Letter to Karl Marx, November 30, 1882

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 30 November 1882


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46


ENGELS TO MARX

IN VENTNOR

London, 30 November 1882

Dear Moor,

Encl. a letter from Bebel[1] received today. The 'mystery' which he is unable to understand all of a sudden and which may release them from the Anti-Socialist Law,[2] is, of course, the outbreak of the crisis in Russia.[3] Curious that none of these people can get used to the idea that the impulse might come from that quarter. And it is not as though I haven't explained this to him more than once. I regard his hopes for a new major crisis as premature — there could be an interim crisis as in 1842, and Germany, the most backward country industrially, which must content itself with the crumbs that fall to it from the demand of the world market, would certainly suffer worse than any other.

Guesde was released in Montluçon immediately after the first hearing, and neither Bazin nor Lafargue was arrested; on the contrary, Bazin published in the Egalité a letter to the chief of police of his arrondissement, objecting to the mouchards[4] that sniffed round his house and advising him of the times at which he could be arrested at home.[5] Those chaps have more luck than sense. I shan't be able to read the Egalité until after the 5.30 post has gone; so it will reach you tomorrow by the 2nd post (2 nos).

I have obtained, second-hand, Vom Entstehen und Untergange der polnischen Konstitution vom 3. Mai 1791, 1793, place of publication not given. This is the book you have mentioned so often in which the infamies perpetrated upon Poland by Frederick William II are described at length. Cost one whole mark!

Hartmann's battery for lighting 6 Swan incandescent lamps is expected to be ready tomorrow. If the thing proves a success, i. e. provides a steady light over an extended period, hence actual proof of the constant intensity of the current, it will at once be exhibited in public and a company 'founded' to exploit it. Hartmann will also be showing sundry items at the Crystal Palace where a new electrical exhibition is shortly to be held. He and his backer, whom Percy[6] found for him, are highly enthusiastic about the invention.

All well here.

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ of Der Sozialdemokrat
  2. ↑ The Anti-Socialist Law (The Exceptional Law Against the Socialists) was introduced by the Bismarck government on a majority vote in the Reichstag on 21 October 1878 to combat the socialist and working-class movement. It banned all party and mass workers' organisations and the socialist and workers' press, and sanctioned confiscation of socialist literature and persecution of Social-Democrats. But the Social-Democratic Party, in accordance with the Constitution, preserved its group in the Reichstag. By skilfully combining illegal and legal methods of work and suppressing reformist and anarchist tendencies within its ranks, the party managed substantially to strengthen and extend its influence among the masses. Marx and Engels actively assisted the party's leaders.
    Under pressure from the working-class movement, the law was repealed on 1 October 1890. Engels examined it in his essay 'Bismarck and the German Working Men's Party' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 407-09).
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 414-15.
  4. ↑ informers
  5. ↑ G. Bazin, 'À Monsieur le commissaire de police', L'Egalité, 4th series, No. 38, 30 November 1882.
  6. ↑ Rosher