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Franz Borkenau (December 15, 1900 – May 22, 1957) was an Austrian writer and publicist. Borkenau was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a civil servant. As a university student in Leipzig, his main interests were Marxism and psychoanalysis. Borkenau is known as one of the pioneers of the totalitarianism theory. ==Life== During 1921, Borkenau joined the Communist Party of Germany and was active as a Comintern agent until 1929.〔Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 457.〕 After graduating from the University of Leipzig during 1924, Borkenau moved to Berlin. In the 1920s, Borkenau was described by Richard Löwenthal as a "sincere Marxist" who very much wanted a world revolution.〔 At the end of 1929, Borkenau resigned from both the Comintern and the KPD owing to his personal repulsion and disgust about how the Communists operated, combined with an increasing horror about Stalinism.〔 Despite his disillusionment with Communism, Borkenau remained a leftist and worked as a researcher for the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. During his time at the Frankfurt Institute, Borkenau was a protégé of Carl Grünberg and his main interest was the relationship between capitalism and ideology. During 1933, Borkenau, who in Nazi terms was a "Half Jew", fled from Germany and lived at various times in Vienna, Paris and Panama City. During the 1930s, Borkenau was involved with organizing aid from abroad for the clandestine group ''Neu Beginnen'' (New Beginnings), which was working for the end of the Nazi regime.〔 In a series of articles published during 1933-34 in the left-wing German language émigré press, Borkenau defended the ''Neu Beginnen'' group as the superior alternative to both the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).〔 In his 1936 biography of the Italian sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, Borkenau offered an early theory of totalitarianism from a Marxist perspective.〔Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 461〕 Though rather hostile towards Pareto, Borkenau was much impressed by his theory of the "circulation of elites", by which the ablest individuals naturally became members of the elite, thereby ensuring that the elites would always be re-energized and refreshed.〔Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 459〕 Writing from a Marxist viewpoint, Borkenau contended that the "circulation of elites" theory explained both Communism and fascism.〔Jones, William David "Toward a Theory of Totalitarianism: Franz Borkenau's Pareto" pages 455-466 from ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Volume 53, Issue # 3, July - September 1992 page 460〕 Borkenau argued that the political-social-economic crises caused by World War I caused the strongest capitalists to form a "new economic elite".〔 But as the "new economic elite" continually revitalized itself by ever more destructive competition, more and more ordinary people felt the effects, thus causing the State to intervene.〔 But as the State became more involved with the economy, a "new political elite" emerged which superseded the previous economic elite, and claimed total power for itself in both the economy and politics.〔 In Borkenau's opinion, Fascism in Italy, National Socialism in Germany and Communism in Russia all in different ways represented the unfolding of this process〔 Borkenau argued that Vladimir Lenin created the first totalitarian dictatorship with all power concentrated into the hands of the state, which was completely unconstrained by any class forces as all previous regimes had been.〔 During September 1936, Borkenau made a two-month visit to Spain, where he observed the effects of Spanish Civil War in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. During his Spanish visit, Borkenau was much disillusioned by the behavior of the agents of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD in Spain and of the Spanish Communist Party. During January 1937, Borkenau made a second visit to Spain, during which he was arrested and tortured by Spanish police before being released. Borkenau's experience inspired his best-known book, ''The Spanish Cockpit'' of 1937. ''The Spanish Cockpit'' was widely praised and "made Borkenau's name famous throughout the English-speaking world".〔Kessler, Mario, "Between Communism and Anti-Communism: Franz Borkenau" in Fair-Schulz, Alex, and Kessler, Mario, ''German Scholars in Exile:New Studies in Intellectual History''. Lanham, Maryland; Lexington Books, 2011 ISBN 0739150480 (pp. 93-120).〕 Reviewer Douglas Goldring praised ''The Spanish Cockpit'' as "of exceptional interest to all those who are really anxious to know what is going on in Spain".〔Douglas Goldring, "An English Bookman's Notebook", Ottawa Citizen, October 2nd, 1937 (p.11).〕 Borkenau's book ''Austria and After'' (1938) was an attack on the Nazi Anschluss.