By V.I. Lenin
Lenin wrote this article for the Encyclopaedia Dictionary published by the Granat Brothers, which was then the most popular in Russia. In the preface for the pamphlet edition in 1918 Lenin gave the date of writing as 1913, from memory. Actually, he began it in the spring of 1914 in Poronin, but had to interrupt it, being too busy with his owrk guiding the Party and the newspaper Pravda. Lenin resumed his work on the aritcle only in September that year, after he had moved to Berne, and finished it in the first half of November.
The aritcle was published in 1915 in Volume 28 of the Dictionary with "Bibliography of Marxism" appended to it; it was signed "V. Ilyin." For censorship reasons, the editors omitted two chapters: "Socialism" and "Tactics of the Class Struggle of the Proletariat" and made a number of changes in the text.
In 1918, the Priboi Publishers put out the article in pamphlet form exactly as published in the Dictionary but without the "Bibliography."
The full text of the article according to the manuscript was first published by the Lenin Institute of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee in the collection of Lenin's articles Marx, Engels, Marxism, which appeared in 1925.
Moscow, May 14, 1918
This article on Karl Marx, which now appears in a separate printing, was written in 1913 (as far as I can remember) for the Granat Encyclopaedia. A fairly detailed bibliography of literature on Marx, mostly foreign, was appended to the article. This has been omitted in the present edition. The editor of the Encyclopaedia, for their part, have, for censorship reasons, deleted the end of the article on Marx, namely, the section dealing with his revolutionary tactics. Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce that end, because the draft has remained among my papers somewhere in Krakow or in Switzerland. I only remember that in the concluding part of the article I quoted, among other things, the passage from Marx's letter to Engels of April 16, 1856, in which he wrote:
"The whole thing in Germany will depend on the possibility of backing the proletarian revolution by some second edition of the Peasant War. Then the affair will be splendid."
That is what our Mensheviks[1] , who have now sunk to utter betrayal of socialism and to desertion to the bourgeoisie, have failed to understand since 1905.
N. Lenin
Footnotes for Preface
[1] Mensheviks -- An opportunist trend in the Russian Social-Democratic movement.
They became know as Mensheviks at the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903. During the elections to the Party central bodies, the revolutionary Social-Democrats, led by Lenin, won the majority (bolshinstvo) while the opportunists found themselves in the minority (menshinstvo); hence the names Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
During the 1905-07 revolution, the Mensheviks opposed the hegemony of the working class in the revolution and its alliance with the peasantry and demanded agreement with the liberal bourgeoisie, which, they maintained, should lead the revolution. In the years of reaction which followed the defeat of the 1905 revolution, most of the Mensheviks became liquidators: they demanded the liquidation of the revolutionary illegal party of the working class. After the victory of the February bourgeois-democratic revolution in 1917, the Mensheviks accepted posts in the bourgeois Provisional Government, supported its imperialist policy and opposed the socialist revolution being prepared by the Bolsheviks.
After the October Revolution, the Mensheviks became an openly counter-revolutionary party organizing and participating in conspiracies and revolts against Soviet power.
Marx, Karl, was born on May 5, 1818 (New Style), in the city of Trier (Rhenish Prussia). His father was a lawyer, a Jew, who in 1824 adopted Protestantism. The family was well-to-do, cultured, but not revolutionary. After graduating from a Gymnasium in Trier, Marx entered the university, first at Bonn and later in Berlin, where he read law, majoring in history and philosophy. He concluded his university course in 1841, submitting a doctoral thesis on the philosophy of Epicurus. At the time Marx was a Hegelian idealist in his views. In Berlin, he belonged to the circle of "Left Hegelians" [1] (Bruno Bauer and others) who sought to draw atheistic and revolutionary conclusion from Hegel's philosophy.
After graduating, Marx moved to Bonn, hoping to become a professor. However, the reactionary policy of the government, which deprived Ludwig Feuerbach of his chair in 1832, refused to allow him to return to the university in 1836, and in 1841 forbade young Professor Bruno Bauer to lecture at Bonn, made Marx abandon the idea of an academic career. Left Hegelian views were making rapid headway in Germany at the time. Feuerbach began to criticize theology, particularly after 1836, and turn to materialism, which in 1841 gained ascendancy in his philosophy (The Essence of Christianity).
The year 1843 saw the appearance of his Principles of the Philosophy of the Future. "One must oneself have experienced the liberating effect" of these books, Engels subsequently wrote of these works of Feuerbach. "We [i.e., the Left Hegelians, including Marx] all became at once Feuerbachians." [2] At that time, some radical bourgeois in the Rhineland, who were in touch with the Left Hegelians, founded, in Cologne, an opposition paper called Rheinische Zeitung [3] (The first issue appeared on January 1, 1842). Marx and Bruno Bauer were invited to be the chief contributors, and in October 1842 Marx became editor-in-chief and moved from Bonn to Cologne.
