IN MORNEX (FRANCE) 

London, 3 April 1890 

My dear Citizen, 

As soon as I got your letter,°*4 I let Stepniak have the rest of the arti- 
cle (in proof) and, since part of it was slightly damaged, I added the 
corresponding MS for you to use as a check. I hope that by now it will 
already have reached you. 

Stepniak also gave me a copy of the Review, for which I thank you; 
I look forward keenly to reading your article and those of Plekhanov.*> 

You are perfectly right; in a publication of this kind all the articles in 
any given number should be complete in themselves and quite indepen- 
dent of any sequel in the ensuing number. Indeed, I should have acted on 
that principle had I not been pressed for time. 

That it is imperative to combat Narodism*, no matter where— 
whether German, French, English or Russian—I entirely agree. 
Nevertheless, I believe it would have been more fitting if what I felt 
impelled to say had been said by a Russian. Admittedly, the partition 
of Poland, for example, necessarily looks very different when seen 
from the Russian rather than the Polish standpoint, which last has 
become that of the West. But I must, after all, take equal account of 
Polish sentiment. If the Poles lay claim to territory which most 
Russians regard as inalienably theirs and as being Russian by national- 
ity, it is not for me to decide between them. All I can say is that—or so 
it seems to me—it is for the populations concerned to decide their fate 
themselves, just as the Alsatians will have to choose for themselves 
between Germany and France. Unfortunately, in writing about 
Russian foreign policy and its effect on Europe, I found it impossible 
not to mention things which the present generation in Russia regards 
as ‘internal affairs’? and the impropriety, or apparent impropriety, 
consists in its being a foreigner rather than a Russian who was thus 
holding forth. But that was unavoidable. 

These words are in Russian in the original 

If you think it might be of help to write a short note along these lines 
and to put my name to it, I should be glad if you would insert it wher- 
ever you think fit. 

I hope that the publication of my article in English will make some 
impact. The faith of the Liberals in the Czar’s? liberating zeal has been 
severely shaken just now by the news from Siberia, by Kennan’s 
book!¢ and by the recent unrest at Russian universities.” That is why 
I hastened into print, so as to strike while the iron was hot. The diplo- 
mats in St. Petersburg were counting on the advent of Gladstone, 
Czarophil and admirer of the ‘DIVINE FIGURE OF THE NORTH’, 
as he called Alexander III, to enable them to embark on their next 
campaign in the East. After the Cretans and Armenians had been 
unleashed, a diversion in Macedonia might have followed; with France 
in thrall to the Czar and a benevolent England, they might perhaps have 
risked yet another step forward, and even the seizure of Czaregrad, 
without Germany’s hazarding a war in such unfavourable circum- 
stances. And, Czaregrad once captured, there would be hope of a long 
spell of chauvinist intoxication of the kind we experienced in Germany 
after 1866 and 1870.76 That is why the resurgence of anti-Czarist 
sentiment among the English Liberals seems to me so important to our 
cause; it is most fortunate that Stepniak should be here and thus able to 
fan the flames.*?” 

Now that a revolutionary movement is under way actually inside 
Russia, her foreign policy, once invincible, is suffering one setback after 
another. And that is highly desirable, for the said foreign policy is our 
most dangerous enemy, and not only ours, but yours. It is the only force 
to have remained unshaken up till now in Russia where the Czar is 
losing his hold even over the army, as evidenced by the numerous arrests 
of officers which prove that Russian officers in the matter of general 
intelligence and character, are infinitely superior to the Prussians. And as 
soon as you have partisans and loyal agents in the ranks of the foreign 
service—you or, come to that, the Constitutionals*’—will have won 
hands down. 

Kind regards to Plekhanov, 

Yours very sincerely, 
F. Engels 

4 Alexander III — » Constantinople