MARX TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE” 

London, 27 September 1877 
41 Maitland Park Road, N. W. 
Dear Friend, 

Unfortunately it is not till now, on my return from the 
Continent (whither I had been sent by the doctors),*” that I have 
found your letter. Hence my answer may perhaps arrive much too 
late. As for the rest, Pater peccavi*! But the damned insomnia 

a Father, I have sinned (Luke 15:18). 

which has afflicted me this year has made me tremendously remiss 
about writing, since I have simply had to devote all my more 
tolerable moments to work. 

Should Weydemeyer not have had Kapital und Arbeit printed yet, 
I would look it over as the original was full of the most appalling 
printing errors.**1 You have absolutely no idea of the treatment 
meted out to me by the party, i.e. the Chemnitzers (as REPRESENTED BY 
Vahlteich). Only at Liebknecht’s insistence, and also because 
Chemnitz had represented the thing as extremely urgent, did I 
undertake the work before leaving for Karlsbad, despite the highly 
disordered state of my nerves. And in view of the many asininities 
perpetrated by Most (now happily ensconced with Mr Dihring; a 
conceited laddie who, when he reads something, no matter what, 
instantly converts it into material for publication) and the small 
amount of space prescribed, this was no trifle. Very wert! Months 
went by without any news, I made enquiries '* to which Vahlteich 
‘coolly’ replied, saying the thing was only being set up in such 
fleeting moments as were left to the party printing office after 
setting up the Chemnitzers’ philistine advertisements! Never 
before have I encountered such cool effrontery! This meant that 
the printing took almost a year! And when the opusculum did at 
last appear, it was swarming with printing errors which distorted 
the sense! 

To avoid losing time it might perhaps be better if you were to 
go ahead with the printing in the way you suggested, and I was to 
correct for the second edition what had been printed (which 
would be far easier). 

I and Engels will amend the Communist Manifesto straight away 
and then let you have it.’ 

Ad vocem* Capital and Douai: 

Firstly: Has Douai got a publisher? 

Secondly: The French edition’ consumed so much of my time 
that I myself shall not again collaborate in any way on a 
translation. You must know whether Douai knows enough English 
to do the thing on his own. If so, he has my full authorisation and 
my blessing.*“* In which case, however: 

Thirdly: He must without fail, when translating, compare the 
2nd German edition with the French edition in which I have 
included a good deal of new matter and greatly improved my 
presentation of much else..There are two things I shall be sending 
you in the course of this week: 

a Re 

1. A copy of the French edition for Douai. 

2. A list of places where the French edition shouldn’t be compared 
with the German, but the French text be used as the only basis. 

In Naples Mr Uriele Cavagnari is preparing the Italian edition 
of Capital (from the French edition); he is having the book 
printed at his own expense and is going to sell it at cost price. 
Good man! ** 

What you write about the Germans in no way surprises me. It’s 
exactly like that over here. That’s why Engels and I have 
disassociated ourselves from the whole bunch (as has Lessner). 
The only exception is a German working man with whom I am on 
friendly terms and whose name momentarily escapes me (Weyer,* 
I think); he has a seat on the London Transes’ Union Councit and 
was responsible for the only sensible resolution—that working 
men should elect only working men to represent them in the 
House or Commons—at the shameful TRADES’ Union Concress in 
Leicester,*“* at which the bourgeois played patron, among their 
number Mr Th. Brassey, the great swindler and millionaire, son of 
the notorious railway Brassey who ‘contracted for’ Europe and 
Asia. 

The Ghent Congress,*”* whatever else it left to be desired, at 
least had the advantage that Guillaume and Co. were totally 
abandoned by their former allies. It was only with difficulty that 
the Flemish workers were restrained from lambasting the great 
Guillaume. That bombastic chatterbox De Paepe, and with him 
Brismée, insulted them; Mr John Hales ditto. The latter placed 
himself under the command of— Barry whom I had induced to 
go, partly as a member of Congress (as whose delegate, I don’t 
know), partly as correspondent for the Standard (London).** I for 
my part do not wish ever again to become personally involved with 
Jung and Hales, but their second defection is useful so far as the 
Jurassians are concerned. Barry is my Facrotum here; he also kept 
an eye on the Times reporters (which newspaper has sacked Mr 
Eccarius). But more especially it was through him that, for months 
on end, I sustained incognito a cross-fire against that Russomane 
Gladstone in London’s Fashionable press (Vanity Fair and Whitehall 
Review), as also in the English, Scottish and Irish provincial press, 
unmasking his underhand dealings with the Russian spy Novikova, 
the Russian Embassy in London, etc.; it was through him, too, that 
I exerted influence on English parliamentarians in the Commons 
and the Lords, who would throw up their hands in horror if they 

a Adam Weiler 

20* 

knew that it was the Rep Terror Doctor, as they call me, who had 
been their souffleur during the oriental crisis. 

That crisis marks a new turning-point in European history. 
Russia—and I have studied her affairs from original Russian 
sources, unofficial and official (the latter accessible to only very 
few, but procured for me by friends in Petersburg),—has long 
been on the verge of an upheaval; all the elements are to hand. 
The gallant Turks have advanced the explosion by many years 
through the blows they have dealt not only to the Russian army 
and Russian finances, but also personally to the dynasty in command 
of the army (Tsar,* heir-apparent” and six other Romanovs). The 
upheaval will begin, secundum artem, with some constitutional 
tomfoolery, et puis il y aura un beau tapage.’ Unless Mother Nature 
is exceptionally unkind, we shall yet live to see the fun! 

The silly nonsense in which the Russian students are indulging 
is merely a symptom, and of no value in itself. But symptom it is. 
All strata of Russian society are economically, morally and 
intellectually in a state of complete disintegration. 

This time the revolution will begin in the East, hitherto the 
impregnable bastion and reserve army of counter-revolution. 

It was with pleasure that Mr Bismarck watched the drubbing, 
but more than that it was not to be. Russia, if too much weakened, 
could not again keep Austria in check as she had done during the 
Franco-Prussian War! And, should revolution actually result there, 
what would become of the Hohenzollern dynasty’s last safeguard? 

Just now everything depends on the Poles (in the Kingdom of 
Poland) lying doggo. Rioting is the last thing that is wanted there 
at the moment! Bismarck would immediately step in, and Russian 
chauvinism would again rally round the Tsar. On the other hand, 
were the Poles to bide their time until Moscow and Petersburg are 
in flames and Bismarck were then to step in as saviour, Prussia 
would meet—her Mexico ! 

Again and again I have dinned this into such Poles as I am in 
contact with and as have any influence over their compatriots. 

The French crisis’ is an altogether secondary affair compared 
with the oriental one. Yet one can only hope that the bourgeois 
republic wins, for otherwise we shall have the same old game all 
over again, and no nation can afford to repeat the same 
stupidities too often. 

@ Alexander II -> Prince Alexander Alexandrovich (future Emperor Alexan- 
der III) - © by the rules of the game - 4 and then there'll be a fine how-do-you-do. 

With warmest regards from myself and my wife, 

Your 

Karl Marx 

Postscript 

The Genevan notary, Wessel, has informed me of the business 
of Lingenau’s will. 

We (i.e. the executors) shall have to appoint a proxy in America, 
and you would be thé only suitable person. What we need to know 
above all, however, is how the matter stands in America and 
whether the will can be implemented without endless court 
proceedings. You would oblige me if you could make inquiries 
about this and let me know.