Letter to Eduard Bernstein, April 17, 1882

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 17 April 1882


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Book I, Moscow, 1924
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46


ENGELS TO EDUARD BERNSTEIN

IN ZURICH

London, 17 April 1882

Dear Mr Bernstein,

As soon as I heard from Lavrov that the preface[1] had appeared in the Narodnaya Volya[2] I asked for a copy of the original,[3] but he had left it in his desk in Paris; however, he said he would write. Then I went to Marx's and searched in vain for the brouillon.[4] Finally I got Lavrov to let me have a copy of the Russian translation so that, if the worst came to the worst, I could retranslate it myself; I feared, as indeed happened, that some Russian or other would see to this. Lavrov has just sent me the enclosed copy of the original. However, I have only myself to blame for this. For I had meant to send you a postcard, but have got Schorlemmer and Adolf Beust staying with me, and there's quite a lot of gadding about with Mrs Lafargue (whose husband[5] is in Paris) and Tussy Marx, so that the postcard got overlooked. But in order that you may see that good intentions were not wanting, I am belatedly sending you the thing.

Congratulations on your attack upon Geiser's spineless conduct.[6]

Confidential: Marx has been in Algiers since 21 February. On arrival he had a fresh attack of pleurisy as a result of catching cold on the journey; he found wretched weather conditions, but is now pretty well all right again. How long he'll stay there is not yet certain. Has had distinctly bad luck with the weather.

Kindest regards from

Yours,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Preface to the Second Russian Edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party' (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp.425-26).
  2. ↑ Narodnaya Volya (People's Will)— an illegal newspaper of the Narodnaya Volya secret society, published in Russia from October 1879 to October 1885.
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 235-36.
  4. ↑ draft
  5. ↑ Paul Lafargue
  6. ↑ After the leaders of the Eisenach party had read the Critique of the Gotha Programme, the manuscript was returned to Marx. Planning a pamphlet devoted to the Gotha Programme, Liebknecht asked Engels in a letter of 13 July 1877 for a copy of Marx's manuscript as he did not have one.