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FOREWORD TO THE RUSSIAN EDITION

          The present collection includes works in which Marx and Engels expound their views on the essence and origin of re­ligion and its role in class society; these works lay the theo­retical foundations of proletarian, Marxist atheism. The world outlook founded by Marx and Engels is based on the objective laws of the development of nature and society. It rests on facts provided by science and is radically opposed to religion.

          In the foreword to his doctor’s thesis The Difference Be­tween the Natural Philosophy of Democritus and the Natural Philosophy of Epicurus, with which the present volume be­gins, Marx stresses the incompatibility of Epicurus’s mate­rialistic philosophy with religion. In The Holy Family or A Critique of Critical Criticism, extracts from which are giv­en in this collection, Marx and Engels show the great role of the French 18th-century materialists in the struggle against the reactionary feudal and religious outlook and disclose the relation between atheist propaganda on the one hand, the development of materialist philosophy and the achieve­ments of natural sciences on the other. Marx and Engels show that atheism is typical of the progressive classes, that the English and French materialist atheists were the ideolo­gists of the rising bourgeoisie. But no sooner had the bour­geoisie achieved domination and the class antagonisms between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie become acute than the bourgeoisie renounced its former free-thinking and be­gan to make use of religion as an opiate for the popular masses. Engels gave a tangible and vivid explanation of this in the introduction to the English edition of Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, which is also to be found in the present collection.

          Stressing the services of the previous materialistic and atheistic propaganda (the English and French 17th- and 18th-century materialists, L. Feuerbach and others), the founders of Marxism at the same time criticized the half- and-half attitude, the inconsistency and the class limita­tion of bourgeois atheism, its passivity and contemplative­ness, its inability to expose the social roots of religion.

          Marxism alone was able completely to reveal the es­sence of religion by proving that it is nothing but “the fantastic reflection in men’s minds of those external forces which control their daily life, a reflection in which the terrestrial forces assume the form of supernatural forces.”

          In Capital, Anti-Dũhring, Ludwig Feuerbach and other works Marx and Engels reveal the roots of religion, prov­ing that whereas in the earliest stages of human develop­ment religious belief arose from primitive man’s helpless­ness in the struggle with the forces of nature, under an­tagonistic, class society the social oppression of the working masses and their apparent helplessness in the struggle against their exploiters give birth to and foster religion, the belief in a better life hereafter, the alleged reward for sufferings on earth.

          The extracts from Marx’s and Engel’s works German Ideology, The Communism of “Rheinischer Beobachter” and The Manifesto of the Communist Party describe religion as one of the forms of social consciousness, one of the elements of the superstructure in class society. The founders of Marxism reveal how religion depends on the develop­ment of the social relations, on the class structure of society; they reveal the interest the exploiting classes have in foster­ing religion as a means of blinding and curbing the popular masses. “Religion is the opium of the people,” Marx wrote in 1844. This saying has become the cornerstone of the whole Marxist outlook on religion.

          Engels’s Bruno Bauer and Early Christianity, The Book of Revelation and On the History of Early Christianity throw light on the historic conditions of the social, politi­cal and ideological struggle during the decline of the Ro­man Empire, which determined the emergence of Christian­ity. These articles show clearly and convincingly that Christianity arose as the outlook of utterly despairing peo­ple after the numerous revolts of slaves, indigent people and enslaved nationalities against the yoke of the Roman Empire had been drowned in blood.

          In the chapters and extracts from Dialectics of Nature Engels tangibly discloses the uninterrupted struggle be­tween the scientific and the religious outlooks and shows how religion hindered the progress of science; the history of religion is the history of the fight against the develop­ment of scientific thought. The Church persecuted the great­est scientists with blind cruelty, torturing them, burning them at the stake, forbidding or destroying their works. The Catholic Church, whose instrument was the Inquisition, was particularly zealous in this respect. For centuries the Church played an extremely reactionary role and fought pitilessly against the scientific conception of the world and against the democratic and socialist movement. But the de­velopment of natural science inevitably caused more and more breaches in the religious and idealistic outlook. That is why the founders of Marxism considered scientific and materialist propaganda as the most powerful weapon in the fight against religion.

          Marx and Engels most resolutely denounced the attempts of the anarchists and Blanquists, Dũhring and others to use coercive methods against religion (see Anti-Dũhring and Emigrant Literature, of which this volume contains extracts). They proved that the prohibition and persecu­tion of religion can only intensify religious feeling. On the other hand” Marxism, contrary to bourgeois atheism with its abstract ideological propaganda and its narrow culturalism, shows that religion cannot be eliminated until the social and political conditions which foster it are abolished. In the revolutionary fight for their economic and political emancipation tile working people -free themselves from re­ligious views and superstitions. This is promoted by edu­cating them in the materialist outlook. The founders of Marxism called on the proletarian party leaders to spread among the workers the best works of materialist literature and the achievements of natural and social sciences.

