41. K. Marx. Michael Bakunin
T O THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING ADVERTISER
Sir,—Messrs. Herzen and Golovine have chosen to connect the New Rhenish Gazette, edited by me in 1848 and 1849, with the polemics going on between them and "F.M.,"a with regard to Bakunin. They tell the English public that the calumny against Bakunin took origin in that paper, which had even ventured to appeal to the testimony of George Sand. Now, I care nothing about the insinuations of Messrs. Herzen and Golovine. But, as it may contribute to the settlement of the question raised about Michael Bakunin, permit me to state the real facts of the case:
On July 5th, 1848, the New Rhenish Gazette received two letters from Paris — the one being the authographic correspondence of the Havas-Bureau, and the other a private correspondence, emanating from a Polish refugee,b quite unconnected with that concern — both stating that George Sand was in possession of papers compromising Bakunin as having lately entered into relations with the Russian Government.
The New Rhenish Gazette, on July 6th, published the letter of its Paris correspondent.
Bakunin, on his part, declared in the Neue Oder-Zeitungc (a Breslau"[1] paper), that, before the appearance of the Paris correspondence in the New Rhenish Gazette, similar rumours had been secretly colported at Breslau, that they emanated from the Russian embassies, and that he could not better answer them than by appealing to George Sand. His letter to George Sand was published simultaneously with his declaration. Both the declaration and the letter were reprinted immediately by the New Rhenish Gazette, (vide New Rhenish Gazette, July 16, 1848). On August 3, 1848, the New Rhenish Gazette received from Bakunin, through the means of M. Koscielski, a letter addressed by George Sand to its editor, which was published on the same day, with the following introductory remarks: —
"In number 36, of this paper, we communicated a rumour circulating in Paris, according to which George Sand was stated to be possessed of papers which placed the Russian refugee, Bakunin, in the position of an agent of the Emperor Nicholas. We gave publicity to this statement, because it was communicated to us simultaneously by two correspondents wholly unconnected with each other. By so doing, we only accomplished the duty of the public press, which has severely to watch public characters. And, at the same time we gave to Mr. Bakunin an opportunity of silencing suspicions thrown upon him in certain Paris circles. We reprinted also from the Neue Oder-Zeitung Mr. Bakunin's declaration, and his letter addressed to George Sand, without waiting for his request. We publish now a literal translation of a letter addressed to the Editor of the New Rhenish Gazette by George Sand, which perfectly settles this affair."—(Vide New Rhenish Gazette, Aug. 3, 1848.)a
In the latter part of August, 1848, I passed through Berlin, saw Bakunin there, and renewed with him the intimate friendship which united us before the outbreak of the revolution of February.
In its number of October 13, 1848, the New Rhenish Gazette attacked the Prussian ministry for having expelled Bakunin, and for having threatened him with being delivered up to Russia if he dared to re-enter the Prussian States.
In its number of February 15, 1849, the New Rhenish Gazette brought, out a leading article on Bakunin's pamphlet—Aufruf an die Slaven, which article commenced with these words—"Bakunin is our friend. This shall not prevent us from subjecting his pamphlet to a severe criticism."[1]'
In my letters, addressed to the New-York Daily Tribune on "Revolution and Contre-revolution in Germany," I was, as far as I know, the first German writer who paid to Bakunin the tribute due to him for his participation in our movements, and, especially in the Dresden insurrection,[230] denouncing, at the same time, the German press and the German people for the most cowardly manner in which they surrendered him to his and their enemies.[3]
As to "F.M." proceeding, as he does, from the fixed idea, that continental revolutions are fostering the secret plans of Russia, he must, if he pretend to anything like consistency, condemn not only Bakunin, but every continental revolutionist as a Russian agent. In his eyes revolution itself is a Russian agent. Why not Bakunin?
London, August 30, 1853. Reproduced from the newspaper
Signed: Karl Marx
Endnotes
[230] From May 3 to 9, 1849 Dresden, the capital of Saxony, was the scene of an armed uprising caused by the refusal of the King of Saxony to approve the Imperial Constitution drafted by the Frankfurt National Assembly. The insurgents, among whom the workers played a prominent part in barricade fighting, gained control of a considerable section of the town and formed a provisional government headed by the radical democrat Samuel Tzschirner. An active part in the uprising was played by Mikhail Bakunin, the Russian revolutionary, Stephan Born, a workers' leader, and Richard Wagner, the composer. The uprising was suppressed by Saxon and Prussian troops.
[3] At the sitting of the House of Commons on March 1, 1853, Palmerston formally declared that if the continental powers demanded that Britain should expel political refugees, Britain would decline. However, the statement of the Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, in the House of Lords on March 4 contained a promise of concessions on this question. Marx had dealt with this subject in a number of his previous reports to the New-York Daily Tribune. See also an article on this subject, "The Refugees and the London Police", in The People's Paper, No. 47, March 26, 1853.
[1] This article is the first in a series on the Eastern question by Marx and Engels published in the New-York Daily Tribune. The increase in tension between Russia and the Western Powers in the Near East and the Balkans in 1853 eventually led to the Crimean war. At Marx's request Engels wrote a number of articles from mid-March to early April on the basis of a brief plan suggested to him by Marx in his letter of March 10, 1853 (see present edition, Vol. 39). Marx soon joined in with articles of his own. Like most articles by Marx and Engels in the New-York Daily Tribune, this one was not republished in their lifetime. The section "Turkey", together with the other articles on the Eastern question, was included in a collection compiled by Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling: The Eastern Question. A Reprint of Letters written 1853-1856 dealing with the events of the Crimean War, London, 1897. The collection gave Marx as the author of all the articles, since they had been published in the New-York Daily Tribune either anonymously, as editorials, or signed by Marx. Only in 1913, after the publication of the correspondence between Marx and Engels, it was discovered that many articles which Marx had sent to the newspaper were written wholly or in part by Engels. In this article Marx is the author of the sections "British Politics.— Disraeli.—The Refugees.—Mazzini in London", and Engels of the section "Turkey". In a leader for the issue that carried this article the editors of the New-York Daily Tribune wrote: "In this connection we may properly pay a tribute to the remarkable ability of the correspondent by whom this interesting piece of intelligence is furnished. Mr. Marx has very decided opinions of his own, with some of which we are far from agreeing, but those who do not read his letters neglect one of the most instructive sources of information on the great questions of current European politics." The New-York Daily Tribune was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by Horace Greeley, journalist and politician, and published until 1924. Until the mid-1850s it was a Left-wing Whig paper and after that the organ of the Republican Party. In the forties and the fifties it took a strong stand against slavery. Among its contributors were prominent American writers and journalists. Charles Dana, who was strongly influenced by the ideas of Utopian socialism, was one of its editors from the late 1840s. Marx began to write for 4 1862. The articles Marx and Engels wrote dealt with key issues of foreign and domestic policy, the working-class movement, the economic development of European countries, colonial expansion, the national liberation movement in the colonial and dependent countries, etc. During the period of reaction in Europe Marx and Engels made use of this widely-read American newspaper to expose the evils of capitalist society, its irreconcilable contradictions and the limitations of bourgeois democracy. The New-York Daily Tribune editors took on occasion considerable liberties with the articles contributed by Marx and Engels, publishing some of them unsigned in the form of editorials or making additions which often contradicted the main text. Marx protested against this repeatedly. In the autumn of 1857, when the economic crisis in the USA affected the finances of the newspaper, Marx was compelled to reduce the number of his articles. His association with the newspaper ceased entirely during the American Civil War, when advocates of a compromise with the slave-owning South gained control over it.