CHAPTER 20
Marx and Mussolini:
Communism and Fascism
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Karl Marx was born in Prussia in 1818 into a middle- class
family. He studied at the universities at Bonn, Berlin, and Jena
and received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of
Jena. During his university days he came under the influence of
Hegel’s philosophy and later incorporated the dialectic into his
own materialistic philosophy, creating Marxian dialectical ma
terialism.
He married into the Prussian nobility in 1843, but at about the
same time became a Socialist. He worked as a newspaper editor,
wrote pamphlets, and engaged in various left-wing activities.
Due to his radical writings he was expelled from Germany, went
to France, was expelled from France, and eventually went to
England where he lived out his life. His life in London was
devoted to writing, and due to the meager earnings his writings
provided, he was supported in large measure by Friedrich
Engels.
Friedrich Engels, the son of a wealthy textile manufacturer,
was his lifelong friend and collaborator. Together they wrote the
Communist Manifesto which was published in 1848. M arx’s
major work, Das Kapital, was the product of years of effort and
only one volume was published during his lifetime. The final two
volumes were completed by Engels and published by him. The
practical effect of these two works on the history of the twentieth
century cannot be overestimated. Certainly the reality of Com
munism in this century can be traced back to the theories
enunciated by Karl Marx in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Marx took the Hegelian concept of the dialectic, the idea of the
process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, and transformed it
into a materialistic dialectic. He claimed that the change inherent
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