Surveys from Exile (1874-1875)

A group of articles written by Engels analyzing the democratic movement and the workers’ movement in Europe, and the Russian question. Written between mid-May 1874 to April 1875, published successively in the Der Volksstaat from 1874 to 1875. In 1894, Engels included the first, second, and fifth of these articles in the Internationales aus dem ‘Volksstaat’ (1871–1875), to which he added separate headings. In 1939, Yan’an Liberation Publishing House published Selected Correspondences of Marx and Engels, translated by Ke Bainian, Ai Siqi, Jing Lin, in which the fifth article of this group of articles was included under the title On Social Relations in Russia.

Refugee Literature consists of five articles. In the first article, “A Polish Proclamation”, Engels pointed out that the struggle of the Polish people for the restoration of the independence of Poland was of great international significance, i.e., that the struggle of the working class against the domination of the exploiting classes was closely connected with the struggle of the oppressed nations of the world for eventual national liberation and independence, and that support for the liberation struggle of Poland was a duty owed by the international proletariat. In the second article, “Programme of the Blanquist Commune Refugees”, in response to the proclamation to the “Communeux” published in London in June 1874 by a group of Blanquist refugees in France called “Revolutionary Commune”, Engels criticized the erroneous viewpoints of Blanquism, fully elaborated the basic principles of strategy and tactics of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat, and exposed the essence of Blanquist adventurism. The third article was written by Engels in response to an article by P. Lavrov published in the periodical Vperyod! (Forward!). In the article, Engels refuted the eclectic standpoint adopted by Lavrov in the proletarian movement and the political tactic of compromising with the Bakuninists he advocated, and pointed out once again the harm of Bakuninism to the workers’ movement. The fourth article is Engels’ reply to the defamatory pamphlet Offener Brief an Herrn Friedrich Engels (Open Letter to Mr. Frederick Engels) written by P. Tkachov. Tkachov advocated the Narodnik viewpoint of so-called characteristics and advantages of social development in Russia and advocated the violent conquest of political power by secret revolutionary organizations. In response to this erroneous idea, Engels severely criticized the anarchist view of blind activism spread by Tkachov. The fifth article, On Social Relations in Russia, is an important document in which Engels addressed the question of the social development in Russia and the prospects for the Russian Revolution. Engels used historical materialism to refute the claim preached by the Russian Narodniks that Russia could, regardless of the objective conditions of historical development, transition straight to socialism with the help of the rural commune. Engels also pointed out, in response to the erroneous views of the Russian Narodniks, that the development of the productive forces of society was the basic premise for a modern socialist revolution, and that only when the productive forces of society had developed to a high degree could the necessary precondition be created for the abolition of all class distinctions and the establishment of a new social organization.

Refugee Literature introduced the viewpoints held by Polish, French and Russian refugees on the revolutionary events in their countries and criticized the erroneous views of Blanquism, Bakuninism and other petty-bourgeois socialism about the tasks, tactics, prospects and driving forces of revolution, and drew conclusions about the revolutionary landscape in Europe, and through a recapitulation of the experience of the Paris Commune, elaborated the strategy and tactics of proletarian struggle, which was of great significance for the proletarian parties to draw up their programmes at that time.