Manifesto of the Communist Party

Preface to The 1872 German Edition

The Communist League, an international association of workers, which could of course be only a

secret one, under conditions obtaining at the time, commissioned us, the undersigned, at the

Congress held in London in November 1847, to write for publication a detailed theoretical and

practical programme for the Party. Such was the origin of the following Manifesto, the

manuscript of which travelled to London to be printed a few weeks before the February [French]

Revolution [in 1848]. First published in German, it has been republished in that language in at

least twelve different editions in Germany, England, and America. It was published in English for

the first time in 1850 in the Red Republican, London, translated by Miss Helen Macfarlane, and

in 1871 in at least three different translations in America. The French version first appeared in

Paris shortly before the June insurrection of 1848, and recently in Le Socialiste of New York. A

new translation is in the course of preparation. A Polish version appeared in London shortly after

it was first published in Germany. A Russian translation was published in Geneva in the sixties1

.

Into Danish, too, it was translated shortly after its appearance.

However much that state of things may have altered during the last twenty-five years, the general

principles laid down in the Manifesto are, on the whole, as correct today as ever. Here and there,

some detail might be improved. The practical application of the principles will depend, as the

Manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being

existing, and, for that reason, no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at

the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today. In

view of the gigantic strides of Modern Industry since 1848, and of the accompanying improved

and extended organization of the working class, in view of the practical experience gained, first in

the February Revolution, and then, still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the

first time held political power for two whole months, this programme has in some details been

antiquated. One thing especially was proved by the Commune, viz., that "the working class

cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes."

(See The Civil War in France: Address of the General Council of the International Working

Men's Association, 1871, where this point is further developed.) Further, it is self-evident that the

criticism of socialist literature is deficient in relation to the present time, because it comes down

only to 1847; also that the remarks on the relation of the Communists to the various opposition

parties (Section IV), although, in principle still correct, yet in practice are antiquated, because the

political situation has been entirely changed, and the progress of history has swept from off the

earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated.

But then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we have no longer any right to

alter. A subsequent edition may perhaps appear with an introduction bridging the gap from 1847

to the present day; but this reprint was too unexpected to leave us time for that.

Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

June 24, 1872, London