According to Karl Marx's theory of historical materialism, societies pass through Six Stages — 1) Primitive Communism 2) Slave Society 3) Feudalism 4) Capitalism 5) Socialism and finally 6) Global Stateless Communism.
The Communist Manifesto, originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party, is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It was commissioned by the Communist League and published in London.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their work in German in London in February 1848.
While they commissioned and wrote the text, Marx and Engels were not present at the publication, as they were active in revolutionary movements elsewhere, with Marx being expelled from Belgium around the same time
The word "communism" was coined around 1840 in Paris, France. It emerged from French revolutionary, utopian, and socialist circles (such as those around Étienne Cabet) to describe a society based on common ownership.
The revolutionaries of the 19th Century in Europe: Marx and Engels
Karl Marx (born May 5, 1818, Trier, Rhine province, Prussia [Germany] — died March 14, 1883, London, England) was a revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist.
His family were Jews, and they converted to the Evangelical Established Church of Prussia to minimise harassment from the authorities.
Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – and died 5 August 1895) was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, journalist, and businessman.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels first met in November 1842 at the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne, where Marx was the editor-in-chief. However, this initial meeting was reportedly "chilly" and did not immediately lead to a partnership.
The true beginning of their lifelong friendship and revolutionary collaboration occurred in August 1844 when Engels visited Marx in Paris. During a 10-day exchange at the Café de la Régence, they discovered they were in "complete agreement in all theoretical fields."
He was one of the founders of the philosophical movement known as German idealism.
After his death, his followers were wewe called Young Hegelians.
Hegel is well-known for his teleological (the philosophical) belief that events, developments, and natural phenomena are driven by an inherent purpose, goal, or final cause, rather than solely by immediate causes.
Rooted in Aristotle’s view that all things have a "telos" (end), this perspective interprets the world in terms of design, function, or outcome.
Marx adopted Hegel's dialectical method (a philosophical technique of reasoning, originating with Socrates and developed by Plato).
Still, he inverted it, arguing that material economic conditions — not idealist consciousness — drive historical development, class struggle, and the eventual move toward communism.
"Opium of the people" (German: Opium des Volkes) is a famous phrase by Karl Marx, describing religion as a "metaphysical balm" that numbs the pain caused by oppression, in 1844.
It suggests that religion acts as a comforting illusion, easing the suffering of the working class in a "heartless world."
Middle-class liberals sought constitutional monarchy and property rights, while working-class radicals demanded social reforms and better living conditions. This split allowed conservative forces to regroup.
Karl Marx was forced into a life of exile, moving across Europe as his radical revolutionary activities made him unwelcome in his native Prussia and neighbouring nations.
He was effectively expelled or forced to flee from Prussia, Paris, and Brussels before finally settling in London.
He arrived in London in August 1849 as a penniless, stateless political refugee.
Marx would remain in London for the rest of his life, where he produced his most significant work, including "Das Kapital" (1867).
Friedrich Engels and an Irish connection
"The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)" Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
How Friedrich Engels’ Radical Lover Helped Him Father Socialism
He was aided by Mary Buurs, an Irish woman, and he lived with her for about 20 years until her death at the age of 41.
Engels toured Ireland with Mary in May 1856, where he was deeply shaken by the visible, lingering devastation of the Great Hunger of the 1840s.
Friedrich Engels' father, Friedrich Engels Sr., was a wealthy textile manufacturer who co-owned the Ermen & Engels cotton mill in Victoria Mill, Weaste, near Manchester (Salford).
The area was called Little Ireland, and Burns showed him the terrible conditions
The senior Engels sent his son to work there in 1842 to manage family interests and steer him away from radical ideas, which instead allowed Engels to document industrial poverty for his 1845 book.
The firm was known as Ermen & Engels, which the elder Engels co-founded with Dutch partners, expanding with mills in both Barmen, Prussia, and Salford/Manchester.
Engels eventually became a full partner in the firm in 1864, after his father's death, and used the profits to financially support Karl Marx while he wrote 'Das Kapital' (1867).
Marx had Karl and Jenny Marx had seven children, but lived in severe poverty, causing four to die in childhood.
In 1851, the housemaid gave birth to a boy. He was named Henry Frederick Demuth after the housemaid. The child was fostered.
