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"order" in western Europe, now seemed to be demanding compensation for her
services. She seemed to think that now was the most opportune moment for
stretching her paws out to the Balkan peninsula. Her former aspirations gradually to
acquire the Turkish dominions in Europe were revived. The clique around the throne
of Nicholas I, who deemed this moment auspicious for an aggressive policy, were
growing in influence. They hoped that France would not be in a position to offer
resistance, and that England, where the Tories were in power, would not interfere,
considering the cordial agreement which existed between England and Russia. Thus
began the controversy ostensibly about the keys to the Saviour's tomb. In reality the
Dardanelles was the bone of contention.
A few months had passed, and the situation became so acute that England
and France, both unwilling to fight, both feeling that a war could lead to nothing
good, were finally forced to declare war upon Russia. The notorious Crimean War
which again brought the Eastern question to the front broke out. Marx and Engels
now had their opportunity, even though it was in remote America, to interpret the
events of the day. Marx and Engels hailed the war. For, after all, the war did mean
that the three major powers which had been the mainstay of counter-revolution, had
fallen out, and when thieves fall out, honest folks are likely to benefit by it. It was
from this angle that Marx and Engels viewed the war. Yet they had to assume a
definite attitude with regard to each of the warring parties.
It is worthwhile dwelling upon this a little longer, for the position which Marx
and Engels had taken in the fifties has been repeatedly cited as a precedent in the
discussions of tactics in relation to war. It is generally assumed that during the
Crimean War, Marx and Engels had placed themselves directly on the side of Turkey,
and against Russia. We know the great significance that Marx and Engels had
attached to Russian Czarism as the prop of European reaction, and the great
significance they had attached to a war against Russia as a factor which would be
likely to stir the revolutionary energies of Germany. It was natural, then, for them to
have welcomed the war against Russia, and to have subjected Russia to a most
scathing criticism. (In their literary collaboration Engels wrote the articles covering
the military side of the war, while Marx dealt with the diplomatic and economic
questions.)
Does it follow, however, that Marx and Engels had placed themselves on the
side of culture, enlightenment, and progress as against Russia, and that, having
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declared themselves against Russia, they ipso facto stood for the enlightened and
cultured Englishmen and Frenchmen? It would be erroneous to make such a
deduction. England and France came in for as much denunciation as Russia. All the
efforts of Napoleon and Palmerston to represent the war as a crusade of civilisation
and progress against Asiatic barbarism were exposed in the most merciless manner.
As to Marx having been a Turcophile, there is nothing more absurd than such an
accusation. Neither Marx nor Engels had his eyes closed to the fact that Turkey was
even more Asiatic and more barbarous than Russia. They subjected to severe
criticism all the countries involved, and they showed no partiality. They had only one
criterion -- did or did not any given event, any circumstance under discussion,
expedite the coming of the revolution? It was from this point of view that they
criticised the conduct of England and France which, as we have pointed out, had
been reluctantly drawn into this war and thoroughly disgruntled with the obstinate
Nicholas I, who flatly refused to consider any compromises that they proffered him.
The fears of the ruling classes were fully justified; the war seemed to drag on. It had
been started in 1854 and it was terminated in 1856 with the Treaty of Paris. In
England and in France, among the masses of workers and peasants, this war caused
great excitement. It compelled Napoleon and the ruling classes of England to make a
great many promises and concessions. The war ended with the victory of France,
England and Turkey. To Russia the Crimean War gave the impetus for the so-called
"great reforms." It proved how a state based on the antiquated system of serfdom was
incapable of fighting capitalistically developed countries. Russia was forced to
consider the emancipation of the serfs.
One more jolt was needed finally to stir a Europe which had fallen into a state
of coma after the explosive 1848-1849 epoch. Let us recall that Marx and Engels,
when they broke away from the Willich-Schapper group, had declared that a new
revolution was only possible as the result of a fresh powerful economic shock, and
that just as the Revolution of 1848 had resulted from the crisis of 1847, so would the
new revolution come only as the result of a new economic crisis. The industrial boom
that had started in 1849, acquired such a sweep toward the early fifties that even the
Crimean War was not able to inflict a serious blow to it.
It began to appear almost as if this boom would be of endless duration. Marx
and Engels were confident in 1851 that the next crisis was due not later than 1853.
On the basis of their past researches, primarily those of Engels, they held to the
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opinion that crises were periodic dislocations in the realm of capitalist production,
and that they recurred in from five to seven-year intervals. According to this
estimate, the crisis which was to follow the one of 1817 was to be expected about
1858. But Marx and Engels made a slight error. The period within which capitalist
production goes through the various phases of rising and falling proved to be longer.
A panic broke out only in 1857; it assumed unheard-of dimensions, so malignant and
widespread did it become.
Marx rapturously greeted this crisis, though to him personally it brought
nothing but privation. The income which Marx had been deriving from the New York
Tribune was not particularly imposing; at first ten and later fifteen dollars per article.
Still, in comparison with the first years of his sojourn in London, this income plus the
assistance from Engels, who used to take upon himself a great deal of the work for
the American newspapers, gave him a chance to make both ends meet. He could even
find time, despite his constant working on Capital, to write, without remuneration,
articles for the central Chartist organ, the People's Paper.
With the panic of 1857, conditions grew considerably worse. The United
States was the first to suffer. The New York Tribune had to reduce its expenses;
foreign correspondence was reduced to a minimum. Marx again became encumbered
with debts and again had to look for sporadic earnings. This lean period lasted until
1859. Then came a respite. Finally, in 1862, Marx's work for the Tribune came to an
end.
But if in his personal affairs Marx was unfortunate (during this period other
misfortunes fell upon him), in his revolutionary outlook he never was more
optimistic than after the year 1857. As he had foreseen, the new economic crisis
brought to life a number of revolutionary movements all over the world. The
abolition of slavery in America and the emancipation of the serfs in Russia became
most crucial problems which demanded immediate solution. Bourgeois England had
to strain all her resources in her struggle with the vast uprisings in India. Western
Europe too was in a state of commotion.
The Revolution of 1848 had left a few unanswered questions. Italy remained
disunited. A large section of her northern territory remained in the hands of Austria.
Hungary was crushed with the aid of Russian bayonets and was again chained to
Austria. Germany persisted as a heap of principalities and kingdoms of different
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