The Principles of Communism

Draft programme written by Engels for the Communist League, the theoretical preparation for The Communist Manifesto. Written from late October to November 1847.The original text, in German, was first published in 1914 in a single edition. The Chinese translation was included in 1930 in the book The Foundations of Marxism, edited by Pan Hongwen and published by the Shanghai Social Science Research Society.

Under the guidance of Marx and Engels, the First Congress of the Communist League was held in June 1847, and the Communist League, the first international proletarian party in the world, was formally established. During the First Congress of the League, Engels prepared the first draft of the Communist League’s programme entitled Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith, in order to refute the “true socialists” in Germany. Between the end of October to November of the same year, entrusted by the Paris District Department of the League, Engels wrote a new draft programme entitled The Principles of Communism, on the basis of the Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith.

The Principles of Communism uses a question-and-answer format to answer 25 questions, with a richer and more accurate exposition on the theory of communism than the Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith. Its basic ideas are as follows: Firstly, from the perspective of the ideological system, it has put forth the theoretical essence of communism: “doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.” Second, by analyzing the periodically recurring commercial crises, it has unearthed the inner contradictions of the capitalist mode of production, and drawn the historical conclusion that capitalism will inevitably be replaced by communism. Third, it pointed out that the proletariat originated in the industrial revolution and is a class which relies on selling labor-power to maintain its survival, and also that carries out social revolution on capitalism, and only the proletariat can undertake the great historical mission of burying capitalism and liberating the all mankind. Fourth, it emphasizes that the proletariat must abolish private property and take the high development of productive forces as the historical condition for abolishing private property in order to realize communism; it must take the road of revolution and establish its own political rule and democratic state system. Fifth, it describes the good vision of communism and points out that the future new society will be a society organized according to the principles of communism. Social production will be organized in a planned way, the productive forces will be greatly developed, the opposition between class and urban and rural areas will disappear, the members of society will develop in an all-round way, and that communism is the stage of historical development which makes all existing religions superfluous and brings about their disappearance. Sixth, it is proposed that the communist revolution will not merely be a national phenomenon but must take place simultaneously in all civilized countries—that is to say, at least in England, America, France, and Germany. Seventh, it distinguishes Communists from all kinds of socialists and puts forth the communists’ attitudes towards other existing political parties in various countries and the tactical principles in the German democratic revolution.

The Principles of Communism plays an important role in the Communist literature, it is also an important preparatory work for The Communist Manifesto, and the scientific socialism theory embodied in The Principles of Communism is an important theoretical and ideological source of proletarian political parties.