Preface to the Pamphlet Internationales aus dem "Volksstaat" (1871-75)

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Engels wrote this Preface for the selection from his works entitled Internationales aus dem "Volksstaat" (1871-75) published in Berlin in 1894.

It was first published in English in an abridged form in: K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972, p . 123.

Apart from the fact that the following essays were all written for the Volksstaat, they have in common that they all deal with international matters outside Germany.

The first: “Once Again ‘Herr Vogt‘ “constitutes the conclusion of the polemic on the Italian War carried out in 1859-60 between this false natural scientist and Republican, but genuine vulgar-liberal Bonapartist and book manufacturer and Marx. This essay stamped the said Mr. Vogt once and for all with the character of a paid Bonapartist agent, for which Marx, in his Herr Vogt in 1860 could obviously only supply indirect evidence.

The second essay: The Bakuninists at Work, which describes the action of the anarchists during the rising in Spain in July 1873, appeared earlier as a separate pamphlet. Even though the anarchist caricature of the workers‘ movement has long passed its climax, the governments in Europe and America are much too interested in its continued existence, and spend much too much money on supporting it, for us to omit any consideration of the heroic deeds of the anarchists. The article is therefore reprinted again here.

“A Polish Proclamation “deals with an aspect of Germany’s relations with Eastern Europe which is often overlooked today, but which must not be neglected if these relations are to be assessed correctly.

The critique of the “Programme of the Blanquist Commune Refugees” of 1874 is of special interest today again, now that, apart from the other socialist groups, a small group of Blanquists have entered the French Chamber of Deputies, with our friend Vaillant at their head. Since their return to France in 1880, 386 the Blanquists have once intervened decisively in events—namely in 1887, the day of the last presidential election following Grévy’s abdication. The majority in the National Assembly favoured Jules Ferry, one of the most infamous of all the infamous suppressors of the Commune, and one of the most consummate representatives of that opportunist bourgeoisie which only wants to rule

France in order to bleed it and its colonies white. At that time preparations were underway for an uprising in Paris which was to be headed by the Paris municipal council with the agreement of the radical deputies; the military organisation, however, was in the hands of the Blanquists, who provided the officers‘ corps, and whose military leader, General of the Commune Eudes, took over command and established his general staff office in a café next to the Hotel de Ville. Faced with the threat of this uprising, the opportunists gave in and elected Carnot.

And recently too, when the Russian naval guests were in Paris, Le Parti socialiste, the Blanquist weekly, distinguished itself by a courageous stand, defying all chauvinist prejudices. This stand gives us the guarantee that the Blanquist group in the Chamber under Vaillant’s leadership will do its utmost for the cooperation of all the socialist groups and their association in a strong socialist coalition party.

It will be noted that in all these essays, and particularly in the aforementioned one, I consistently do not call myself a Social Democrat, but a Communist. This is because at that time in various countries people called themselves Social Democrats who had certainly not inscribed upon their banners the taking over by society of all the means of production. In France, a Social Democrat was conceived as a democratic republican with more or less genuine but always indefinable sympathies for the working class, that is people like Ledru-Rollin in 1848, and the Proudhonist-tinged “radical socialists“ of 1874. In Germany, the Lassalleans called themselves Social Democrats; but although the mass of them increasingly appreciated the necessity of socialising the means of production, the specifically Lassallean production cooperatives with state aid nevertheless remained the only publicly recognised item on their agenda. For Marx and myself it was therefore quite impossible to choose a name of such elasticity to describe our special standpoint. Today the situation is different, and the word can be allowed to pass, unfitting as it remains for a party whose economic programme is not just generally socialist, but directly communist, and whose ultimate political aim is to surpass the entire State, and thus democracy too. The names of real political parties never fit exactly; the party develops, but the name stays.

The last essay “On Social Relations in Russia”, which also appeared in 1875 in a special edition as a pamphlet, could not possibly be reprinted again without a more or less comprehensive epilogue. The question of the future of the Russian peasant communities occupies more than ever all Russians who are concerned about the economic development of their country. The letter from Marx which I quoted has been given the most diverse interpretations by the Russian socialists. More recently, too, Russians at home and abroad have repeatedly urged me to express my opinion on this question. I baulked at this for a long time, well knowing how insufficient is my knowledge of the details of the economic situation of Russia: how was I to complete the third volume of Capital and in addition study the truly colossal mound of literature in which old Russia, as Marx liked to say, took inventory before its death? Well now, a reprint of “On Social Relations in Russia“ is urgently requested, and this circumstance forces me to undertake the attempt, in expansion of this old essay, to draw some conclusions from the historical-comparative enquiry into the economic position of Russia today. These conclusions may not have turned out unreservedly in favour of a great future for the Russian communities, but on the other hand they seek to substantiate the view that the approaching dissolution of capitalist society in the West will put Russia too in a position significantly to shorten its passage through capitalism which is now becoming inevitable.

London, January 3, 1894

F. Engels