Letter to Pyotr Lavrov, September 24, 1875

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 September 1875


First published, in Russian, in Letopisi marksizma, Book V, Moscow-Leningrad, 1933
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO PYOTR LAVROV

IN LONDON

[London,] 24 September 1875 122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

My dear Mr Lavrov,

On my return from Ramsgate where I had spent a few weeks,[1] I found your letter of the 20th, along with a pile of newspapers, books, etc. which had arrived during my absence. To start with I shall try to get all this into some kind of order and, as soon as possible, turn to reading your article in Brieped^!*[2] —so as to be able to tell you where we agree and where we differ in our views on the relationship of socialism to the struggle for existence as propounded by Darwin.[3] If this does not reach you within a day or two, you must excuse me on the grounds of the many letters I have to write and the backlog of work that remains to be tackled, since for the past month I have only been able to do those things which absolutely had to be done without delay.

I do not know the pamphlet of which you speak[4] ; if you could let me have it by post for a day or two, I should be much obliged.

We once more have a Portuguese paper, O Protesto (The Protest) of Lisbon, of which six (weekly) issues have appeared— editorial department, Rua do Bemformoso 110, second floor, management, Rua dos Cardaes de Jesus (!) 69, second floor. I still have not looked through the four issues we have received.

Would you kindly remember me to Mr and Mrs Smirnov.[5]

Yours ever,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Engels was on holiday in Ramsgate between mid-August and 22 September 1875.
  2. ↑ [P. L. Lavrov,] 'CouiaAH3MT> H 6opb6a 3a cymecxBOBaHie', Bneped b!, No. 17, 15 (3) September 1875.
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 106 09.
  4. ↑ A reference to the anonymous and undated pamphlet published in Brussels under the title Quelques mots d'un groupe socialiste révolutionnaire russe à propos de la brochure: Alliance de la Démocratie socialiste et l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs. The pamphlet was presumably written by Michal Kasper Turski. It was spearheaded against Marx's and Engels' work The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men's Association (see present edition, Vol. 23).
    Lavrov wrote to Engels on 20 September 1875: 'You have probably seen a small pamphlet that Nechayev's anonymous followers have published in Brussels as a response to the pamphlet about the "Alliance". But, of course, neither the group nor its writings are of any value whatsoever.' In late September-early October 1875 Lavrov sent a copy of the pamphlet to Engels.
  5. ↑ Valerian Smirnov and his wife Rozalia Idelson