The "Manifesto of the Communist Party" was written by Marx and Engels as the CommunistLeague's programme on the instruction of its Second Congress (London, November 29-December 8,1847), which signified a victory for the followers of a new proletarian line during the discussion of theprogramme questions.
When Congress was still in preparation, Marx and Engels arrived at the conclusion that the finalprogramme document should be in the form of a Party manifesto (see Engels' letter to Marx ofNovember 23-24, 1847). The catechism form usual for the secret societies of the time and retained inthe "Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith" and "Principles of Communism," was not suitable fora full and substantial exposition of the new revolutionary world outlook, for a comprehensiveformulation of the proletarian movement's aims and tasks. See also "Demands of the CommunistParty in Germany," issued by Marx soon after publication of the Manifesto, which addressed theimmediate demands of the movement.
Marx and Engels began working together on the Manifesto while they were still in Londonimmediately after the congress, and continued until about December 13 when Marx returned toBrussels; they resumed their work four days later (December 17) when Engels arrived there. AfterEngels' departure for Paris at the end of December and up to his return on January 31, Marx workedon the Manifesto alone.
Hurried by the Central Authority of the Communist League which provided him with certaindocuments (e.g., addresses of the People's Chamber (Halle) of the League of the Just of November1846 and February 1847, and, apparently, documents of the First Congress of the Communist Leaguepertaining to the discussion of the Party programme), Marx worked intensively on the Manifestothrough almost the whole of January 1848. At the end of January the manuscript was sent on toLondon to be printed in the German Workers' Educational Society's print shop owned by a Germanemigrant J. E. Burghard, a member of the Communist League.
The manuscript of the Manifesto has not survived. The only extant materials written in Marx's handare a draft plan for Section III, showing his efforts to improve the structure of the Manifesto, and apage of a rough copy.The Manifesto came off the press at the end of February 1848. On February 29, the EducationalSociety decided to cover all the printing expenses.
The first edition of the Manifesto was a 23-page pamphlet in a dark green cover. In April-May 1848another edition was put out. The text took up 30 pages, some misprints of the first edition werecorrected, and the punctuation improved. Subsequently this text was used by Marx and Engels as abasis for later authorised editions. Between March and July 1848 the Manifesto was printed in theDeutsche Londoner Zeitung, a democratic newspaper of the German emigrants. Already that sameyear numerous efforts were made to publish the Manifesto in other European languages. A Danish, aPolish (in Paris) and a Swedish (under a different title: "The Voice of Communism. Declaration of theCommunist Party") editions appeared in 1848. The translations into French, Italian and Spanish madeat that time remained unpublished. In April 1848, Engels, then in Barmen, was translating theManifesto into English, but he managed to translate only half of it, and the first English translation,made by Helen Macfarlane, was not published until two years later, between June and November 1850,in the Chartist journal The Red Republican. Its editor, Julian Harney, named the authors for the firsttime in the introduction to this publication. All earlier and many subsequent editions of the Manifestowere anonymous.
The growing emancipation struggle of the proletariat in the '60s and '70s of the 19th century led tonew editions of the Manifesto. The year 1872 saw a new German edition with minor corrections and apreface by Marx and Engels where they drew some conclusions from the experience of the Paris 3 IntroductionCommune of 1871. This and subsequent German editions (1883 and 1890) were entitled theCommunist Manifesto. In 1872 the Manifesto was first published in America in Woodhull & Claflin'sWeekly.
The first Russian edition of the Manifesto, translated by Mikhail Bakunin with some distortions,appeared in Geneva in 1869. The faults of this edition were removed in the 1882 edition (translationby Georgi Plekhanov), for which Marx and Engels, who attributed great significance to thedissemination of Marxism in Russia, had written a special preface.
After Marx's death, the Manifesto ran into several editions. Engels read through them all, wroteprefaces for the 1883 German edition and for the 1888 English edition in Samuel Moore's translation,which he also edited and supplied with notes. This edition served as a basis for many subsequenteditions of the Manifesto in English – in Britain, the United States and the USSR. In 1890, Engelsprepared a further German edition, wrote a new preface to it, and added a number of notes. In 1885,the newspaper Le Socialiste published the French translation of the Manifesto made by Marx'sdaughter Laura Lafargue and read by Engels. He also wrote prefaces to the 1892 Polish and 1893Italian editions.
This edition includes the two earlier versions of the Manifesto, namely the draft "CommunistConfession of Faith" and "The Principles of Communism," both authored by Engels, as well as theletter from Engels to Marx which poses the idea of publishing a "manifesto," rather than a catechism.The Manifesto addressed itself to a mass movement with historical significance, not a political sect.
On the other hand, the "Demands of the Communist Party in Germany" is included to place thepublication of the Manifesto in the context of the mass movement in Germany at the time, whoseimmediate demands are reflected by Marx in this pamphlet. Clearly the aims of the Manifesto weremore far-reaching the movement in Germany at the time, and unlike the "Demands," was intended tooutlive the immediate conditions.
The "Third Address to the International Workingmen's Association" is included because in thisspeech Marx examines the movement of the working class manifested in the Paris Commune, and hisobservations here mark the only revisions to his social and historical vision made during his lifetimeas a result of the development of the working class movement itself, clarifying some points andmaking others more concrete.
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