Letter to Leó Frankel, October 13, 1876

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 13 October 1876


First published, in Hungarian, in the newspaper Népszava, No. 142, Budapest, 17 June 1906
Translated from the Hungarian
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO LEO FRANKEL[1]

IN BUDAPEST

London, 13 October 1876
41 Maitland Park Crescent, N. W.

Dear Frankel,

I could not answer your long letter, for which I am much obliged, because I was not clear about your situation, that is, did not know whether a letter from me might not be to your detriment if intercepted by chance, no matter how harmless its content might be.[2] Will you be so kind as to explain to me, if possible, the following: What is the relationship between sown plains and highlands (the latter used possibly as pasture)?

You are quite right to take part in editing a workers' newspaper. As for the so-called Swiss international congress,[3] it is the work of the Alliancists—Guillaume and Company.[4] Knowing that they are worth absolutely nothing by themselves, they deem it necessary to step again into the limelight under the banner of 'unification', which they could not do alone.[5] Their plan was supported by the Malons, Pindys and other Arnoulds, who, frightened at the fact that the workers are 'acting' in Paris without them, are out to bring themselves back to people's minds as patented representatives of the workers. On the other hand, Guillaume's group cunningly took in Bebel while he was in Switzerland. However, this matters but little. The Gotha Congress did not appoint any official representative to the Swiss congress but contented itself with general rhetoric about the community of workers' interests.[6] Meanwhile I sent a warning to Leipzig, and if any of them goes to the congress as a private person, he will take a negative stance on the blandishments of long-standing conspirators against the International. How you acted as a former member of the General Council and a delegate to the Hague Congress[7] is entirely understandable. You must not in the least succumb to the intoxication of reconciliation, a state in which scheming villains always swindle honest fools.

They have just begun printing Lissagaray's book[8] ; he is now busy reading the first proofs. The scoundrels, the so-called labour leaders (Englishmen), those whom I exposed at the Hague Congress, swallowed during the Russo-Bulgarian campaign over atrocities[9] a handsome amount of five-pound notes from the great leaders Gladstone, Bright, Robert Lowe (the man who during the latest reform agitation 197 called the working class a swinish multitude[10] ), Fawcett and others. But the plot is coming to a terrible end. These labour leaders, Mottershead and others, are the same dogs with whom it was impossible to hold a meeting against the butchers of the Commune.

I am sending you the latest issue of The Diplomatic Review. Despite the space it gives Urquhart to unload his inanities, the journal contains weighty facts concerning the Bulgarian epidemic of atrocities by which Russia has fooled the whole of Christian liberal Europe.[11]

I inform you on evidence from the most trustworthy source—and it would be a good thing to publish this fact in Hungarian papers—that some months ago the Russian government suspended the payment of interest due at fixed intervals to the Russian railways, and this completely in secret; every single department received private notification with orders to hold its tongue (and we know what that means in Russian). All this notwithstanding, the news of the fact reached not only me but also Reuter's Telegraph Agency (the biggest member of the Holy Trinity of European telegraph agencies, Reuter—Havas—Wolff) but the good man withheld the news at the special request of the Russian Embassy in London.

In any case, this is an edifying symptom of Russia's financial embarrassment. Should the English bourgeois feel it, he will again become pro-Turkish, for no matter how much the Turks owe England, it is nothing compared to the Russian debt.

Warm regards from my whole family.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ The German original of the letter has not been found.
  2. ↑ Marx's apprehension had been aroused by the fact that Leo Frankel was not released from Budapest prison until 27 March 1876 (see Note 144), and the Hungarian authorities had a chance to keep him under secret surveillance and intercept his correspondence.
  3. ↑ On the proposal of the anarchist Jura Federation, which withdrew from the International since it refused to recognise the resolutions of the Hague Congress (see Note 20), a congress of representatives of some workers' and socialist organisations (mostly anarchist and Proudhonist) took place in Berne from 26 to 30 October 1876. Since the International Working Men's Association had officially ceased to exist by decision of the conference held in Philadelphia in the summer of 1876, one of the issues discussed in Berne was the so-called solidarity pact that, or so the congress organisers hoped, would resurrect the International on the basis of their programme. In this connection, the participants in the Berne congress made an attempt to involve representatives of the German Social-Democrats in its work (see Note 192). A decision on this question was postponed until the next congress. However, the international socialist congress convened in Ghent in 1877 (see Note 324) turned down the anarchists' proposals and confirmed the resolutions of the Hague Congress.
  4. ↑ The Alliance of Socialist Democracy was founded by Mikhail Bakunin in Geneva in October 1868 as an international anarchist organisation which incorporated the secret conspiratorial organisation he had set up earlier in Italy (see Note 266). The Alliance had sections in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and in the south of France. In 1869, it applied to the General Council of the International Working Men's Association for admission. The General Council agreed to admit the sections to the International on condition that the Alliance was disbanded as an independent organisation. Having joined the International, Bakunin to all intents and purposes ignored this decision and incorporated the Alliance into the International under the guise of a Geneva Section (called the 'Alliance of Socialist Democracy. Central Section'). Marx, Engels and the General Council resolutely opposed the Alliance, exposing it as a sect hostile to the working-class movement which sought to split it and obstruct its independent development. At the Hague Congress of the International (1872), the Bakuninists sustained a shattering blow. Bakunin and Guillaume, the leaders of the Alliance, were expelled from the International.
  5. ↑ In his letter to Marx of 9 October 1876, Leo Frankel wrote that he had heard rumours about the forthcoming unity congress in Switzerland (see Note 200) at which Marx's and Lassalle's followers were to be present, and asked what his attitude to the congress should be.
  6. ↑ The Berne anarchists sent an invitation to the Gotha Congress of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany held in August 1876 to take part in their congress to be convened that October. The anarchists expressed their hope for a 'reconciliation' and co-operation with the German Social-Democrats. However, as Liebknecht wrote to Marx on 9 October, the Gotha Congress turned down the proposal that official representatives be sent to Berne. Julius Vahlteich was present at the anarchist congress as a guest from Germany (see Note 200).
  7. ↑ The Hague Congress (2-7 September 1872) of the International Working Men's Association was the most representative in its history. Present at the congress were 65 delegates from 15 countries. It took stock of the campaign against Bakuninism within the International and mapped out a programme of action suited to the new conditions that had emerged after the Paris Commune. Its main decision was to endorse the London Conference (1871) resolution on the political action of the working class concisely formulated as Art. 7 of the International's Rules. The congress also reached a number of decisions aimed at consolidating the Association's organisational structure.
    After the congress, the Bakuninists declared their disagreement with its resolutions, causing what amounted to a split in the International. The Hague Congress laid the foundation for future political parties of the working class in various countries.
  8. ↑ Histoire de la Commune de 1871
  9. ↑ In April 1876, a national liberation uprising began in Bulgaria. It was brutely suppressed by Turkish troops in May. The press in many countries expressed its indignation at the 'Turkish atrocities'.
  10. ↑ See this volume, p. 156.
  11. ↑ 'The Bulgarian Insurrection', The Diplomatic Review, Vol. XXIV, No. 4, October 1876.