MARX TO NATALIE LIEBKNECHT'’”’ 

London, 13 January 1871 
1 Maitland Park Road, 
Haverstock Hill, N.W. 

My dear Mrs Liebknecht, 

The General Council of the ‘International’ has started a 
collection for the families of the German ‘patriots’ persecuted by 
the Prussian government— patriots in the true sense of the word. 
The first £5 I am sending you now are intended for Mrs Bebel 
and yourself. 

The libellous London correspondent of that pedant Bieder- 
mann* undeniably belongs to the police personnel of the local 
Prussian Embassy, which was active in like fashion at the time of the 
Communist trial in Cologne in 1852.'°° We shall track the man 
down and publicise the activities of this clique in the local press 
and so shed light on the latest phase of Christian-Prussian- 
Germanic ethics. 

In the issue of the Volksstaat that arrived today I see that there 
is a notice in which Mr Nechayev is yet again being treated with 
undue seriousness.” All the things that this Nechayev has had 
printed in the European press about his deeds and sufferings in 
Russia are bare-faced fabrications. I have the proofs of this to hand. 
His name, therefore, is one which should never be mentioned. 

My wife and daughters send their warmest regards to you, 
your children and to Liebknecht. 

a A pun: ‘Biedermann’ means an honest man, and Biedermann is the surname of the 
editor of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. - > See ‘Politische Uebersicht’, Der Volksstaat, 
No. 4, 11 January 1871. -¢ Jenny and Eleanor Marx 

With best wishes for the New Year. 

Yours very sincerely, 
Karl Marx