Wojna chlopska w Niemczech.

First edition in Polish. 8vo. 101, [1] pp. Original printed wrappers, wire-stitched as issued (rather edge worn, some loss to spine, staples rusted, notwithstanding a good example of this scarce and fragile publication). Londyn [London], [Printed and Published by J. Kaniowski, 67 Colworth Road, Leytonstone].

The first Polish translation of The Peasant War in Germany, a short study of the widespread sixteenth century popular revolt known as the German Peasants' War (1524-1525), originally published in German across two issues of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in May and October 1850. The text is significant as one of the earliest studies based on materialist conception of history in the published works of Marx and Engels.

The publication of the present translation in London is highly characteristic of Polish translations of Marx and Engels during the era of the Russian-controlled Congress Poland (1815-1915), which were almost exclusively printed abroad up until the Russian revolution of 1905 saw a degree of relaxation to censorship laws across the Empire. The failed Polish uprisings of 1830-31 and 1863 against the Russian Empire saw a huge wave of emigration from Poland. London in particular became a haven for émigré radicals looking to deploy the burgeoning ideas of Polish socialism in the struggle for Polish independence.

The translation was undertaken by Polish physician and socialist leader Dr. Feliks Sachs (1869-1935) under the pseudonym 'H.M.' Sachs was born and raised in Warsaw to a lower middle-class Jewish family and became a member of the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) in 1898. He served as an editor of the clandestine weekly newspaper Robotnik, the official organ of the PPS, and was arrested along with rest of the editorial board in February 1900 when the newspaper’s printing press was seized by the Okhrana, the secret police of the Russian Empire.

After his release, Sachs moved to London in February 1901 and quickly set about working on behalf of the foreign committee of the Polish Socialist Party. "A native Yiddish-speaker", Sachs had long "taken a particular interest in disseminating the PPS program among Jewish workers" and in London "he became active in the party’s Yiddish press. Sachs was the first PPS member in London who spoke and wrote Yiddish well and had previous editorial experience. With his particular interest in attracting Jews to the party, Sachs energetically joined the editorial staff of Der arbeyter", the party's only dedicated Yiddish organ (Zimmerman, p. 142).

Sachs relocated to Vilnius in June 1902 after being elected to the central committee of the PPS as head of a new Jewish Committee charged with the task of organising Jewish workers and disseminating party propaganda in Yiddish. He would go on to play an important role in recognising the Jews as a distinct nationality within the Polish socialist movement.

Rare. Library Hub lists only one copy in the United Kingdom, held by the British Library. OCLC adds one copy in North America at the Hoover Institute, along with four in Poland.

See: Joshua D. Zimmerman, Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914.

Stock Code: 245595