Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, February 23, 1888

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 23 February 1888


First published in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT[1]

IN HOBOKEN

London, 23 February 1888

Dear Liebknecht,

The debate on the Anti-Socialist Law[2] was the biggest triumph we have ever scored in the parliamentary sphere and I'm only sorry that you were unable to be there. However, that's unlikely to go on for much longer, since you will, after all, be taking Hasenclever's place shortly.[3]

Speech on the Question of Free Trade'

[4]

We also have a Puttkamer over here—Balfour, Secretary for Ireland. Just as Puttkamer is Bismarck's cousin, so Balfour is Salisbury's nephew. An arrogantly obstreperous stuck-up squire, exactly like Puttkamer. He too gets soundly thrashed and last week succumbed to a lambasting at the hands of O'Brien,[5] just as Puttkamer does at those of our own people. Moreover, he's as useful to the Irish as Puttkamer is to us. However, you'll glean absolutely nothing from the deplorable Saturday Review, supposing you still take it, about what's going on over here; so far as anything of importance is concerned, a conspiration du silence'[6] ,

prevails.

Bismarck's speech was addressed to Tsar Alexander in person in order that the Gatchina prisoner might at long last learn the truth.[7] Whether it will help is doubtful. The Russians, such is their irresolution, are becoming ever more deeply embroiled and in the end they may not be able to draw back with honour. Therein lies the danger. As a rule they behave like utter jack-asses when they embark on a war. It's a repeat of Croesus by crossing the Halys will ruin a mighty realm.*''[8] They can place barely a million men on the border and haven't enough officers for more. France disposes of VA million very good troops, but no longer has sufficient seasoned men and still fewer officers to provide more. With 2 Vi million seasoned troops and an adequate supply of officers and NCOs, Bismarck has, however, still pitched Germany's strength too low. Nor is it a bad thing that this should be so. Until the revolution gets under way in Russia, Bismarck must not be brought down by an external defeat. That would only restore his popularity.

But it is impossible to foretell what will come of the affair if it really gets to the stage of a war. They'll certainly try to turn it into a mock war, but that is not so easy to do. If it is to be done in the way that suits us best, and the odds are strongly in favour of it, then let it be a static war with changing fortunes on the French border, an offensive war with the capture of the Polish fortresses on the Russian border, and a revolution in Petersburg which will all at once throw an entirely different light on everything, so far as the gentlemen prosecuting the war are concerned. This much is certain—there will be no rapid decisions, no triumphal marches either on Berlin or on Paris. France is very strong and very cleverly fortified; so far as their disposition is concerned, the works round Paris are a masterly affair.

Last Monday, during the meeting held to welcome Cunninghame-Graham (Communist, Marxist, on the above occasion he called for nationalisation of all means of production) and Burns,[9] Mother Schack was running round selling Freedom, the most extreme and strident of the local anarchist papers. She inadvertently offered one to Lessner, among others. Her unsatisfied craving for action seems to have driven her quite dotty.

Reuss has instituted proceedings against the Commonweal (Morris) for denouncing him as a spy.[10] Obviously the Prussian embassy wishes to regain over here the ground lost in Berlin. It may, however, be making hellish blunder. Mr Reuss has to go into the witness box, and in this country perjury is not to be trifled with. There's no Puttkamer over here to help!

The Manifesto is coming out in English, edited by myself.[11] I shall send you one as soon as I get some.

Your

F. E.

Apropos, Pfänder's widow is living over here in the most wretched circumstances. I do what I can and have just sent her another couple of £s. The louts' society[12] put on a concert for her and collected about £5. She herself is ill, her daughter paints, and the pair of them do bits of needlework, but all is wretchedness. Might the party not set aside a trifling sum every quarter? The doctor says she'll barely get through the winter. See what you can do. We really ought to set aside pensions for our veterans' widows.

