The Communist Manifesto Study Guide

Preface to the 1890 German Edition Summary and Analysis

The preface is quite extensive and recounts much of the material presented in previous preface texts, particularly drawing from the preface to the 1882 Russian edition. The preface to the 1882 Russian edition had originally been written in German, then translated into Russian (subsequently, of course, translated into English). Curiously, Engels does not have access to the German-language original and thus translates the Russian-language preface back into German. The English-language edition considered in this summary has thus traveled from German to Russian to German to English. It would be interesting indeed to compare the resultant text to the original. The English-language equivalent is simply an extended quotation from the previously presented preface to the 1882 Russian edition. Other translations are noted—Polish, Danish, French, and English. Several revisions.....

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