The Communist Manifesto is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx with Friedrich Engels and published in February 1848, opening with the declaration that "a spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism," and setting out the theory of class struggle and a call for the working class to overthrow capitalist society. It became the foundational text of modern communism and has shaped socialist and communist movements worldwide, including the Bolsheviks under Lenin.
Facts
Key ProvisionOpens by declaring that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, argues that capitalism's own development creates the industrial proletariat that will overthrow it, and closes with the call for the working men of all countries to unite. 3 Dates
PublishedPublished in London for the Communist League, which had commissioned it and adopted it immediately as its own manifesto. Classification
Document TypeDeclaration or Manifesto 1 Original Language FAQs
Did Marx write the Communist Manifesto alone?
No, it was co-authored with Friedrich Engels.
The Communist Manifesto was commissioned by the Communist League and co-authored by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Engels' own 1847 pamphlet, Principles of Communism, written as a catechism of questions and answers, served as a direct draft source for the final text, which Marx wrote up and sent to London in early February 1848 for publication that month.
Connections
Drafted By
Co-authored with Marx; Engels' own 1847 Principles of Communism was a direct draft source for the final text.
Source Karl Marx (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Additional Source Friedrich Engels (Britannica)
Marx wrote the Manifesto with Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and published in London in February 1848.
Source Karl Marx (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Influenced
Source Karl Marx (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Sources
1. Friedrich Engels (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaDocument type, description
The Communist Manifesto is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx with Friedrich Engels and published in February 1848, opening with the declaration that "a spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism," and setting out the theory of class struggle and a call for the working class to overthrow capitalist society.
- Drafted By: Friedrich Engels
View the Source 2. Wikidata: Communist Manifesto
- Wikidata Q40591, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)
- Wikidata Q40591 via P407 (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/propfill_varchar.ps1)
View the Source3. Karl Marx (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy- Section discussing the Manifesto within Marx's body of work
- Influenced: Communism
Drafted By: Karl Marx, Page text
For example, in The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels state that: “The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production” ( MECW 6: 487).
Drafted By: Friedrich Engels, Page text
For example, in The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels state that: “The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production” ( MECW 6: 487).
- Drafted By: Karl Marx, Section discussing the Manifesto
View the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
The Manifesto predicts that proletarian revolution would arise first in the most industrially advanced capitalist societies, where wage labor and class polarization were most developed. In practice, every self-identified Marxist revolution that actually seized state power in the 20th century, Russia in 1917, China in 1949, did so in overwhelmingly agrarian, industrially backward societies rather than in Britain, Germany or the United States. Marxist theorists themselves had to reconcile this from early on: Lenin's theory of imperialism argued that capitalism's weakest link, not its most advanced point, was where revolution would actually break, a revision that critics both sympathetic and hostile to Marxism read as evidence the Manifesto's own historical prediction was falsified by the century that followed it.
A dissenting reading, from 20th-century Marxist theory's own reckoning with the "agrarian revolution" problemKarl Marx (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.