Letter to Karl Kautsky, March 25, 1895

ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN STUTTGART

London, 25 March 1895
41 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Baron,

No difficulty about a reply to your telegramm—'with pleasure'. The text will follow by book-post. It is in proof form and is entitled Introduction to Karl Marx's 'The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850' by F. Engels. The text explains that the contents are a reprint of the old articles from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Revue. My text has suffered to some extent from the apprehensive objections, inspired by the Subversion Bill, 428 of our friends in Berlin—objections of which, in the circumstances, I could not but take account. 529

I at once wrote to Plekhanov to clear up the misunderstanding.^[1] It was very right of you to stave off Ferri; the chap is a belletrist and sensation- monger in no matter what field and, like most Italians, holds Loria to be a giant in the field of economics, an opinion the illustrious one has implanted in them by dint of 'reiterated appearances' (to use Ruge's expression) and by a refined system of camaraderie.

I have not read the stenographic version of Liebknecht's militia speech 360 and one cannot go by the newspaper reports. A long dissertation might be written on the subject of militia and the standing army. If France and Germany were to agree gradually to turn their armies into militias, each with the same period of training, that would be that; Russia could be left to her own devices and Austria and Italy would be delighted to follow suit. But because of domestic circumstances France and Germany cannot afford to do this and, even if they could, it would not be feasible because of Alsace- Lorraine. And that will prove the undoing of the whole of the militia business.

Unfortunately your Early History of Socialism 561 hasn't reached me yet; I look forward keenly to seeing it, and specially, if not exclusively, to your account of the Anabaptists; 562 in the earlier movements, too, there is still a good deal to be elucidated. It is a great pity that you have not been able to have recourse to Czech sources on the Taborites, 563 but that would have been quite out of the question unless you had spent a long time in Bohemia and been given special access to mss. No doubt you could find someone on the spot, a young Czech, who would be able to help you.

What I have seen of Ede's^[2] work has pleased me very much, particularly as regards the material and the perspectives it opens out. On the other hand, I should say that he planned it in rather too much of a hurry, but that is something one can only judge when one has the whole thing in front of one.

So far as you people are concerned, there would be considerable snags to a history of the International. First of all, you would have to collect the material from the individual countries. So far as Spain is concerned, Mora is now bringing it out—very much by dribs and drabs—in the feuilleton of the Socialista. I myself possess quite a lot on Italy up till the time of the Hague Congress, 115 where, however, a great deal went on behind the scenes. Frankel and Lafargue could probably lay hands on a fair amount of stuff on France up till 1870 and, so far as Switzerland is concerned, you would have the Tagwacht, the Vorbote, the Egalité and the Bulletin jurassien.^[3] (Héritier's articles in the Berliner Volks- Tribüne should be treated with the greatest circumspection; they are all written in unconscious extenuation of the Bakuninists; 49 so unaware was the man of what he was doing that he didn't realise, until told by me, after the event, what a slap in the face they had been to his spiritual foster-father, Becker^[4] ). The other countries don't really matter.

For years past I have been intending to make use of the material in my possession for a biography of Marx and, in fact, it is this, as it happens to be quite the most important part, that I shall do first. A number of cir- cumstances make this necessary. Firstly, I was personally involved during the crucial period, 1870-72, and can fill out the material from my own experience. Secondly, it is at one and the same time the most important episode in Marx's public life and that least amenable to accurate portrayal from printed sources. Thirdly, the calumnies to be disposed of belong for the most part to this period. Fourthly, I am seventy-four years old and shall have to make haste. And, fifthly, the other period during which Marx was publicly active (1842-62) can perfectly well wait until later and even, if necessary, be depicted by someone other than myself, since public controversy up to the time of Herr Vogt throws light on most of it and Marx had so emphatically lived down the calumnies of the then vulgar democrats that these no longer call for individual refutation.

I shall apply myself to this task, to which I have long been looking for- ward, as soon as I possibly can,—indeed I only have one or two small jobs to do in the mean time, in effect merely the revision of the introduction to the new edition of the Peasant War 235 (for which I need your book too). Then I shall turn my back on all my correspondence (which is enormously time- consuming) and on all incidental work (no doubt with the help of the Subversion Bill 428?!), when I should be able to manage it all right.

Your news about the Arbeiter-Zeitung is indeed very gloomy; however, I believe it will come through all right. Maybe the chaps planned things on rather too lavish a scale at the start 377 and will now have to cut down a bit. But its political success seems assured and, that being so, it would be very strange if it didn't eventually prove a financial success also. Electoral reforms 270 that would enable us to get into parliament are, I consider, a virtual certainty in Austria, unless a period of general reaction were suddenly to set in. In Berlin they would seem to be making determined efforts in that direction, but unfortunately no one there knows his own mind from one day to the next. So they may find themselves in the same boat as the recruit from Lancashire who, while training, was ordered by his N.C.O. to 'slope arms— order arms—slope arms—order—slope—order'. 'I WINNOT,' cried the recruit. 'YOU WON'T?' 'NO, I WINNOT', 'YOU REFUSE TO OBEY YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER?' 'I WINNOT!' AND WHY NOT?' 'BECAUSE YOU DUNNOT KNOW YOUR OWN MIND FOR TWO MINUTES TOGETHER!'

Many regards from one household to the other.

Yours,

F. E.

Please keep to yourself what I have said above about my plans; there are so many indiscreet men of letters in the party!