173
magazines that he founded and edited : The Marx-Engels Archives, and The Annals
of Marxism.
Endowed with an exceptional memory and a capacity for work, and easily
mastering the four main European languages, he acquired an encyclopedic erudition
that was highly regarded outside the confines of his own party. He alone could at the
same time arrange and bring to fruition the Complete Works of Marx and Engels,
Plekhanov, Kautsky and Lafargue, decipher the mass of unedited materials left
behind by Marx and Engels, uncover the bulk of their correspondance, repair the
alterations and fill up the gaps in all previous publications, and edit the Marxist
Library, then the Library of Materialism (Gassendi, Hobbes, La Mettrie, Helvetius,
d'Holbach, Diderot, J. Toland, Priestley and Feuerbach) and Hegel's philosophical
works[2], etc., whilst directing the Institute, filling up libraries, and organising
exhibitions.
He was at the same time working conscientiously as a member of the
Executive Committee of the Soviets on that body's budgetary commission. He was
the first communist elected to the Academy of Sciences. He unceasingly participated
in the life of the party and trade unions as a conscious marxist, a democratic
communist, in other words, opposed to any dictatorship over the proletariat. When
the All-Russian Trades Union Congress of 1921 had at his instigation adopted a
resolution that did not conform to the so-called conceptions of 'Bolshevism',
according to which the trade unions are a passive instrument of the party, whereas
Riazonov's resolution allowed them to consider the Central Committee's trade union
policy, it took measures to restore order : Tomsky, the Congress chairman, was sent
to Turkestan, and Riazonov was forbidden access by the party to his trade union,
such as taking the floor during any meeting, or to run a course on it at the
university[3].
He then devoted himself entirely to historical work and marxist culture,
outside of the factions and groupings, maintaining his critical spirit and his faculties
of judgement intact, preserving the Institute from passing fads, and maintaining the
best traditions of scientific, qualified, honest and conscientious work there, a happy
contrast with the proceedings of institutions entrusted to servile functionaries.
When the Socialist Academy, with his approval, took the name of Communist
in 1924, Riazonov said : "I am not a Bolshevik, I am not a Menshevik, I am not a
Leninist. I am only a marxist, and, as a marxist, I am a communist" (Newsletter of
174
the Communist Academy, no.8, Moscow, 1924). This speech, already subversive at
the time, is today regarded as a crime of lèse-dictatorship in Soviet Russia[4].
On the occasion of Riazonov's sixtieth birthday last year the Soviet press
showered praises and flowers on this old man, "who works not as a man sixty years
old, but like three young men of twenty". The Executive Committee of the Soviets
conferred upon him the ridiculous order of the Red Banner of Labour. All the official
organisations, the Executive of the Communist International, the Central Committee
of the the Party, the Lenin Institute, the Communist Academy, the Academy of
Sciences, the state publishers, etc., offered him their warm and hypocritical
congratulations. They can be read in the Pravda and Izvestia of the 10th March, and
in an extensive collection : Na boiévom postou (Moscow, 1930), followed by
eulogistic letters from Kalinin[5], Rykov and Clara Zetkin, lyrical articles by Deborin,
Lunacharsky, Steklov, Lozovsky and Milyutin[6], and speeches by Pokrovsky,[7]
Bukharin and others.
One year later, and Riazonov was arrested, imprisoned and deported without
any form of trial, the work of the Institute was suspended, and almost all of his
collaborators were recalled. An omnipotent and autocratic power had condemned
him without trial, and without even allowing him to be heard. The last refuge of
social science and marxist culture in Russia had ceased to exist.
With this barbarous exploit, the dictatorship of the secretariat has perhaps
delivered a mortal blow at a great and disinterested servant of the proletariat and of
communism. It has surely lost a precious source of knowledge, and destroyed a study
centre unique in the world. But it may at least at the same time have dispelled the
last mirage capable of creating illusions abroad, and by revealing its real nature,
proved the absolute incompatibility between post-Leninist Bolshevism and marxism.
