London, 23 November 1894 
41 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Comrade, 

Many thanks for having translated my Entwicklung des Sozialismus and, 
recently, the Communist Manifesto“ into your Armenian mother tongue. 
Unfortunately I am not in a position to comply with your request that I send 
you a short introduction to the latter translation. I cannot very well write 
anything that is to be published in a language which I do not understand. 
Were I to do so as a favour to yourself, I could not refuse to oblige others, in 
which case it might happen that my words were ushered into the world in 
unintentionally, if not deliberately, garbled form, while I might not learn 
about it for years, if ever. 

Then there is another reason—grateful though I am to you for your 
interesting exposé of the Armenian situation—namely, that I do not regard it 
as right or fair to try and express an opinion on matters of which I have not 
acquired a knowledge from personal study. Particularly in this instance when 
the people concerned belong to an oppressed nationality unfortunate enough 
to be trapped between the Scylla of Turkish and the Charybdis of Russian 
despotism, a situation in which Russian Tsarism speculates on playing the 
role of liberator and the servile Russian press never fails to make the most of 
every word uttered in favour of Armenian liberation by turning it to the 
advantage of a Tsarism bent on conquest. 

If, however, I am to tell you honestly what I think, it is this—that 
Armenia’s liberation from the Turks and Russians will become a possibility 
only on the day when Russian Tsarism is overthrown. 

With best wishes for the welfare of your people, 

Yours, 
F. Engels