Letter to Karl Kautsky, April 1, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 1 April 1890


First published in: Aus der Frühzeit des Marxismus. Engels Briefwechsel mit Kautsky. Prag, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN STUTTGART

London, 1 April 1890

Dear Kautsky,

I have just received the Russian Sotsial-Demokrat and have compared my article[1] with the Neue Zeit. I now find that Mr Dietz has had the impudence to alter without reference to ourselves various passages which he had not even scored in red. Not one of these passages infringes the penal code or contravenes the Anti-Socialist Law;[2] they were, however, too strong for philistine tastes.

Yet I have behaved as decently as possible and have done all I could to make the elimination of harmful matter easier for him. But censor- ship of this kind, carried out behind my back, is something I won't stand for from any publisher. I shall therefore write to Dietz expressly forbidding him to print the remainder of the article in any form other than that in which it appears in the proof corrected by me, and by that I mean word for word. What else I shall do remains to be seen. At all events, Mr Dietz has made it impossible for me to send further contri- butions to a periodical in which one is exposed to this kind of treat- ment.

Your

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Engels, F. 'The Foreign Policy of Russian Tsardom' (present edition, Vol. 27).
  2. ↑ The Anti-Socialist law (Gesetz gegen die gemeingefahrlichen Bestrebungen der Sozialdemokratie) was introduced by the Bismarck government, with the support of the majority of the Reichstag, on 21 October 1878, as a means of combating the socialist and working-class movement. It imposed a ban on all Social Democratic and working-class organisations and on the socialist and workers' press; socialist literature was subject to confiscation, and Social Democrats to reprisals. However, under the Constitution, the Social Democratic Party retained its group in parliament. By combining underground activities with the use of legal possibilities, in particular by working to overcome reformist and anarchist tendencies in its own ranks, the party was able to consolidate and expand its influence among the masses. Marx and Engels gave the party leaders considerable help. Under the pressure of the mass working-class movement the Anti-Socialist Law was repealed (1 October 1890). For Engels' characterisation of the law see his article 'Bismarck and the German Workers Party' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp407-09).