Boris Souvarine
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Footnotes:
[1] Shortly before his arrest he invited our own Reg Groves to work with him
in Moscow on the English editions of the works of Marx and Engels; fortunately,
Groves did not take up the offer (translator's note).
175
[2] Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) was aa atomist philosopher; Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679) was an empirical thinker, the author of Leviathan; Julien Offroy de la
Mettrie (1709-1751) was a materialist thinker who believed that psychological states
depended directly on physical conditions; Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
believed that all ideas were the impression of external objects; Paul Heinrich
Dietrich, Baron von Holbach (1721-1789) was a materialist philosopher, the author of
the Système de la Nature; John Toland (1670-1722) was a materialist thinker, a
disciple of Locke, who thought that there was a direct correspondence between
thought and object; Joseph Priestly (1733-1804) was an English chemist and
philosopher; Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) was a Hegelian thinker who influenced
Marx; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was the foremost exponent of
dialectical philosophy (translator's note).
[3] C.f. In Defence of the Russian Revolution, London, 1995, pp.237-42
(translator's note).
[4] A pun : lèse-majesté means treasonous speech against the crown
(translator's note).
[5]Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (1875-1946) succeeded Sverdlov as President of
the Executive of the Soviets, and hence head of state of the U.S.S.R. (translator's
note).
[6] Abram Moiseyevich Joffe, called Deborin (1881-1963) was the U.S.S.R.'s
foremost Hegelian philosopher in the 1920s : Stalin denounced him as a "Menshevik
idealist"; Yuri Mikhailovich Steklov (1873-1941) was an Old Bolshevik, and editor of
Izvestia; Vladimir Pavlovich Milyutin (1884-1938) joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1903 and
became a Bolshevik. He was regarded as an expert on the peasant question. He died
in prison during the purges (translator's note).
[7] Mikhail Pokrovsky (1868-1932) joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1905, and sided
with the Bolsheviks. He was a historian of Russia, and held various posts in the state
apparatus (translator's note).
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176
The Marx-Engels Institute
by "L. B."
(Translated from La Critique sociale, no.2, July 1931, pp.51-2.)
The Marx-Engels Institute was founded towards the end of the year 1920, but
was only able to install itself in the building it has since occupied a year later
(previously the town residence of the Dolgorukov princes [1]), situated in Moscow's
Znamenka quarter, formerly the Malo-Znamenky sector, now Marx-Engels Street.
In a pamphlet published in 1929 the Institute's founder, D. Riazonov,
informed us that the Central Committee of the Communist Party - following the
entire preparatory work of Riazonov, about which the pamphlet was silent - had
originally proposed that he organise a "Museum of Marxism". But Riazonov
envisaged something greater, more important, and also more useful. He obtained its
permission to create a scientific institute, a sort of "laboratory" where historian and
activist alike could study "in the most favourable conditions the birth, development
and spread of the theory and practice of scientific socialism", whose aim was to
contribute the utmost "to the scientific propaganda of marxism".
It should be said straightaway that the Institute, while remaining strictly
faithful to its aim, and without ever departing from the ideas that had caused it to be
set up, soon extended the field of its researches and even, may it be said, its
ambitions. Nothing, whether close or distant, that touches upon the project of
liberating the people and the working class movement throughout the world and
socialist thought, is alien to it.
In 1924 the Institute was included among the cultural establishments of the
Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R., in other words recognised as a state
institution, and functioning -in view of its exceptional importance - under the
immediate control of the Central Executive Committee.
From 1924 onwards , after four years of existence - including years of famine
and civil war - Riazonov was able to say, and not without pride, that the Marx-Engels
Institute was among the foremost in the world. In fact, on the 1st January 1925 the
Institute's library already possessed 15,628 selected volumes. Moreover, its archives
contained numerous manuscripts of Marx and Engels, and myriads of others of the
177
highest interest on the history and men of the First International, Saint-Simonism,
Fourrierism[2], and the revolutionary and working class movement - among them
the journal maintained by Lassalle in his youth[3], and some two hundred letters of
the same sort to his acquaintances. Finally, it had acquired the rarest publications
with which Marx and Engels had collaborated -including the Vorwärts published by
Marx in Paris in 1844, and the Rheinische Zeitung of 1842-43.
