Engels at one time thought of both Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky as promising heirs, the former having served the cause well as editor of Der Sozialdemokrat from 1881 to 1890, the latter as editor of Die Neue Zeit from 1883 and in the forefront in the bitter dispute with those prepared to compromise with Bismarckian state socialism. Engels advised and contributed to both journals and considered their editors suitable for the task of preparing a fair copy of the “fourth volume” of Capital, later known as Theories of Surplus Value. He was also happy to rely on Bernstein to provide a full response to Paul Barth's criticisms in 1890 of historical materialism (see MECW 49: 63). A brief comparison between the positions of Engels and those of his younger colleagues will serve to sharpen our comprehension of Engels.

Engels and Bernstein

In his Preface to the first English translation of The Preconditions of Socialism, Bernstein advised that his book “can, all in all, be regarded as an exposition of the theoretical and political tendencies of the German social democratic revisionists” (1961 [1909]: viii). As for doctrinal matters, he feared from the outset that he might be misunderstood; he explained that “the further development and elaboration of Marxist doctrine must begin with criticism of it”; for “[t]he duty of the disciples” consisted in isolating and removing defects in the theory, not “perpetually repeating the words of the masters” (1993 [1899]: 28).