| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 23 November 1894 |
ENGELS TO JOSSIF ATABEKJANZ
IN STUTTGART
London, 23 November 1894
41 Regent's Park Road, N. W.
Dear Comrade,
Many thanks for having translated my Entwicklung des Sozialismus and, recently, the Communist Manifesto[1] into your Armenian mother tongue. Unfortunately I am not in a position to comply with your request that I send you a short introduction to the latter translation. I cannot very well write anything that is to be published in a language which I do not understand. Were I to do so as a favour to yourself, I could not refuse to oblige others, in which case it might happen that my words were ushered into the world in unintentionally, if not deliberately, garbled form, while I might not learn about it for years, if ever.
Then there is another reason—grateful though I am to you for your interesting exposé of the Armenian situation—namely, that I do not regard it as right or fair to try and express an opinion on matters of which I have not acquired a knowledge from personal study. Particularly in this instance when the people concerned belong to an oppressed nationality unfortunate enough to be trapped between the Scylla of Turkish and the Charybdis of Russian despotism, a situation in which Russian Tsarism speculates on playing the role of liberator and the servile Russian press never fails to make the most of every word uttered in favour of Armenian liberation by turning it to the advantage of a Tsarism bent on conquest.
If, however, I am to tell you honestly what I think, it is this—that Armenia's liberation from the Turks and Russians will become a possibility only on the day when Russian Tsarism is overthrown.
With best wishes for the welfare of your people,
Yours,
F. Engels