Marx and Engels Collected Works

by
Robert Vienneau
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Several editions have been published of the works of Marx and Engels. One can also look in the Marxists Internet Archive. Many individual works have been published in various translations in various places. Marx's manuscripts ended up in the Institute of Social History (ISH), in Amsterdam.

A first attempt was started in 1927, the first Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), in which the works were to be published in their original languages. This project was never completed. David Riazanov, the first editor, was shot in 1938, after the usual show trial. The Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sponsored a Russian edition, published from 1928 through 1947. A second Russian edition was begun in 1955. It contains 47 books, with some volumes published across more than one book.

Activity by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Socialist Unity Party (SUP), that is, the communist party of the German Democratic Republic, in Berlin, led to the publication of the Marx-Engels Werke (MEW). The MEW contains 44 books, and its publication began in 1956.

Progress Publishers, in Moscow, issued English translations of at least some of the work of Marx and Engels. Some, but not all, translations were based on the MEW. For example, Volume 1 of Capital in this series is the English edition of 1887, translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling and edited by Engels.

The Marx-Engels Collected Works (MECW) consists of 50 volumes, in an english translation. It was published from 1975 to 2004. It is published by Lawrence & Wishart in London and International Publishers Company in New York. The MECW was the result of collaboration among the communist parties of Great Britain and the United States, the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU and of Progress Publishers. The Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the SUP assisted. Lawrence & Wishart made an online version available in 2010. See also here.

The second Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) is planned to contain 114 volumes. The works are in their original languages, show variations among various editions, and include commentary. The second MEGA edition was begun in 1975 by the SUP, in Berlin, and the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU, in Moscow. The Internationale Marx-Engels-Stiftung, in Amsterdam took over sponsorship after 1989.

Tables 1, 2, and 3 list works in the MECW by Marx, by Marx and Engels, and by Engels, respectively. I do not list newspaper articles, letters, and speeches that were not published separately. Some of the unlisted newspaper articles, such as coverage of a trial of communists in Cologne, are as lengthy as some of the listed works. And Marx's work on the First International are important to a history of socialism. Furthermore, there are manuscripts by Marx, such as an essay on calculus, which are of interest to a consideration of the full range of his work and are not included in the MECW. Nevertheless, these tables contain the most widely discussed works by Marx and Engels, even though some were not published until well into the twentieth century.

These editions of the collected works produced some surprises. The 1844 manuscripts inspired an anti-Stalinist literature, based on a young Marx. Under this reading, Marx was at first a humanist, concerned with overcoming alienation. On the other hand, Althusser agreed that a break existed in Marx's thought, but preferred the later Marx. The Grundrisse seems like a challenge to these views. I had not previously known that Theories of Surplus Value was part of a larger manuscript. The second MEGA, as Heinrich (2021) notes, reveals surprising changes in the opening chapters of Capital, destabilizing established readings. Interpretations in the twentieth century are entangled with political struggles among socialists, communists, and others.