London, 14 June 1872 

Dear old Friend, 

We are not entirely in agreement with your calculations about 
the Congress. The Jurassians with their well-known manoeuvres, 
for example, and the Italians would certainly send close to 30 
delegates on their own, if not 50. But unfortunately that is the 
least of our worries at the moment. What makes it impossible to 
hold the Congress in Switzerland this year is the unfortunate and 
quite unnecessary division between the German- and French- 
speaking Swiss workers which occurred on the revision of the 
Constitution °°—a rift that has given the Jurassians such a 
wonderful opportunity to rejoice and solemnly expatiate on the 
superiority of their policy of abstention. We here cannot help 
thinking that the two sides are equally to blame. The revised Swiss 
Constitution was at most no more than an extremely moderate 
bourgeois step forward. While, on the one hand, it forced the 
barbarians of the original cantons to bestir themselves a little, on 
the other hand, it could act as a brake to the most progressive 
cantons and in particular Geneva, which—as an industrial city 
which is also an autonomous republic—is in an exceptionally 
well-favoured position, since it would place them under the 
control of the overall Swiss peasant majority. So depending on the 
locality there was something to be said both for and against the 
revision; my personal sympathies were, if anything, for rather than 
against. But it is certain that the whole business was not worth the 
trouble of creating a dispute within the International and of giving 
the Jurassians the opportunity to crow: Look we savages are the 
better human beings, nous nous abstenons,” while the others quarrel 
over trifles and so prove that all politics are of the devil— We are 
very well aware how things work in a place like Geneva, which is, 
after all, still pretty small, and in Switzerland as a whole for that 
matter, where everyone knows everyone else personally and so 
every political movement assumes the form of gossip and intrigue. 

a ‘Le vote du 12 mai’, Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, No. 6, 10 May 1872. - > we 
abstain 

So we do not take the whole thing too seriously and are convinced 
that proletarian sentiments will once more gain the upper hand in 
a short time and put everything back on an even keel. But as I 
said, it does unfortunately make it impossible to hold the Congress 
in Geneva, and so we are thinking now of Holland.*” 

Utin, who is a fine fellow for all this (even though a Russian is, 
of course, neither a Frenchman nor a German), will be better off 
for being away from the local Genevan cliques. Incidentally, I have 
written as much to him in a letter,” saying that we are by no 
means of his opinion on the subject of federalism as he has been 
preaching it in the Egalité** But all these questions are secondary 
and our real battle-field lies quite elsewhere. I hope to hear soon 
that you two non-Swiss will have forgotten your local Swiss 
quarrels and have got together to drown your sorrows in Yvorne 
or Cortaillod. Think of the hue and cry there would have been 
throughout the Swiss Federal Assembly if you two had proposed 
to them the liberation of the workers by the workers themselves! 

Vaillant is well enough up to now and so is Frankel—who is 
even better than well since he is of a very amorous nature. I saw 
Jung yesterday and he seems to have recovered from the 
rheumatism that plagued him 18 months ago. Marx is also 
significantly improved on last winter, but is very busy with the 2nd 
German edition™ and the French translation of Capital,** which 
is coming out now. The Russian edition has appeared and is very 
good.* As for the Russians in general, there is an enormous 
difference between those who came to Europe earlier on—noble, 
aristocratic Russians, among whom we must include Herzen and 

_Bakunin and who are swindlers to the last man—and those who 
are coming now, all of whom are of the people. As far as talent and 
character are concerned, some of these are absolutely among the 
very best in our party. They have a stoicism, a strength of 
character and at the same time a grasp of theory which are truly 
admirable. 

What is the title of your new, as yet embryonic, work?’ 

Fraternally yours, 

F. Engels