manifesto

THE COMMUNIST PARTY[1] 

Writen between December 1847 

and January 1848 

First published as a pamphlet 

in London in February 1848 

Original in German 

page 1 

PREFACE TO THE GERMAN 

EDITION OF 1872[2] 

The Communist League, an international association of workers, which could of course be only 

a secret one under the conditions obtaining at the time, commissioned the undersigned, at the 

Congress held in London in November 1847, to draw up for publication a detailed theoretical and 

practical program of the Party. Such was the origin of the following Manifesto, the manuscript of 

which travelled to London, to be printed, a few weeks before the February Revolution.[3] First 

published in German, it has been republished in that language in at least twelve different editions 

in Germany, England and America. It was published in English for the first time in 1850 in the 

Red Republican,[4] London, translated by Miss Helen Macfarlane, and in I871 in at least three 

different translations in America. A French version first appeared in Paris shortly before the June 

insurrection of 1848 and recently in Le Socialiste [5] of New York. A new translation is in the 

course of preparation. A Polish version appeared in London shortly after it was first published in 

German. A Russian translation was published in Geneva in 

page 2 

the sixties. Into Danish, too, it was translated shortly after its first appearance. 

However much the state of things may have altered during the last twenty-five years, the general 

principles laid down in this Manifesto are, on the whole, as correct today as ever. Here and there 

some detail might be improved. The practical application of the principles will depend, as the 

Manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being 

existing, and, for that reason, no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at 

the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today. In 

view of the gigantic strides of Modern Industry in the last twenty-five years, and of the 

accompanying improved and extended party organisation of the working class, in view of the 

practical experience gained, first in the February Revolution, and then, still more, in the Paris 

Commune, where the proletariat for the first time held political power for two whole months, this 

program has in some details become antiquated. One thing especially was proved by the 

Commune, viz., that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, 

and wield it for its own purposes." (See The Civil War in France ; Address of the General Council