Letter to Maxim Kovalevsky, January 9, 1877

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 9 January 1877


First published, in Russian, in Letopisi marksizma, Book VI, Moscow-Leningrad, 1930
Published in English for the first time in: K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, The Communist View on Morality, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1974
Printed according to the original
Translated from the French
Published in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO MAXIM KOVALEVSKY

IN MOSCOW

London, 9 January 1877
41 Maitland Park Road, N. W.

My dear Friend,

I have learned that a Russian lady[1] who has rendered the party important services is unable for want of money to find a lawyer in Moscow for her husband.[2] I know neither the husband in question, nor whether he is guilty or not. But a consequence of the trial could be exile in Siberia and, since Mrs... is determined to follow her husband, whom she considers innocent, it is most important that she should at least be provided with the means for his defence. Since Mrs... has left the management of her fortune to her husband and is wholly uninformed about such matters, only a lawyer could set things right.[3]

Mr Taneyev, whom you know and whom I have long esteemed as a devoted friend of the emancipation of the people is, perhaps, the only lawyer in Moscow who would take on so thankless a case. You would greatly oblige me by asking him to concern himself with our friend's exceptionally unfortunate situation.

Yours ever,

Karl Marx

  1. ↑ Yelizaveta Tomanovskaya
  2. ↑ Ivan Davydovsky
  3. ↑ This letter was written at Nikolai Utin's request and based on information received from him. Referring to the important services rendered to the party by Tomanovskaya, Marx meant her activities as a member of the Russian section of the International and her participation in the Paris Commune.