〔 During 1939, Borkenau published ''The New German Empire'', where he warned that Adolf Hitler was intent upon world conquest. In particular, Borkenau advised against the idea popular in Great Britain during the 1930s that Britain should return the former German colonies in Africa in exchange for a German promise to respect the frontiers of Europe (Unknown to Borkenau, such an offer by the British had been secretly made to the Germans during early 1938).〔Crozier, Andrew ''Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies'', New York: St's Martin's Press, 1988 page 163.〕 Borkenau argued that the Germans would never honor such a promise, that returning the former German colonies would only provide a new field of conflict, and that Hitler's determination to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles was "an almost insignificant incident on the road to unlimited expansion".〔 Borkenau claimed that the German propaganda campaign for the former African colonies was a "stepping stone to something else", the "acquisition of a wider colonial area" for Germany.〔 Borkenau asserted that the propaganda campaign for the return of the former German colonies in Africa was intended for their strategic value in helping to prepare the ground for a war against Britain and France, rather than the economic value, which Borkenau noted was very small.〔 Borkenau argued that the main German target in Africa was South Africa.〔 Borkenau contended that if Britain returned the former German colonies to the ''Reich'', then the Germans would arouse the anti-British elements within the Afrikaner population.〔 Once the anti-British Afrikaners became the politically dominant element "to the exclusion of everything British", then the Germans would transform South Africa into a German Protectorate.〔 With control of South Africa, the Germans would be able to control the Cape of Good Hope route to India, plus the gold mines of the ''Witwatersrand'', which "would at one stroke get rid of all the limitations imposed on her Germany by the lack of free exchange".〔 According to Borkenau, the Nazi dictatorship was a powerful revolutionary mass-dictatorship based on propaganda and terror, which to maintain itself and the associated ''Wehrwirtschaft'' (Defence Economy) required a policy of endless expansion in all directions.〔Herz, John Review of ''The New German Empire'' pages 361-362 from ''The American Political Science Review'', Volume 34, Issue # 2, April 1940〕 In Borkenau's opinion, these powerful internal forces driving German foreign policy meant Nazi Germany could only attempt world conquest because without expansionism in all directions, the German dictatorship would collapse.〔 In Borkenau's opinion, the nearest historical counterpart to German policy was French expansionism during the French Revolution and the age of Napoleon.〔 Borkenau criticized those who compared the Third Reich to the Second Reich, or who argued that National Socialism was just one of the "ever-recurring waves of Teutonic nationalism", or the expression of "have-not imperialism" as engaging in a "deadly parallel".〔 Borkenau's portrayal of Nazi foreign policy being driven by powerful internal forces into a limitless expansionism was to configure the arguments made by German foreign policy by functionalist historians like Hans Mommsen and Martin Broszat, who similarly contended that Nazi foreign policy did not have any plans, but was rather "expansionism without objective" pushed by internal forces. However, Borkenau's work differed from the functionalists in that he maintained that the Nazi regime was a well-organized totalitarian dictatorship. During World War II, Borkenau lived in London, and worked as a writer for Cyril Connolly's journal ''Horizon''. During 1947, Borkenau returned to Germany to work as a professor at the University of Marburg. During June 1950, Borkenau attended the conference in Berlin together with other anti-Communist intellectuals such as Hugh Trevor-Roper, Ignazio Silone, Raymond Aron, Arthur Koestler, Sidney Hook and Melvin J. Lasky that resulted in the initiation of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. At the conference, Borkenau delivered the theme speech, for which he spoke of the "meaninglessness" of the conflict between capitalism and socialism in a time of "ebbing revolution", and where the only conflict that mattered in the world was the one between Communism and democracy.〔Belfrage, Cedric ''The American Inquisition'', Innianapolis: Bobbs-Merill Company, 1973 pages 138-139.〕 Left-wing crypto-communist intellectuals such as Cedric Belfrage, noting that Hitler often denounced Communism in Berlin, just as Borkenau did, compared his speech to the Nuremberg rallies, and accused Borkenau of being a sort of neo-Nazi.〔Belfrage, Cedric ''The American Inquisition'', Innianapolis: Bobbs-Merill Company, 1973 page 139.〕 Borkenau was very active in the Congress, and was often criticized by Marxist intellectuals such as Isaac Deutscher for his fierce anti-Communism. In turn, Borkenau was often critical of Deutscher's work. During 1949, Borkenau in a newspaper article criticized Deutscher for endorsing in his biography of Stalin the official Soviet version that Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky together with the rest of the Red Army high command had been plotting a coup in collaboration with the intelligence services of Germany and Japan, thus justifying Stalin's "liquidation" of the Red Army leadership during 1937.〔Borkenau, Franz "Stalin" im Schafspelz" pages 207-208 from ''Der Monat'', November 1949; Laqueur, Walter ''The Fate of the Revolution'', New York : Scribner, 1987 page 102.〕 Borkenau claimed that Deutscher was engaging in an apologia for Stalin since in his opinion, there was nothing that supported Stalin's version of events about the alleged coup plot of 1937. Borkenau concluded that:
