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,
The Communist Manifesto "Manifesto" and its authors experienced a revival in fortunes. Hobsbawm identifies three reasons for this. The first is the leadership role Marx played in the International Workingmen's Association (aka the First International). Secondly, Marx also came into much prominence among socialists—and equal notoriety among the authorities—for his support of the Paris Commune of 1871, elucidated in "The Civil War in France". Lastly, and perhaps most significantly in the popularisation of the "Manifesto", was the treason trial of German Social Democratic Party (SPD) leaders. During the trial prosecutors read the "Manifesto" out loud as evidence; this meant that the pamphlet could