The People-Centered Character of *The Communist Manifesto*

People-centeredness is the essential attribute of Marxism. Marxism is a theory that comes from the people, serves the people, and benefits the people; the people’s creative practice is the inexhaustible source of theoretical innovation. Any theory that is divorced from the people is pale and feeble, and any theory that does not benefit the people has no vitality. We must firmly take the people’s stand, grasp the people’s aspirations, respect the people’s creativity, and concentrate the people’s wisdom, so as to forge a theory that is loved, recognized, and possessed by the people, making it a powerful ideological weapon to guide the people in understanding and transforming the world. *The Communist Manifesto* prominently embodies the people-centered character of Marxism.

人民性是马克思主义的本质属性，马克思主义是来自人民、为了人民、造福人民的理论，人民的创造性实践是理论创新的不竭源泉。一切脱离人民的理论都是苍白无力的，一切不为人民造福的理论都是没有生命力的。我们要站稳人民立场、把握人民愿望、尊重人民创造、集中人民智慧，形成为人民所喜爱、所认同、所拥有的理论，使之成为指导人民认识世界和改造世界的强大思想武器。《共产党宣言》突出体现了马克思主义的人民性品格。

The People’s Creative Practice in Revolution

人民群众在革命中的实践性创造

The replacement of the feudal system by the capitalist system was a great change that propelled historical progress, yet it also brought immense disasters to humanity. In capitalist society, the plundering of the bourgeoisie impoverished the proletariat and working people; the inherent contradictions of capitalism made economic crises increasingly frequent; the widening gap between rich and poor sharpened the antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie; and the blood-and-fire method of opening up the world market intensified conflicts among nation-states. The intensification of contradictions and the hardship of life compelled the proletariat to seek a path of liberation. To this end, utopian socialism subjected capitalism to ruthless criticism and painted a fervent picture of a future society, but it was overly idealistic and degenerated into illusion. As the inherent contradictions of capitalism grew fiercer, the European proletariat launched continuous struggles to seek its own liberation. *The Communist Manifesto* points out: “The workers begin to form combinations (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there the contest breaks out into riots.” [1]1 This quotation is from Section 1 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Bourgeois and Proletarians.” However, in the 1830s–1850s, the most typical examples—the Lyon Uprising in France, the Chartist Movement in Britain, and the Silesian Weavers’ Uprising in Germany—all ended in failure without exception.

资本主义制度取代封建制度是推动历史进步的巨大变革，然而它也给人类带来了巨大的灾难。在资本主义社会，资产阶级的巧取豪夺使无产阶级与劳动人民生活日益贫困，资本主义的固有矛盾使经济危机日益频繁，贫富差距的拉大使无产阶级与资产阶级矛盾日益尖锐，血与火式的开辟世界市场使民族国家之间的矛盾日益激化。矛盾的激化与生活的困厄迫使无产阶级寻求解放之途。为此，空想社会主义就对资本主义进行了无情的批判并对未来社会进行了深情的憧憬，但过于理想，沦为幻象。随着资本主义固有矛盾的愈发激烈，欧洲的无产阶级爆发了不断的抗争以寻求自身的解放。《共产党宣言》指出，“工人开始成立反对资产者的同盟；他们联合起来保卫自己的工资。他们甚至建立了经常性的团体，以便为可能发生的反抗准备食品。有些地方，斗争爆发为起义”。但是，19世纪30—50年代，最具典型意义的法国里昂工人起义、英国的宪章运动、德国西里西亚纺织工人起义，无一例外都以失败谢幕。

The struggle of the proletariat called for the armament of scientific theory, and *The Communist Manifesto* was precisely the crystallization of scientific theory called forth by the proletarian struggle. The practice of struggle and repeated struggle by the proletariat prompted Marx and Engels to sum up the experiences and lessons of the series of proletarian struggles, so as to scientifically guide the proletariat in resisting the oppression of the bourgeoisie and achieving human liberation. As Marx and Engels pointed out in *The Communist Manifesto*: “The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by this or that would-be universal reformer. They merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very eyes.” [2]2 This quotation is from Section 2 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Proletarians and Communists.” Thus, it was precisely the unremitting struggle of the proletariat that gave birth to *The Communist Manifesto*, this people-centered battle cry.

无产阶级的斗争呼唤科学理论的武装，《共产党宣言》正是无产阶级斗争呼唤的科学理论结晶。无产阶级的斗争与再斗争的实践，促使马克思恩格斯总结无产阶级系列斗争的经验与教训，以便科学指引无产阶级反抗资产阶级的压迫，以求得人类的解放。正如马克思恩格斯在《共产党宣言》所指出的那样，“共产党人的理论原理，绝不是以这个或那个世界改革家所发明或发现的思想、原则为根据的。这些原理不过是现存的阶级斗争、我们眼前的历史运动的真实关系的一般表述”。可见，正是无产阶级坚持不懈的斗争催生了《共产党宣言》这一人民性的战斗檄文。

