Letter to Karl Marx, July 24, 1877

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 July 1877


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Ramsgate, 24 July 1877

Dear Moor,

Newspapers, etc., received. Very many thanks. Your plan does at any rate have the advantage of killing quite a lot of birds with one stone; I can only hope that the chief one, your liver, won't suffer accordingly/ Still, with so many medical authorities in favour, there's not much one can really say against it from that viewpoint either. Who knows whether this time Neuenahr won't do you more good than Karlsbad?[1] It's simply a lottery, espérons le mieux}[2] For essential needs enclosed CHEQUE for £101.3.7—the non-round sum is intentional! At all events you really ought to come here for a few days and bring Hirsch with you if it can be managed. The change of air will do you good. By the way, I had thought of coming up to London once again for a day before 12 August, but don't let yourself be put off by such uncertainties.

What Hirsch has to say about France is very encouraging, particularly just now, even when one allows for some exaggera- tion. It's excellent that he should be giving a good account of himself. High time that a few people, at least, gave a good account of themselves when so many are turning into fools and ragamuf- fins.

The Zukunft's estimable letter returned herewith. One in identical terms has been forwarded to me from London.[3]

I think my reply will be as follows: firstly, it's impossible to agree to contributes» to a scientific periodical with editors that are anonymous and contributors likewise unnamed. Congress resolu- tions, however unexceptionable they may be in the field of practical agitation, count for nothing in that of science, nor do they suffice to establish a periodical's scientific nature — something that cannot be decreed.[4] A socialist scientific periodical without a quite definite scientific line is an absurdity and, given the present epidemic in Germany of diverse and indefinite lines, there has so far been no guarantee whatsoever that the line to be adopted will suit us.— Secondly, however, after finishing the Dühring,[5] I shall have to confine myself to my own independent work and shan't therefore have the time. What do you think of it? There's no hurry.

You will see from the enclosed letter from Liebknecht, which I would like to have back so that I can answer it,[6] that Mr Dühring 'couldn't tarry till the hour of twelve had struck'[7] and has been the cause of his own undoing.[8] All this was, of course, the fruit of silly Wilhelm's sagacity, and such is his childish glee that he doesn't even notice how much 'the party' has been discredited as a result. What is one to do with people like these? On top of that the man is still quite proud of his articles on France in which he simply endorses Hasenclever's nonsense.[9] However we'd better wait and see whether all the jubilation over Dühring's downfall doesn't fizzle out again.

The Russian moves are extremely bold, but what good will they do anyone if the Turks' conduct of the war remains as it has been for the past four weeks? The right course was to march on the Russian flank with a combined force from Shumla and Rustchuk[10] and smite it. They now have the best pass in the Balkans (the Shipka) which they can easily hold and, according to today's news, the Turks are sending troops from Shumla via Jamboli[11] to Rumelia in order to display themselves to the Russians there, instead of transferring the troops from Rumelia—the Adriano- ple[12] garrison excepted — to Shumla and attacking Sistova[13] with all available forces. The Turkish leadership has clearly allowed itself to be intimidated and has blundered accordingly. Moreover, it has everywhere abandoned the now ripe harvest to the Russians who therefore have enough to eat. Abdul Kerim has allowed the Turkish army to run so much to seed that more than 20% are in hospital, while the Kölnische Zeitung's Prussian lieutenant says that in Shumla he saw crowds of Turkish officers (not men) drunk on spirits. And all as a result of inaction. It drives one wild to see such a magnificent position and such splendid fighting material go to waste like this. All the same the Russians won't get to Constantinople, nor will they find it so easy to deny even the Turks in the quadrilateral of fortresses[14] their supplies of food. Moreover, they have only two months left in which to force a decision and hence, despite all the follies of the Turks, this year's campaign has already as good as failed—were unpredictability not the rule out there! The despatch of British troops will probably be enough to prevent the Sultan[15] from concluding a separate peace, and that's what's good about it.

Lizzie is doing better. She went through a serious crisis on Sunday[16] and now seems to be gradually recovering.

