History

Helene Demuth is who the claim is talking about -- she joined the Marx family in 1845 after being sent by Marx's mother in law.

Helene had a son in 1951, which Engels claimed paternity of, and who was later given up for foster care (though Marx's daughters maintained correspondence with him). The theory, which has been around since 1898, is that Engels only claimed this to save Marx's marriage with Jenny.

The evidence for this is a letter written in 1898 by Louise Strasser (who was married to Karl Kautsky until 1889) claiming that Engels made a deathbed confession to Marx's daughter Eleanor in 1895. The claim goes that Engels was worried about his name being "besmirched" -- a questionable idea given Engels' history and the fact that this was a 48 year old non-issue at this point. She also claims to have previously seen a letter between Engels and Marx confirming this, but suggests that Engels probably destroyed it (another questionably idea if he was worried about his good name). No such letter has ever been found.

Coincidentally Louise's letter was only written in the months after Eleanor herself had died, so she couldn't confirm or deny it. There's no other evidence that she, Helene, Engels, Marx, Jenny (who was extremely close to Helene or anyone else ever independently mentioned it.

Louise's letter suffers from other problems, including obvious inaccuracies. For example, it (rather oddly) claims that Engels also 'confessed' on his deathbed that Marx and Jenny had stopped having sex by 1950, but Jenny gave birth several times after this. None of Louise's contemporaries, including her ex-husband Kautsky, considered her a reliable source of information and almost everyone at the time dismissed the letter.

It's also worth mentioning that Frederich, the son, also once claimed in a letter to be Marx's son. But he was doing so in order to claim the right to some money -- which he didn't get. He offered no further evidence for the statement, and as far as we know never mentioned it in correspondence with Marx's daughters.

So there is a basis for the claim -- they didn't just invent it out of thin air. However, it's thin at best, and even that thin layer has some serious credibility issues.

Analysis from: https://old.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/5m55ir/is_there_any_evidence_that_karl_marx_impregnated/dc11bcw/

Going to sleep now, but damn, how many of history's battles were sieges?!

https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/about/news/press-release/0071

Bringing together little-known archival footage and brand-new interviews, ***Playing for Power *** sheds light on the prominent and backroom players who brought Boris Yeltsin to power in 1991, but lost momentum during the implementation of democracy in Russia.

PBS broadcasted it only once. It has many interview clips of key US & Russian actors involved at the time.

I found it because [someone was looking for it on !helpmefind@lemmy.ml](https://lemmy.ml/post/32398901).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Blake

Check it out.

USSR and China mentioned as well regarding their scientific exploits.

Thoughts?

I love animals and especially deep history and evolution.

In the immediate aftermath of the war large sections of the German population yearned for real change: demoralised and traumatised by the war, many realised that the [Fascists], with the collaboration of the big financiers and industrialists, had perpetrated a cruel historical experiment on the nation.

As in Britain, the majority of the population was sick of war and the injustices of the past and was demanding a more just and equitable society. In all four occupied sectors of Germany, there was widespread demand for the expropriation of the big banks, utilities and [Axis]-supporting industrialists, a genuine de-nazification and democratic reform — and these demands were being made not only by left-wing parties, but across the political spectrum.

In 1946, referendums were held in Saxony, in the Soviet zone, as well as in Hesse, in the U.S. zone of occupation. In Saxony, voters were asked to approve or reject a proposal to expropriate large landowners and those big industrialists who had been active [Axis] supporters and war criminals. It was proposed that these large industries be taken into public ownership. Over 77 per cent of votes cast were in favour of these proposals.

Two referendums were held in Hesse, one on a new constitution — the most progressive proposal to be voted on in the U.S. zone — in which voters were asked whether they supported Article 41 on the nationalisation of essential industries and banks. Over 62 per cent voted in favour. The U.S. occupying forces then organised a further referendum on Article 41 (clearly in the hope that it would be defeated), but 72 per cent then voted in favour. Article 41 stated that, ‘the mining industry (coal, ore and potash), iron and steel industry, energy companies and railways should be placed under public control; large banks and insurance companies should be regulated or administered by the state.’

In contrast to what happened in the Soviet zone, the western occupying forces chose to ignore these demands carried by overwhelming majorities. Similar referendums were also held in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia), in the British zone, both of which also gave majorities for expropriation. However, with the immediate onset of the Cold War and the West’s fear of the spread of socialist thinking, these democratic decisions were vetoed by the western occupying powers.[¹]

www.declassifieduk.org/how-britains-colonial-cover-ups-continued-in-northern-ireland/

As the title says, I'm looking for material detailing the Nazis rise to power. There's just so much material on this subject that, without a background in history, I'm finding it a bit hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

In this fascinating episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Kit Klarenberg of The Grayzone to discuss the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia, its relevance to today, and the delusion of US air power! We are also lucky to be joined by Nemanja Lukić as a guest host for this episode. In addition to being a keen analyst (and former guest of Guerrilla History), Nemanja personally lived through the bombing campaign. This is a terrific discussion with plenty of history, analysis, and connections being drawn between this event of the past and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This is an important one, you won't want to miss a minute!

Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and the UK Lead at The Grayzone. He also runs his personal site Global Delinquents and can be found on twitter @KitKlarenberg.

Nemanja Lukić is a Yugoslav anti-imperialist activist who runs the Anti-Imperialist Network website. You can also follow Anti-Imp Net on twitter @antiimpnet. Additionally, you should check out the article that Nemanja mentioned that he coauthored with our friend (and former guest) Alejandro Pedregal here.

89 years ago Albert Pot and Theo Grijp, two union militants in Antwerp, were spreading out flyers for the elections when they heard about fascist activists targetting the dockworkers union building. They decided to check out what the problem was and managed to locate four fascists elsewhere in the city. One of them took out a gun and shot down Albert Pot. Theo Grijp chased off the shooter, only to be shot himself. They both died.

The murders resulted in a general strike in which half a million people in Belgium eventually halted their work. The enormous scale of the protest lead to the introduction of the 40 hour work week in Belgium together with 6 paid holidays a year, health insurance, child support money and a wage increase of 7%. This strike is considered the beginning of the social security system we have today in Belgium.

Rest in power, comrades.