To avoid a scandal that could destroy his marriage and reputation, Marx and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels, arranged a cover-up. Engels claimed paternity of the child, even though he was likely not the father.
Ireland's Éamon de Valera and the taboo of illegitimacy
This Irish leader, who was born in New York to an Irish housemaid, was in a similar situation in 1882.
Friedrich Engels, along with Karl Marx, strongly supported the Fenians (Irish Republican Brotherhood) in the 1860s-1880s, viewing Irish independence as essential for the English working-class revolution.
While criticising some tactics (like terrorism), they saw the Fenians as a legitimate, democratic, and revolutionary force against British imperialism.
In 1867, Karl Marx published the first volume of Das Kapital (Capital: A Critique of Political Economy) in Hamburg, Germany. The work analysed the capitalist mode of production, focusing on surplus value and the exploitation of labour.
Marx used England as his primary case study because it was the most industrially advanced nation at the time.
The first official English edition, edited by Friedrich Engels, was not published until 1887 in London, reaching the U.S. shortly after.
Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels, "The money I made from 'Das Kapital' did not even cover the tobacco I smoked while writing it..."
This quote highlights the extreme poverty, sacrifice, and financial struggles Marx faced while producing his seminal critique of capitalism, which was published in 1867.
Karl Marx identified the proletariat as the class that produces capital yet is exploited, receiving wages less than the value of their labour.
During this period of writing, Marx faced severe personal tragedy, losing four children due to poverty.
"Proletariat" originates from the Latin term *proletarius*, which referred to the lowest class of Roman citizens who owned no property and served the state only by producing offspring (proles).
It signifies a propertyless, working-class demographic, later adopted by Marx to describe wage-earners.
Marx predicted that this class would eventually revolt against the bourgeoisie to create a communist society.
While the 1848 revolutions they championed ultimately failed, their ideas laid the groundwork for future movements. By the late 19th century, Marxism had become the dominant ideology for emerging labour unions and socialist parties across Europe. Their vision of proletarian self-emancipation — the idea that the working class must liberate itself — remains a core tenet of revolutionary thought.
Marx and his family lived in London for the last 34 years of his life. He never bought a house there.
Total Contributions: Over 20 years, Engels sent Marx between £3,000 and £4,000, which is estimated to be worth roughly £300,000-£400,000 (approx. $380,000–$500,000) in today's terms.
Friedrich Engels in later years
In the 1890s, Engels acknowledged that the "bourgeois" state, which he had previously believed must be smashed immediately, could be used by workers to gain political power through voting.
He argued that revolutionaries should not be dogmatic, noting that while the fundamental goal was the same, the methods must evolve to suit the specific political conditions of the era.
In 1895, the year of his death, in the introduction to 'The Class Struggles in France,' that the growth of democratic institutions allowed for a "slow, imperceptible" path to power, arguing that the old methods of street fighting were largely obsolete.
Engels noted that the German Social Democratic Party was thriving under legal conditions and that "legality" was actually helping the movement grow more effectively than underground rebellion.
Engels met Mary Burns in 1843, and she was his partner until her sudden death in 1863. Following Mary's death, Engels lived with her sister, Lizzie, whom he eventually married on her deathbed in 1878.
Discussion
In the 20th century in particular, the Soviet Union and its satellites used the figures of Marx and Lenin with unparalleled reverence, appearing on posters, statues, and in propaganda as the founders of the "true" path.
The writings of Karl Marx, particularly 'Das Kapital' and 'The Communist Manifesto,' were treated as sacred texts. They weren't just economic theories to be debated; they were seen as the absolute scientific truth of human history.
To disagree with "The Theory" was not just a difference of opinion — it was heresy.
While Marx was the "prophet," Lenin became the "martyred saint" (complete with a preserved body in a mausoleum for "pilgrimage").
Under Vladimir Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) functions closely as an arm of the state, promoting nationalist ideology, legitimising the war in Ukraine as a "holy war," and reinforcing conservative, anti-Western "traditional values."
(His Holiness?) Patriarch Kirill provides spiritual backing for the Kremlin, using the church to bolster Russian imperialism, solidify domestic control, and influence foreign policy across the post-Soviet space and in Africa.
