Alignment with the "Manifesto of the Communist Party"! Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: "The Communist Manifesto" The Communist Manifesto 1848 read.

The essay states that the entire preceding history of mankind is the history of the struggle of classes. The authors proclaim the inevitability of the death of capitalism at the hands of the proletariat, which is to build a classless communist society with public ownership of the means of production.

In the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" Marx and Engels set out their vision of the laws of social development and the inevitability of a change in the modes of production. An important place in the "Manifesto" is occupied by a critical review of various non-Marxist theories of socialism and pseudo-socialist doctrines. Thus, the utopian "crude and ill-conceived communism" is criticized by those who simply extended the principle of private property to everyone ("common private property"). In addition, the Manifesto says that the communists, as the most decisive part of the proletariat, "are not a special party opposing other workers' parties," and also "everywhere they support every revolutionary movement directed against the existing social and political system" and "seek unification and agreements between the democratic parties of all countries ”.

The manifesto begins with the words: “A ghost is haunting Europe — the ghost of communism. All the forces of old Europe have united for the sacred persecution of this ghost: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German policemen. " It ends with the following sentences: “Let the ruling classes shudder before the Communist Revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose in it except their chains. They will gain the whole world, "followed by the slogan:" Workers of all countries, unite! ".

The first translator of the Communist Manifesto in Russian, printed in the Kolokol printing house and issued in 1869 in Geneva, was a comrade-in-arms and opponent of Marx and Engels in the First International, a prominent theorist of anarchism Mikhail Bakunin. The second edition appeared in the same place in 1882 in the translation of Georgy Plekhanov with a special preface by Marx and Engels, in which they ask the question whether the Russian community can become an instrument for the transition to the communist form of common ownership, bypassing the capitalist stage that Western European societies are going through. The first Ukrainian translation of the "Manifesto" was prepared by the writer Lesya Ukrainka.

There is no exact information about the total number of publications of the "Communist Manifesto". But in the USSR alone, by January 1, 1973, 447 editions of the "Manifest" were issued with a total circulation of 24,341,000 copies in 74 languages.

A new surge of interest in the work of Marx and Engels is observed in the 21st century. In 2012, a new English edition of the Manifesto was prepared with a foreword by the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm. Since 2010, the Canadian academic publishing house Red Quill Books, which specializes in the presentation of classic radical texts in the form of comics or manga, has published The Illustrated Communist Manifesto ( Communist Manifesto Illustrated) in four parts of the comic.

Soviet postage stamp for the 100th anniversary of the "Manifesto", 1948

1. Bourgeois and proletarians
2. Proletarians and communists
3. Socialist and communist literature
   1. Reactionary socialism
      1. Feudal socialism
      2. Petty bourgeois socialism
      3. German, or "true", socialism
   2. Conservative or bourgeois socialism
   3. Critical Utopian Socialism and Communism
4. The attitude of the communists towards various opposition parties

content analysis

The formalization of the Marxist idea was essentially completed by the time it appeared on the world arena in the form of the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (January 1848). As for the ideas of history, revolution and communism, the Manifesto contains nothing new. And yet, we need to dwell briefly on its formulations.

The Manifesto is a masterpiece of political rhetoric. And a century later, his formulas have not lost anything of their revolutionary pathos and their political effectiveness. In the preamble, the authors define the level of historical significance of their proclamation: communism is recognized as a force by all European countries; his ghost haunts Europe. The Pope and the Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German police have banded together in a “holy alliance” to exorcise this specter. Such recognition from the old authorities requires the communists to explain their views and present them to the public. The new world power is opposing the authorities of the old world.

The first chapter of the Manifesto indicates the place of communism in the historical process. "The history of all hitherto existing societies was the history of class struggles." There have always been classes, oppressive and oppressed. However modern society differs from all previous periods in the simplicity of the picture. "Society is increasingly splitting into two large hostile camps, into two large, opposing classes — the bourgeoisie and the proletariat." The Manichean model, seductive in its simplicity, is established: there are only two forces, good and evil, and all who are not on the side of good inevitably find themselves on the side of evil. The manifesto follows this model and looks first at the rise of the bourgeoisie and then of the proletariat.

The bourgeoisie emerged from medieval serfs and became the operator of modern industry and trade, which spread throughout the globe... The bourgeoisie created a modern representative state as its political instrument. "The bourgeoisie has played an extremely revolutionary role in history." The description of this role begins with the following remarks: the bourgeoisie "destroyed all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations." But this condemnation soon turns into a glorification of the achievements of the bourgeoisie that even the most enlightened progressist is incapable of. The bourgeoisie "created miracles of art, but of a very different kind than the Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts and Gothic cathedrals." It "made the production and consumption of all countries cosmopolitan," "it ripped out the national soil from under the feet of industry." "The old local and national isolation and existence at the expense of the products of our own production are being replaced by an all-round connection and an all-round dependence of nations on each other." In the field of the intellectual, the bourgeoisie has made the same revolution. "National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness are becoming more and more impossible, and from the multitude of national and local literatures one world literature is formed." Thanks to the development of communications, "even the most barbaric nations" are being drawn into civilization. All nations are forced to adopt the bourgeois mode of production, otherwise they will be destroyed. "In a word, the bourgeoisie creates the world for itself in its own image and likeness." She created huge cities and "thus wrested a significant part of the population from the idiocy of village life." "It made the countryside dependent on the city, the barbaric and semi-barbaric countries it made dependent on the civilized countries, the peasant peoples on the bourgeois peoples, the East on the West." "The bourgeoisie, in less than a hundred years of its class rule, has created more numerous and more grandiose productive forces than all the previous generations put together." In short, we hear here the voice of Condorcet, with his extraordinary enthusiasm for the expected complete destruction of all historical civilizations and the transformation of humanity into a world bourgeois society.

