Letter to Johann Philipp Becker, September 8, 1879

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 8 September 1879


First published in: F. Engels. Vergessene Briefe (Briefe Friedrich Engels' an Johann Philipp Becker), Berlin, 1920
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO JOHANN PHILIPP BECKER

IN GENEVA

London, 8 September 1879

Dear Old Man,

I am sorry to hear that you are still in the clutches of misfortune and it's not within my power to extricate you from them altogether. In the meantime I have been able to place two pounds at your disposal, and have also received a third from a friend[1] who is both a chemist and a communist of the first water; I have just taken out a money order for you in respect of these three pounds, vulgo 75 fr. 60, and hope it will be paid you without delay. It goes without saying, of course, that you need feel absolutely no embarrassment where I am concerned; anything I can do for you will always be done without fail, and always with pleasure, and it's disgraceful we shouldn't have reached the stage of ensuring our veterans a carefree existence.

The Freiheit is unlikely to survive until the new year, unless it derives a new importance from the stupidities of its opponents. It is intended to set up an official party organ in Zurich[2] and to entrust its management—under the ultimate control of the Leipzigers—to Germans in Zurich of whom it cannot be said that they inspire me with confidence. At any rate, in the Jahrbuch for social science edited by Höchberg, one of their number, there are some rather extraordinary things: the party was wrong in making itself out to be a workers' party, brought the Anti-Socialist Law upon itself by otiose attacks on the bourgeoisie, what was wanted wasn't revolution, but slow, peaceful development, etc.[3] This cowardly twaddle, needless to say, is all of it grist to Most's mill, and he is all agog to exploit it, as you will see from recent numbers of the Freiheit.[4] We had been invited by Leipzig to contribute to the new organ[5] and had, indeed, consented; but since learning who is to be immediately responsible,[6] we have again cried off, nor, after this Jahrbuch, can there be any intercourse whatever with men who are trying surreptitiously to introduce such twaddle and such toadyism into the party—with Höchberg and Co. The Leipzigers will discover soon enough what kind of allies they have landed themselves with. All in all, it's just about time we took a stand against the philanthropic big and petty bourgeois, the students and professors who are forcing their way into the German party and seeking to water down the proletariat's class struggle against its oppressors till it becomes an institution for universal fraternisation, and this at a moment when the bourgeois, with whom we are supposed to fraternise, have outlawed us, destroyed our presses, disrupted our meetings and delivered us up sans phrase[7] to the caprices of the police. The German workers are hardly likely to join in such a campaign.

Our people in Russia have scored a signal victory—they have disrupted the Russo-Prussian alliance.[8] If they hadn't, by their ruthless action, put the fear of God into the Russian government, it would probably have succeeded in overcoming the internal discontent felt by the aristocracy and middle classes over the English ban on the entry of troops into the open city of Constantinople and the ensuing diplomatic defeat in Berlin.[9]

But as it was, blame for those defeats had to be shifted onto another country, onto Prussia. Though uncle and nephew may have temporarily patched things up at Alexandrovo,[10] the breach is now beyond repair. And, unless there's a catastrophe in Russia very soon, there will be war between Russia and Prussia, a war predicted by the General Council as the inevitable consequence of the French war while this last was still in progress, and which was avoided only with the utmost difficulty in 1873.[11]

Well, keep your pecker up, and drop us a line again soon—a proper letter, since in a mere postcard you can't really get things off your chest.

Warmest regards from Marx and

Your old friend,

F. E.

  1. ↑ Carl Schorlemmer
  2. ↑ This refers to the preparations for the publication of the illegal newspaper Der Sozialdemokrat in Zurich, the new central printed organ of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. The need for such a newspaper emerged after a ban on the entire party press, above all the Vorwärts, following the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law in October 1878 (see Note 462). In July-September 1879, extensive correspondence on the political line of the new paper and its editors was maintained between August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Louis Viereck (in Leipzig), Carl Hirsch (in Paris), Eduard Bernstein, Karl Höchberg, Carl August Schramm (in Zurich), and Marx and Engels (in London).
    The campaign Marx and Engels conducted for a sound political line of the party's future central printed organ is fully expounded in their Circular Letter to August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Wilhelm Bracke and Others of 17-18 September 1879 (see this volume, pp. 394-408).
  3. ↑ A reference to the programmatic article 'Rückblicke auf die sozialistische Bewegung in Deutschland' which appeared anonymously in the Jahrbuch für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Jg. 1, 1. Hälfte, Zürich-Oberstrass, 1879, S. 75-96. Its authors were Karl Höchberg (pen-name Ludwig Richter), Eduard Bernstein and Carl August Schramm. Marx and Engels examined it in detail in the Circular Letter (this volume, pp. 401-08).
  4. ↑ The Freiheit of 30 August 1879, and its sample issue called 'Was nun?' of 6 September carried two articles criticising the first volume of the Jahrbuch für Sozialwissenschaft und Socialpolitik from an anarchist viewpoint. The first article, printed in the 'Socialpolitische Rundschau' column, reviewed the materials featured by the Jahrbuch and the second, 'Auch eine Denkschrift', analysed the article 'Rückblicke auf die sozialistische Bewegung in Deutschland'.
  5. ↑ Der Sozialdemokrat
  6. ↑ See this volume, pp. 367-68.
  7. ↑ without more ado
  8. ↑ See also this volume, p. 387.
  9. ↑ On 3 March (19 February) 1878, Russia and Turkey signed a preliminary peace treaty in San Stefano (near Constantinople). The treaty's provisions included the establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian principality which would be nominally dependent on Turkey, state sovereignty for Serbia, Montenegro and Romania and their territorial expansion. It consolidated Russia's position in the Balkans, which brought counteraction on the part of Britain and Austria-Hungary, who even resorted to a show of strength (a British squadron entered the Sea of Marmara, etc.). Russia was thus forced to agree to the convocation of an international congress to revise those sections of the treaty that involved 'common European interests'. The congress, in which Russia, Britain, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Germany, France and Italy took part, was held in Berlin between 13 (1) June and 13 (1) July 1878. It resulted in the Treaty of Berlin which significantly amended the provisions of the San Stefano Treaty. The territory of self-governing Bulgaria was cut by more than half, and the Bulgarian territories south of the Balkan Ridge were to form Eastern Rumelia, an autonomous province that remained under the Sultan; the territory of Montenegro was also to be substantially curtailed. The Treaty of Berlin confirmed the provision of the San Stefano Treaty that Russia was to receive back the part of Bessarabia severed from it in 1856 and sanctioned the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. After the Berlin congress the Balkans remained a focus of conflict, which led to the First World War.
  10. ↑ A reference to the meeting between Alexander II and William I, which took place on 3 and 4 September 1879 in Alexandrovo, not far from the Russian-German border.
  11. ↑ See this volume, pp. 392-93.