Engels

TWO HUNDRED YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ENGELS

By Stephen Wilson

 

           He certainly made a name for himself in Russia. His presence is betrayed by countless statues, squares and streets commemorating his name. In Russia alone as many as 455 streets and squares are named after him. And Russian historical journals have featured articles on him as two hundred years have passed since his birth in the town of Barmen, in Germany, on the 28th of November 1820. Due to the highly controversial influence of Marxism on the fate of Russia, Russians  can either curse him or attempt to at least establish what was the main gist of his beliefs. Have his views been distorted by the example of the Russian revolution or can you blame him for what happened in Russia? For example, one historian states in a recent article in the Journal 'Historian', Number 11,{71} November 2020, that Engels would have reacted highly negatively to the bloodshed of the revolution - 'Of course, they would have been very against all this bloodshed' states the Russian historian Alexander Tsipko.' He partly views Engels as being part of humanist movement who sought to alleviate the appalling conditions of the working class they witnessed in England during the 19th century. But some Russians are less charitable. Engels, along with Marx, have been accused not only of hypocrisy, but Russo phobia!  

 For instance, in the latest issue of the journal Rodina, {November 2020,number 11} Nikolai Andreev asks how on earth could Engels, a capitalist who owned a textile factory, complain about how capitalists treat the workers when he himself was making a profit from workers in Manchester? Did he do anything himself to alleviate the conditions of workers in his own factories such as cutting their long hours, boosting their wages and improving their dreadful housing conditions? Andreev can't find any evidence he took such measures. We just don't know. As far as I know no historian has bothered to research the fate of Engels own workers. Until then the allegations that he was a pure hypocrite lack concrete evidence. 

 I heard the same allegation being made against Engels when I was a student forty years ago. After all he could have done what Robert Owen did in New Lanark in Scotland when he not only made great improvements in the conditions of his factories, but provided decent housing and access to education. But perhaps Engels did something like this. Who knows?

 

What is evident is that Friedrich Engels played a profound role in the birth, development and spread of Marxism. Without his financial support it is difficult to imagine how Marx would have found the time to devote his time and energy to writing the work Das Kapital. Engels was modest about his role as a key partner. He declared - 'Marx could well have done without me. What Marx accomplished I would not have achieved. Marx stood higher, saw farther, and took a wider and quicker view than the rest of us. Marx was a genius.' In fact, some critics claim that Engels himself oversimplified, misrepresented and distorted the works of Marx. But what Engels tried to do was to convey the views of Marx in a simple, straightforward and more accessible way so that he would reach a wider audience. If you have ever tried to read the volumes of Das Kapital then you 'll quickly grasp this point. When I brought a copy of Volume one of Das Kapital to college a Marxist told me, "Forget about reading that. You'll never make head or tale of that. Nobody can get through that". 

 Lenin argued that, 'You cannot understand Marxism and you cannot fully explain it without taking into account the works of Marx and Engels.' It is worth noting that  2 volumes of Das Kapital are in fact the work of both Marx and Engels as Engels edited, rewrote, selected, ordered and completed them. Engels himself stated that, "There is no one but me who can decipher this handwriting and these abbreviations of words and style." Marx's handwriting was atrocious. Few people could make it out. When Marx once desperately applied for a post as a railway clerk, he failed to get the job because of his bad handwriting. One wonders whether he was greatly relieved by this rejection or regretted it.

 

Whether he played second fiddle to Marx or not he wrote many works. In 1845 he wrote 'The Condition of the English Working Class', shared authorship with Marx in his famous Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology, and later wrote 'The Origin of the Family, the Property and the State ' as  well as many other works.

 

What kind of man was Friedrich Engels? He was no doubt a very pragmatic and down to earth man who understood he had to go into business to get by. Although Engels was born in Barmen in Germany he ended up taking the reins of the family business in Manchester. He seemed to have a cheerful temperament and enjoyed horse riding, hunting foxes, as well as drinking. Although he never had a further education he was very knowledgeable in a wide area of subjects. He was a polyglot. He could speak as many as eight languages including Russian. The idea that he was anti Russian widely misses the mark. He certainly detested the Tsar, serfdom and the role Russia played in crushing the revolutions of 1848-49. However, he  had a high opinion of Russian culture and appreciated it. Engels was usually a very cheerful, warm and generous person who liked to live life to the full. But in many ways he had the opposite temperament to Marx. While Marx was very tidy and disorderly, Engels liked order; Marx was a very family-orientated person while Engels was not; Engels tended to dress with care and groomed himself while Marx forgot about his appearance. You can see this just by looking at their photos. While Engels took the trouble to trim his beard, Marx just let it sprout out and about. 

 You might think they were the odd couple. But what united them was a common belief in the fact that the working class were subjected to grave injustices and that the working class and a revolutionary party were capable of building a fairer and more just society. It is easy to understand why Engels became a socialist. The conditions of the English working class were appalling in Manchester. As many as 57% of children of the workers died before they reached the age of 5 and as many as 350,000 workers in Manchester were living in damp barracks you'd hesitate to call homes. Children were growing up with distorted  and stunted bodies and aging before their time. In the words of Marx, people grew up 'crippled monstrosities' where their talents and creativity were crushed. Marx and Engels were motivated by a new vision of humanity where a person could develop all his wider abilities and talents. Both Engels and Marx were against a person overspecializing in just one form of activity which led him or her feeling completely powerless and alienated. His idea of a communist society was spelled out as follows:

'In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic'.{Engels and Marx,1845}

If you read diligently the works of Marx and Engels you'll discover that they were for freedom of the press and speech, and against forced labor of any kind. In fact, they aimed to liberate people from the forced labor they had witnessed in Manchester. Engels once stated that the occurrence of a revolution can become an authoritarian event as force is used. He preferred a scenario where a revolution would come about peacefully. Unfortunately, you never hear this voice of Engels or how he warned that his ideas might not be appropriate for Russia as Russia was too undeveloped and not ready for such a change. Two centuries have passed and people are still putting their own words into Engels'  mouth. The least we could do is let Engels speak for himself. That is we should patiently and properly read him.