However, the greatness of the bourgeoisie is transitory, like everything else in the world, with the exception of communism. The bourgeoisie must leave and its achievements will go to the heir who grew up under its rule - the proletariat, that is, "the class of modern workers, who can only exist when they find work." The description of the existence of the proletariat contains nothing new. It is interesting, however, to describe the stages of the struggle of the proletariat. "His struggle against the bourgeoisie begins with his existence." Initially, there are only individual and local protests against local and individual oppression. With the development of industry, there are more and more proletarians and they begin to realize their situation as a whole. Meetings and associations are organized and local riots break out. Momentary victories are accompanied by defeats, as a result, national coalitions arise and the proletarian struggle is centralized. The proletariat is embarking on the path of self-organization as a class and a party. The progressive proletarianization of ever larger strata of society is bringing educated people into the camp of the proletariat. The collapse of the old society prompts small groups from among the ruling class to change their class and join the revolutionary class, whose future belongs only to itself. "As before a part of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now part of the bourgeoisie is going over to the proletariat, namely, part of the bourgeois ideologists who have risen to a theoretical understanding of the entire course of the historical movement." This is how we got to Marx and Engels themselves, bourgeois ideologists who are able to explain to the proletariat how things stand with the historical process and provide intellectual leadership as organizers of the Communist Party.

The second part of the Manifesto examines the relationship between proletarians and communists. Here we find a new set of ideas regarding the role of the communist leadership in the proletarian struggle against the bourgeoisie. The first phrases are especially important because they set out principles that will later develop into the idea of \u200b\u200bcommunism as the "universal church" of the proletariat. The chapter begins modestly: "The Communists are not a special party opposing other workers' parties." But already in the next phrase this rejection of rivalry turns into a claim to universalism: "They have no interests separate from the interests of the entire proletariat as a whole." The most far-reaching conclusions are drawn from this, because this statement does not assert any fact that can be checked for truth or falsity. It is not a program either; it is a fundamental dogma that declares that the spirit of the proletariat as a whole rested on the Communist Party. Any programmatic aspirations are openly rejected by the following phrase: "They have no interests separate from the interests of the entire proletariat as a whole." Communists differ from other proletarian groups not in their principles and program, but in the universal level of their activity. "In the struggle of the proletarians of various nations, they single out and defend the common interests of the entire proletariat, independent of nationality"; and "at various stages of development through which the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie passes, they are always representatives of the interests of the movement as a whole." Above the local and temporal characteristics of the struggle of the proletarians, the central leading role of the communists is manifested. Indeed, the next paragraph formulates the principle of the "vanguard": "The Communists, therefore, in practice are the most decisive part of the workers' parties of all countries, which always encourages to move forward, and in theory they have an advantage over the rest of the proletariat in understanding the conditions, the course and general results of the proletarian movement ”. As for the immediate goals, the communists, otherwise, do not differ from other proletarian parties. Their goal is "the formation of the proletariat into a class, the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie, the conquest of political power by the proletariat."

The second chapter offers a detailed exposition and justification of the ultimate goals of communism.

The authors emphasize the non-programmatic nature of these goals. "The theoretical positions of the communists are in no way based on ideas, principles invented or discovered by one or another renovator of the world." "They are only a general expression of the actual relations of the ongoing class struggle, an expression of the historical movement taking place before our eyes." Therefore, it would be a mistake to consider the statements of the communists as demands of this or that change in the present state of affairs. On the contrary, they reveal the actual state of affairs and propose to develop to their full implementation those tendencies that are already inherent in the historical process. Therefore, the accusations against the communists are not substantiated. Opponents accuse the communists of intending to abolish private property. The manifesto recognizes that this is the essence of communist theory. But what does this abolition mean when all socially significant property is capitalist property, and a huge part of the people does not have any property anyway? And if we take property away from those who own it, would that be expropriation? No, because “capital is a collective product and can only be set in motion by the joint activity of many members of society, and ultimately only by the joint activity of all members of society. So, capital is not a personal, but a social force, "and to be a capitalist" means to occupy in production not a purely personal, but a social position. " “Consequently, if capital is transformed into a collective property belonging to all members of society, then this will not be the transformation of personal property into public property. Only the social character of property will change. It will lose its class character. " The so-called "expropriation", therefore, only transforms the current situation into a principle of social order. The same type of proof is then applied to accusations of abolishing bourgeois marriage, nationality, religion, and “eternal truths such as freedom, justice,” etc.

Together with the communist theses, history invades the consciousness of man. These communist statements are not a program to interfere with the existing order, they are an insight of an emerging order growing within the decaying old social order. The communists and their followers therefore perceive themselves as executors of the law of history. And again we must point out the motives of Condorcet in this concept of the communists - the leaders of humanity in its march into the kingdom of freedom. (Once again, it should be reminded that there is no contradiction between enlightened progressivism and communism). And yet, history cannot march all the time by itself; leaders must help it. There is already a tool for achieving the goal: the proletarians as a class that does not belong to society, without property and without nationality ("The workers have no fatherland"). This material needs to be shaped by awakening its class consciousness, and then a revolution can be made.

Conquering power will be a long-term process. There will be a transitional period of the dictatorship of the proletariat between the bourgeois state and a free society. In the first stage, the proletariat will become the ruling class in a democratic society. This political power will then be used "to wrest all capital from the bourgeoisie, step by step, to centralize all the instruments of production in the hands of the state, that is, the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase the amount of productive forces as quickly as possible." This can be achieved "only with the help of despotic interference in property rights and in bourgeois production relations." These measures may seem unjustified from an economic point of view, but they are inevitable on the path of a revolutionary transformation of the entire mode of production. In the process of this development, class differences will disappear, production will be concentrated in the hands of the association of individuals, and public power will lose its political character, since it will no longer be an instrument of the class. And, finally, the old society will be replaced by "an association in which the free development of each is a condition for the free development of all." The manifesto ends with the famous appeal for the unification of revolutionaries: “The proletarians have nothing to lose in it except their chains. They will acquire the whole world. Workers of all countries, unite! " ...

The program for the transition from capitalism to communism

In the chapter “II. Proletarians and Communists ”provides a brief program of the transition from a capitalist social formation to a communist one, carried out by the violent state of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The proletariat uses its political domination in order to wrest from the bourgeoisie step by step all capital, to centralize all the instruments of production in the hands of the state, that is, the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase the sum of productive forces as quickly as possible. This can, of course, happen at first only with the help of despotic interference in property rights and in bourgeois production relations, that is, with the help of measures that seem economically insufficient and untenable, but which in the course of the movement outgrow themselves and are inevitable as a means for a revolution in everything. production method.

