MARX TO LUDWIG KUGELMANN”? 

London, 12 April 1871 

Dear Kugelmann, 

Your ‘doctor’s orders’ were effective insofar as I consulted my 
Dr Maddison and have for the present put myself under his 
treatment. He says, however, that my lungs are in excellent 
condition and the coughing is connected with bronchitis, etc. Ditto, 
it may affect the liver. 

Yesterday we received the by no means reassuring news that 
Lafargue (not Laura) is in Paris at the moment. 

If you look at the last chapter of my Eighteenth Brumaire you 
will find that I say that the next attempt of the French revolution 
will be no longer, as before, to transfer the bureaucratic military 
machine from one hand to another, but to break it, and that is 
essential for every real people’s revolution on the Continent. And 
this is what our heroic Party comrades in Paris are attempting. 
What resilience, what historical initiative, what a capacity for 
sacrifice in these Parisians! After six months of hunger and ruin, 
caused rather by internal treachery than by the external enemy, 
they rise, beneath Prussian bayonets, as if there had never been a 
war between France and Germany and the enemy were not still at 
the gates of Paris! History has no like example of a like greatness. 

a ‘Nouvelles d’hier’, La Province, No. 428, 5 April 1871. 

If they are defeated only their ‘decency’ will be to blame. They 
should have marched at once on Versailles, after first Vinoy and 
then the reactionary section of the Paris National Guard had 
themselves retired from the battlefield. The right moment was 
missed because of conscientious scruples. They did not want to 
start the civil war, as if that miscuievous avorton Thiers had not 
already started the civil war with his attempt to disarm Paris! 
Second mistake: The Central Committee surrendered its power 
too soon, to make way for the Commune." Again from a too 
‘honourable’ scrupulousness! However that may be, the present 
rising in Paris—even if it be crushed by the wolves, swine and vile 
curs of the old society—is the most glorious deed of our Party 
since the June Insurrection in Paris.''* Compare these Parisians, 
storming the heavens, with the slaves to heaven of the German- 
Prussian Holy Roman Empire, with its posthumous masquerades 
reeking of the barracks, the Church, the cabbage Junkers and 
above all, of the philistines. 

Apropos. In the official publication’ of the list of those receiving 
direct subsidies from Louis Bonaparte’s treasury there is a note 
that Vogt received 40,000 francs in August 1859! I have informed 
Liebknecht of the fait, for further use.‘ 

You can send me the Haxthausen,’ because recently I have 
received various pamphlets, etc., undamaged, not only from 
Germany, but even from Petersburg. 

Thanks for the various newspapers you have been sending (1 
would ask you for more, as I want to write something about 
Germany, the Reichstag, etc.). 

Best greetings to the Countess and Kauzchen.° 

Your 
K. M.