          The correctness of the Marxist-Leninist concept of the ways of overcoming religious views has been fully corroborated by the experience of the Soviet socialist state. As a result of the victory of .socialism, the abolition of the exploiting classes and national discord, and the raising of the cul­tural level in the U.S.S.R., the social and ideological roots of religion have been torn out for ever; the majority of the population has long been free from religious prejudices. But there are still remnants of religious outlooks in some Soviet people. In these conditions great importance attaches to the directions given by the classics of Marxism that the struggle against religion must not be pursued by administrative interference in the affairs of religious peo­ple but by profound and systematic scientific atheist propaganda.

          The Communist Party, guided by Marxism-Leninism and the dialectical and materialistic outlook, considers it its duty to promote by all means the development of natural, technical and social sciences. These help man to deepen his knowledge of the objective laws of nature and society and to harness the forces of nature in the service of society. That is why the Party considers it its direct obligation to wage a systematic ideological struggle against the unscien­tific religious outlook which clouds man’s consciousness, dooms him to passivity and fetters his creative energy and initiative. The Party ceaselessly reminds us that scientific atheist propaganda must be based on popular explanation of the achievements in astronomy, biology, physiology, physics, chemistry and other sciences which vindicate the materialist conception of nature and society.

          All the material contained in this collection has been pre­viously published in the Works of Marx and Engels and other publications of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. The texts included are the Institute’s latest editions. All the material has been arranged in chronological order. At the end of the volume we give editorial notes, a name index, an index of biblical and mythological names and a short sub­ject index.

Institute of Marxism-Leninism

of the C.C., C.P.S.U.

CONTENTS

Foreword to the Russian Edition

KARL MARX, FOREWORD TO THESIS: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF DEMOCRITUS & THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF EPICURUS

Written In 1841

KARL MARX, THE LEADING ARTICLE OF No. 179 OF KOLNISCHE ZEITUNG

(Rheinische Zeltung, Nos. 191, 193 and 195; July 10, 12, 14, 1842, Bellage)

KARL MARX, CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF HEGEL’S

PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT. INTRODUCTION

(Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbũcher, 1844)

KARL MARX and FREDERICK ENGELS, THE HOLY FAMILY, OR CRI­TIQUE OF CRITICAL CRITICISM. Against Bruno Bauer and Co.

1. d) Critical Battle Against French Materialism

(Extract from Chapter VI)

Written in 1844

KARL MARX, THESES ON FEUERBACH

Written in 1845

KARL MARX and FREDERICK ENGELS, GERMAN IDEOLOGY

(From Chapter I)

Written In 1845-46

KARL MARX, THE COMMUNISM OF THE PAPER RHEINISCHER

BEOBACHTERI (Extract)

(Deutsche-Brusseler-Zeitung, No. 73, September 12, 1847)

KARL MARX and FREDERICK ENGELS, MANIFESTO OF THE COM­MUNIST PARTY. (Extracts from Chapters II and III)

Written In 1847-48

KARL MARX and FREDERICK ENGELS, REVIEW OF G. Ft. DAUMER’S THE RELIGION OF THE NEW AGE. An Attempt at a Combinative and Aphoristic Foundation, 2 Vols., Hamburg, 1850

(Neue Rheinlsche Zeltung. Politisin-õkonomlsehe Revue, No. 2, 1850)

FREDERICK ENGELS, THE PEASANT WAR IN GERMANY (Chapter II)

(Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-õkonomische Revue, No. 5-6, 1850)

ENGELS TO MARX, Approx. May 24, 1853

MARX TO ENGELS, June 2, 1853

ENGELS TO MARX, June 6, 1853

KARL MARX, ANTI-CHURCH MOVEMENT-DEMONSTRATION

IN HYDE PARK

(Neue Oder-Zeitung, June 28, 1855)

KARL MARX, CAPITAL, Book I. (Extracts)

FREDERICK ENGELS, EMIGRANT LITERATURE

(Extract from the Second Article)

(Volksstaat, June 26, 1874)

KARL MARX, CRITIQUE OP THE GOTHA PROGRAMME (Extract)

Written in 1875

FREDERICK ENGELS, ANTI-DŨHRING (Extracts)

Written in 1878

FREDERICK ENGELS, DIALECTICS OF NATURE (Extracts)

Written In 1873-86

Introduction

Natural Science In the Spirit World

The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man (Extract)

Notes and Fragments

FREDERICK ENGELS, BRUNO BAUER AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

(Der Sozialdemokrat, May 4 and 11, 1882)

FREDERICK ENGELS, THE BOOK OF REVELATION

(Progress, Vol. 2, London, 1883)

FREDERICK ENGELS, LUDWIG FEUERBACH AND THE END OF

CLAS­SICAL GERMAN PHILOSOPHY

Written In 1886

FREDERICK ENGELS, JURISTIC SOCIALISM

(Die Neue Zelt, 1887, pp. 49-62)

ENGELS TO BLOCH, September 21-22, 1890

ENGELS TO C. SCHMIDT, October 27, 1890

FREDERICK ENGELS, INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH EDITION OF

SOCIALISM: UTOPIAN AND SCIENTIFIC

Written in 1892

FREDERICK ENGELS, ON THE HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY

(Die Neue Zett, Vol. 1, 1894-95, pp. 4-13 and 36-43)

Notes

Name Index

Index of Biblical and Mythological Names

Short Subject Index

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