The names of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are often spoken together. But if Marx is known as the author of the famous Capital, then the life and work of Friedrich Engels for many people remains completely unknown.
Friedrich Engels is one of the founders of Marxism. A prominent German philosopher, revolutionary, friend and colleague of Karl Marx, he made an enormous contribution to the development of the ideas of communism. Without his help and support, including material support, Marx would hardly have been able to create his fundamental work “Capital. Criticism of Political Economy.
Engels was born in the town of Barmen on November 28, 1820, in the family of the owner of a textile factory. From a young age he developed a craving for literature and philosophy: at the age of 18 he began working as a newspaper correspondent, later did military service, while attending lectures at the university. At the same time, he began to be interested in politics, he increasingly thought about the injustice reigning in capitalist society.
Young Engels met Karl Marx for the first time in 1842 in Cologne, at the editorial office of the Rhine Gazette, but they could not make friends that time. Engels left for Manchester, where he continued his education. It was in England that he came into close contact with the hard life of the working class, established contacts with the "Union of the Just," a German revolutionary organization. His articles began to appear in the newspapers Owenisten and The Northern Star.
From November 1843, Engels began to appear in newspapers on communism, the situation in England, and criticism of the existing economic system. It was precisely one of Engels's articles, "Outlines for the Critique of Political Economy," that pushed Karl Marx to study economics, the result of these works was subsequently his famous work "Capital".
In 1844, Marx and Engels met again, and from that time their close cooperation began. They moved to Belgium, where they joined the Union of the Just, later renamed the Union of Communists. It was Engels who developed the "Draft of the Communist Symbol of Faith" - a document that later became the basis for the "Manifesto of the Communist Party".
In 1848, a bourgeois-democratic revolution began in France, spreading to many European countries. Engels took part in the Elbertfeld Uprising, fought against Prussia. After the suppression of the revolution, he had to flee to Switzerland, from there he went to England, where he wrote several important articles, prepared the "Appeal of the Central Committee to the Union of Communists." Having inherited his father's share in the firm "Ermen & Engels", he began to provide material assistance to Marx, who at that time was in a difficult financial situation.
Russia was viewed by Marx and Engels as a country in which a "world conflagration" could begin. It was Engels who insisted that Marx learn Russian and begin to correspond with Russian political emigres. Possessing a fairly large fortune, Engels financed the communist movement until his death. He died on August 5, 1895, his ashes were buried at sea.
