Engels and Marx's Capital: a Present-Day Viewpoint

In recent years, discussions around Marx’s Capital have been mainly related to assessment of the Engels’ role in publication of the second and third volumes of Capital, left by Marx in the form of unfinished draft manuscripts. A new impetus to these discussions was given by publication of all draft manuscripts and lifetime editions of Capital in the Complete Edition of the Works of K. Marx and F. Engels in the original language (Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe / MEGA). Critics of Engels refer to textual differences between Marx’s manuscripts and the editions of Capital, published by Engels’, and argue that Engels simplified, and in some cases distorted Marx’s fundamental propositions. The article highlights the main trends of the current criticism of Engels’ editorial work. As one of the editors of Marx’s manuscripts of Capital, Book II, in the MEGA, the author characterizes the main points of Engels’ editorial work, shows the problems associated with the preparation of the draft manuscripts of Capital for publication. The article provides a conclusion concerning the factors that determined the Engels’ editorial work on the second and third volumes of Capital and shows the significance of the MEGAedition for study of this subject