The newspaper's revolutionary-democratic trend became more and more pronounced under Marx's editorship, and the government first imposed double and triple censorship on the paper, and then on January 1 1843 decided to suppress it. Marx had to resign the editorship before that date, but his resignation did not save the paper, which suspended publication in March 1843. Of the major articles Marx contributed to Rheinische Zeitung, Engels notes, in addition to those indicated below (see Bibliography [4] ), an article on the condition of peasant winegrowers in the Moselle Valley. [5] Marx's journalistic activities convinced him that he was insufficiently acquainted with political economy, and he zealously set out to study it.
In 1843, Marx married, at Kreuznach, a childhood friend he had become engaged to while still a student. His wife came of a reactionary family of the Prussian nobility, her elder brother being Prussia's Minister of the Interior during a most reactionary period -- 1850-58. In the autumn of 1843, Marx went to Paris in order to publish a radical journal abroad, together with Arnold Ruge (1802-1880); Left Hegelian; in prison in 1825-30; a political exile following 1848, and a Bismarckian after 1866-70). Only one issue of this journal, Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, appeared [6] . publication was discontinued owing to the difficulty of secretly distributing it in Germany, and to disagreement with Ruge. Marx's articles in this journal showed that he was already a revolutionary who advocated "merciless criticism of everything existing", and in particular the "criticism by weapon", [7] and appealed to the masses and to the proletariat.
In September 1844, Frederick Engels came to Paris for a few days, and from that time on became Marx's closest friend. They both took a most active part in the then seething life of the revolutionary groups in Paris (of particular importance at the time was Proudhon's [8] doctrine), which Marx pulled to pieces in his Poverty of Philosophy, 1847); waging a vigorous struggle against the various doctrines of petty-bourgeois socialism, they worked out the theory and tactics of revolutionary proletarian socialism, or communism (Marxism). See Marx's works of this period, 1844-48 in the Bibliography. At the insistent request of the Prussian government, Marx was banished from Paris in 1845, as a dangerous revolutionary. He went to Brussels. In the spring of 1847 Marx and Engels joined a secret propaganda society called the Communist League[9] ; they took a prominent part in the League's Second Congress (London, November 1847), at whose request they drew up the celebrated Communist Manifesto, which appeared in February 1848. With the clarity and brilliance of genius, this work outlines a new world-conception, consistent with materialism, which also embrace the realm of social life; dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development; the theory of the class struggle and of the world-historic revolutionary role of the proletariat -- the creator of a new, communist society.
On the outbreak of the Revolution of February 1848, [10] Marx was banished from Belgium. He returned to Paris, whence, after the March Revolution, [11] he went to Cologne, Germany, where Neue Rheinische Zeitung [12] was published from June 1 1848 to May 19 1849, with Marx as editor-in-chief. The new theory was splendidly confirmed by the course of the revolutionary events of 1848-49, just as it has been subsequently confirmed by all proletarian and democratic movements in all countries of the world. The victorious counter-revolution first instigated court proceedings against Marx (he was acquitted on February 9 1849), and then banished him from Germany (May 16 1849). First Marx went to Paris, was again banished after the demonstration of June 13 1849 [13] and then went to London, where he lived until his death.
His life as a political exile was a very hard one, as the correspondence between Marx and Engels (published in 1913) clearly reveals. Poverty weighed heavily on Marx and his family; had it not been for Engels' constant and selfless financial aid, Marx would not only have been unable to complete Capital but would have inevitably have been crushed by want. Moreover, the prevailing doctrines and trends of petty-bourgeois socialism, and of non-proletarian socialism in general, forced Marx to wage a continuous and merciless struggle and sometime to repel the most savage and monstrous personal attacks (Herr Vogt [14]). Marx, who stood aloof from circles of political exiles, developed his materialist theory in a number of historical works (see Bibliography), devoting himself mainly to a study of political economy. Marx revolutionized science (see "The Marxist Doctrine", below) in his Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy(1859) and Capital (Vol. I, 1867).
The revival of the democratic movements in the late fifties and in the sixties recalled Marx to practical activity. In 1864 (September 28) the International Working Men's Association -- the celebrated First International -- was founded in London. Marx was the heart and soul of this organization, and author of its first Address [15] and of a host of resolutions, declaration and manifestoes. In uniting the labor movement of various forms of non-proletarian, pre-Marxist socialism (Mazzini, Proudhon, Bakunin, liberal trade-unionism in Britain, Lassallean vacillations to the right in Germany, etc.), and in combating the theories of all these sects and schools, Marx hammered out a uniform tactic fort he proletarian struggle of the working in the various countries. Following the downfall of the Paris Commune (1871) -- of which gave such a profound, clear-cut, brilliant effective and revolutionary analysis (The Civil War In France, 1871) -- and the Bakunin-caused [16] cleavage in the International, the latter organization could no longer exist in Europe. After the Hague Congress of the International (1872), Marx had the General Council of the International had played its historical part, and now made way for a period of a far greater development of the labor movement in all countries in the world, a period in which the movement grew in scope, and mass socialist working-class parties in individual national states were formed.