The program itself contains 10 points:

These activities will, of course, differ from country to country.

However, in the most advanced countries, the following measures can be applied almost universally:

1. Expropriation of land property and circulation of land rent to cover public expenditures.
2. High progressive tax.
3. Cancellation of the right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital and with an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of all transport in the hands of the state.
7. Increase in the number of state factories, implements of production, clearing for arable land and improvement of land according to a general plan.
8. Equal obligation to work for all, the establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combining agriculture with industry, promoting the gradual elimination of the distinction between town and country.
10. Public and free education of all children. Elimination of the factory labor of children in its modern form. Combining education with material production, etc.

After the liquidation of capitalist relations, the dictatorship of the proletariat will exhaust itself, and will have to give way to the "association of individuals." The essence of this association, the principles of its organization and functioning are not defined in the Manifesto.

When class differences disappear in the course of development and all production is concentrated in the hands of an association of individuals, then public power will lose its political character. Political power in the proper sense of the word is the organized violence of one class to suppress another. If the proletariat in the struggle against the bourgeoisie invariably unites into a class, if by means of revolution it transforms itself into the ruling class and, as the ruling class, by force abolishes the old relations of production, then together with these relations of production it abolishes the conditions for the existence of class opposition, abolishes classes in general, and thus and his own domination as a class.
The old bourgeois society with its classes and class opposites is replaced by an association in which the free development of each is a condition for the free development of all.

appraisals

The Communist Manifesto had a tremendous impact on the minds of thinkers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, it is the basic document for the programs of the communist parties of all countries.

The Communist Manifesto and Capital are two of the most important publications of the 19th century and are still highly influential to this day.

translations into Russian

sources

• Bagaturia G.A. "Manifesto of the Communist Party" // Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary / Ch. edited by L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalyov, V. G. Panov. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1983 .-- S. 337-339. - 840 p. - 150,000 copies
• Voegelin, Eric. From Enlightenment to Revolution / Ed. John H. Hallowell. - Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 1975 .-- 307 p. - ISBN 0-8223-0326-4.

The Communist Manifesto is the famous work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In it, the authors outlined the main goals and objectives of the communist organizations, which in 1848, when this work was written, were just emerging. For Marxists, this is an important and fundamental work.

The meaning of the treatise

The Communist Manifesto is important in the sense that in this work the authors argue that the entire history of mankind up to this point was directed at the struggle between different classes. According to Marx and Engels, the death of capitalism at the hands of the proletariat is inevitable in the foreseeable future. As a result, a communist society with the absence of classes will be built, and all property will be public.

Karl Marx in the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" sets out his own vision of the inevitability of changing the modes of production and the laws of social development. A special place in this treatise is occupied by a detailed survey of all kinds of non-Marxist theories of socialism, as well as doctrines that the authors call pseudo-socialist. For example, they harshly criticize common private property when the principle of private property unreasonably applies to everyone.

In addition, in this work, Marx calls the communists the most decisive part of the proletariat, which everywhere supports the revolutionary movement aimed at overthrowing the current political and social order. He also notes that they are seeking unification and agreement between the democratic parties of different countries.

The first words of the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" became winged.

A ghost is haunting Europe - the ghost of communism. All the forces of old Europe have united for the sacred persecution of this ghost: the pope and the tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German policemen.

It was first published in London in 1848, after which it was reprinted several times, while no changes were made to it. In 1872, in the preface to the next edition of the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" notes that the treatise has become a historical document, which no one has the right to change.

History of creation

This work was written by Marx and Engels on behalf of the propaganda society "Union of the Just", which was organized in England by German emigrants. When the authors of the manifesto joined it, the organization was renamed the "Union of Communists".

In 1847, the first congress of the Union took place, at which Engels was instructed to draw up the text of a program document for the organization. Interestingly, this work was originally called "The Draft of the Communist Creed."

At the second congress, the text of the communist manifesto is drawn up. It becomes the program of the international organization of the revolutionary proletariat. Marx completed work on the Communist Manifesto in early 1848, when he was in Belgium.

It was first published anonymously in London. The work was published in German. It was a 23-page green cover brochure.

In March its text was reprinted by a German émigré newspaper, and the next day Marx was expelled from Belgium by police.

Interestingly, the preface noted that the manifesto must be published in different languages. So soon there are translations in Danish, Polish, Swedish and English. It was in the foreword of the English edition by journalist and socialist Helen Macfarlane, which was published under the pseudonym Howard Morton, that the names of the authors of the manifesto were first named. Previously, they remained unknown.

Popularity

When revolutions broke out across the continent in 1848, the work became extremely popular. However, in reality, few had the opportunity to get acquainted with it, so it did not have a significant impact on the course of events. The only exceptions are german city Cologne, in which a large circulation of a local newspaper was published, in every possible way glorifying the communist manifesto of Karl Marx.

Mass interest in the treatise arose only in the 1870s, when the First International and the Paris Commune began their activities. Also, the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" Karl Marx figured in the trial against the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The prosecution read out excerpts from it.

After that, according to German law, its official publication became possible. In 1872, Marx and Engels promptly prepared a new edition in German. In the coming years, nine editions were published in six languages. In 1872, suffragette Victoria Woodhull issued her first manifesto in America.

Distribution of the treatise

Social democratic parties appearing in different countries began to actively disseminate the manifesto. Interestingly, Engels, in the preface to the English edition in 1888, wrote that their work reflected the history of the modern workers' movement, becoming one of the most widespread works of socialist literature in the modern world. This program was recognized by workers from California to Siberia.

The treatise was first translated into Russian by the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, who was an associate of the authors in the First International. In 1869 the Russian version of the treatise was published in the printing house of the Kolokol magazine.

In 1882, a second edition appeared there, translated by Georgy Plekhanov. It already contained a special preface, in which Marx and Engels tried to answer the question of whether Russian society is capable of transitioning to the communist form of universal ownership, bypassing the capitalist stage, which all Western European countries go through.

The first edition of the manifesto in Ukrainian was prepared by the writer Lesya Ukrainka.

