Articoli e scritti di F. Engels. Marxismo e pensiero militare

“Marxists and Military Thinking. In subsequent years, Engels put his military training to practical use, taking on active part in the armed popular uprising against the Prussian armies in Elberfeld, close to his home town of Barmen, and later in Baden and the Palatinate.When the revolt was defeated, he escaped across the border to Switzerland, and then joined Marx in London. In the subsequent years, he would analyse contemporary military affairs and historical questions of force and violence in history. Gilbert Achcar informs us that Engels’ articles on the European uprisings were so good, that Wilhelm Liebknecht later reported that the pieces on Hungary were “attributed to a high-ranking officer in the Hungarian army”, just as, 10 years later, Engels’ pamphlets published unsigned in Berlin, ‘The Po and the Rhine’ (1859) and ‘Savoy, Nice and Rhine’ (1860); were to be attributed to some Prussian general who was anxious to preserve his anonymity. Many of Engels’ articles on military affairs from the ‘Neue Rheinische Zeitung’ are in Volume 9 of Marx and Engels, ‘Collected Works’ (Progress, Moscow). Volume 13, Marx and Engels, 1854-55, also contains many key articles. See also W.H. Chaloner and W.O. Henderson (eds), ‘Engels as a Military Critic’, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1959 (articles by Engels reprinted from the ‘Volunteer Journal’ and the ‘Manchester Guardian’ of the 1860s, with an introduction by Chaloner and Henderson), reviewed by Brian Pearce, Labour Review, Volume 5, n. 3, October-November 1960, p. 99.  Studies of Engels’ military thought include Paul Morris, ‘”The General” on War and Insurrection’, Workers Power, June 1995; Michel Lequenne, ‘Chroniques politico-militaire du Marx et Engels’ (a review of Volume 1 of their military writings), Quatrième Internationale, n. 49, May 1971, pp. 54-57; Gilbert Achcar, ‘Engels: Theorist of War, Theorist of Revolution’, International Socialism’, n. 83, Winter 2001; Leon Trotsky, ‘Engels’ War Articles’, 19 May 1924, ‘How The Revolution Armed: Military Writings and Speeches’, Volume 5, London, 1981; Wilhelm Liebknecht, ‘Reminiscences of Engels’ (1897), in W.A. Pelz (ed), ‘Wilhelm Liebknecht and German Social Democracy’, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994, pp. 140-2; Martin Berger, ‘Engels, Armies and Revolution’, Archor Books, Hamden, 1977″ [AAVV, Mutiny. Disaffection and Unrest in the Armed Forces’, London, 2002]