The Communist Manifesto New York City. However, by the mid 1870s the "Communist Manifesto" remained Marx and Engels' only work to be even moderately well-known. Over the next forty years, as social-democratic parties rose across Europe and parts of the world, so did the publication of the "Manifesto" alongside them, in hundreds of editions in thirty languages. Marx and Engels wrote a new preface for the 1882 Russian edition, translated by Georgi Plekhanov in Geneva. In it they wondered if Russia could directly become a communist society, or if she would become capitalist first like other European countries. After Marx's death in 1883,
Manifesto of the Sixteen pursued until its defeat. At this point, the authors conjectured, the ruling political parties of Germany would be overthrown and the anarchist goal of the emancipation of Europe and of the German people would be advanced. Contrary to its misleading title, the "Manifesto of the Sixteen" had originally fifteen signatories—among them some of the most eminent anarchists in Europe—and was later countersigned by another hundred. The position of the "Manifesto" was in stark contrast to that of most anarchists of the day, many of whom denounced its signatories and their sympathizers, and accused them of betraying anarchist principles. In the