Circulation

Of course, over time, the circulation of the manifesto became simply huge, especially in the USSR. But nothing is known about the total number of copies released. It can be argued that in the Soviet Union alone, by 1973, 447 editions of this work were published with a total circulation of almost 24 million copies.

It is noteworthy that in the 21st century interest in the work of Marx and Engels reappeared. For example, in 2012, the British edition was accompanied by a foreword by the conscientious Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm. And in 2010, an illustrated edition of this treatise was published in Canada by a publishing house specializing in the publication of radical historical texts in the form of manga or comics.

The Communist Manifesto has four chapters. The first is called "Bourgeois and Proletarians" and the second - "Proletarians and Communists".

The third chapter - "Socialist and Communist Literature" - is divided into several parts. These are "Reactionary Socialism", "Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism", "Critical Utopian Socialism and Communism".

The final chapter of this work is called "The Attitude of the Communists to Various Opposition Parties."

Rejection of capitalism

Rejection of capitalist society is one of the main goals of this treatise. The program for the transition to a communist social formation is given in the second chapter. The authors assume that everything will happen by force, the key will be the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The transition program itself contains ten points, or stages. This is the expropriation of land property, the introduction of a high progressive tax, the confiscation of the property of rebels and emigrants, the abolition of inheritance rights, the free upbringing of children, the merging of industry and agriculture, the growth of the number of state enterprises, the introduction of compulsory labor for all, the centralization of credit in state banks.

Marx and Engels in their treatise assumed that, having abolished capitalism, the dictatorship of the proletariat will exhaust itself, giving way to a certain "association of individuals." However, the authors do not write anything about it.

Price Realized: $ 127 115

MARX, Karl (1818-1893) & ENGELS, Friedrich (1820-1895). Manifest der kommunistischen Partei. Veröffentlicht im Februar 1848. Londres: imprimé par la "Bildungs \u200b\u200b\u003d Gesellschaft für Arbeiter" de J.E. Burghard, 1848. PMM 326.

Care: € 97,000. Auction Christie "s. Collection Jean Lignel Dessins et manuscrits, Livres anciens et livres d" artistes. December 11, 2008. Paris. Lot No. 12.

French description of the lot: Plaquette in-8 (214x137 mm.). 23 pages (titre inclus dans la pagination). Couverture originale, imprimée sur papier vert, titre dans un encadrement typographique formé de 26 (sens vertical) et 13 (sens horizontal) éléments (demi-cercles avec une couronne radiale), aux angles trois demi-cercles composés de 3 pièces typographiques avec une couronne radiale (agrafes enlevées et remplacées par une couture, insérés dans une couverture protectrice de papier japon et papier peigne), étui moderne en cartonnage vert.

Provenance: The specimen has already been sold 2 times at auctions - bibliothèque Schocken - Hauswedell & Nolte (vendu en 1976) - Vente à Paris en 1979.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (German: Das Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) is a legendary work in which they declare and substantiate the goals, objectives and methods of struggle of the emerging communist organizations and parties. The authors proclaim the inevitability of the death of capitalism at the hands of the proletariat. The manifesto begins with the words: "A ghost haunts Europe - the ghost of communism"and ends with the famous historical slogan: "Workers of all countries, unite!" First published February 21, 1848 in London. By the way, in the Soviet Union there were a decent number of copies of the first "Manifesto". One got the impression that this was a deliberate policy of the party leadership of the country to buy them at international auctions. Perhaps, the workers of the Comintern brought them, or receipts as a gift during the visit of officials. In short, left behind the scenes.

I. Bourgeois and proletarians

II. Proletarians and Communists

III.Socialist and communist literature

1. Reactionary socialism

a. Feudal socialism

b. Petty bourgeois socialism

c. German, or "true", socialism

2. Conservative or bourgeois socialism

3. Critical Utopian Socialism and Communism

IV. The attitude of the communists towards various opposition parties

A ghost is haunting Europe - the ghost of communism. All the forces of old Europe have united for the sacred persecution of this ghost: the pope and the tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French radicals and German policemen. Where is the opposition party, which its opponents in power would not denounce as communist? Where is that opposition party that, in turn, would not throw the stigmatizing accusations of communism both to the more advanced representatives of the opposition and to its reactionary opponents? Two conclusions follow from this fact. Communism is already recognized as a force by all European forces. It is time for the communists to openly state their views, their goals, aspirations and tales about the specter of communism to the whole world to oppose the manifesto of the party itself. To this end, communists of various nationalities gathered in London and drew up the following "Manifesto", which is published in English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish. The history of all hitherto existing societies has been the history of class struggles. Free and slave, patrician and plebeian, landlord and serf, master and apprentice, in short, oppressor and oppressed were in eternal antagonism to each other, waged a continuous, sometimes hidden, sometimes obvious struggle, which always ended in a revolutionary reorganization of the entire public building or the general death of the struggling classes.

The second congress of the "Union of Communists" was held from November 29 to December 8, 1847 in London. K. Marx and F. Engels were instructed to write the program document of the Union. The basis was the work done earlier by F. Engels (Project of the Communist Creed and the Principles of Communism). In mid-December F. Engels was forced to leave London for Paris and K. Marx continued his work. F. Schapper urged me on. The text of the Communist Manifesto was sent to the leaders of the "Union of Communists" at the beginning of February from Brussels (ie K. Marx), the German Workers' Association had to borrow 25 pounds sterling, buy a Gothic typeface and 1,000 copies of the "Communist Manifesto" were printed February 21, 1848. The printer (member of the "Union of Communists") J. Burkhardt printed a green brochure (with typographical errors), 23 pages in size and measuring 21.5 x 13.4 cm in his own bookstore. After the start of the revolution in France in February 1848, the "Manifesto ..." began to be secretly sent to other countries and the community of the "Union of Communists" in Amsterdam received 100 copies - and during the dispersal of one of the workers' demonstrations, arrests were made and a copy of the "Manifesto .." . "March 24, 1848 fell into the hands of the police. In the same year, there were re-editions of the "Manifesto ..." in France, Italy, Denmark with prefaces in the respective languages, and in December 1848 the first translation of the "Manifesto ..." into Swedish was made. The first translation of the "Manifesto ..." into Russian was made by M. Bakunin. Since then, the number of translations and editions of this document has been incalculable. In Germany, a Braille edition was made for the blind.