To begin with the Institute drew its books from the nationalised libraries,
among them that of Taniéev, containing an excellent collection of socialist authors,
and a rare collection of prints from the time of the French revolution. However, this
source was quickly exhausted, for even in the richest libraries of the dignitaries of the
old regime and other aristocrats he was only able to find a few books that were of
interest to the Institute : the previous political conditions would in no way allow
those who were interested to procure foreign publications that dealt with the social
questions and revolutionary movements of Europe; even some books by Renan and
Michelet[4]were forbidden; socialist publications were never freely admitted into
Russia.
Riazonov bought the library of Theodore Mautner (a socialist book-lover), that
of Karl Grünberg (a historian of socialism), and that of M. Windelband, consisting of
philosophical works. He obtained all that was necessary to complete the collections
from abroad and undertook research in the archives and the great European
libraries, having manuscripts and documents photographed, and even some printed
matter that could not be found in libraries.
This is how the materials were photocopied relating to the work of Marx and
Engels conserved in the archives of the German Social Democratic Party, the
essential documents on the life and trial of Babeuf[5] in the national archives in
Paris, on the revolution of 1848, the trial of Auguste Blanqui[6], the Paris Commune
of 1793[7], the Commune of 1871[8], etc...
At present the Institute has collected thousands of photographs to make up
the necessary documentation, as much for general resarch as for publishing. Among
the publications of the Institute we should note the monumental edition of the works
of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in twenty-seven volumes (of which seven have
appeared), the Marx-Engels Archives and the Annals of Marxism, rich in studies and
documents, the Materialist Library (including the works of Holbach, Hobbes,
Diderot, Feuerbach, La Mettrie, etc.), the Complete Works of G. V. Plekhanov,
178
Russia's foremost theoretician of marxism, those of K. Kautsky, of P. Lafargue, the
Marxist Library, including the best edition of The Communist Manifesto, annotated
by Riazonov, the Library of the Classics of Political Economy, etc.
The Institute now has more than 400,000 volumes, including a very fine
collection on the French revolution, with the works and publications of Marat,
Robespierre, Anacharsis Clootz[9], and Babeuf in first editions, the very rare
brochures and pamphlets of the Enragés[10], the most precious periodicals, such as
the Ami du Peuple, the Père Duchesne, the Tribun du Peuple, etc.; a complete
collection, also in the original editions, of the works of Robert Owen[11], including
many brochures, manifestos, etc., not mentioned in the remarkable Bibliography of
Robert Owen (2nd enlarged edition, 1925); a remarkable collection of the British
economists; an almost complete collection of the periodicals of 1848 (over 400
titles), and most of the publications relating to the events of 1848 in the various
countries; and the main publications of the working class and on the working class
movement, etc.
Among recent acquisitions we might mention a file of The Times from its
foundation to the war; a very rare file of the New York Tribune, including the years
when Marx and Engels collaborated with it; the unique collection of M. Helfert,
wholly devoted to the revolutionary movement of 1848-49 in Austria, Hungary, Italy
and the slav countries, amounting to 5,000 volumes, 10,000 posters, placards,
proclamations, etc., 4,500 prints and portraits, and 1,000 autograph letters; a
collection of manuscripts, most of them unpublished, of Gracchus Babeuf, including
his letters to his son Emil, his wife, and his writings during his trial; and a
remarkable collection of posters, placards, cartoons and other documents from the
time of the Commune.
Whereas a partial documentation is generally to be found in most of the
important European libraries, only relating to the social movement of such and such
a country (and even within these limits, often incomplete), the various collections of
the Institute make up a unique centre of documentation on the working class
movement in Europe.
The Institute is organised in such a way as to assist work and make it
productive; it is a centre of study and of publication at one and the same time; it is
divided into different sections or cabinets forming two series; a historical series, and
an ideological series.
