Letter to Nikolai Petersen, May 3, 1892

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	3 May 1892

First published, in Danish, in Arbejderen, No. 28, Copenhagen, 1892
Translated from the Danish
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49

ENGELS TO NIKOLAI PETERSEN

[IN COPENHAGEN]

[London, 3 May 1892]

Dear Mr Petersen,

I understand that it is possible even in prison for you to receive letters, and so I could not refrain from expressing to you my genuine sympathy on your conviction and imprisonment. Things are now much the same in Denmark as in other countries: where others are acquitted, a socialist is found guilty, and where others are given a month in prison, a socialist gets a year or several years, and hard labour into the bargain. This is proof that they fear us more and more, but it makes it no less unfortunate for those who are the victims of reaction.

Many thanks also for sending me Arbejderen. As I only rarely see Social-Demokraten, your paper has been my sole source of information as far as the situation in Denmark is concerned, and that has made it even more welcome to me.

The May Day festival went off well. I wish that you had been able to see the 600,000 people who were in Hyde Park the day before yesterday.^[1] Every year the May Day parade becomes more impressive, showing that the time is fast approaching when we shall be strong enough to let things come to a decisive battle.

And now farewell. I hope that you are no worse off than German comrades usually are on similar occasions, so that it is at least bearable. It can scarcely be as bad as in England and America, or as good as in Paris in Sainte Pélagie. In any case we all hope that you will leave prison with your health unimpaired and that you will be fit enough to be with us on the next May Day.

With best wishes from Mrs Kautsky and me myself,

Yours, as ever,

F. Engels

↑ The powerful May Day demonstration of 1892, in which Engels took part, had been staged jointly by London's working-class and socialist organisations. The festival lasted for two and a half hours and was attended by workers' and socialist representatives from several European countries.

[1] The powerful May Day demonstration of 1892, in which Engels took part, had been staged jointly by London's working-class and socialist organisations. The festival lasted for two and a half hours and was attended by workers' and socialist representatives from several European countries.

[1]