Workers of the world, unite !!! This fatal paradigm has completely captured many minds in Russia for almost 100 years! “This little book is worth whole volumes: the whole organized and struggling proletariat of the civilized world still lives and moves in its spirit,” wrote V.I. Lenin on the "Manifesto". This is the first program document of scientific communism, which sets out the main ideas of Marxism; written by K. Marx and F. Engels on behalf of the 2nd Congress (1847) of the Union of Communists as a program of this union. "This work with brilliant clarity and brilliance outlines a new outlook, consistent materialism, covering the area of \u200b\u200bsocial life, dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development, the theory of class struggle and the world-historical revolutionary role of the proletariat, the creator of a new, communist society" ... In M. K. p. " For the first time in social science, Marx and Engels defined the place of the capitalist formation in the history of mankind, showed its progressiveness in comparison with the preceding formations and the inevitability of its death. The founders of scientific communism showed that the entire history of society, with the exception of the primitive communal system (as Engels added in the preface to it, the publication of the Manifesto, 1883), was the history of class struggle. In bourgeois society, an irreconcilable struggle is waged between two main hostile classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Becoming the economically ruling class, the bourgeoisie seized state power and uses it as a weapon to defend his own selfish class interests, to suppress the working people. Marx and Engels revealed in M. K. p. " irreconcilable internal contradictions of bourgeois society. Under the capitalist mode of production, relations that have contributed to the enormous growth of the productive forces at a certain stage turn into an obstacle to the further development of production.

The contradiction between the social nature of production and the private form of appropriation - the main contradiction of capitalism - generates economic crises, during which part of the finished products and productive forces are constantly destroyed. In M. K. p. " the world-historical role of the proletariat as the gravedigger of capitalist society and the builder of communism, the only completely consistent revolutionary class acting in the interests of all working people, has been revealed and comprehensively substantiated. It is the working class and its trade unions that will bring to society deliverance from the oppression of capitalism by abolishing the capitalist form of property and replacing it with public property. But to fulfill this task, the authors of “M. K. p. ”- the working class can only through the use of revolutionary violence against the bourgeoisie, through the proletarian socialist revolution. Marx and Engels substantiated the need to create a political party of the proletariat, revealed its historical role, defined its tasks, and clarified the relationship between the party and the working class. In practice, the Communists, wrote the authors of M. K. p. ", - "... are the most decisive part of the workers' parties of all countries, always encouraging to move forward, and in theoretical terms they have an advantage over the rest of the proletariat in understanding the conditions, course and general results of the proletarian movement."

Although Marx and Engels in M. K. p. " have not yet used the term "dictatorship of the proletariat", but the idea of \u200b\u200ba proletarian dictatorship in this work has already been expressed and substantiated by them. “... The first step in the workers' revolution,” wrote Marx and Engels, “is the transformation of the proletariat into the ruling class, the conquest of democracy. The proletariat uses its political domination in order to wrest from the bourgeoisie step by step all capital, to centralize all the instruments of production in the hands of the state, that is, the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase the sum of productive forces as quickly as possible. In M. K. p. " it is emphasized that the destruction of the capitalist system, the elimination of the exploitation of man by man will put an end to national oppression and interethnic hostility. One of the basic principles of the revolutionary activity of communists in different countries, noted Marx and Engels, is their mutual assistance and support in the struggle against social oppression and exploitation, conditioned by common goals. Justification of this principle - the principle of proletarian internationalism - permeates the entire content of M. K. p. " Explaining the great and humane goals of the communists, Marx and Engels showed in M. K. p. " the complete inconsistency of attacks on communists by bourgeois ideologists, revealed the class limitations and self-serving nature of the ideas of the bourgeoisie about marriage, morality, property, fatherland, etc. In M. K. p. " Marx and Engels subjected the socialist and communist literature of those years to scientific criticism; they revealed the class essence of the concepts underlying feudal socialism, petty-bourgeois socialism, the so-called. German, or "true", socialism, as well as conservative, or bourgeois, socialism. The founders of scientific communism expressed their attitude to the systems of critical utopian socialism, showed the unreality of these systems and at the same time revealed rational elements in the views of the utopian socialists - A.C. Saint-Simon, C. Fourier, R. Owen. Important propositions were put forward by Marx and Engels in M. K. p. " on the tactics of the proletarian party. The Communists, as explained in the Manifesto, are members of a consistently revolutionary party. They "... are fighting in the name of the immediate goals and interests of the working class, but at the same time, in the movement of today, they also defend the future of the movement." M. K. p. " opened the way to a new era in the history of mankind, laid the foundation for the great revolutionary movement for the socialist transformation of the world. In 1869, the first Russian edition of M. K. p. " translated by M.A. Bakunin, in which the most important provisions of this work were distorted. It was printed in the former printing house of A.I. Herzen (in 1866 it passed to the Polish emigrant revolutionary, Herzen's collaborator L. Chernetsky) without specifying the names of the authors and translator. The translation is attributed to M.A. Bakunin, however, in recent years this version has been questioned: many consider N.N. Lyubavin. From a letter by L. Chernetsky to N.P. Ogarev of September 27, 1869 knows that the translation manuscript was handed over to the printing house by Ogarev and asked to print 1000 copies. Already on November 8, 1869, copies of the Manifesto were discovered by the Russian postal censorship. In 1882 in Geneva a new Russian, so-called Marxist edition, M. K. p. " translated by G.V. Plekhanov, with a special preface by Marx and Engels. In his preface G.V. Plekhanov, in particular, says that M.A. Bakunin's first Russian translation of the Manifesto contains a number of distortions, which he corrects.

To the 168th anniversary of the publication

"Manifesto of the Communist Party" - the first and greatest program document of scientific communism. The Manifesto of the Communist Party, written by Karl Marx and F. Engels as a program of the Union of Communists, was first published in London in February 1848. In 1848, the Manifesto was also translated into a number of European languages \u200b\u200b(French, Polish, Italian, Danish, Flemish and Swedish). Subsequently, the Manifesto was published in other countries. The Manifesto became widespread in the communist and workers' movement. F. Engels wrote in 1890 that “ the history of the Manifesto reflects to a certain extent the history of the modern labor movement since 1848 » ( K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., V. 22, p. 62).

