No. 3, 22 January 1878

On the Socialist Movement in Germany, France,
the United States and Russia

Friedrich Engels
On the Socialist Movement in Germany, France,
the United States and Russia

La Plebe.
No. 3, 22 January 1878

The socialist movement in Germany is making admirable progress. There are at present 62 socialist periodicals, of which 46 are newspapers, properly so called, 1 review and 15 organs of resistance societies. Moreover, published in Switzerland, in the German language, are 4 newspapers and 1 review, in Austria 3, in Hungary 1, in America 6. The total of socialist periodical publications in the German idiom is:

| | |
|--------------------|----|
| Germany
| Austria
| Hungary
| Switzerland
| America

so that the periodical literature of German socialism numbers more organs than all the other languages put together. In this number I do not count the more or less socialist newspapers of the university professors (Kathedersocialisten) but only the recognised organs of the party.

When the attempt on Bismarck took place, to a bourgeois who wrote to me: ‘All Germany (bourgeois) is overjoyed that Bismarck was not killed’ I replied: ‘We too are glad, because he works for us as if he were paid for it.’ You know that I was right, because without the persecutions and the sufferings, without the ever-growing militarism and taxes, we would not have reached this point.

Although the crisis in France has yielded a far from satisfactory result, there will ensue from it, as it seems to me, a state of things which will allow the French socialists to act by means of the press, public meetings and associations, and to organise themselves into a workers’ party, which is all that we can now obtain, after the carnage of 1871. Moreover, it is an established fact that France has made two great advances: the republicanism of the peasants and the formation of a republican army. The coup d’état of Ducrot, Batbie and Company has failed because the soldiers resolutely refused to march against the people.

119

Friedrich Engels

The labour question has been placed upon the order of the day in America with the bloody strike of the employees of the great railways. It is an event that will make an epoch in American history: in this way the formation of the workers’ party is advancing by great strides in the United States. In that country things move quickly, and we must follow the movement so as not to be surprised by some important success which will soon occur.

Russia, I believe, will be the one to play the most important part in the near future. The situation produced by the so-called emancipation of the serfs was already unbearable before the war. This great reform had been so well directed that it ended by ruining nobles and peasants alike. It was followed by another reform which, under the pretext of giving the provinces or cantons an administration based on elections more or less independent of the Central Government, did nothing but increase the already unbearable taxes.

The provinces had simply been saddled with the expenses of their administration, so that the state paid less, while continuing to receive the same taxes; hence new dues for provincial and local expenses. Then came the general obligation of military service, which is equivalent to a new tax more severe than the others and to a new, more numerous army.

In this way the ruin of the finances was approaching with great strides. The country was already in a state of bankruptcy before the war. Russian high finance, having participated heavily in the fraudulent speculations of the period 1871–73, plunged the nation into the financial crisis which broke out in 1873 in Vienna and Berlin and ruined Russian industry and commerce for years. In this state of things the Holy War against the Turk began, and since no foreign loan could be obtained and the internal loans did not yield what was required, it was necessary to resort to the millions of the Bank (the reserve funds) and to the printing of assignats; consequently, the value of paper money diminishes day by day, and will soon reach its lowest rate, in only a year or two. In fine we have all the elements of a Russian 1789, followed necessarily by a 1793. Whatever the outcome of the war, the Russian revolution is ready and will soon break out, perhaps this year; it will begin, contrary to Bakunin’s predictions, from above, in the palace, in the bosom of the impoverished and frondeuse nobility. But once set in motion, it will sweep along the peasants, and you will then see scenes before which those of ’93 will pale. Once Russia is driven into revolution, the whole face of Europe will change. Old Russia has until now been the great reserve army of European reaction; she acted as such in 1798, in 1805, in 1815, in 1830, in 1848. Once this reserve army is destroyed — we shall see!

120

La Plebe. Milan. No. 3, 22 January 1878. Masthead and page 2
with Engels’ article “Sul movimento socialista ...”,
to which the editors gave the title “Da Londra”.