If lenin and Stalin were to choose a leader for the big men who came out of the red camp, I am afraid that most people will blurt out: Is this still necessary to ask? Marx, of course! Indeed, as a great man who changed the world, Marx's position in that circle is like our Confucius, and it seems that it is not too much to call him "the most holy". In contrast, the presence of Engels, another big figure of almost the same level in the circle, is far worse.
Nowadays, even a junior high school student can casually recite a few Marxist-Leninist classics, and Marx's theory is no longer an "unfathomable" thing. However, the more widely it spreads, the more awkward engels's position seems to be - as the saying goes, "Marxism-Leninism", why not "Marxism-Leninism"? Friends who did not know him had the prejudice that Engels was nothing more than working with great men and rubbing along with them. In fact, this kind of thinking not only looks down on the friendship between Ma and En, but also greatly underestimates the strength of Engels, a historic BUG. In a way, Engels was even greater than Marx.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > said that in parts of Europe, people identified with Engels far more than Marx. We don't have to dwell too much on this, but let's take a look at Engels's personality first. </h1>
If life is compared to a game, then Engels was born with a full rank: his father was a factory owner, although from the book, the Engels family does not seem to be very conspicuous, but it is said that half of the factories on the Rhine at that time had the Engels family shares, or simply opened by their family. In addition, Engels also had a bit of an aristocratic status. In the era when the rich especially advocated "knowledge changes destiny", when Engels was planning to study hard to get a bright degree, his father suddenly said to him: Our family's money is enough for you to spend a few lifetimes, you are also wasting time in school, hurry up and drop out of school, learn how to make money produce more money.
In this way, in 1838, Engels, who had not yet finished secondary school, interrupted his studies and then took up a job at the lowest level in a trading house in Bremen. The Engels family is rich, which is still a topic of debate, some people think that the Engels family's financial resources are overestimated, others say that their family is greatly underestimated, the Engels family is actually an invisible big chaebol, and even can be ranked in Europe at that time. Here, let's mention a detail: the Engels family owned the pricing power of several commodities, and he was later "forced" to do business, and was called "cotton king" by the industry after just two casual tosses and turns, ranking among the business giants. From this point of view, the engels family's financial resources can not be underestimated.
The family is rich like this, what do you say that Engels has to do with the proletariat? Perhaps it is "rare things are expensive", from childhood there is money everywhere, Engels is the most disdainful of money, but also particularly disgusted with business. Although he had been in the business circle, he did not show much of a strong willingness to "inherit the father's business"; and the father was not accustomed to his son, and at that time, Engels earned only "only" about 200 pounds a year (the average annual salary of ordinary workers was about 15 pounds). It was not until mid-1844, after Engels met with Marx, that the former resolved to make a change.
For Marx, Engels was simply a universal extractor. Marx's family was actually quite well-off, and before he met Engels, Marx could get hundreds of taller tales from his father in a year. You know, this precious currency that appeared in the German-Austrian area at the end of the 15th century is worth a lot, 1 thale can be exchanged for 50 pounds of potatoes, and the average annual salary of an ordinary worker is less than 100 thale. In 1837, the father denounced his son as a "loser" in a family letter, and he could squander it every time no matter how much he gave; you know, Marx was not yet 20 years old at that time!
When Marx met Engels, the first problem to be solved was the source of funds. However, Engels did not chew on the old, nor was he very rich, but he could help more, and if he could not help, he would find a way to help. It is worth mentioning that after the death of his father in 1860, Engels's brothers refused to share the family property with him on the grounds of "long-term away from home". In the end, it was the mother who insisted on taking out 10,000 pounds and opened a company in the name of Engels. However, the company was mainly controlled by a business partner in his father's lifetime, and Engels was able to draw a dividend from the company every year.
Engels's life was not extravagant at all, and even a little calculating. However, Marx often asked for money when he wrote, and Engels never refused even once: on September 8, 1852, Marx complained that he was thrown out of the house by the landlord because he owed a lot of money to the butcher shop, and he was embarrassed to go to the meat on credit, and the whole family could only nibble on dry bread; the next day, Engels sent 4 pounds, in fact, Engels's life at that time was also tight. In early 1863, Marx wrote a letter to comfort his friend in the name of mourning Engels's deceased wife, Mary Bains, and as a result, he asked for money without writing a few words. Even so, Engels only expressed his dissatisfaction in the letter, and the money was still given.
In 1868, Engels began to liquidate all his shares, and his reason for this decision was simple: he could not bear the annoying thing of "doing business". When he died in August 1895, he left only a £30,000 inheritance. While the money didn't sound like much, at the time, £30,000 could buy a tonne of gold. Marx's "thanks" sounded subtle about Engels's financial support: "Frankly speaking to you, my conscience often feels as heavy as a dream demon, because your remarkable talents are wasted mainly for me in business, and they are wasted." ”
The most admirable thing about Engels is not his financial generosity, in fact, don't look at Engels's high school, but his talent is very outstanding. According to the book "Handbook on Linguistics and Linguistic Communication Tools" published in Germany, there are now 5651 languages in the world, of which more than 100 languages are used by more than 1 million people, and more than 200 languages are written. It is said that a Soviet linguist spoke more than 100 languages, the highest in all mankind, and Engels was nearly half worse than him - although how many languages Engels could speak is still a mystery, scholars have deduced that he has studied nearly 60 foreign languages to varying degrees; data show that he is proficient in most of the world's major languages. This terrible ability of Engels greatly facilitated the spread of Marx's thought.
In August 1851, the New York Daily Forum asked Marx for a manuscript, and the latter had a headache, not because the manuscript fee was small, but because Marx was not very proficient in English. But he soon figured out a solution: Marx approached Engels and begged his friend to write him a weekly article to deal with the New York Daily Forum. As a result, for an entire 10 years from the end of 1851, Engels wrote at least 120 articles for his friends, all of which were drafted directly in English. Engels not only engaged in originality, but also translated German articles into English for his friends. Engels does not seem to attach much importance to fame, and he has more than once directly signed his works as "Marx", including even the highly influential "Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany".
Engels said: The diploma is just an ordinary piece of paper. Even if he did not go to university, he still had a high degree of literary and artistic accomplishment. He was both a martial artist and had been besieged in an armed uprising, relying on his sword skills to kill a bloody road. In 1849, Engels was wanted by the Prussian government, and he shifted the focus of his business to Manchester, England. During that time, Engels was exposed to military science, physiology, physics and other parts of the natural sciences, and after a few years he was able to exchange views with professionals on certain professional issues. Engels has a low-key and introverted personality, loyal and humble, considering that he rarely takes the initiative to show off his ability, how versatile he really is, we cannot make up our minds.
From the perspective of our common people, Engels was a reliable and respectable friend, and at the same time a real "genius"; and from the perspective of a great man, his personality was very close to ordinary people, without the abruptness of many big people, and looked more approachable. It is not so much that Marx's light obscures Engels, but rather that Engels did not bother to think about these false names with a ride. However, in comparison with the truth, Engels can be called a rare existence in the history of all mankind.
Believing in the beauty sought by the proletarians, Engels refused to marry in a capitalist way, but instead had a simple wedding of his own, not even bothering to get a marriage certificate; and his first wife, Mary Bénez, was just an ordinary weaver. After Mary's death, Engels married her sister Lydia. On the day of Lydia's death, at the request of his wife, Engels held a "capitalist" wedding. On August 5, 1895, after the death of Engels at the age of 75, Lenin wrote in his eulogy: "A lamp of wisdom has been extinguished." Lenin was only 25 years old at the time, and the times were handed over in the hands of great men and great men.