The "Manifesto of the Communist Party" is the pinnacle of creativity of the founders of communism before the revolution of 1848. In it, for the first time, Marxism was presented in a coherent and systematic form.

« A ghost haunts Europe - the ghost of communism "- with these words the" Manifesto "begins. "It is high time for the communists to openly state their views, their goals, their aspirations and tales about the specter of communism to the whole world to oppose the manifesto of the party itself."

In the Manifesto, Marx, with brilliant skill, paints a picture of the birth, development and the inevitable death of capitalism and gives a detailed justification world-historical mission of the proletariat .

Marx writes that class struggle is the driving force behind historical development in antagonistic class societies .

« The history of all hitherto existing societies, - writes Marx, - was the history of the struggle of classes "(later Engels will specify: with the exception of primitive society)" Free and slave, patrician and plebeian, landlord and serf, master and journeyman, in short, oppressor and oppressed were in eternal antagonism to each other, waged a continuous, sometimes hidden, sometimes explicit struggle, which always ended in a revolutionary reorganization of the whole society or the general death of the fighting classes ».

From the depths of the perished feudal society, Marx writes, modern bourgeois society emerged. But it did not eliminate class contradictions. " Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, is distinguished by the fact that it has simplified class contradictions: society is increasingly split into two large hostile camps, into two large, opposing classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat ».

The discovery of America and the sea route around Africa, the penetration of the Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America - all this gave impetus to the development of trade, navigation, and industry. In the place of the guild craft came the manufacture, in the place of the manufacture - the steam and the machine, which revolutionized industry, created a large industry and a world market. Along with the development of industry and trade, new revolutionary elements developed in the bowels of feudalism - the bourgeois class, which increased its capital and pushed into the background all classes inherited from the Middle Ages.

But the bourgeoisie not only won economic dominance for itself by creating large-scale industry and the world market, but also achieved political dominance in the modern state. Marx writes: “ Modern state power is only a committee managing the general affairs of the entire bourgeois class ».

Marx reveals the essence of the modern representative state as organ of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie protecting the interests of the exploiting class and aimed at suppressing the resistance of the oppressed classes.

“The bourgeoisie has played an extremely revolutionary role in history,” Marx continues. The bourgeoisie destroyed all feudal, patriarchal relations between people and left nothing else between them but naked interest, heartless "cash" ... A doctor, a lawyer, a priest, a poet, a man of science - she turned everyone into her paid employees. The bourgeoisie reduced family relations to purely monetary relations. By exploiting the world market, it has made the production and consumption of all countries cosmopolitan. " In a word, - writes Marx, - she made herself a world in her own image and likeness ».

In less than a hundred years of its class rule, the bourgeoisie created gigantic productive forces. The conquest of the forces of nature, machine production, the use of chemistry in industry and agriculture, shipping, railways, the electric telegraph, the development of entire parts of the world for agriculture, the adaptation of rivers for navigation, whole, as if called out of the ground, the masses of the population - all this, as it were, magically created by the bourgeoisie.

“So,” writes Marx, “we saw that the means of production and exchange, on the basis of which the bourgeoisie was formed, were created in feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these means of production and exchange, the relations in which the production and exchange of feudal society took place, the feudal organization of agriculture and industry, in a word, feudal property relations, no longer corresponded to the developed productive forces. They slowed down production instead of developing it. They became his fetters. They had to be defeated, and they were defeated.

Their place was taken by free competition, with a corresponding social and political system, with the economic and political domination of the bourgeois class "(Lenin will later show how capitalism develops into monopoly capitalism, imperialism ).

Marx on the basis of the objective law of the development of human society discovered by him - the law of conformity of production relations to the level of development of productive forces - shows the death of feudal society and the birth of a new, bourgeois mode of production.

But, Marx continues, a similar movement is taking place before our eyes. Bourgeois society can no longer ensure the further progressive development of the productive forces it has created. This contradiction between bourgeois production relations and increased productive forces is expressed in devastating economic crises shaking the world economy of capitalism. .

Marx writes about bourgeois society:

“The productive forces at his disposal no longer serve the development of bourgeois property relations; on the contrary, they have become prohibitively large for this relationship; bourgeois relations retard their development; and when the productive forces begin to overcome these obstacles, they disorganize the entire bourgeois society and endanger the existence of bourgeois property relations. Bourgeois relations have become too narrow to accommodate the wealth they have created.

The weapon with which the bourgeoisie subverted feudalism is now directed against the bourgeoisie itself.

But the bourgeoisie not only forged a weapon that would bring it death; it has given birth to people who will direct this weapon against it - modern workers, proletarians. "

In these words of Marx, the main thesis of scientific communism about the inevitable death of capitalism and the world-historical mission of the proletariat as the gravedigger of the bourgeoisie is formulated .

Under these conditions, the worker has no choice but to rise up to fight against the bourgeoisie. ... First, the struggle is waged by individual workers, workers of one factory against an individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. The workers direct their blows not only against bourgeois relations, but also against the instruments of labor, smashing machines, setting fire to factories, trying to restore the relations of the medieval worker by force.

At this stage of the struggle, the workers form a scattered and fragmented mass throughout the country. But with the development of industry, the proletariat grows in number and its strength grows. Clashes between workers and capitalists are increasingly taking on the character of a clash between two classes. The workers are organized and united. Local foci of struggle are gradually merging into one, national, class struggle .

«… Every class struggle is a political struggle ».

Marx writes that the proletariat is the only completely revolutionary class ... "The proletarians have nothing of their own that they should protect, they must destroy everything that has protected and ensured private property until now." The small industrialist, the small merchant, the artisan and the peasant — all of them are fighting the bourgeoisie in order to save their existence from destruction as the middle class. If they are revolutionary, then insofar as they have to move into the ranks of the proletariat, because they defend not their present, but their future interests, because they leave their point of view in order to take the point of view of the proletariat .

In the future, Lenin, based on this position of Marx, will justify his brilliant the doctrine of the alliance of the proletariat and the peasantry ... Lenin will show that the petty-bourgeois strata of the population must be drawn into the building of socialism under the leadership of the proletariat on the basis of socialist cooperation in small-scale production.

