This was proved by the
economic revolution which commenced on the continent of Europe
after 1848 and developed in France, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and,
recently, also in Russia, and made Germany into an industrial
state of the first rank--all on a capitalist basis, _which shows
that in 1848 the prevailing conditions were still capable of
expansion_. And to-day we have a huge international army of
Socialists.... If this mighty proletarian army has not yet reached
its goal, if it is destined to gain its ends only in a long drawn
out struggle, making headway but slowly, step by step, this only
proves how impossible it was in 1848 to change social conditions
by forcible means ... the time for small minorities to place
themselves at the head of the ignorant masses and resort to force
in order to bring about revolutions, is gone. _A complete change
in the organization of society can be brought about only by the
conscious co-operation of the masses_; they must be alive to the
aim in view; they must know what they want. The history of the
last fifty years has taught us that.[51]
What Engels had in mind when he stressed the fact that history showed that
in 1848 "the prevailing conditions were still capable of expansion" is the
central Marxian doctrine of historical inevitability.
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