Marx put forth not only a way of thinking about the world but also a specific political and economic program, namely the abolition of private property, as the solution to the problems of modern capitalism. Disagreements over exactly how and when humanity might achieve this condition had been ongoing since Marx first wrote. Marx joined the International Workingmen’s Association (now known as the First International), viewing it as the vehicle for a worldwide workers’ movement, only to have it split between people who called themselves Marxists and favored a dictatorship of the proletariat and anarchists who wanted to dissolve all forms of government above the trade union.

Debates over the legacy of Marxism were at the peak of their intensity during the publication of the Paris Manuscripts in Moscow in 1932. Lenin’s death in 1924 left the Soviet Bolsheviks without a leader, so prominent party members looked to Marx’s writings to validate their claims to leadership. By 1932, Stalin had emerged as the frontrunner, and the publication of the Paris Manuscripts that year signified one of the last major challenges to Stalin’s power. The initial editor, David Ryazanov, was trying to avoid conflict among the Bolsheviks by holding up Marx (along with his frequent collaborator Friedrich Engels) as the true authority, while Stalin was starting to represent himself as an intellectual figure on par with, if not superior to, Marx and Engels.