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the collating of Marx's literary legacy. Contrary to the petty insinuations of an Italian
professor, who had once presented himself to Marx and had showered upon him
most flattering expressions of adulation, but who now dared to suggest in print that
the references Marx had made in the first volume of Capital to the second and third
volumes were merely calculated to deceive the public, Marx's papers revealed
manuscripts for a second, third, and even fourth volume. Unfortunately, all this was
left in such disorder that Engels, who was not in a position to devote his entire time
to this task, was forced to work over these papers for a period of eleven years. Marx
wrote very illegibly, using at times stenographic characters of his own invention.
Shortly before his death, when it had finally become clear to him that he would not
be able to finish his work, Marx remarked to his younger daughter that perhaps
Engels would be able to do something with his papers.
Fortunately, Engels succeeded in completing the cardinal part of this work.
He edited the second and third volumes. We might admit that besides Engels there
was hardly a man would be capable of performing this great task. These volumes
have some faults, but, as they are published now, the name of Engels fully deserves to
stand beside that of Marx. There is very little hope that we may secure Marx's
original manuscripts as they reached Engels. With the exception of the first volume,
Marx's Capital is accessible to us only through Engels' version of it.
Formerly, particularly after the demise of the First International, Marx and
Engels together had been performing the part of the erstwhile General Council. Now
all the work of mediation and keeping up relations among various socialist groups, as
well as the work of consultant and of purveyor of information, pressed as an ever-
growing burden on Engels alone. Not long after the death of Marx, the international
labour movement manifested vigorous signs of life. In 1886 there began talk about
the organisation of a new International. But even after 1889, that is, after the first
congress which organised the Second International but which did not provide for a
permanent central bureau up to 1900, Engels was taking a very active part as
literateur and adviser to the labour movements of well-nigh all the countries of
Europe. The old General Council, which consisted of numerous members and of a
number of secretaries from the several countries, was now embodied in Engels. As
soon as a new group of Marxists would spring up in any country, it would forthwith
turn to Engels for counsel; and with his uncanny knowledge of languages he would
manage, now correctly, now interspersed with some errors, to reply in the group's
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native tongue. He followed the labour movements in the different countries by
reading their respective publications in the original. This took up a good deal of his
time, but it enabled him to strengthen the influence of Marxism in those countries by
his skillful application of Marx's formula to the specific conditions of each country.
There is literally no country which was not served by Engels in his capacity of writer.
We find him writing articles not merely for German and Austrian organs, not only for
the French, but we see him writing a new introduction to the Polish translation of the
Communist Manifesto, and helping the Spanish and Danish, the Bulgarian and
Serbian Marxists with his counsel and suggestions.
The aid which Engels gave young Russian Marxists deserves special mention.
Since he knew the language he could keep in direct and immediate touch with
Russian Marxian literature. And it was only because of his influence that,
notwithstanding the enormous prestige of the Narodnaya Votya, the Emancipation of
Labour group could so speedily establish ties with German Marxism. It was solely
because of Engels that they could overcome the distrust which western Europe, and
Germany especially, felt toward the labour movement and the Marxism of an Asiatic
country like Russia. In 1889 Plekhanov made a special trip to London to see Engels
and to acquaint him with the new tendencies in the Russian revolutionary
movement. Engels even wrote a special article dealing with the foreign policy of
Russian Czarism for the first Russian Marxist periodical.
Engels very soon beheld the fruits of his energetic activity. When the Second
International was founded Engels did not take a direct part in the work of its
congresses. He avoided public appearances and he confined himself to giving advice
to those of his disciples who were now at the helm of the labour movement in various
countries; they informed him of everything important that occurred, soliciting his
advice and the sanction of his authority. Some parties won for themselves great
influence which they maintained in the International, thanks to Engels' backing.
Toward the end of his life this perpetual intercourse with only the heads of the
leading parties of the different countries resulted in some inconsistencies. Thus,
while he immediately rose against the infatuation of the French Marxists with the
peasant question and defended the proletarian character of the programme, he
capitulated before his German comrades, who fearing the revival of the law against
socialists, persuaded him to modify the vigour of his introduction to Marx's study
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The Class Struggles in France -- a brilliant application of the ideas of a relentless
class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
In the introduction to the fourth German edition of the Communist Manifesto
which he wrote on the first international celebration of the First of May (1890),
Engels after pointing out the inspiring growth of the international labour movement,
expressed his regrets that Marx was not alongside of him to see this with his own
eyes. While Marx was known only to the advanced elements of the working-class
movement, Engels, who knew the significance of advertising and revolted against the
shroud of darkness which the capitalist press was trying to throw over Marx's
Capital, but who shrank from any kind of self-advertising not less than his friend, did
toward the end of his life become one of the most popular men in the international
labour movement. He had occasion to convince himself of this when, surrendering to
the insistence of his friends, he visited the European continent in 1893. Mass
ovations and receptions, which Lassalle had once recommended not merely as a
means of propaganda but also as a means of distinguishing, advertising and elevating
the leaders above the mass -- these assumed grandiose proportions simply because of
the now colossal dimensions of the labour movement. A similar ovation was
arranged for Engels at the Zurich Congress where he wished to be only a guest, and
where only toward the end of the celebration, he was persuaded to deliver a short
speech.
Engels, unlike Marx, retained his ability to work almost to the age of seventy-
five. As late as 1895 he wrote an interesting letter to Victor Adler which contained
suggestions as to how the second and third volumes of Capital should be read. At
about the same time he also wrote an interesting supplement to the third volume. He
was making ready to write the history of the First International. In the very heat of all
this mental work he was overcome by a cruel sickness which finally brought his life to
an end on August 5, 1895.
Marx was buried in London in one grave with his wife and his grandchild. It is
marked by a simple stone. When Bebel wrote to Engels that he intended to propose
that a monument be erected on Marx's grave, Engels replied that Marx's daughters
were unalterably opposed to this. When Engels died cremation was just beginning to
come into vogue. Engels in his will asked that his body be cremated, and that his
ashes be dropped into the sea. Upon his death the question arose as to whether his
will should or should not be carried out. Many of his German comrades were
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