3 - Past Receptions of the Communist Manifesto

Summary

The Communist Manifesto is the most widely read of all of Marx and Engels's texts. This is for several reasons. It is the most accessible introduction to their ideas on history and politics. It was written in 1848, a year of revolution, a coincidence which makes the Manifesto interesting as a historical document. Its size is ideal for translation and publication as a separate brochure, a boon both to revolutionary parties, seeking to spread the word of Marxism in handy form, and to publishers, with an eye to making a profit. Any selection of Marx and Engels's oeuvre would be brave to exclude it. To consider every comment upon the Manifesto — culled from its various versions with their introductions and commentaries, and from the vast corpus of secondary material on Marx and Marxism — would be impossible within this brief chapter and be beyond the linguistic ability of the present author. However, some of the receptions of the last 150 years can be sketched to illustrate how in various reissues and at some of its anniversaries commentators have found the Manifesto to have stood the test of time, have gauged its influence and importance, and how these commentaries and republications have guaranteed the Manifesto continuing attention.

Among the first to welcome the Manifesto were Marx and Engels themselves in prefaces to new imprints of its original and to translations. A full twenty-four years elapsed from 1848 before they had the opportunity to pen a preface for a new German edition. Here Marx and Engels indicated areas in which the Manifesto had become outdated. They warned that the programme for a revolutionary government outlined in Section II was subject to change. After all, different circumstances would demand flexibility from communists searching to attain their goals. For example, the growth of modern industry, the increased political organisation of the workers and, in particular, the lessons learnt from the Paris Commune had shown that the working class could not take over the existing state, as Marx and Engels had assumed in 1848, but would have to smash it and start afresh. Finally, they acknowledge that the critique of socialist parties given in Section IV was no longer so relevant, since several movements had disappeared and new ones arisen in their place.