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Letter to Edouard Vaillant, December 5, 1890
| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 5 December 1890 |
First published in English in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue, Correspondence, Vol. 2, 1887-1890, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1960
Published in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49
ENGELS TO EDOUARD VAILLANT
IN PARIS
London, 5 December 1890
122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.
Dear Citizen Vaillant,
Very many thanks for your letter of the 28th ult. and your good wishes. On that day I was overwhelmed with honours by socialists of all countries. Fate has decreed that, in my capacity as survivor, I should glean the honours due to the works of my deceased contemporaries, above all those of Marx. Believe me, I harbour no illusions whatever about that, or about the tiny portion of all this homage that falls to me by right.
I am also grateful for the sympathy you express concerning the death of dear Helene, thanks to whose care I was able to work in peace for seven years. For me it is a very sad loss. But we are still right in the midst of the struggle and, with the enemy before us, looking back too often is forbidden. If I'm not mistaken the battle is approaching a crisis. In your country the collapse of Boulangism has, on the one hand, rid the opportunist government,[1] corrupted and corrupting, of all those enemies who might be immediately dangerous, and has reopened the market in which France is sold to the sharks of the Stock Exchange. On the other, however, that collapse has released elements of the revolutionary opposition who had gone astray and who, having regrouped — after the removal of the chief traitors—, should again take the field reunited in one way or another with the mass of revolutionaries who have remained faithful to their traditions. After the farce, the tragedy.
In Germany the rapid advance of the Socialist Party should quickly dispel young William's[2] illusions about the power of attraction he fondly imagines he exercises on the working class. That, too, should lead to a crisis; and the longer it is delayed, the more severe it will be.
Accordingly, in four or five years time at the most, we shall have the crisis which will, I trust, lead to victory. And I hope I shall live to see fin de siècle[3]!
Please remember me kindly to Mrs Vaillant and your mother.
Yours affectionately,
F. Engels