IN MORNEX (FRANCE) 

London, 17 April 1890 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

My dear Citizen, 

When I read Beck’s article, I had a feeling it might anger you and your 
friends, and I told Bernstein that, in his place, I would not have 
published such twaddle. To this, his answer was that he felt he had no 
right to suppress an article which did, after all, express the views of a fair 
number of young Russians, people who had no other organ in which to 
reply, for the benefit of Sozialdemokrat readers, to the article which had 
preceded it, and that what he had chiefly in mind was to give you an 
opportunity to answer those criticisms; he added that he would natu- 
rally, and with the greatest pleasure, print any reply you cared to send 
him.° 

The position of the Sozialdemokrat vis-a-vis the Russians in the 
West is somewhat delicate. Needless to say, the paper looks upon you 
as the allies and particular friends of the German movement, but other 
socialist groups can also lay claim to some measure of consideration. If 
they are to communicate with German working men, they are more or 
less obliged to write to the Sozialdemokrat; should that paper refuse 
them its hospitality? To do so would be to meddle in the internal 
affairs of the Russians—something to be avoided at all costs. Consider 
the internal struggles of the French and Danish Socialists; for as long 
as it was able, i.e. so long as it was not itself called in question, the 

Sozialdemokrat maintained its neutrality vis-a-vis the Possibilitsts,!? as 
it has continued to do vis-a-vis the two Danish parties, although its 
sympathies lie entirely with the ‘revolutionary’ side.*! And the same 
thing applies to the Russians; Bernstein has never harboured any ill- 
will whatsoever towards you, of that you may be assured, but he has 
an exaggerated sense of justice and equity; and rather than perpetrate 
one injustice against an enemy or a man he finds uncongenial, he will 
sooner perpetrate ten against his friends and allies; all his friends criti- 
cise him for an impartiality so excessive that it ends up as bias against 
his allies. This is why he always tends to give the enemy the benefit of 
the doubt. 

Add to that the fact that we are all very much in the dark as regards 
the various, and far from immutable, groupings which occur among the 
Russians in the West, so that we are liable at any given moment to drop 
a brick. Bernstein is much better informed than I am, having had at least 
some first-hand experience of this kind of thing in Zurich, whereas I, on 
the contrary, did not know so much as the names, or even suspect the 
existence of the journals you cite.” Bernstein tells me that, in Beck’s 
letter, he detects the accents of Lavrov’s followers—whether rightly or 
wrongly, I do not know—but this was one of the reasons which induced 
him to publish the letter. 

He also told me that he had arranged for a translation of Plekhanov’s 
preface to be sent him from Paris so that he might print it in its entirety; 
it had arrived, he said, and would appear as soon as possible. He 
arranged this as soon as he got Beck’s letter, which can only mean that 
he intended to take advantage of its publication to give Plekhanov 
another say. I would now suggest that you write a reply to Beck—in 
French, if you so wish—and send it to me or else direct to the 
Soztaldemokrat (address 4 Corinne Road, Tufnell Park, London N.). 
While you, for your part, may know the said Mr Beck who, outside 
Russian circles, is quite unknown, and while you may regard entering 
into debate with him as a somewhat demeaning occupation, this is, after 
all, the sort of unpleasantness to which one is all too often compelled to 
submit, as I am only too well aware. 

I know from experience what an upheaval is like when it takes place, 
as now, in the bosom of a small community of the Russians in the West. 
Everyone knows everyone else, having had with them personal relations 
of a friendly or hostile nature and, as a result, any development—accom- 
panied as it inevitably is by divisions, schisms and controversies—will 
assume a wholly personal character. Such things are inherent in any 

political emigration, and we had our fill of them between 1849 and 1860. 
But what I also learned is that the first party to have the moral fibre to 
rise above that atmosphere of personalities, to refuse to let itself be 
dominated by the influence of such squabbles, will find itself in conse- 
quence at a considerable advantage as compared with the rest. The less 
vulnerable you are to pinpricks of this kind, the better will you be able 
to preserve your strength and husband your time for the great struggle. 
Come to that, what harm can it do you if an article by Beck or by some- 
one else appears in the Sozialdemokrat, provided you can be sure of 
being able to reply to it fairly and squarely? It would, after all, be impos- 
sible to close the columns of the entire Socialist press in the West to your 
Russian adversaries; and it would surely be to the advantage of the 
Russian movement itself if it ran its course somewhat more openly 
before the wider public in the West, rather than covertly, in small, 
isolated circles which, for that very reason, become hotbeds of intrigue 
and conspiracy. To inveigle his adversaries out into the open, into the 
light of day, and to attack them in full view of the public, was one of 
Marx’s most powerful and most frequently used ploys when confronted 
by clandestine intrigue. 

If you wish to rob your enemies of all desire to swagger in front of 
the German Socialists, your best way would be to contribute regularly 
to the Sozialdemokrat and the Neue Zeit. Once the identity of your 
views with those of the Germans has been thoroughly established and 
recognised, let the others say what they will—no one will heed them. I 
am sure that contributions from you would be welcomed with open 
arms, and was delighted to hear that Plekhanov’s article on 
Chernyshevsky was to appear in the Neue Zeit. 

My cordial regards to Plekhanov, as also to yourself. 

Yours very sincerely, 

F. Engels 

Bernstein is an excellent chap as regards both intelligence and charac- 
ter, but it is typical of him that the measure of the esteem in which he 
holds you should be the number of attacks he permits others to make 
upon you in the Sozialdemokrat; the greater his respect for you, the 
more anxious he is to appear impartial where you are concerned.