... The last socialist elections in Germany prove that one cannot 
kill socialism just by stopping its mouth.*’’ Indeed the law against 
the socialists will be a great success for us. It will complete the 
revolutionary education of the German workers... 

With great effort and great sacrifices they had won the degree 
of freedom of the press, of association and assembly which they 
enjoyed. It was a continuous struggle, but in the end victory 
always remained on the side of the workers. They could organise, 
and whenever there was a general election it was a new triumph 
for them. 

This legal agitation, however, made some people believe that it 
was no longer necessary to do anything else in order to obtain the 
final victory of the proletariat. This, in a country as poor in 
revolutionary traditions as Germany, could have been dangerous. 
Luckily, Bismarck’s brutal action and the cowardice of the German 
bourgeoisie who support him have changed things. The German 
workers have proved just how much constitutional liberties are 
worth when the proletariat takes them seriously and uses them to 
combat capitalist domination. If any illusions still existed in this 
respect, our friend Bismarck has abruptly dispelled them. I say 
our friend Bismarck because no one has ever rendered so many 
services to socialism in Germany as he has. After preparing the 
revolution with the most advanced and intolerable militarism, with 
constantly increasing taxes, with an alliance between the State and 
the most shameless stock-jobbing, with a return to the most feudal 
and repressive traditions of the old Prussia, with persecutions as 
numerous as they were petty, and with public degradation and 
revilement inflicted on a bourgeoisie which, it must be said, 

deserved no better,— after preparing the revolution in this way he 
crowns his labours by forcing the German proletariat to set out on 
the revolutionary road. 

Our friend Bismarck can rest assured. The revolution he has so 
well prepared will be carried out by the German workers. When 
the signal is given by Russia, they will be ready. 

For some years now I have been bringing the state of Russia, 
where a decisive movement is being prepared, to the attention of 
European socialists. The struggle between the government and the 
secret societies has taken on so violent a character there that it 
cannot last. The movement seems to be on the brink of exploding. 
The government agents are committing incredible atrocities. 
Against such wild animals one must defend oneself as one can, 
with powder and lead. Political assassination in Russia is the only 
means which men of intelligence, dignity and character possess to 
defend themselves against the agents of an unprecedented 
despotism. 

Powerful conspiracies in the army and even in the imperial 
Court, national opinion humiliated by the diplomatic defeats 
following the war,” the treasury empty, credit in ruins, the 
bankers refusing to grant loans unless they are guaranteed by a 
national assembly, and finally destitution. This is the balance of 
Russia. 

First. published in La Plebe, No. 12, ad 

March 30, 1879 Translated from the Italian 
Signed: F. Engels Published in English for the first 

time