Likewise, Borkenau was often critical of the work of the pro-Soviet British historian E. H. Carr. During 1951, Borkenau wrote in the ''Der Monat'' newspaper of the first volume of Carr's ''History of Soviet Russia'' that for Carr: "Human suffering he seems to say, is not a historical factor; Carr belongs to those very cold people who always believe they think and act with the iciest calculation and therefore fail to understand why they are mistaken in their calculations time and time again".〔Borkenau, Franz "Der Spoetter als Panegyriker" from ''Der Monant'', # 36, September 1951 page 614; Laqueur, Walter ''The Fate of the Revolution'', New York : Scribner, 1987 page 126.〕 Borkenau was a major advocate for the totalitarianism school. Another historian whom Borkenau disliked (but for different reasons than was the case with Deutscher and Carr) was Arnold J. Toynbee. In the May 1955 issue of ''Commentary'', Borkenau accused Toynbee of being anti-Semitic.〔Borkenau, Franz "Toynbee's Judgment of the Jews: Where the Historian Misread History", ''Commentary'' May 1955〕 During the 1950s, Borkenau was well known as an expert on Communism and the Soviet Union. Borkenau was one of the founders of Sovietology. As a Kremlinologist, one of Borkenau's major interests was making predictions about the future of Communism.〔Laqueur, Walter ''The Fate of the Revolution'', New York : Scribner, 1987 page 180.〕 Some of Borkenau's predictions, such as his claim during the early 1950s about the coming Sino-Soviet split were confirmed by events, but others were not.〔 In an article in the April 1954 edition of ''Commentary'' entitled "Getting at the Facts Behind the Soviet Facade", Borkenau wrote that the Sino-Soviet alliance was unstable, and would last for only a decade or so.〔Borkenau, Franz "Getting at the Facts Behind the Soviet Facade" from ''Commentary'', April 1954 page 399.〕 Borkenau argued that despite the appearance of unity there were power struggles within the Soviet elite.〔Laqueur, Walter ''The Fate of the Revolution'', New York : Scribner, 1987 pages 180-181.〕 Moreover, Borkenau contended that within the Soviet government there were vast ''chefstvo'' (patronage) networks extending down from the elite to the lowest ranks of power.〔Laqueur, Walter ''The Fate of the Revolution'', New York : Scribner, 1987 page 181.〕 Borkenau's 1954 book ''Der russische Bürgerkrieg, 1918-1921'' showed some sympathy for non-Bolshevik socialists.〔 Borkenau's techniques were a minute analysis of official Soviet statements and the standing arrangement at the Kremlin on official occasions to determine what Soviet official was in Joseph Stalin's favor and what official was not.〔 In Borkenau's opinion, signs such as newspaper editorials, guest lists at formal occasions, obituaries in Soviet newspapers, and accounts of formal speeches were important to identifying the various ''chefstvo'' networks.〔 Borkenau argued that even small changes in the formulistic language of the Soviet state could sometimes indicate important changes.〔 Borkenau wrote that: "Political issues must be interpreted in the light of formulas, political and otherwise, and their history; and such interpretation cannot be safely concluded until the whole history of the given formula has been established from its first enunciation on".〔 On the basis of his method, during January 1953, Borkenau predicted that Stalin's death would occur in the near-future.〔 During 1954, Borkenau wrote that he made that prediction on the basis of a resolution of the SED on the "lessons of the Slansky case".〔 Borkenau argued that because the resolution quoted Georgy Malenkov a number of times about the supposed lessons for the Communist world of Rudolf Slánský's supposed treason, that this was Walter Ulbricht's way of associating himself with Malenkov's ''chefstvo'' network as part of the preparation for the post-Stalin succession struggle.〔 Borkenau wrote that:
Another topic of interest for Borkenau was engaging in an intellectual critique of Arnold J. Toynbee and Oswald Spengler's work about when and why civilizations weaken and end. The latter critique was published posthumously by his friend Richard Löwenthal. Borkenau became increasingly active as a free-lance author living in Paris, Rome and Zurich, where in the latter city he died suddenly of heart failure during 1957.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Franz Borkenau」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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