Pamphlet by Engels responding to an “open letter” by the Russian revolutionary Pyotr Tkachev, in which Tkachev had criticized Engels’ understanding of the Russian situation. Engels was writing shortly after the “Going to the People/Narod Movement” in Russia, which had largely failed in inspiring a revolution among the peasantry (and which Tkachev had also critiqued). Despite Engels’ extensive criticisms of Tkachev’s celebration of the Russian mir/peasantry, he still writes that there is a possibilty for Russia to avoid capitalist development on the basis of the Russian commune should Russia be assisted by a proletarian revolution in Western Europe.
