The Last Years of Karl Marx, 1881–1883: An Intellectual Biography

209 Pages·1.765 MB·English

by  Marcello Musto

The Last Years of Karl Marx
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T H E L A S T Y E A R S O F
K A R L M A R X , 18 81 –18 8 3
AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
Marcello Musto

Translated by Patrick Camiller
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
English translation ©2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford
Junior University. All rights reserved.
The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography was originally
published in Italian in 2016 under the title L’ultimo Marx, 1881–1883. Saggio
di biografia intellettuale. ©2016, Donzelli Editore.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the
prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Musto, Marcello, author. | Camiller, Patrick, translator. 
Title: The last years of Karl Marx, 1881–1883: an intellectual biography /
Marcello Musto; translated by Patrick Camiller. 
Other titles: L’ultimo Marx. English 
Description: Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2020. |
Translation of: L’ultimo Marx. | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019041945 (print) | LCCN 2019041946 (ebook) | ISBN
9781503610583 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503612525 (paperback) | ISBN
9781503612532 (epub) 
Subjects: LCSH: Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. | Communists—Biography. |
LCGFT: Biographies.
Classification: LCC HX39.5 .M9813 2020 (print) | LCC HX39.5 (ebook) |
DDC 335.4092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041945
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041946
Cover photo: Karl Marx, 1882. Alamy.
Cover design: Rob Ehle
Text design: Kevin Barrett Kane
Typeset at Stanford University Press in 11/14 Minion Pro
Dedicated to Babak.
In the Foxhole, in the Clinique,
or wherever the next will be.
Come rain or come shine.
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CONTENTS
Note on Sources ix
Note on the English Edition xi
Introduction 1
Prelude: “Struggle!” 7
1 New Research Horizons 11
2 Controversy over the Development of Capitalism in Russia 49
3 The Travails of “Old Nick” 77
4 The Moor’s Last Journey 105

Chronology, 1881–1883 127
Notes 131
Bibliography 177
Index 189
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NOTE ON SOURCES
Marx’s writings have generally been quoted from the 50-volume Karl Marx /
Frederick Engels: Collected Works (MECW), Moscow / London / New York:
Progress Publishers / Lawrence and Wishart / International Publishers, 1975–
2005. In a few cases, the reader is referred to single works translated into English
but not included in MECW. When necessary, translations have been modi-
fied to conform more closely to the original German. Texts that have not yet
been translated into English are referenced to the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe
(MEGA2), Berlin: Dietz / Akademie / De Gruyter, 1975– . . . , of which 67 of the
originally planned 114 volumes have so far appeared in print.
In the notes and the bibliography, the references to Marx’s writing have
been given in German as well as English, drawn from the 44-volume Marx-
Engels-Werke (MEW), Berlin: Dietz, 1956–1968, when available, otherwise from
the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2) or from individual works still not
published in the latter.
Finally, Marx’s still-unpublished manuscripts are indicated according to
their location in either the International Institute of Social History (IISH) of
Amsterdam or the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI)
of Moscow, where they are kept.
As regards the secondary literature, quotations from books and articles not
published in English have been translated for the present volume. Sometimes the
translations of English-language editions of books originally published in other
languages have been modified to conform more closely to the original.
All the names of journals and newspapers have been given first in English,
followed by the original in square brackets. The names of political parties and
organizations have been treated in the same way. The birth and death dates of au-
thors and historical figures have been provided the first time they are mentioned.
A question mark between parenthesis (?) is used where such dates are unknown.
ix