. Washington, DC: Adams.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cartwright, Nancy, et al. 1996. Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Deutscher, Isaac. 1954. The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879–1921. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1959. The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921–1929. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1963. The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky 1929–1940. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Richard C. 2000. The Balkan Wars 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kennan, George Frost. 1993. Introduction: The Balkan Crises: 1913 and 1993. In The Other Balkan Wars. A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect with a New Introduction and Reflections on the Present Conflict by George F. Kennan, ed. idem, 3–16. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Otto. 1907. Zur Anschauung der Antike über Handel, Gewerbe und Landwirtschaft. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 34(2): 145–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1973. Through War Economy to Economy in Kind. In Otto Neurath: Empiricism and Sociology, ed. Marie Neurath and Robert S. Cohen, 123–157. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Paul. 1996. Otto Neurath (1882–1945)—Life and Work. In Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, eds. Elisabeth Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler, 15–28. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Otto. 1998. “Österreich-Ungarns Balkanpolitik” [1912]. In Otto Neurath. Gesammelte ökonomische, soziologische und sozialpolitische Schriften, eds. Rudolf Haller and Ulf Höfer, 14–30, Teil II. Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004a. “Serbia’s Successes in the Balkan War: An Economic and Social Study” [1912]. In Otto Neurath, Economic Writings: Selections 1904–1945, eds. Thomas E. Uebel and Robert S. Cohen, 200–261. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004b. “Total Socialisation: Of the Two States of the Future to Come” [1920]. In Otto Neurath, Economic Writings: Selections 1904–1945, eds. Thomas E. Uebel and Robert S. Cohen, 371–404. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Marie, and Robert S. Cohen, eds. 1973. Otto Neurath: Empiricism and Sociology. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, David. 2010. In Defense of Leon Trotsky. Oak Park: Mehring Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandner, Günther. 2005. Nations Without Nationalism: The Austro-Marxist Discourse on Multiculturalism. Journal for Language and Politics 4(2): 273–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. Otto Neurath. Eine politische Biographie. Vienna: Zsolnay.

    Google Scholar 

  • Service, Robert. 2009. Trotsky: A Biography. Basingstoke: Pan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stadler, Friedrich, and Thomas E. Uebel, eds. 2012. Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis. Vienna: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trotsky, Leon. 1930. My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography. New York: Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1980a. The Bulgarian and Serbian Social Democrats. In The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: The Balkan Wars 1912–13, ed. George Weissman, 29–36. New York: Monad Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1980b. The Jewish Question. In The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: The Balkan Wars 1912–13, ed. George Weissman, 494–504. New York: Monad Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uebel, Thomas E. 2010. Vernunftkritik und Wissenschaft. Otto Neurath und der erste Wiener Kreis. Vienna: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Mises, Ludwig. 1978. Erinnerungen. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weissman, George, eds. 1980. The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: The Balkan Wars 1912–13. New York: Monad Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Political Science and of Economic and Social History, University of Vienna, International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK), Vienna, Austria

    Günther Sandner

Authors
  1. Günther Sandner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Günther Sandner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany

    Katrin Boeckh

  2. Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany

    Sabine Rutar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sandner, G. (2016). Deviationist Perceptions of the Balkan Wars: Leon Trotsky and Otto Neurath. In: Boeckh, K., Rutar, S. (eds) The Balkan Wars from Contemporary Perception to Historic Memory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44642-4_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44642-4_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44641-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44642-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation