Manifiesto Comunista.

THE FIRST EDITION OF THE SECOND SPANISH TRANSLATION OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

First edition. 8vo. 192 pp. Original printed wrappers, sewn as issued, lower edge untrimmed (some discreet paper reinforcement to tips of spine, notwithstanding an excellent copy). Madrid, Edtirorial Internacional, Biblioteca Internacional de Ciencias Sociales,

The first edition of the second Spanish translation of the Communist Manifesto, based on the influential French edition of 1901 by the eminent Germanist and philosopher Charles Andler (1886-1933).

The first Spanish translation of the Communist Manifesto was published in 1872 across six issues of the weekly newspaper La Emancipación, the official organ of the New Madrid Federation of the International Workingmen's Association (First International). The translation had been carried out by José Mesa (1831-1904), co-founder of the International in Spain, and was based on both the French and German editions of 1872. The Mesa translation languished in obscurity for over a decade, only being available in extremely scarce copies of La Emancipación. It was eventually reprinted in June 1886 in the Madrid periodical El Socialista and was finally issued in pamphlet form later in the same year. It was reprinted again as a pamphlet in 1904.

The present second Spanish translation was undertaken by the socialist lawyer and politician Rafael García Ormaechea (1876-1938). The source material for Ormaechea's translation was the important French edition by Charles Andler, published in Paris in 1901. Andler is best-known as a Germanist academic, having held professorships at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France later in life. However, his interest in socialism dated from his early years as a student; he was a member of Jean Allemane's Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party from 1890 and even met with Engels in London during the summer of 1891. Andler's translation of the Communist Manifesto is most significant for the inclusion of his own substantial introduction to the text, which provides much in the way of historical context as well as outlining the development of Marx and Engels's thought with reference to their early works. Andler's introduction also places considerable emphasis on the influence of French socialists as precursors of Marxism, with particular reference to Henri de Saint-Simon and Constantin Pecqueur.

Andler's introduction is reproduced here in the present Spanish edition along with the prefaces by Marx and Engels to the German editions of 1872, 1883 and 1890 as well as the Russian edition of 1882. The text of the Manifesto is then followed by a general commentary by the Spanish translator Rafael García Ormaechea entitled 'Notas complementarias' (pp. 137-190) which serves as a general introduction to the core concepts of Marxism, including historical materialism as well as the Marxist theory of class struggle and revolution. Interestingly, Ormaechea's 'Notas complementarias' makes reference to various writings by Marx and Engels that still had not been translated into Spanish at the time.

The Spanish translator Rafael García Ormaechea is an interesting figure whose life and career reflects some of the extreme social and political fluctuations in Spain in the first decades of the twentieth century. He was a member of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) from 1903 to 1909, during which time he served on the party’s National Committee and successfully stood as a councillor in the 1905 Madrid municipal elections. In 1907 he was part of the delegation led by Pablo Iglesias (1850-1925), the great Spanish socialist and founder of the PSOE, to the Seventh Congress of the Second International held in Stuttgart. Ormaechea also produced various translations of socialist literature on behalf of the PSOE, including the present translation of the Communist Manifesto as well as the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's book What Is Property? or, An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.

Ormaechea's productive period as a member of the PSOE was brought abruptly to halt in 1908 when he was appointed as a legal advisor to the newly formed Instituto Nacional de Previsión ('Spanish Institute of Provision'), Spain's first major institute of social security. The leadership of the PSOE objected to this association with a governmental institution and Ormaechea was officially dismissed from the party in May 1909. Although Ormaechea would maintain friendly relations with members of the Spanish socialist movement, he would go on to have a successful career in politics, serving as Political Secretary to Prime Minster Eduardo Dato and as a senior social policy adviser. Ormaechea would continue in his position at the Instituto Nacional de Previsión during the Second Republic but was dismissed at the outset of the Spanish Civil War and fled to France after his home in Madrid was looted. He subsequently returned to Francoist Spain in 1938 and was reinstated in his position as legal adviser to the Instituto Nacional de Previsión. He died a year later in Santander. 

OCLC list three copies in Spain (Biblioteca Nacional, Ministerio de Trabajo y Economia Social, Universidad de Deusto) and one in Germany (Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung).

Andréas, 456.

Stock Code: 246216