In modern conditions, the ally of the proletariat is not only the working peasantry, but also the working intelligentsia - doctors, teachers, among whom there is a large share of female labor .

The class struggle of the proletariat, Marx writes, eventually reaches down to “ up to the point when it turns into an open revolution and the proletariat bases its rule through the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie ».

Marx sums up: the world-historical mission of the proletariat is that it is the gravedigger of the bourgeoisie. Its death and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable .

In the Manifesto, Marx formulates the foundations of the Marxist teachings about the proletarian party and the dictatorship of the proletariat .

Marx writes that the communists are the most decisive part of the working class of all countries, always encouraging to move forward, and theoretically they have an advantage over the rest of the proletariat in understanding the conditions, course and general results of the proletarian movement.

Marx defines the immediate tasks of the communists: “ the formation of the proletariat into a class, the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie, the conquest of political power by the proletariat ».

The communists set themselves the goal of abolishing bourgeois private property based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the majority by the minority.

« In this sense, the communists can express their theory in one statement: the destruction of private property ».

The bourgeoisie accused the communists of wanting to destroy property, to abolish freedom and personality, to destroy the family, to abolish the fatherland.

Marx answers them:

« You are horrified that we want to destroy private property. But in your present society, private property has been destroyed for nine-tenths of its members; it exists precisely because it does not exist for nine tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with the fact that we want to destroy property, which presupposes the absence of property in the vast majority of society as a necessary condition.

In a word, you reproach us that we want to destroy YOUR property. Yes, we really want to do it ».

Abolish personality and freedom? But the bourgeoisie understands by freedom freedom of exploitation someone else's labor, under the personality - the personality of the bourgeois .

Destroy the family? But isn't bourgeois marriage a community of wives? " Our bourgeois, not content with the fact that they have the wives and daughters of their workers, not to mention official prostitution, see a special delight in seducing each other's wives ».

Abolish the fatherland? Marx writes:

“The workers have no homeland. You cannot take away from them what they do not have. Since the proletariat must first of all win political domination, rise to the position of the national class "(in the English edition of 1888, instead of the words" rise to the position of the national class "it was printed:" rise to the position of the leading class of the nation », K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., Vol. 4, p. 444), to be constituted as a nation, he himself is still national, although not at all in the sense that the bourgeoisie understands it ”.

Later, Lenin warned the communists against unilateral understanding of Marx's position that workers have no homeland. Lenin wrote:

"IN " Communist manifestoIt is said that the workers have no homeland.

Fair enough. But it says there not only this is. It also says that the role of the proletariat in the formation of national states is somewhat special. If we take the first position (workers have no homeland) and forget its connection with the second (workers are constituted as a class nationally, but not in the same sense as the bourgeoisie), then this would be extremely wrong.

What is this connection? In my opinion, it is precisely that in democratic movement (at such a moment, in such a concrete situation), the proletariat cannot refuse to support it (hence, from defending the fatherland in a national war).

Marx and Engels said in the Communist Manifesto that workers have no homeland. But the same Marx called to national war more than once: Marx in 1848, Engels in 18 59 (end of his Poe and Rhine brochure, where national feeling the Germans, directly call them to war national). Engels in 1891 in view of the threatened and impending war of France (Boulanger) + Alexander III against Germany straight recognized the "defense of the fatherland."

Were Marx and Engels confused, today they said one thing, tomorrow another? Not. In my opinion, the recognition of the "defense of the fatherland" in the national war quite answers to Marxism "( V.I. Lenin, Works, 4th ed., Vol. 35, p. 200-201).

Marx abandons the objections of the bourgeoisie against the communists and continues: “ the first step in the workers' revolution is the transformation of the proletariat into the ruling class, the conquest of democracy ».

Essentially, in these words, Marx formulates the position of dictatorship of the proletariat ... He's writing:

« The proletariat uses its political domination in order to wrest from the bourgeoisie step by step all capital, to centralize all the instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e. the proletariat, organized as the ruling class, and as quickly as possible to increase the sum of the productive forces ».

In the future communist society, along with the disappearance of class differences and the concentration of all production in the hands of society, political power will also disappear. The state is the organized violence of one class to suppress another.

« The old bourgeois society with its classes and class opposites is replaced by an association in which the free development of everyone is a condition for the free development of all ».

The Manifesto ends military appeal to the proletarians of all countries to unite in the struggle for the accomplishment of the communist revolution:

“Communists consider it a despicable thing to conceal their views and intentions. They openly declare that their goals can be achieved only through the violent overthrow of the entire existing social order. Let the ruling classes shudder before the Communist Revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose in it except their chains. They will acquire the whole world.

Workers of all countries, unite! "

The creation of this first-ever program of the international communist movement was the greatest work of Marx and Engels. The Manifesto became the program banner of the struggling proletariat for centuries. The Manifesto makes an indelible impression when read. With incredible vividness and comprehensibility, Marx outlined his main conclusions and ideas, to which he came before the revolution of 1848. The program provisions of communism set out in the Manifesto, despite the fact that more than a hundred and a half years have passed since its publication, today are also alive and in demand are the guiding document for all communists. The Manifesto is a reference book for every fighter who has dedicated his life to the struggle for the liberation of the working class .

Grigory Pavelyev

In this work, with brilliant clarity and brilliance, a new world outlook, consistent materialism, covering the area of \u200b\u200bsocial life, dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development, the theory of class struggle and the world-historical revolutionary role of the proletariat, the creator of a new, communist society, is outlined.

