Letters: Marx-Engels Correspondence 1871

Marx-Engels Correspondence 1871

Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann

In Hanover

Publisher: International Publishers (1968);

[London] April 17, 1871

Dear Kugelmann

Your letter duly received. Just at present I have my hands full. Hence only a few words.

... How you can compare petty-bourgeois demonstrations à la 13 June[1],
1849, etc., with the present struggle in Paris is quite
incomprehensible to me.

World history would indeed be very easy to make, if the struggle were
taken up only on condition of infallibly favorable chances.  It would,
on the other hand, be a very mystical nature, if “accidents” played no
part.  These accidents themselves fall naturally into the general course
of development and are compensated again by other accidents.  But
acceleration and delay are very dependent upon such “accidents,” which
included the "accident" of the character of those who at first stand at
the head of the movement.

The decisive, unfavorable “accident” this time is by no means to be
found in the general conditions of French society, but in the presence
of the Prussians in France and their position right before Paris.  Of
this the Parisians were well aware.  But of this, the bourgeois
canaille of Versailles were also well aware.  Precisely for that
reason they presented the Parisians with the alternative of taking up
the fight of succumbing without a struggle.  In the latter case, the
demoralization of the working class against the capitalist class and its
state has entered upon a new phase with the struggle in paris.  Whatever
the immediate results may be, a new point of departure of world-historic
importance has been gained. ...

Adieu!

KM