Cold Open

It’s the afternoon of March 4th, 1848, at the Amigo Prison in Brussels, Belgium.

30-year-old Karl Marx walks through the winding halls, flanked by two guards holding him tightly by the arms. As he’s marched past locked cells, he sees prisoners turn to inspect the new arrival. Feeling their eyes on him, Marx holds his head up high, refusing to be intimidated.

Coming to an open cell door, the guards stop and then shove Marx inside.

The door is then slam shut, and the guards saunter away, leaving Marx alone in the cold darkness of the cell, with only rats for company. He has no idea how long he will be here. All Marx knows is that he’s been accused of supplying weapons to the organizers of a planned workers’ revolt. But the only evidence against him is a sum of 6,000 francs that Marx recently received from Germany. He told the police it was an inheritance from his father, but they didn’t believe him.

With nothing else to do, Marx takes in his cramped surroundings. The only light in the cell comes from a narrow window set high in the wall, where he can see only a sliver of the sky. Amigo Prison has seen over three-hundred years’ of inmates. But Marx wonders whether the building will remain standing much longer. So much has changed in the last two decades, it feels like all of Europe is on edge, a powder keg ready to explode. All it needs is a spark, and Karl Marx intends to provide it.

The next morning, the guards return to fetch Karl Marx from his cell. He and his family are then escorted to the border and released with a warning never to return to Belgium. Karl Marx is not humbled by his brief stint in prison. He’s long been a figure of suspicion for the authorities in Europe. But they are powerless to contain his revolutionary ideals. Karl Marx is now written them down in a book. And The Communist Manifesto will slowly spread Marx's political philosophy all across the world, following its publication on February 21st, 1848.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is February 21st, 1848: The Communist Manifesto.

Act One: The Specter of Communism

It’s November 1842, in Cologne, Prussia, six years before the publication of The Communist Manifesto.

The offices of the Rheinische Zeitung newspaper are bustling with activity as reporters hurry to get the next edition to print. The paper’s junior editor, 24-year-old Karl Marx, briskly walks past his colleagues to the office of his boss.

Moses Hess is only a few years older than Marx, but he’s something of a mentor - as the newspaper's chief editor, Moses gave Marx a chance when few others would. Marx really didn’t consider himself a reporter, he was a philosopher. But academic institutions in Germany had turned against Marx’s favored left-wing world view, leaving him practically unemployable in that field. So, he started submitting articles to the Rheinische Zeitung, and his clear and passionate writing quickly won Hess’s attention.

So, Hess invited him to join the newspaper staff permanently, and Marx didn’t let his inexperience in journalism hold him back. He was unrepentant about his philosophical views and soon began winning converts in the newspaper office.

As the months passed, Marx’s confidence and his influence at the Rheinische Zeitung have only grown. So as he walks into Moses Hess' office, he decides to push back over some suggested edits to his latest article.

But as Marx argues with Moses, Friedrich Engels, a 22-year-old man with wavy hair and a chinstrap beard enters the newspaper offices and meekly waits to be noticed. No one pays him much mind. So when Marx and Moses emerge from their meeting, Engels works up the courage to introduce himself. A former soldier and published poet, he’s already contributed a handful of articles to the paper, and he wants to continue writing for them. But his parents are sending him abroad, hoping that some time working in England might disabuse him of his radical political ideas.

The paper's editor Moses greets Engels warmly, and is open to the idea of publishing more of Engels' articles, but Marx is more brusque. He doesn’t think much of Engels. The younger man is certainly a skilled writer, but Marx assumes Engels is just another Berlin radical of the kind he doesn’t have much time for. So as Engels says his goodbyes, Karl Marx returns to his desk, already forgetting the brief interaction.

But it’s far from the last he hears from Friedrich Engels. Despite the hopes of his parents, Engels’ time in England only deepens his political beliefs—and he continues to write. Within weeks of his arrival, he’s penned three articles about life in Manchester and the way employers in England exploit their workers. He sends these submissions back to the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung, where Karl Marx reads them with interest. He realizes then, that he underestimated Engels, and perhaps they are more alike than he first thought.

So, Marx begins a private correspondence with Engels. The two men exchange articles and ideas – talking not just about politics, but also about their lives and careers.

There’s plenty to talk about. Under Marx’s influence, the Rheinische Zeitung has become a hugely successful paper, but with that popularity comes greater scrutiny. Government censors start to read each edition much more closely, aware of the frequent anti-Christian and anti-Prussian sentiment printed in the pages. Marx is increasingly frustrated by the feeling of being observed while he works. And by March 1843, he can't stand it any longer. He resigns from the newspaper rather than submit to government control.

But newly married, with a child on the way, Marx suddenly finds himself with the same problem he had before he met Moses Hess: no one wants to employ him.

So, he and his wife move to France. With its art scene, its thriving immigrant community and its anti-establishment intellectuals, at first Paris seems like heaven to a young radical from abroad. Marx quickly finds a job co-editing a newspaper there. But he soon realizes that Paris is not what he thought it was. France is still a monarchy, and kings do not appreciate a man like Marx openly advocating for the rights of peasants. And it doesn’t help that the Prussian government has already warned the French authorities about Marx. It seems that even though he’s left his homeland, they don’t want him to get too comfortable anywhere.

So, with the political pressure on him increasing, Marx will soon have a decision to make. He will either need to hang up his pen or find himself a new home.

Act Two: Principles of Communism

It’s August 28th, 1844, at a café in Paris, France.

