A Book That Has Changed The Politics Of The World

‘The Communist Manifesto‘ is a living example of the fact that pen is mightier than the sword.  At times, it happens so, that we shout out at the top of our voices, yet there is no one to hear us out. This book on the contrary, inconspicuously influenced the entire world and shaped certain parts of the world as we know them today.

The books, authored by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels has four sections. In the very first part, elaborate discussions on Communists’ theory of history and the relationship between proletarians and bourgeoisie are conveyed. The second section elucidates the relationship between the Communists and the proletarians. The third section brings about the flaws in other, previous socialist literature. The fourth and final part discusses the relationship between the Communists and other parties. The broad historical context of the Manifesto is the emergence of industrial capitalism and the modern industrial working class in Western Europe, together with the socialist movements that grew out of these historical developments. Yet though the Manifesto was composed against the background of those larger, long-term historical developments, it had a more immediate context which helps to explain its particular shape. The pamphlet was commissioned by the German Communist League in 1847.

This was the year when Europe would witness its revolution—almost instantaneously after the release of the Manifesto. It spread like wildfire from France and to the other parts, the revolution influenced a geographic area that in the modern world accounts for at least part of ten different European countries, with effects as far away as Latin America. It was matter of few weeks and one government after another fell. The revolutions, though short-lived, were extremely powerful and worthy of the attention they are given today. The Manifesto was written just before the outbreak of the revolution. Although it cannot be explicitly said that the even that succeeded it were largely influenced by the pamphlet, it is a product of that very specific time and that very specific revolutionary climate. In that historical fact lie both many of its strengths and some unresolved problems.

In times such as those, USSR was greatly influenced by the manifesto. USSR adopted and split into what we now know as Russia. Being a super power then, it tried to influence other nations and successful it was. It captured Afghanistan and influenced other nations like China. Parts of India soon followed queue.

This is what a book can do. This is the power of a book. Changing nations. Changing lives.