Marx and Engels’s High Condensation of the Practice of “Human Liberation.” No classic of Marxism was born from a momentary “flash of inspiration”; rather, each is the product of long-term practice, and the same is true of *The Communist Manifesto*. In the period when *The Communist Manifesto* was written, class struggle was exceptionally fierce, and the proletariat’s struggle for rights surged one after another. Marx and Engels personally led and participated in these great struggles, obtained first-hand materials on the struggles, and gained ample practical experience. To accurately understand the workers’ situation, Engels even went deep into factory workshops for more than twenty months, investigating the living and working conditions of the working class, learning about their suffering, struggles, and demands—this played an important role in his and Marx’s joint completion of *The Communist Manifesto*. Standing at the height of the era, Marx and Engels summed up their own practice of participating in “human liberation” and highly condensed the people-centered theory inherent in *The Communist Manifesto*.

马克思恩格斯对“人的解放”实践的高度凝练。马克思主义任何经典的产生都非一时的“灵感迸发”，而是长期实践的产物，《共产党宣言》的产生也是如此。在创作《共产党宣言》的那个时期，阶级斗争异常激烈，无产阶级争取权利的斗争此起彼伏。马克思与恩格斯亲身领导并参与了这些伟大斗争，并掌握了斗争的第一手资料，获得充分的实践体验。恩格斯为了准确了解工人情况，还深入工厂车间二十余月，考察工人阶层的生活、生产状况，了解他们的苦难、斗争和要求，对他与马克思共同完成《共产党宣言》起到重要作用。马克思恩格斯站在时代的高度，总结自身参与“人的解放”的实践，高度凝练出《共产党宣言》内蕴的人民性理论。

The Prefaces as Marx and Engels’s Response to the Practice of “Human Liberation” in Keeping with the Times. Practice has no end, and therefore theory has no end. With the publication of *The Communist Manifesto*, the respective situations of world capitalism and the proletariat underwent significant changes; their contradictions further deepened; the breadth and depth of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie both expanded; and the practical movement of “human liberation” faced new tests. From the publication of *The Communist Manifesto* to the drafting of the first preface, within 24 years, Marx and Engels personally participated in the European Revolutions of 1848, led the “First International,” [3]3 The “First International” refers to the International Workingmen’s Association (1864–1876), founded in London under the leadership of Marx and Engels. and guided the Paris Commune Revolution of 1871, accumulating valuable practical experience. This provided Marx and Engels with “questions of the era,” to which they had to give correct theoretical responses in order to guide the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat in various countries. As Marx and Engels pointed out in the 1872 Preface, the practical application of the general principles set forth in the *Manifesto* “will, at all times, depend on the historical conditions for the time being.” [4]4 This quotation is from the 1872 German edition Preface to *The Communist Manifesto*. As the revolutionary situation developed, Marx and Engels jointly wrote a second preface, fully demonstrating their theoretical integrity of keeping pace with the times. After Marx’s death, further tempering through revolutionary practice deepened Engels’s thought; he gained new insights into the general principles and some formulations of *The Communist Manifesto*, and for this reason he wrote five prefaces on his own to perfect the *Manifesto*. It can be said that the seven prefaces are precisely Marx and Engels’s deepening of the thought of “human liberation” in *The Communist Manifesto* in accordance with the developed revolutionary practice.

《序言》是马克思恩格斯对“人的解放”实践与时俱进的回应。实践无止境，则理论无止境。随着《共产党宣言》的问世，世界资本主义与无产阶级各自的情形发生了较大改变，其矛盾也进一步加深，无产阶级与资产阶级斗争的广度与深度都进一步拓展，“人的解放”的实践运动面临新的考验。从《共产党宣言》的刊发到第一个序言的起草，在24年内，马克思恩格斯亲自参加了1848年的欧洲革命、领导了“第一国际”、指导了1871年巴黎公社革命，积累了宝贵的实践经验。这为马克思恩格斯提供了“时代之问”，他们必须予以理论上的正确回应，以指引各国无产阶级的革命斗争。正如马克思恩格斯在1872年序言中指出的那样，《宣言》中所阐述的一般原理的实际运用，“随时随地都要以当时的历史条件为转移”。随着革命形势的发展，马克思恩格斯又合写了第二篇序言，充分彰显了马克思恩格斯与时俱进的理论操守。马克思逝世后，革命实践的进一步历练，使恩格斯的思想进一步深化，他对于《共产党宣言》的一般原理和一些提法，又有了新的认识，为此还单独撰写了五篇序言以完善《共产党宣言》。可以说，七篇序言正是马克思恩格斯根据发展了的革命实践，对《共产党宣言》“人的解放”思想的深化。

Taking Human Liberation as the Ultimate Goal

以人的解放为最终目标

The Communist Party always represents the interests of the vast majority of the people and has no special interests of its own. *The Communist Manifesto* points out that the movement of the proletariat is the communist movement. “All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.” [5]5 This quotation is from Section 2 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Proletarians and Communists.” The Communists “have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole.” [6]6 This quotation is from Section 2 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Proletarians and Communists.” The Communist Party is composed of the advanced elements of the proletariat, has no private interests, and is the vanguard of the revolutionary movement; therefore, it can represent the interests of workers, peasants, handicraftsmen, small traders, etc., win their sincere support, and thus gather vigorous revolutionary strength. Hence, the Communist Party can represent the interests of the entire proletariat and the working masses.

