The Anti-Socialist Law in Germany. The Situation in Russia

Author(s) Frederick Engels
Written 21 March 1879


First published in La Plebe, No. 12, March 30, 1879
Signed: F. Engels
Printed according to the newspaper
Translated from the Italian
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 24 pdf
Collection(s): La Plebe (newspaper)

This article was the last one in the series of articles sent by Engels to La Plebe. It appeared there on March 30, 1879 (No. 12), in the section "Nostra corrispondenza. Da Londra" without a title and was signed by Engels* name. It was prefaced by a short editorial introduction: "We have received a report from London from our outstanding friend F. Engels, one of the most prominent and illustrious leaders of international socialism.

"This report deserves particular attention thanks to the appreciation by Engels of the present situation in Germany and Russia. Therefore we find it useful to acquaint our readers with it too.

"We give almost the whole translation of this report."

London, March 21

...The last socialist elections in Germany prove that one cannot kill socialism just by stopping its mouth.[1] Indeed the law against the socialists will be a great success for us. It will complete the revolutionary education of the German workers...

With great effort and great sacrifices they had won the degree of freedom of the press, of association and assembly which they enjoyed. It was a continuous struggle, but in the end victory always remained on the side of the workers. They could organise, and whenever there was a general election it was a new triumph for them.

This legal agitation, however, made some people believe that it was no longer necessary to do anything else in order to obtain the final victory of the proletariat. This, in a country as poor in revolutionary traditions as Germany, could have been dangerous. Luckily, Bismarck's brutal action and the cowardice of the German bourgeoisie who support him have changed things. The German workers have proved just how much constitutional liberties are worth when the proletariat takes them seriously and uses them to combat capitalist domination. If any illusions still existed in this respect, our friend Bismarck has abruptly dispelled them. I say our friend Bismarck because no one has ever rendered so many services to socialism in Germany as he has. After preparing the revolution with the most advanced and intolerable militarism, with constantly increasing taxes, with an alliance between the State and the most shameless stock-jobbing, with a return to the most feudal and repressive traditions of the old Prussia, with persecutions as numerous as they were petty, and with public degradation and revilement inflicted on a bourgeoisie which, it must be said, deserved no better,— after preparing the revolution in this way he crowns his labours by forcing the German proletariat to set out on the revolutionary road.

Our friend Bismarck can rest assured. The revolution he has so well prepared will be carried out by the German workers. When the signal is given by Russia, they will be ready.

For some years now I have been bringing the state of Russia, where a decisive movement is being prepared, to the attention of European socialists. The struggle between the government and the secret societies has taken on so violent a character there that it cannot last. The movement seems to be on the brink of exploding. The government agents are committing incredible atrocities. Against such wild animals one must defend oneself as one can, with powder and lead. Political assassination in Russia is the only means which men of intelligence, dignity and character possess to defend themselves against the agents of an unprecedented despotism.[2]

Powerful conspiracies in the army and even in the imperial Court, national opinion humiliated by the diplomatic defeats following the war,[3] the treasury empty, credit in ruins, the bankers refusing to grant loans unless they are guaranteed by a national assembly, and finally destitution. This is the balance of Russia.

  1. ↑ The reference is to the supplementary-elections to the Reichstag which were held in the Western electoral district of Breslau on February 5, 1879 because of the death of its deputy Heinrich Bürgers. The elections, which took place after the promulgation of the Anti-Socialist. Law (see Note 289), demonstrated the strength and unity of the working class. The workers nominated their own candidate Julius Kräcker, who received 7,544 votes, which, however, were not enough to get elected. (Engels wrote to Wilhelm Liebknecht on March 1, 1879: "The election in Breslau has made a splendid impression here too." See present edition, Vol. 45.) At the supplementary elections of February 27 in the Saxonian electoral district of Waldheim-Debeln, the Social-Democratic candidate won 4,322 votes.
  2. ↑ When "going into the thick of the people" in 1873-75 failed (see Note 49), the Narodniks who had managed to escape arrest set up a new organisation in St. Petersburg in 1876, which in 1878 came to be known as Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom). In their practical work, its members founded permanent "settlements" of revolutionaries in the countryside for the purpose of establishing close contacts with the peasantry and preparing a popular revolution. As the rest of the Narodniks, they believed that Russia's development could follow a non-capitalist social and economic path; its basis was to be the village commune. Regarding the peasantry as the main revolutionary force, members of Land and Freedom also conducted propaganda among workers, students and soldiers. Their achievement was the formation of a strong, battleworthy revolutionary organisation. Proceeding from the inevitability of a "forceful overthrow", they placed primary importance with "agitation through action" (strikes, mutinies, demonstrations). They considered terrorism acceptable only as a means of self-protection and taking vengeance on the government. Engels is referring specifically to the actions of Vera Zasulich and Sergei Stepnyak-Kravchinsky (see Note 297).
  3. ↑ The reference is to the decisions of the Berlin international congress which revised the terms of the San Stefano Peace Treaty (see Note 266). In accordance with these decisions, the territory of self-governing Bulgaria envisaged by the San Stefano Treaty was cut by over a half, and an autonomous province, Eastern Roumelia, was formed out of Bulgarian regions to the south of the Balkans that was to remain under the Turkish rule; the territory of Montenegro was also substantially curtailed. The Treaty of Berlin confirmed that part of Bessarabia, which Russia had lost in 1856, was to be returned to her, but it also authorised the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. The Russian government was forced to submit the San Stefano Treaty for revision to the international congress under pressure from Britain, which had seized Cyprus on the eve of the congress. The Treaty of Berlin was signed by representatives of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy and Turkey.