‘Architect of Genocide’ – Vandals Deface Karl Marx’s English Grave

Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery, London, has been defaced with anti-Communist graffiti, branding the dead thinker an “architect of genocide”.

Marx intellectual is memorialised with a huge stone plinth in the cemetery, crowned by a huge bust of his head.

An unidentified individual or individuals defaced the plinth with red spraypaint, reading “Memorial to Bolshevik Holocaust”, “66,000,000 DEAD”, “Architect of Genocide, terror + oppression, Mass Murder”, “Ideology of Starving”, and “Doctrine of HATE”.

The German Jewish intellectual played no direct role in the notoriously bloodstained communist revolutions and one-party regimes of the 20th century, dying in England in 1883 — but his writings are regarded by many as having given licence to the methods employed by his later acolytes.

For example, he wrote in 1849 that “there is only one way in which the murderous death agonies of the old society and the bloody birth throes of the new society can be shortened, simplified and concentrated, and that way is revolutionary terror”, warning his opponents: “We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror.” These words were taken very much to heart by Soviet leaders Vladimir Ulyanov (Vladimir Lenin), Lev Bronstein (Leon Trotsky), and Joseph Jugashvili (Joseph Stalin) when they implemented Marx’s plan for a “dictatorship of the proletariat” under a Communist “vanguard” in the former Russian Empire. The defacing is the second act of vandalism against Marx’s gravesite in a month, with Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust chief executive Ian Dungavell, having described the first attack on his monument, in which a plaque was damaged with a hammer, as “very upsetting”. Highgate Cemetery branded the latest incident “Senseless. Stupid. Ignorant.” on social media. “

Heck they’re removing confederate memorials (and defacing headstones) throughout the US. Is it too much to expect the British government to acquiese to removing the monument to Karl Marx in favor of a modest headstone? Not that I’m really advocating it. History is history. But the turnabout would be delicious.

“Did Marx actually advocate the bloodshed that eventually arose”

Considering he made clear in two correspondences with Engels that he wished to re-enact Robespierre’s reign of terror, and even indicated he wanted its bloodshed to surpass even that of Robespierre, yes, he actually DID advocate for what eventually arose. I’ll even supply you with the quotes proving it:

“Once we are at the helm, we shall be obliged to reenact the year 1793. We’ll be considered monsters, but we couldn’t care less.”-Marx-Engels Gesamt-Ausgabe, vol. vi pp 503–505, final issue of Neue Rheinische Zeitung, May 18, 1849. Quoted in Thomas G. West, Marx and Lenin, The Claremont Institute

“We are pitiless and we ask no pity from you. When our time comes, we shall not conceal terrorism with hypocritical phrases. The vengeance of the people will break forth with such ferocity that not even the year 1793 enables us to envisage it.”-Marx-Engels Gesamt-Ausgabe, vol. vi pp 503–505, final issue of Neue Rheinische Zeitung, May 18, 1849. Quoted in Thomas G. West, Marx and Lenin, The Claremont Institute

And quite frankly, considering Thomas Jefferson loved the French Revolution and supported the Reign of Terror, they’re closer to being peas in a pod than Lincoln and Marx were.

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