共产党始终代表最广大人民的利益，没有自己的特殊利益。《共产党宣言》指出，无产阶级的运动是共产主义运动。“过去的一切运动都是少数人的，或者为少数人谋利益的运动。无产阶级的运动是绝大多数人的，为绝大多数人谋利益的独立的运动。”共产党人“没有任何同整个无产阶级的利益不同的利益”。共产党由无产阶级的先进分子所组成，毫无私利，是革命运动的先锋队，因而能够代表工人、农民、手工业者、小工商业者等的利益，受到其真诚的拥戴，从而汇集起蓬勃的革命力量。因此，共产党能够代表整个无产阶级与劳动群众的利益。

In capitalist society, the proletariat and other working masses are subjected to extreme oppression, making human liberation an urgent need. Yet liberation cannot be achieved overnight; it must be realized persistently and step by step. *The Communist Manifesto* states: “The first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy.” [7]7 This quotation is from Section 2 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Proletarians and Communists.” “The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.” [8]8 This quotation is from Section 2 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Proletarians and Communists.” This exposition indicates that for the proletariat to achieve liberation, the first step is to overthrow bourgeois rule through proletarian revolution and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat—this is the fundamental political prerequisite for adhering to people-centeredness. The second step is to use the dictatorship of the proletariat to carry out socialist transformation, expropriate the assets of the bourgeoisie, place the means of production in the hands of the proletariat, and establish socialist economic relations—this is the fundamental economic foundation for adhering to people-centeredness. The third step is to vigorously develop production, consolidate the material foundation of socialism, gradually create conditions for the elimination of classes and class distinctions, and prepare for the transition to communism. Marx and Engels pointed out that the realization of communism is an inevitability of historical development; however, this is a long historical process that requires a series of transitional measures, persistent effort, and ultimately entry into communism. *The Communist Manifesto* particularly emphasizes that communist society will be an association “in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” [9]9 This quotation is from Section 2 of *The Communist Manifesto*, “Proletarians and Communists.” This shows that the class liberation of the proletariat and human liberation are inseparable; for the proletariat to achieve liberation, it must liberate all of humanity; only under communism can people achieve true liberation.

在资本主义社会，无产阶级与其他劳动群众受到极度压迫，人的解放成为迫切的需要，但解放又不能一蹴而就，需持之以恒且有步骤地实现。《共产党宣言》指出：“工人革命的第一步就是使无产阶级上升为统治阶级，争得民主。”“无产阶级将利用自己的政治统治， 一步一步地夺取资产阶级的全部资本， 把一切生产工具集中在国家即组织成为统治阶级的无产阶级手里， 并且尽可能快地增加生产力的总量。”这一论述指明了无产阶级要获得解放，第一步是通过无产阶级革命，推翻资产阶级统治，建立无产阶级专政，这是坚持人民性的根本政治前提。第二步是利用无产阶级专政进行社会主义改造，剥夺资产阶级的资产，把生产资料收归无产阶级，建立社会主义的经济关系。这是坚持人民性的根本经济基础。第三步是大力发展生产，巩固社会主义的物质基础，逐步创造消灭阶级和阶级差别的条件，为向共产主义过渡做准备。马克思恩格斯指出，实现共产主义是历史发展的必然，然而这是个长期的历史过程，需采取一系列过渡性措施，持之以恒，最终步入共产主义。《共产党宣言》特别强调，共产主义社会，将是这样一个联合体，“在那里，每个人的自由发展是一切人的自由发展的条件”。这表明，无产阶级的阶级解放和人类解放不可分离，无产阶级要获得解放，就必须解放全人类，只有到了共产主义，人才有真正的解放。

The people-centered essence embodied in *The Communist Manifesto* possesses contemporary value that transcends time and space. Through the seven prefaces, Marx and Engels theoretically supplemented and perfected the situation of the proletariat’s revolutionary struggle after the publication of *The Communist Manifesto*, thereby developing the people-centered essence expounded in the work. Its core tenet is to adhere to the theoretical advancement with the times and to uphold the thought of being “people-centered.” This reflects our Party’s consistent fundamental purpose and innovative development of the people-centered thought of *The Communist Manifesto*, embodies the theoretical character of Marxism’s upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, and contains the most essential connotation of *The Communist Manifesto*.

《共产党宣言》所体现的人民性本质，具有跨越时空的当代价值。马克思恩格斯通过七篇序言对《共产党宣言》发表后无产阶级革命斗争的形势在理论上进行了补充性完善，发展了《共产党宣言》阐释的人民性本质。其要旨就是坚持理论的与时俱进，坚持“以人民为中心”的思想，体现了我们党对《共产党宣言》人民性思想一以贯之的根本旨归与创新性发展，体现了马克思主义守正创新的理论品格，内蕴着《共产党宣言》最本质的内涵。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