Marx's health was undermined by his strenuous work in the International and his still more strenuous theoretical occupations. He continued work on the refashioning of political economy and on the completion of Capital, for which he collected a mass of new material and studied a number of languages (Russian, for instance). However, ill-health prevented him from completing Capital.
His wife died on December 2 1881 and on March 14 1883 Marx passed away peacefully in
his armchair. He lies buried next to his wife at Highgate Cemetery in London. Of Marx's
children some died in childhood in London, when the family were living in destitute
circumstances. Three daughters married English and French socialists; Eleanor Aveling,
Laura Lafargue and Jenny Longuet. The latters' son is a member of the French Socialist
Party.
Footnotes for Karl Marx:
[1] Left Hegelians or Young Hegelians -- An idealist trend in German philosophy in the 1830s and 1840s. The Young Hegelians tried to draw radical conclucsions from Hegel's philosophy to prove the necessity for a bourgeois reform of Germany. The leaders were David Strauss, the Bauer brothers, Max Stirner and some others. For a time, Feuerbach and also Marx and Engels in their youth adhered to the Young Hegelians. Then Marx and Engels broke with them and criticized the idealist and petty-bourgeois essence of the trend in The Holy Family (1844) and The German Ideology (1845-46).
[2] Frederick Engels: Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy
[3] Rheinische Zeitung fur Politik, Handel und Gewerb (Rhenish Gazette on Politics, Trade and Manufacture) -- a daily newspaper that appeared in Cologne from January 1 1842 to March 31 1843. It was founded by representatives of the Rhenish bourgeoisie who were opposed to Prussian absolutism. Some Left Hegelians were invited to contribue to the newspaper. Marx became a collaborator in April 1842 and was one of the paper's editors from October of that year. Under Marx, the Rheinische Zeitung began to take on a more definite revolutionary-democratic character. In January 1843, the Prussian government issued an order to close down the newspaper from April 1 1843 and to establish a particularly strict censorship in the meantime. In connection with the plans of the newspaper shareholders to make it more moderate, Marx resigned on March 17 1843.
[4] This "Bibliography" written by Lenin for the article is not included.
[5] The reference is to the article "Justification of the Correspondent from the Mosel" by Karl Marx.
[6] The reference is to the Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher (German-French Annals), a magazine edited by Karl Marx and Arnold Ruge and published in German in Paris. Only the first issue, a double one, appeared, in February 1844. It included works by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels which marked the final transition of Marx and Engels to materialism and communism. Publication of the magazine was discontinued mainly as a result of basic differences of opinion between Marx and the bourgeois radical Ruge.
[7] Karl Marx, Contributions to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Introduction.
[8] Proudhonism -- An unscientific trend in petty-bourgeois socialism, hostile to Marxism, so called after its ideologist, the French anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon criticized big capitalist property from the petty-bourgeois position and dreamed of perpetuating small private ownership. He proposed the foundation of "people's" and "exchange" banks, with the aid of which the workers would be able to acquire the means of production, become handicraftsmen and ensure the just marketing of their produce. Proudhon did not understand the historic role of the proletariat and displayed a negative attitude to the class struggle, the proletarian revolution, and the dictatorship of the proletariat; as an anarchist, he denied the need for the state. Marx subjected Proudhonism to ruthless criticism in his work The Poverty of Philosophy.
[9] The Communist League -- The first international communist organization of the proletariat founded under the guidance of Marx and Engels in London early in June 1847.
Marx and Engels helped to work out the programmatic and organizational principles of the League; they wrote its programme -- the Manifesto of the Communist Party, published in February 1848.
The Communist League was the predecessor of the International Working Men's Association (The First International). It existed until November 1852, its prominent members later playing a leading role in the First International.
[10] The reference is to the bourgeois revolution in France in February 1848.
[11] The reference is to the bourgeois revolutions in Germany and Austria which began in March 1848.
[12] Die Neue Rheinische Zeitung (New Rhenish Gazette) - Published in Cologne from June 1 1848 to May 19 1849. Marx and Engels directed the newspaper, Marx being its editor-in-chief. Lenin characterized _Die Neue Rheinische Zeitung as "the finest and unsurpassed organ of the revolutionary proletariat". Despite persecution and the obstacles placed in its way by the police, the newspaper staunchly defended the interests of revolutionary democracy, the interests of the proletariat. Because of Marx's banishment from Prussia in May 1849 and the persecution of the other editors. Die Neue Rheinische Zeitung had to cease publication.
[13] The reference is to the mass demonstration in Paris organized by the Montagne, the party of the petty bourgeoisie, in protest against the infringement by the President and the majority in the Legislative Assembly of the constitutional orders established in the revolution of 1848. The demonstration was dispersed by the government.
[14] The reference is to Marx's pamphlet Herr Vogt, which was written in reply to the slanderous pamphlet by Vogt, a Bonapartist agent provocateur, My Process Against "Allgemeine Zeitung".
[15] The First International Workingmen's Association was the first international tendency that grouped together all the worlds workers parties in one unified international party.
[16] Bakuninism -- A trend called after its leader Mikhail Bakunin, an ideologist of anarchism and enemy of Marxism and scientific socialism.
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