1. Bourgeois and proletarians
2. Proletarians and communists
3. Socialist and communist literature
   1. Reactionary socialism
      1. Feudal socialism
      2. Petty bourgeois socialism
      3. German, or "true", socialism
   2. Conservative or bourgeois socialism
   3. Critical Utopian Socialism and Communism
4. The attitude of the communists towards various opposition parties

Value

In the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" Marx and Engels, for the first time in social science, determined the place in the history of mankind, showed its progressiveness in comparison with the previous formations and the inevitability of its death. The founders of scientific communism showed that the entire history of society, with the exception of the primitive communal system (as Engels added in the preface to the German edition of the Manifesto, 1883), was the history of class struggles. In bourgeois society, an irreconcilable struggle between each other is waged by two hostile main classes - and. Having become the economically ruling class, the bourgeoisie has seized state power into its own hands and uses it as a weapon to defend its own selfish class interests, to suppress the working people. In the Manifesto, Marx and Engels revealed the irreconcilable internal contradictions of bourgeois society. Capitalist relations of production, which have contributed to the enormous growth of the productive forces, at a certain stage turn into an obstacle to the further development of production. The contradiction between the social nature of production and the private form of appropriation - the main contradiction of capitalism - gives rise to economic crises, during which a significant part of finished products and productive forces are constantly destroyed.

The Manifesto of the Communist Party reveals and comprehensively substantiates the world historical role of the proletariat as the gravedigger of capitalist society and the builder of communism, the only completely consistent revolutionary class acting in the interests of all working people. It is the working class that will bring to society deliverance from the oppression of capitalism by abolishing the capitalist form of property and replacing it with public property. But to fulfill this task, the authors of the Manifesto point out, the working class can only through the use of revolutionary violence against the bourgeoisie, through the proletarian socialist revolution. Marx and Engels substantiated the need to create a political party of the proletariat, revealed its historical role, defined its tasks, and clarified the relationship between the party and the working class. In practice, the Communists, wrote the authors of the Manifesto,

"... are the most decisive part of the workers' parties of all countries, always prompting to move forward, and in theoretical terms, they have an advantage over the rest of the proletariat in understanding the conditions, course and general results of the proletarian movement"

Although Marx and Engels in the "Manifesto" have not yet used the term "", the idea of \u200b\u200ba proletarian dictatorship in this work has already been expressed and substantiated by them.

“... The first step in the workers' revolution,” wrote Marx and Engels, “is the transformation of the proletariat into the ruling class, the conquest of democracy. The proletariat uses its political domination in order to wrest all capital from the bourgeoisie, step by step, to centralize all the instruments of production in the hands of the state, that is, the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase the sum of productive forces as quickly as possible. "

The "Manifesto of the Communist Party" emphasizes that the destruction of the capitalist system, the elimination of the exploitation of man by man will put an end to national oppression and interethnic hostility. One of the basic principles of the revolutionary activity of communists in different countries, noted Marx and Engels, is their mutual assistance and support in the struggle against social oppression and exploitation, conditioned by common goals. The substantiation of this principle - the principle of proletarian internationalism - permeates the entire content of the Manifesto. Explaining the great and humane goals of the communists, Marx and Engels showed the complete inconsistency of attacks on communists by bourgeois ideologists, revealed the class limitations and the self-serving nature of the bourgeoisie's ideas about marriage, morality, property, fatherland, etc.

In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels criticized the socialist and communist literature of those years; they revealed the class essence of the concepts underlying feudal socialism, petty-bourgeois socialism, the so-called German, or "true", socialism, as well as conservative, or bourgeois, socialism. The founders of scientific communism expressed their attitude to the systems of critical utopian socialism, showed the unreality of these systems and at the same time revealed rational elements in the views of utopian socialists -,. Important propositions were advanced by Marx and Engels on the tactics of the proletarian party. The Communists, as explained in the Manifesto, are members of a consistently revolutionary party. They

"... are fighting in the name of the immediate goals and interests of the working class, but at the same time, in the movement of today, they defend the future of the movement as well"

The "Manifesto of the Communist Party" opened the way to a new era in the history of mankind, laid the foundation for the great revolutionary movement for the socialist transformation of the world. This little book- wrote about the "Manifesto" V. I. Lenin, - worth whole volumes: the whole organized and struggling proletariat of the civilized world still lives and moves in its spirit.

Specificity of transformations

When setting out the content of the measures taken by the proletariat, it is stipulated that in different countries their set may be different. So, in the most advanced countries, the following measures can be applied:

1. Expropriation of land property and circulation of land rent to cover public expenditures.
2. High progressive tax.
3. Cancellation of the right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital and with an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of all transport in the hands of the state.
7. Increase in the number of state factories, implements of production, clearing for arable land and improvement of land according to a general plan.
8. Equal obligation to work for all, the establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combining agriculture with industry, promoting the gradual elimination of the distinction between town and country.
10. Public and free education of all children. Elimination of the factory labor of children in its modern form. Combining education with material production, etc.

Recognizing that "despotic interference in property rights and in bourgeois production relations" are measures that "seem economically insufficient and untenable", the authors of the Manifesto emphasized that in the course of the movement (these processes) these measures "outgrow themselves" and that they are inevitable as "a means for a revolution in the entire mode of production," and not as an end in itself. It is significant that at the same time Marx harshly criticized the utopian “crude and ill-conceived communism” of those who simply extended the principle of private property to everyone (“common private property”). Rough communism, according to Marx, is a product of "worldwide envy."

Editions

The Manifesto is one of the most widespread works of scientific and political thought. In terms of the number of editions, it can be compared, perhaps, only with. For the first time, the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" was published in 1848 in London in German. It has been published in at least 70 countries, in more than 100 languages \u200b\u200bof the world, over 1000 times, with a total circulation of over 30 million copies. Almost 120 years ago, Engels already had every reason to state that “The history of the Manifesto largely reflects the history of the modern labor movement; at present, it is undoubtedly the most widespread, most international work of all socialist literature, a common program recognized by millions of workers from Siberia to California ".

According to incomplete data, during the period 1848-71 about 770 publications were published in 50 languages. In the USSR, as of January 1, 1973, 447 editions of the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" were issued with a total circulation of 24,341,000 copies in 74 languages.

Russian translations

• 1869 - the first edition of the "Manifesto" in Russian in Geneva. The authorship of the translation is attributed, although the translator was not indicated on the book itself. The translation distorted the most important provisions of this document
• 1882 - the publication of the "Manifesto" in translation. With a special preface by Marx and Engels.
• 1948 - jubilee edition of "Manifesto" IMEL (updated translation of 1939)
• 1955 - Volume 4 of the "Works" by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (2nd edition), prepared by the Institute of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin under the Central Committee of the CPSU, is published. This volume includes the latest translation of the Communist Manifesto.

Notes

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