Zimmermann 1 Sarah Zimmermann i 6 Books That Changed the World Rob Martello 29 February 2008 Authors’ Influence on The Communist Manifesto The Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848 by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, exerted an unquestionably powerful influence on the twentieth century world. Originally composed in German, its authors’ native tongue, this text has been translated into many languages, each with a preface by Marx and/or Engels 1 . The ideology of communism it espoused caused more than half a century of revolution and conflict as it took hold in places as diverse as Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, and Venezuela. Much of the work’s compelling message can be attributed to the fact that Marx and Engels let their own personal experiences heavily inform The Communist Manifesto. The text’s influential philosophy of the individual, lack of religious fervor, treatment of women and family, and militaristic world‐view can all be directly attributed to specific events and themes which colored the lives of the authors. These ideas all serve the purpose of polarizing the general public and generating the force of the people behind the ideas of communism. Each of these ideas used to generate public interest are treated with care due to Marx and Engels own experience and expertise. Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Germany to a lawyer named Heinrich. He was from a long line of Rabbis but his father was baptized in the Evangelical Established Church a year before Karl was born. This began Marx’s struggle with religion and its social impact. Marx attended a liberal high school and eventually went on to study the humanities at the University of Bonn. Here he was a political activist, a notorious womanizer, and a bit of a rabble‐rouser, spending a night in jail for being drunk and disorderly. Marx left Bonn after a year and enrolled at the University of Berlin to study law and philosophy. There he was heavily influenced by Bruno Bauer and Hegelism. Marx joined the Young Hegelians, a leftish group moving towards the militant 1
Marx, Karl and Engels, Fredrich. “The Communist Manifesto”. Edited by Frederic L. Bender. Norton Critical Edition. Pub 1988 Zimmermann 2 atheism taught by Bauer. It was in Berlin that he became entrenched in the study of philosophy and began to form his own ideologies. After graduating in 1841, Marx began to write for various left‐wing newspapers. In 1843, he married Jenny von Westphalen after a seven year engagement. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to Paris and became entrenched in the more revolutionary communist societies. It was in Paris that Marx met Engels, the man with whom he would later write The Communist Manifesto 2 . Fredrich Engels, like Marx, was born in Germany in 1820. His family was wealthy, liberal, and markedly Protestant. Engels’ father was the owner of a textile factory and a partner in a cotton plant. Engels’ father decided his son was to be a businessman. Accordingly, Engels spent three years as a businessman in the offices of an export firm. Engels found this to be a bit dull and spent his free time reading and acquiring a taste for left‐wing philosophy. He soon became a proponent of Hegel and specifically of the beliefs of the Young Hegelians and the writings of Bruno Bauer. The Young Hegelians quickly converted Engels to a militant atheist. It was during this time that he began writing under the surname Fredrich Oswald. His publications gained him access to the more revolutionary, communist circles in Berlin and Paris where he eventually met Karl Marx. After three years gaining practical business experience, Engels enlisted in an artillery regiment in Berlin. He learned much about the art of warfare and military matters later became one of his specialties. As time passed, Engels’ Hegelian thought eventually turned to the more revolutionary communist philosophy. Engels moved to England and continued to work as a businessman. It was there that he met Mary Burns, an uneducated Irish working girl. He did not believe in marriage but he did live with her in a marriage‐like relationship. Engels was, during this time, developing a close friendship with Marx whom he met in Paris. In 1848, Engels and Marx co‐wrote and published the first translation of The Communist Manifesto 3 . One of the unifying themes in The Communist Manifesto is the repeated influence of Hegel. Hegelism is the philosophical ideology of Georg Wilhelm Fredrick Hegel. This philosophy has a focus on the study of history to find truth and the essential want of mankind to make one’s own 2
“Marx, Karl.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 22 Feb 2008. <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article‐9108466>. 3
“Engels, Fredrich.”Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 22 Feb 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article‐9032642>. Zimmermann 3 choices and govern one’s own life 4 . Both Marx and Engels communist thought originated from the principles of Hegel. The focus on history and on true freedom proposed by Hegel is evident in The Communist Manifesto. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” [p55] The Communist Manifesto introduces a new way to view history and a new attitude in which to view it. Chapter 1 gives a history of the bourgeoisie, their rise to power and the implications of that rise. This historical analysis of the paradigm of the industrial revolution is characteristic of Hegel and emphasis on of making decisions using the empirical evidence of the past as a guide. The history of the bourgeoisie is presented to show how the changing class struggles caused the social ills facing the world at that time. Marx and Engels believed that the class system is what caused revolutions and the Hegelian philosophy of studying the past to find the way of the future illuminated those views. Hegel’s other major focus was on being able to make one’s own choices. Hegel talks specifically about the nature of slavery and how the inability to make one’s own decisions can destroy a man. Marx and Engels further these notions with phrases such as “master and slave,” and “the oppressor and oppressed” [p55]. There is also this idea of not allowing restrictions to free action. The movement away from religion and towards atheism proposed by the communist party is furthered by this thought. The treatment of religion in The Communist Manifesto is another factor that allowed it to be so influential. Marx and Engels minimize the religious implications of the communist ideology. In response to objections based on the atheist notions of communism, The Communist Manifesto replies, “The charges against communism made from a religious, a philosophical and, generally, from an ideological standpoint, are not deserving of serious examination.” [p. 73]. The authors evade the objection in an effort to not alienate a religious audience. Marx specifically had experience with the wrath of the religious community. In addition to seeing his mentor, Bruno Bauer, kicked out of Germany for is religious views, Marx’s Jewish heritage opened him to much 4
“Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Fredrich.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 25 Feb 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article‐9108411>. Zimmermann 4 religious persecution as a child, perhaps causing him to question religion and its role in society. It would seem that these experiences of Marx led to the non‐treatment of the religious implications of The Communist Manifesto and a downplaying of the atheism advocated by the communist party. The specific experiences of Marx and Engels with women come across in their treatment of the subject in The Communist Manifesto. Marx’s relation to Jenny von Westphalen after his younger life as a womanizer shows a change in the way he related to women. This change is evident in The Communist Manifesto’s insistence that the “community of women” perpetuated by the proletariat has to cease. [p. 72] Marx and Engels were disgusted with the bourgeoisie system of stealing wives from the proletariat as well as from each other. “Our bourgeois, not content with having wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives.” [p72] Marx and Engels rejected this “system of wives in common” due to their own experiences with love. Marx loved his wife and was a proponent of monogamy if not the institution of marriage which he believed to be a mere “instrument of production.” [P72]. Engels had similar beliefs as evidenced by his relationship with Mary Burns. This is consistent with the way Marx and Engels viewed the role of women. Marriage resulted in the use of women as an “instrument of production” and all subjection of people as mere instruments of production, an item used solely for personal gain, was to be abolished. The personal views of Marx and Engels on the subject of women are further explained in their treatment of the subject of working women. They say “the more modern industry becomes developed, the more is the labor of men superseded by that of women.” [p62] They clearly dislike the use of women as a labor source. In the present age, this is considered bigoted but at the time this was written, it was seen as a concession to humanity. By taking this stance, the authors do not alienate the female audience but encourage it and elevate women as well as men as being more than mere “instruments of production.” The way the authors handle the topic of women in The Communist Manifesto is one of the things that makes this work interesting and significant today. It certainly helped to gain communist support from women, Zimmermann 5 fathers, brothers, and husbands in the time that it was written but today, it is one of the things that subjects this book to further contemplation and study. The family life of Marx and Engels also comes across in the ideologies they support, specifically in the way they treat the institution of family and the way they reject specific bourgeois objections to their ideologies. Marx was eventually rejected by his family for his revolutionary ideologies and atheist views. Engels thoughts and ideologies caused him to eventually be rejected by his family as well. The family trials that characterized both of the authors’ lives came through in the communist ideology of free education. Opponents complain of the disbanding of the family advocated by communism but Marx and Engels cry back that the children are just more articles of production to the bourgeois. “Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.” [p71] To the idea that home‐education is superior, they reply that home education is biased and “determined by the social conditions under which you educate.”[p71] The biased, religious education that Marx and Engels received was a good example of the kind of biases they were trying to expel from education. “The Communists have not intended the intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class.” Marx and Engels want to have free public education without the biases of the ruling class. The emphasis here is on education that empowers instead of education that indoctrinates. To Marx and Engels, it is only by educating the people that one can free them. The militaristic tone echoing prominently throughout The Communist Manifesto is a direct result of the experiences of Engels. Engels had military service experience and an aura of command. In his later life, friends would address him as “the general.” This militaristic attitude comes across in the speech‐like and revolutionary qualities of The Communist Manifesto. The last line is “WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!” [p86], and shortly before that, “Let the ruling class tremble at a communistic revolution.” [p86]. There is an angry, warlike tone in these lines. This tone is one that “the general” might give his troops. Tones that compel action Zimmermann 6 were characteristic of The Communist Manifesto and the militaristic background of Engels explains their presence. One theme in The Communist Manifesto and the basic idea of communism was that the economics of the time were ruining the working class. Engels had a business background and brought with him the experience of a businessman running a factory. In addition to loving an uneducated Irish working girl, his father had owned a textile factory and he had seen firsthand the dangerous work environments and social ills caused by the industrial revolution. Engels business and economic background most certainly influenced the principles put forth by The Communist Manifesto. “Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army, they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, in the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. “ [p61] The example of the factory and the imagery of the “industrial army” certainly have been influenced by Engels militarism and Marx study of factory labor. Engels had the experience and background in the factory life and Marx had a passion for the flight of the laborer. These backgrounds clearly come through in this passage and in The Communist Manifesto as a whole. The persuasive, responsive style that characterizes the second chapter of the work is characteristic of a lawyer, defending his position. Marx studied law and the second chapter of The Communist Manifesto shows this background. Marx anticipated objections to his policies and skillfully rejects or evades them. He responds to concerns about the abolition of private property with an inflammatory treatise on how property is only the property of the wealthy [p70]. He contests the supposition that communism seeks to abolish the family by telling of the bourgeoisie destruction of their own families [p71]. He retorts to concerns about the abolition of nationality with the notion that “Working men have no country,” [p72]. Marx goes through a series of such objections and either tells of their error in reporting communist beliefs or tells Zimmermann 7 why such beliefs are valid. Marx’s style of systematically responding to objections shows a hint of his law training. Marx and Engels clearly had an influence on The Communist Manifesto and the powerful message it contains. It is their background and expertise that makes it compelling and influential by enriching the areas of the work that polarize and excite people to action. By incorporating sound philosophical reasoning techniques, avoiding the controversial topic of religion, changing the perception of women both in their time and in the present, and increasing the richness of the writing with personal style and tone, the authors were able to change the world through The Communist Manifesto. i
Collaborators: Michael C. Hughes, Writing Tutor Extraordinaire