179
The historical series includes these sections : German (the richest), 50,000
volumes; French (almost 40,000 volumes); English; and each has its own archives.
The ideological series includes these sections : Philosophy (25,000 volumes);
Socialism, where the Mautner, Grünberg and Taniéev collections are deposited;
Political Economy (20,000 volumes); Sociology, Law and Politics; and archives are
also attached to each cabinet.
The Institute also has a museum, where prints, stamps, portraits, and medals
are exhibited - set up for instruction, not for marvelling, with the sole aim of
encouraging work. It organises exhibitions methodically. An exhibition on the French
revolution in 1928 aroused the liveliest interest.
To our knowledge, it was the first undertaking of its kind to be made abroad. It
was an excellent illustration of the Institute's methods, its educational outlook, its
researches and its wealth. It allowed schoolchildren and workers to study the
forerunners of modern ideas and the pioneers of socialism, to follow the events of the
revolution in the order in which they happened, to get to know a little about the men
and the atmosphere, and to form an opinion of the press of the time, and how it
represented the actions of the popular masses and the struggle of the classes and
parties.
In the same methodical manner, and with the same scientific preoccupations,
the Institute organised an important exhibition on the Commune of 1871. Unique
material was arranged in four spacious rooms (including 375 authentic documents of
the time, 223 periodical publications, a quantity of prints and cartoons, and two
flags) on the Second Empire, the war and the siege of Paris, the origins of the
Commune, its 72 days of existence, and its bloody suppression.
We should also mention a remarkable Marx-Engels exhibition, pictorially very
rich in rare editions, providing authentic new information on the life and work of the
founders of scientific socialism, on the origin and development of marxism, and on
its distribution throughout the world.
Such, in sum, is the unprecedented work of the Marx-Engels Institute,
corresponding to the new needs of our time.
L. B.
180
Footnotes
[1] Paul (1866-1927) and Peter Dolgorukov (1866-1945) were twin princes,
and leaders of the Cadets. They emigrated after the revolution, but Paul returned to
Russia in secret, and was captured and shot (translator's note).
[2] Claude Henri de Rouvry, Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) was an early
utopian thinker; François Marie Charles Fourrier (1772-1837) was the founder of the
French school of utopian socialists (translator's note).
[3] Ferdinand Lasalle (1825-1864) founded the General Association of
German Workers, which united with the followers of Bebel to set up the SDP
(translator's note).
[4] Joseph Ernest Renan (1823-92) was a French orientalist, whose researches
called in question the truths of Christianity; the scandal created by his Life of Jesus
cost him his chair at the Collège de France; Jules Michelet (1798-1874) was a
historian of the French revolution, and a supporter of the Paris Commune
(translator's note).
[5] François Emile 'Gracchus' Babeuf (1760-1797) was the leader of the
Conspiracy of Equals in the French revolution (translator's note).
[6] Louis Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881) advocated the seizure of power on
behalf of the working class by a conspiratorial élite. His trial was a notorious
miscarriage of justice : he was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1849, but even
afterwards the government would not release him (translator's note).
[7] The election of the Council of the Paris Commune on 10th August 1793
sparked off the opposition to the reaction against the French revolution. It demanded
'Bread for All' (translator's note).
[8] The Paris Commune of 1871 was a brief period when the Paris workers
took control of the city after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (translator's
note).
[9] Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), the 'People's friend' was a leading radical
during the French revolution; Maximilien Robespierre (1750-1994) was the Jacobin
leader during the terror; Jean-Baptiste, called 'Anacharsis' Clootz (1755-1794) was a
German atheist who wanted to spread the French revolution abroad; he was
guillotined after an attack on Robespierre (translator's note).
181
[10] The Enragés were the followers of Varlet and Rouge, who rallied the
sansculottes against the reaction during the French revolution. The newspapers
named were all put out by the left during the revolution (translator's note).
[11] Robert Owen (1771-1858) was a philanthropic cotton manufacturer and
utopian thinker, who originated the theory that 'conditions determine consciousness'
(translator's note).
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