The Civil War—Russian Version (I): from the Soviet Encyclopedia

THE CIVIL WARRUSSIAN VERSION (I): FROM THE SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA Translated by Ada M. Stoflet [EDITOR'S NOTE: Foreign commentaries on our Civil War are of continuing fascination. In this issue Civil War History affords a rare opportunity to glimpse the cunent Russian view. The following article, taken from the official Soviet encyclopedia, the Bolshaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopedia (2nd ed; Moscow, 1949-1958), XII, 408-412, represents a version of the Great Conflict approved for all Soviet citizens. Although a translation of the Entsiklopedia's general summary of American history has already been published (see Ann E. Yanko, et al., A Soviet View of the American Past [Madison, Wis., 1960] ), this is the first time the Civil War article has appeared in English. [Except for the exclusion of a short bibliography and several crossreference notations, the text presented here is unabridged. Source citations , however, have been changed into footnotes keyed to Englishtranslation editions instead of the Russian-language volumes originally fisted. A temptation to encumber the nanative with editorial notes qualifying the many highly questionable points of interpretation was resisted. Marxist distortions and oversimplifications, as well as occasional enors of fact, will be apparent to anyone generally familiar with the literature on the war. Possibly surprising, however, will be the role of Marx and Engels—the fathers of communism—as Civd War armchair strategists, their comments having originally appeared in the New York Tribune and the Vienna Presse (1861-1862) as well as in conespondence with one another. [The translator, Ada M. Stoflet, is currently a member of the Reference Department at the State University of Iowa Library. She gratefully acknowledges help provided by the late Dr. Margaret Rempel in checking certain portions of the text.] THE CIVIL WAR IN THE U.S.A., 1861-1865 The war between the Northern states and the rebellious Southern slave states exhibited the struggle of two social systems—the system 357 358ADA M. stoflet of slavery and the system of free labor.1 By the middle of the nineteenth century, conflicts between Northern manufacturing states and Southern slave states had sharply increased. Slavery was impeding the economic development of the U.S.A. Employing their political sway in Congress and in the executive branch of the federal government, the slaveowning planters seized the unsettled western lands which the farmers of the Northern states also hastened to take up. In the North the movement for the abolition of slavery made great progress, profiting by wide support in farm circles and among the business class, which saw in slavery an obstacle to the development of capitalism in the nation. Some big businessmen of the North, closely linked economically to the South, came out against abolitionism. The Democratic party, which represented the interests of the Southern planters, approved Negro slavery and its spread throughout the country. In 1854, the Republican party was organized in the North. It demanded , in the interests of the business class and the farmers, the opening of western lands for free settlement, and also came out against slavery. From 1854 to 1856, clashes between farmers and planters in Kansas, then being settled, turned into an armed struggle which was, in reality, the beginning of the Civil War. Having attempted to touch off a Negro uprising in Virginia, John Brown, that white farmer and wrestler against slavery, faded and was executed by the slaveholders. The Southern slaveowners strove to retain political power in their hands so as not only to maintain slavery in the Southern states but also to extend it throughout the U.S.A. Nevertheless, the movement against slavery continued to spread. In 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, which stripped slaves of all rights and declared them to be the property of their owners, even in Northern states where slavery did not formally exist. The election of the Republican party candidate, A. Lincoln, as President of the U.S.A. in 1860 served as a signal for secession and open rebellion by the Southern slaveowners. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina proclaimed its secession from the Union. Other slave states followed her example. At the convention held at Montgomery in February , 1861, the slaveowners proclaimed the...