Marx and Soviet Reality. Daniel Norman (1955)
It is noteworthy that in spite of the much advertised ‘new course’ since Stalin’s death there is no change of mood in the Kremlin in the matter of the publication of Marx – Engels writings. The manuscript of this book was already in the publisher’s hands when a communiqué of the now Marx – Engels – Lenin – Stalin Institute announced that a new edition (the second) of the Sochinenia was ready for the printers. From the communiqué it emerges clearly that the new rulers are simply executing the work ordered and prepared under the supervision of Stalin since 1949; that there is no question of publishing a complete edition; that one quarter of Marx and Engels’ writings, including half of their correspondence, has been considered ‘of interest only to a small number of specialists’; that the greatest arbitrariness governs the selection of which works are to be made available to the general reader, and which left, so to speak, to the bookworms.
It is clear that the Stalinist tradition of using Marx’s name for the ends of Soviet policy, instead of in his service, will be upheld if not improved upon by the new rulers of ‘Marxist’ Russia.