Through a fog of cigarette smoke, Karl Marx scans the busy tables, searching for a place to sit. The parlor is full of men playing chess, their eyebrows knitted in concentration.

Eventually, Marx finds a table in the corner. But he isn’t here for chess. He’s here to meet his old friend, Friedrich Engels.

Marx gets to his feet and waves as he spots Engels step inside. Engels winds his way through the crowd of chess players and greets Marx enthusiastically. He’s on his return trip from England to his home in Prussia, but he could not resist the opportunity to stop off in Paris along the way and see Marx in person after corresponding for years. He sits down, and within moments, he is eagerly showing Marx the completed manuscript of his first book. It’s called The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, and it’s an extension of the articles Engels wrote for Marx’s newspaper two years ago.

Marx is delighted by both the manuscript and the reunion. In contrast to their first meeting in Cologne, the two men now get along well. They both see the same flaw in modern Western society: the severe inequality between classes. Marx has studied this in France, and now Engels has done the same in the United Kingdom. But their conclusion is the same. They believe that the political philosophers of the past have failed to properly articulate the reason for so much poverty and misery in the world. Oppression cannot be blamed solely on kings or ancient religious institutions – instead, in their view, it grows naturally from the concept of property.

According to Marx and Engels, the entire history of human society can be described as a struggle between those who labor and those who profit from the labor of others. In their discussions, Marx and Engels adopt French terms for the working class and the ruling class – the ‘proletariat’ for the workers and the ‘Bourgeoisie’ for the wealthy.

Both men believe that the way to correct the ills of society is to remove the concept of property entirely and create a new system of government based on shared ownership. They call their proposed system Communism.

Engels stays with Marx in Paris for ten days, and they spend hours debating, writing, and rewriting their theories and ideas. But soon after Engels leaves, Marx receives an edict from the French government. They’ve finally caved to the demands of the Prussian authorities, and Marx is forced to leave France.

Frustrated, Marx packs up his life and takes his young family to the neighboring country of Belgium. And just a few months later, in April of 1845, Engels also moves to Belgium, so he and Marx can continue their collaboration. Together, they consider how to turn their new ideas into more than just a theoretical project. They begin organizing and, in 1846, they set up the Communist Correspondence Committee, with the aim of uniting like-minded people across Europe.

This committee soon becomes the Communist League, an organization with branches in Belgium, Germany, and Britain. Everyone involved in the group is working tirelessly to build a web of connections across the continent, and toward the end of 1847, they meet in London to establish their plans for the future.

At this meeting, the committee decides that the best way to publicize their ideas will be through writing—but not in scattered newspaper articles or in pamphlets. Instead, what they need is a manifesto, a document outlining their philosophy, and aimed at the general public.

Marx and Engels are selected to write this manifesto. But it’s a daunting task to bring together everything they’ve been working on for the last four years into a single accessible book. But Marx is not yet 30, and Engels is just 28. They have plenty of energy and enthusiasm. So, they immediately return to Belgium and begin their work.

Over the next six weeks, they try to pull their ideas together. But it's not easy, and Marx especially struggles to put pen to paper, until the Communist League gives them a firm deadline. The manifesto they say, must be finished by the beginning of February 1848. It's just the pressure Marx needs. In a final sprint, he completes the manuscript and sends it off to London to be printed.

In a matter of weeks, the Communist Manifesto will be published. But just as this new textbook of revolution rolls off the press, Europe will be gripped by insurrection, the old order will seem to shake, and the new world envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels will take one step closer to becoming reality.

Act Three: Workers of the World, Unite!

It’s February 21st, 1848, at a small publishing house in London, England.

A young member of the German Workers Educational Association flicks through the pages of the organization’s latest publication. The slender book has a green cover. And on it, in heavy Gothic text, is the German for “The Manifesto of the Communist Party.” This first edition is entirely in German, but the hope is to eventually print the book in other languages and share it all across Europe because Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and the rest of the Communist league are convinced that Europe is on the brink of revolution.

Just days after the publication of The Communist Manifesto, there are violent uprisings, first in Italy, then, more dramatically, in France. In Paris, the French King is forced to abdicate, and Marx and Engels celebrate—what seems to be the beginning of their great revolution, when the working people of the world unite against their oppressors. But Marx and Engels are to be disappointed. The revolutions of 1848 do not upend the social order in the way they hoped. Even worse, their book, The Communist Manifesto, seems to disappear without a trace. Although it's eventually translated into other languages, including English and French, it remains an obscure title for decades to come.

Meanwhile, Marx is expelled from mainland Europe for his revolutionary beliefs and moves permanently to London. Neither he nor Friedrich Engels will live to see the true impact of their book. Written in the middle of the 19th century, The Communist Manifesto will go on to become one of the most important books of the 20th century.

It will inspire revolutionaries from Russia to China to South America. But far from delivering workers from oppression, these so-called Marxist regimes will usher in new forms of tyranny that will result in the deaths of millions.

But not everyone who reads Marx’s book embraces authoritarianism. His theories will contribute to the development of democratic socialist movements as well, movements who seek change not through violence but through the ballot box. Whether used for good or ill, however, few books in history can match the influence of The Communist Manifesto, with hundreds of millions of lives around the world continue to be shaped by it, long after its publication in London on February 21st, 1848.

Outro

Next on History Daily. February 24th, 1739. Persian leader Nader Shah wins a decisive victory at the Battle of Karnal, shattering India’s once-mighty Mughal Empire.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Supervising Sound Designer is Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by R.S. Tiemstra.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.