To the Executive of the Social-Democratic Party of Hungary on the Third Party Congress

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Author(s) Frederick Engels
Written 15 May 1894


First published in the Arbeiterpresse, No. 20, May 18, 1894 and, in Hungarian, in NĂŠpszava, No. 20, May 18, 1894
Printed according to the Arbeiterpresse, checked with the rough manuscript
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 27
Collection(s): NĂŠpszava
Keywords : Hungary, Letter, Social democracy

Engels wrote this letter in response to the invitation (sent to him on April 30, 1894) to take part in the work of the third congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Hungary. The invitation was enclosed with the letter from Franz Reisch, editor of the Arbeiterpresse newspaper. Engels was late with the answer which therefore was printed by the paper after the congress had closed.

The third congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Hungary took place in Budapest on May 13-15, 1894 against the background of an upsurge of the working-class movement there. The congress decided in favour of a merger between the Social-Democratic Party and the Social-Democratic Workers ‘Party founded in January 1894 by the revolutionary wing of the Social-Democratic Party, which was expelled from it at the second congress in 1893 (see Note 330). The merger was effected on the basis of revolutionary principles; the opportunists—officials of the General Workers ‘Hospital an d Invalids‘ Fund—who previously dominated the Board of the Social-Democratic Party, were ousted from their position of leadership. Half of the seats on the Board of the united party were filled by representatives of the old Social-Democratic Party.

The congress approved the Party Rules. It described the campaign for universal suffrage as the immediate political goal, and stressed the place of trade unions in workers ‘political education and the importance of Party work in them, as well as the need for an alliance of agricultural and industrial workers.

London, May 15, 1894

Dear Comrades,

Your kind invitation to your Party Congress reached me on the 8. inst. Unfortunately a passing indisposition prevented me from replying immediately, and thus today I can only express my thanks retrospectively, and wish the greatest success in your work.

I too have followed with utmost interest the recent develop-ments in Hungary. [1] In Hungary, as elsewhere, capital is increasingly taking over the whole of national production. Not satisfied with creating a new industrial sector, it subjugates agriculture too, transforms its traditional methods, destroys the individual peasant, divides the rural population into large estate owners [2] and capitalist faiseurs [3] on the one hand and a host of propertyless proletarians on the other. The headway this revolution of capital has already made in Hungary we saw recently in Hod-mezovâsârhely.[4] But we shall have to endure this capitalist revolution. It brings with it unspeakable misery for the great mass of the people, but it alone also creates the conditions which make possible a new social order, and the men and women who alone will have the strength and the will to bring into existence this new and better society.

With sincere greetings,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Crossed out in the manuscript is the following paragraph: "They show the irresistible power with which capital everywhere sets itself up as owner of national production, and this not only in the field of industry but also in agriculture, and this is by far the most important sector for the east of Europe.". — Ed.
  2. ↑ The manuscript has: "a few large estate owners". — Ed.
  3. ↑ Middlemen.— Ed.
  4. ↑ In Hôdmezovâsârhely and its suburbs, the Hungarian Social Democrats conducted vigorous propagand a in defence of the political and economic rights of agricultural workers and peasants, who lived and worked in extremely harsh conditions and suffered chronic unemployment. They organised a union of agricultural workers and poor peasants with up to 2,000 members. On April 21, 1894, the police confiscated the union's literature, and on April 22, arrested workers' leaders, Jânos Szântô-Kovâcs among them. On the same day, police and troops shot at a workers ‘demonstration in Hôdmezovâsârhely demanding the release of Szântô-Kovâcs. The union was disbanded, and Szânto-Kovâcs and many of his followers received prison sentences.
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