Engels’s Military Thought: Historical Materialism and Modern Warfare

Friedrich Engels’s military writings are a relatively poorly known part of his output, even though Marxist theoreticians frequently make references to them highlighting the links between technological progress and the intensity of military conflicts identified by him. The existing literature is pretty old and focuses on Engels as a revolutionary strategist and ideologue, although there are also works written by authors who consider his military interests as being of importance for the development of the Marxist doctrine in the field of operational art and tactics. I think that Engels’s works deserve our attention; they allow us to rediscover him as an insightful thinker in the context of transferring methodological rules of historical materialism into military studies. This enables Marxists to reject on scientific grounds the bourgeois and utopian view that spontaneous and disorganized armed uprisings – following the views expressed by August Blanqui or August Willich – are efficient means for conducting social revolutions. Moreover, the current state of knowledge on the contribution of Engels in this field requires updating and systematization. This will enable discussion of several significant issues. For example,