Marx Without Myth: A Chronological Study of His Life and Work

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NUNC COCNOSCO EX PARTE

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THOMASJ. BATA LIBRARY TRENT UNIVERSITY

MARX WITHOUT MYTH

Marx Without Myth A CHRONOLOGICAL STUDY OF HIS LIFE AND WORK

Maximilien Rubel and Margaret Manale

BASIL BLACKWELL·OXFORD·

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© Basil Blackwell

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, r,ecording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyrigh t owner.

Set in Lin otype Julia n a (text) and Perpetua (display) Printed in Grea t B ritain by North umberlan d Press Ltd., Gates h ead a n d bound by Ric hard Clay (Tli e Ch a11cer Press) Ltd., B1111gay

Contents

vii xiii

Introduction A uthors' Note Part I

1 818-1843

Chronological Summary Central and Western E urope Eastern Europe and the Middle East : The Far East Scientific and Technological Progress Important Works Published Karl Marx, 1818-18 4 3

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Part II

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1844-1849 32

Chronological Summa !Y_ E urope The Revolu tions of i848-1849 The Americas The Far East Scientific and Technological Progress Important Works Published Karl Marx, 1844-1849 ·

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Part III

38

1850-1856

Chronological Summary Europe The Crimean War The Americas East Scientific and Technological Progress Important Works Published K�rl Marx, 1850-18 5 6 ·

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88 ·

The Far

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Part IV

93

1857-1863

Chronological Summary_ Europe The Americas The Far East Scientific and Technological Progress Important Works Published Karl Marx, 185 7-186 3 ·

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133

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139

259680

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Contents

Part

V 1864-1872 Chronological S11mmary_ Europe The Americas Scientific and Technological Progress Important Works Published Karl Marx, 1864-1872 Part VI 1873-1883 Chronological Summary Asia and Africa Scientific E urope The Americas and Technological Progress Importan t Works Published Karl Marx, 187 3-1883 Selected Bibliography of Marx's Writings

188

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J.

1 8 3 5-1 84 3

II. III. IV.

1844-1849

v.

1864-18 72

1850-18 5 6 185 7-1863

VI. 187 3-1883 S ummary of Important Dates in the Composition of Capital

General Bibliography Biographical Glossary Index

195 2 79

I N TR O DU C T I O N

D estroyed by silence during J1is lifetime, Karl Marx has been posthumously victimised by an heroic myth which has harmed his work more than did the conspiracy of silence i mposed by h is contemporaries. The m an who could have boasted of having dis­ covered the law of ideological mystification himself became the target of new efforts at mystification by his own school. While h is personality is caricatured in extremes-from lifeless travesty to the awesome image of an intellectual monster-his words are taken to be the sibylline proclamations of an omniscient oracle and used to mask the deeds and misdeeds of modern social leaders seeking to evade personal responsibility. The doctrines Marx intended as intellectual tools for the working class in i ts struggle for emancipation have been transformed into political ideology to j ustify ma terial exploita tion and moral slavery. His postulate of the_dictatorship of the proletariat, in particy�� conceived of as the democratic rule of the overwhelming majority in the in terests of the overwhelming majority, has been distorted info ideological legitimation for the exploitation and oppression of one social group (or class) by another and invoked as j usti­ fica t ion for the abolition of basic h uman rights. Under the label of 'Marxist socialism ' the inhuman_social relations of feudal and pre-capitalist society have been legitim ised for today's world. To cap this process of mystifying Marx while stunting the m ental and moral development of the masses he tried to reach with h is works and his political activi ty , the supreme ethical principle of proletarian self-emancipa tion through class struggle has been resolved into the moral code of a new elite-'Marxist' politicians and 'Ma rxist' sta tesmen. With the most modern techniques of

vm

Introduction

human self-destruction at its disposal, this new elite is both 1mmc[a�nd rival of the ruling elites in 'imperialist countries', their common goal the maintenance or cxtcntion of their

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supremacy. Modern history is no longer the history of class struggles, as was stated in

The

Communist Manifesto, but of

global wars planned an k('pt h i 1 1 1 fro 1 1 1 fi 1 1 is l i i 1 1 g. Bd wjl'ct i vc of t h is wri t i 1 1 g was a l l :i t t :r< k 0 1 1 t l l