On the Socialist Movement in Germany, France, the United States and Russia

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This article, published unsigned in La Plebe, No. 3, January 22, 1878 (in the “Da Londra” section), had a short editorial preface: “From our vast and important correspondence from London we cite passages which are relevant to our present-day political and social situation.”

The article was published in English for the first time, abridged, in: K. Marx, F. Engels, On the United States, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1979.

The socialist movement in Germany is making admirable progress. There are currently 62 socialist periodicals, of which 46 are daily newspapers, 1 is a magazine and 15 are organs of societies of resistance. Moreover, 4 German-language newspapers and 1 magazine are published in Switzerland, 3 in Austria, 1 in Hungary , 6 in America. The total number of socialist periodical publications in German is:

Germany	62	75
Austria	3
Hungary	1
Switzerland	3
Americ a	6

and therefore the periodical literature of German socialism has more organs than all the other languages put together. I am not including in these figures the more or less socialist newspapers of the university professors (Kathedersocialisten) but only the recognised organs of the party.

When a bourgeois wrote to me after the attempt on Bismarck’s life: “All (bourgeois) Germany is rejoicing that Bismarck was not killed”, I replied: “We are pleased too, because he works for us as if he were paid for the job.“ You know I was right, because without the persecutions and the sufferings, without the militarism and the ever increasing taxes, we would never have reached this point.

Although the crisis in France has obtained a less than satisfactory result, I believe that a state of affairs will follow from it which will allow the French socialists to act by means of the press, public meetings and associations, and to organise into a working-class party, which is all that we can achieve at present, after the slaughter of 1871. Moreover, it is an accepted fact that France has made two main kinds of progress: the republicanism of the peasants and the formation of a republican army. The coup d’état of Ducrot, Batbie and company failed because the soldiers resolutely refused to march against the people.

The worker question has been put on the agenda in America with the bloody strike of the employees of the big railways. This will turn out to have been an epoch-making event in American history: the formation of a working-class party is thereby making great strides in the United States. It is advancing rapidly in that country, and we must follow its progress, to avoid being taken by surprise by the important successes which will soon be produced.

Russia, I believe, will play the most important part in the near future. The situation produced by the so-called emancipation of the serfs was already intolerable before the war. This great reform had been so well managed that it ended up ruining nobles and peasants. It was followed by another reform which, on the pretext of providing provinces and districts with an administration based on elections that were to be more or less independent from the Central Government, had done nothing except raise the already unbearable levels of taxation.

The provinces were simply lumbered with the expenses of their own administration, so that the state paid less while continuing to receive the same tax revenues; hence there were new taxes for provincial and local expenditure. To this was added the general compulsion of military service, which was equivalent to a new and more severe tax and a new and more numerous army.

In this way financial ruin drew near with great strides. The country was already in a state of bankruptcy before the war. Russian high finance, after taking a lavish part in the fraudulent speculations of the 1871-73 period, plunged the nation into the financial crisis which erupted in 1873 in Vienna and Berlin and ruined Russian industry and commerce for years. In this state of affairs the Holy War against the Turk began, and since no foreign loans were obtainable and domestic loans were insufficient, the nation had to resort to the millions held in Bank (reserve funds) and to the printing of credit notes. The result is that the value of paper money is falling daily and will soon reach its minimum levels, in no more than a year or two. In short, we have all the ingredients for a Russian 1789, necessarily to be followed by a 1793. Whatever the outcome of the war, the Russian revolution is ready and it will break out soon, perhaps this year; it will begin, contrary to Bakunin’s predictions, from above, in the palace, in the heart of the impoverished and frondeuse nobility. But once set in motion, it will sweep over the peasants, and you will then witness scenes in comparison with which those of ‘93 will pall. Once Russia has been pushed into revolution, the whole face of Europe will change. The old Russia has been up till now the great reserve army of European reaction; it performed this role in 1798, in 1805, in 1815, in 1830, in 1848. Once this reserve army is destroyed—just wait and see what will happen!