The Radical Philosopher: Karl Marx Part 2: His Influence in Europe

We continue with the biography series of Karl Marx. You can click here to read the the first post of this series.

Lenin had for decades always associated himself with a group of Left-wing politicians who all believed that if they could educate the workers well enough about their true situations, they could convince all workers and stop them from going to war against one another. Rather, the international Proletareans would unite and start a revolution. Of course, this never happened and it dealt a number of socialists quite a crushing blow.

Military men mobilized for World War I

The First World War had disrupted the balance of things as it involved massive mobilization of military forces and also civilians. There was an increase in food shortage, and the only party that really cared for the war to come to an end was the Bolsheviks. With a lot of anti-war feelings from the poor, Lenin seized on the opportunity and argued that the Bolshevik party had to seize power in the name of the Soviets.

The Working Class felt the impact of the war the most

Proletereans on the march

Marx is said to be a determinist because he thought socialism would come as a fair result of the contradictions and difference in class within a given society, that can be found in Capitalism. Lenin however understood that Capitalism alone could not cause a revolution; he therefore came up with the concept of a party where professional revolutionists would lead the masses. The Bolshevik Revolution came as a blessing for some people and at the same time a nightmare for certain people.

Lenin addressing a crowd informing them of his communist views

Professional Revolutionist in action

The Russian Bolshevik Communist Revolution in full swing.

Lenin had hoped that the revolution in Russia would serve as an example for many other countries in Europe such as Germany. This way, all countries could help each other overcome problems peculiar to them. Eventually, some Germans who had gotten tired of the war and the huge expenses it involved tried to come up with a party of their own hoping to stir up a revolution. The party could however not achieve the revolution after three trials which ended in failure each time. They had failed only because they were up against a much more powerful opposition.

The German Ccommunist Party

While in Berlin, Karl Marx became popular among fellow students as an highly intellectual fellow and was considered a Leftist. This made him a person of interest to the Prussian police back then. He went ahead to secure a doctorate degree, but his left-winged ideas made it impossible for him to get a job in the academic profession. Hence, in early 1842, he bagan work with a daily newspaper in Cologne known to criticize the Prussian government in Berlin.

Marx made judicious use of the newspaper to describe the obsolete desperate living conditions of the working class. Many of Marx's articles were banned, but Marx was able to change the face of political journalism in his tenure as the paper’s editor. As an editor, he was forced to talk about the many struggles faced by local farmers at the hands of Capitalism. He was known to be a radical thinker who was clever and intelligent. Marx wanted to explain the world and help create a new society based on a principle driven by a desire for freedom.

A follow up article will be released in our next post. We urge our readers to leave their comments and suggestions.
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