45 2 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHYmembers of this group, Vera Sassoulitch, who wrote to Marx in February
1881 , asking him specifically to clarify his attitude to Russian economic
development.
Lately [she wrote] we often hear it said that the rural commune is an
archaic form condemned to perish by history, scientific socialism and
all that is least subject to debate. The people who preach this call
themselves your disciples par excellence-. 'Marxists'. The strongest of
their arguments is often: 'Marx has said it'. 'But how do you deduce it
from his Capital He does not discuss the agrarian problem nor Russia,'
was the objection. Your disciples reply: 'he would have said it had he
talked of our country.'^105Marx's short reply to this cri de coeur was sibylline:
The analysis given in Capital does not offer any reasons either for or
against the vitality of the rural commune, but the special study that I
have made of it, for which I have researched the material in its original
sources, has convinced me that this commune is the starting point for
the social regeneration of Russia, but that, in order for it to function
as such, it would be necessary first of all to eliminate the deleterious
influences that assail it on all sides and then to assure it the normal
conditions for a spontaneous development.^104Brief though Marx's reply was, it was based on three very lengthy drafts
which thoroughly analysed the development of the peasant commune and
contained the more optimistic conclusion that:
To save the Russian commune, a Russian revolution is necessary. More-
over, the Russian Government and the 'new pillars of society' are doing
their best to prepare the masses for such a catastrophe. If the revolution
comes at an opportune moment, if it concentrates all its forces to
ensure the free development of the rural commune, this commune will
soon develop into an element that regenerates Russian society and
guarantees superiority over countries enslaved by the capitalist
regime.'os
In his last pronouncement on this question, the Preface to the 1882
translation of the Communist Manifesto, Marx reiterated this position: 'if
the Russian Revolution becomes a signal for a proletarian revolution in the
West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common
ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist devel-
opment'.^106 Thus Marx's doctrinal legacy on this vital question was fate-
fully ambivalent.^107
In France socialism was slow to revive after the shattering experience
of the Commune. By 1877 Workers' Congresses began to reconvene and
the future leaders Guesde and Malon, both with former anarchist leanings,