Letter to Pyotr Lavrov, February 11, 1875

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 11 February 1875


First published, in Russian, in Letopisi marksizma, Book V, Moscow-Leningrad, 1928
Printed according to the original
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO PYOTR LAVROV[1]

IN LONDON

[London,] 11 February 1875

My dear Friend,

I am sending you today the German edition[2] in one volume (I no longer have any available Hefte[3] ), and the first six fascicles of the French edition.[4] The latter contains many changes and additions (see e.g. fascicle 6, p. 222 attacking John Stuart Mill—a striking example of how bourgeois economists, even with the best of intentions, instinctively go off the rails at the very moment when they seem about to light on the truth[5] ). The most important changes contained in the French edition, however, are to be found in those parts not yet published, namely the chapters on accumulation.

Many thanks for the publications you sent me. What particularly interested me were the articles 'MTO 4eAaeTCH Ha poAHHe?'.[6] If I had the time I would make excerpts for the Volksstaat. The 'He HauiH'[7] are first-rate people. I rather suspect that our friend Lopatin had a hand in the said article.[8]

A large parcel of books and official publications was despatched to me from St Petersburg but was stolen, probably by the Russian government. Amongst other things it contained the reports, KOMUCCIR no cejitcKOMy xo3RÜcmey u cejitcKoü npou3eobumemMocmu es Pocciu and IJo nodaniHOMy eonpocyf things that were absolutely essential to the chapter in the second volume in which I deal with landownership, etc., in Russia.[9]

My health has greatly improved since my stay at Karlsbad[10] but, for one thing, I am still compelled to greatly restrict my hours of work and, for another, I was no sooner back in London than I caught a COLD which has not ceased to plague me ever since. I shall come and see you when the weather turns finer.

Yours ever,

Karl Marx

  1. ↑ This letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters on 'Capital', New Park Publications Ltd., London, 1983.
  2. ↑ the second German edition of the first volume of Capital
  3. ↑ instalments
  4. ↑ A reference to the French edition of the first volume of Capital. An attempt to translate Marx's principal work into French was first made by Charles Keller, a member of the Paris Section of the International. Between October 1869 and April 1870, he translated about 400 pages which he sent to Marx for editing, After the defeat of the Paris Commune, however, Keller was forced to emigrate to Switzerland, where he embraced Bakuninist views, after which Marx terminated co-operation with him.
    In December 1871, Paul Lafargue assisted Marx in concluding a contract for the publication of Capital with the progressive French journalist and publisher Maurice Lachâtre. The contract was signed on 15 February 1872. Under it, Capital was to appear in 44 instalments, one printer's sheet each. The work appeared between 1872 and 1875 in two instalments at a time, but was sold in series of five instalments each, making nine series in all.
    The last instalments having come out, the series were stitched together and sold as separate books.
    The first volume of Capital was translated into French by Joseph Roy. Marx did not think much of the effort and made a vast number of alterations, in fact, revised the book. As he himself said, the authorised French translation had an independent scientific value alongside the German original.
    In this edition, the first volume of Capital is published in Engels' authorised English translation with the interpolations from the French edition given in the Appendix (see present edition, Vol. 35).
  5. ↑ See Capital, Vol. I, Part V, Ch. XVI (present edition, Vol. 35).
  6. ↑ 'What's Going on at Home?'—a section in the Vperyod! (Forward!) magazine published by Pyotr Lavrov. It carried reports from Russia.
  7. ↑ Not Ours
  8. ↑ The section 'What's Going on at Home?' in Vperyod! (Vol. Ill, London, 1874) carried an anonymous article from Irkutsk dated February 1874; its actual author was Hermann Lopatin, who described a group of religious dissenters he met in Siberia called 'Not Ours'. They denied the existence of God and opposed government authority, property, family and all existing laws and customs in protest against the existing system in Russia.
  9. ↑ Marx finally received both books mentioned here. The name of the first appears on his list 'Russisches in my bookstall'.
    Marx intended to use the results of his research into the agrarian relations in Russia when putting the finishing touches to the section on ground rent in the second volume of his Capital (see Note 62). However, this intention was not fulfilled. After the Russian translation of the first volume of Capital appeared in print in 1872, Marx continued his study of Russian economic writings, making copious notes as he went along.
  10. ↑ On 15 August 1874 Marx, accompanied by his daughter Eleanor, left for Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) on doctors' recommendations, where he stayed from 19 August to 21 September. On the way back to London, Marx stopped off in Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg. In Leipzig, where he stayed approximately from 25 to 28 September, he had talks about the state of the German working-class movement with Wilhelm Liebknecht and Wilhelm Bios, as well as with members of the Leipzig party branch. While in Hamburg on 29 September-1 October, Marx met Social-Democratic leaders.