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in the language of the original by the journal Die Kommunistische Internationale No. 24, 1931; in Russian it appeared in the journal Kommunisticheski Internatsional, Nos. 19-20, 1931.
  2. ↑ The debates in the Reichstag about the motion to prolong the Anti-Socialist law (see note 52) in January-February 1888 ended in a defeat for the government. This outcome was largely predetermined by the speeches of August Bebel (30 January and 17 February) and Paul Singer (27 January and 17 February) during the first and the third reading of the draft bill, respectively. Both speakers exposed the provocative activities of the government which was planting spies in the labour unions. On 17 February 1888, the Reichstag prolonged the law for the last time, but not for a term of five years, as the government had suggested - the action of the law was extended for two years only (until 30 September 1890). The new clauses suggested by the government for the law were not adopted (see note 220).
  3. ↑ After failing to poll the requisite number of votes at the Reichstag election of 21 February 1887, Wilhelm Liebknecht succeeded in winning a seat in the run-off in Berlin's Fourth constituency on 30 August 1888 in lieu of Wilhelm Hasenclever, who had dropped out for health reasons.
  4. ↑ a F. Engels, 'Protection and Free Trade. Preface to the Pamphlet: Karl Marx,
  5. ↑ An allusion to William O'Brien's speech in the House of Commons on 16 February 1888, with scathing criticism of the policy of Arthur Balfour, Secretary of State for Ireland and nephew of the Prime Minister, Mr Robert Salisbury.
  6. ↑ conspiracy of silence
  7. ↑ Speaking in the Reichstag on 6 February 1888, in debates on a draft bill providing for reorganisation of the German armed forces, Bismarck lauded the pro-German policies of Alexander III in contrast to the anti-German pronouncements of some organs of the Russian press. Still, he spoke in favour of a stronger military might for the German Reich in view of a possible anti-German alliance between France and Russia. By calling Alexander III a 'Gatchina prisoner', Engels referred to the fact that, ascending the throne after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II by members of the radical organisation Narodnaya Volya ('People's will') on 1 March 1881, Alexander III feared revolutionary action and fresh acts of terrorism, so used to seclude himself in his palace at Gatchina.
  8. ↑ This sentence was in Greek in the original
  9. ↑ On 19 February 1888, a big rally was held in London on the occasion of liberation of the socialists Robert Cunninghame-Graham and John Burns, convicted for taking part in the Trafalgar Square demonstration of 13 November 1887 (see note 185).
  10. ↑ The Commonweal, the organ of the Socialist League, reprinted a list of police agents promulgated in Der Sozialdemokrat under the heading Polizeiagent - Dynamitagenten with 12 police agents in it (see note 204). The newspaper augmented this list without giving cogent proof of the culpability of the persons mentioned, including Theodor Reuss.
  11. ↑ In his letter of 20 February 1887 Sorge suggested to Engels that Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky should be asked to translate the Manifesto of the Communist Party into English for publication in the USA. This project did not materialise. An English edition of the Manifesto, in Sam Moore's translation and edited by Engels, appeared in London in 1888.
  12. ↑ This refers to the London German Workers' Educational Society. It was founded by members of the League of the Just Karl Schapper, Joseph Moll and Heinrich Bauer in London in 1840. In 1847 and in 1849-50 Marx and Engels took part in its activities. The Society changed its name in subsequent years. From the 1870s it was called the Communist Workers' Educational society. Soon after the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law in Germany (see note 52), the Society was overruled by the faction that rejected the tactics adopted by German Social Democracy for the period of operation of the Law. It opposed combining legal and illegal methods of struggle, objected to the Social Democrats' use of the Reichstag platform and favoured individual terrorism. In March 1880 a considerable part of the Society's members formed an independent organisation of their own, retaining the Society's name. This new Society declared that it would be guided by the principles and tactics of German Social Democracy. The remainder of the members, in particular the followers of Johann Most, stuck to their extreme Left views. They operated under the same name.