Best wishes to everyone,

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ See previous letter.
  2. ↑ We must hope for the best.
  3. ↑ On 20 July 1877 the Zukunft editors wrote to Marx and Engels inviting them to contribute to the magazine and referring to the relevant decision of the Gotha Congress to start a scientific review (see Note 314). The letters were signed 'The Zukunft editorial board' and gave the forwarding office of the Berliner Freie Presse, edited by Johann Most, as its address.
  4. ↑ At its sitting on 29 May 1877 the Gotha Congress of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (see Note 286) approved August Geib's proposal to have a scientific review published twice monthly in Berlin starting on 1 October. It was decided that a fortnightly theoretical supplement to the Vorwärts was to appear up to that date. The first issue of Die Zukunft. Socialistische Revue came out in Berlin in October; its editor was Karl Höchberg, who worked under the penname of R.-F. Seifert. He sought to give the magazine a reformist slant.
  5. ↑ The publication of Eugen Dühring's Cursus der Philosophie als streng wis senschaftlicher Weltanschauung und Lebensgestaltung and the second edition of his Kritische Geschichte der Nationalökonomie und des Sozialismus (1875) made his views very popular in Germany. Among the German Social-Democrats, he acquired such followers as Johann Most, Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche, and Eduard Bernstein. Even August Bebel came under his influence for a short time. In view of this, in his letters to Engels of 1 February and 21 April 1875, Liebknecht proposed that the latter use Der Volksstaat to criticise Dühring's views.
    Engels did so for the first time in the essay 'Prussian Schnapps in the German Reichstag' carried by Der Volksstaat in February 1876 (see present edition, Vol. 24).
    Marx agreed with Engels that Dühring's views had to be exposed to serious criticism. Engels interrupted the work on Dialectics of Nature which he had begun in May 1873 and made a start on Anti-Diihring (see present edition, Vol. 25). It took him over two years, from May 1876 to July 1878, to complete it. Part I of the book was mainly written between September 1876 and January 1877 and was printed in the Vorwärts as a series of articles under the heading Herrn Eugen Dühring's Umwälzung der Philosophie in January-May 1877.
    Part II was written in July-August 1877. Marx contributed Chapter X. This part was published under the heading Herrn Eugen Dühring's Umwälzung der politischen Oekonomie in the Wissenschaftliche Beilage and the supplement to the Vorwärts in July-December 1877.
    Part III was written mostly between August 1877 and April 1878 and appeared in the Vorwärts in May-July 1878 under the title Herrn Eugen Dühring's Umwälzung des Sozialismus.
    The book aroused strong resistance on the part of Dühring's followers. At a regular party congress held in Gotha from 27 to 29 May 1877, they tried to prevent the publication of Engels' work in the party's central organ. Anti-Diihring appeared in the newspaper with lengthy intervals.
    In July 1877, Part I of the book was published in Leipzig as a separate pamphlet. In July 1878, Parts II and III were also published there as a separate pamphlet. The first complete edition of Anti-Dühring, with Engels' preface, appeared at the same time.
    In late October 1878, following the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law in Germany, Anti-Dühring was banned along with Engels' other works.
  6. ↑ See this volume, pp. 256 58.
  7. ↑ From 'Kurzweil', a poem included in the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn compiled by A. von Arnim and C. Brentano.
  8. ↑ From 1872, Dühring, a lecturer at the University of Berlin, fiercely attacked university professors including Prof. Helmholtz, and also some aspects of university life. For this, he suffered reprisals at the hands of the reactionary professors and, in July 1877, on the insistence of the faculty of philosophy was deprived of the right to lecture. His followers launched a vigorous protest campaign, and the democratic quarters at large denounced his expulsion.
  9. ↑ Engels is referring, above all, to the series of articles by Wilhelm Liebknecht 'Die Rothen wider die Blauen.' I-II , in which he sought to play down the impact made by the article 'Nieder mit der Republik!' that Hasenclever had published in the Vorwärts on 1 July 1877 (see Note 292).
  10. ↑ Bulgarian names: Shumen (now Kolarovgrad) and Ruse.
  11. ↑ Bulgarian name: Yambol.
  12. ↑ Turkish name: Edirne.
  13. ↑ Bulgarian name: Svishtov.
  14. ↑ Engels is referring to the establishment of a quadrilateral of Russian fortresses to counterbalance the Turkish one on Bulgarian territory. Rustchuk, Shumla, Silistria and Varna were a stronghold where the main Turkish forces were concentrated at the outset of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.
  15. ↑ Abdul Hamid II
  16. ↑ 22 July