Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Type | Online literature collection, encyclopedia |
| Available in | 80 languages |
| Founded |
The Marx/Engels Archive 1990 |
| Espoused ideology |
Marxism Trotskyism |
| URL | marxists.org |
The Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or simply Marxists.org) is a non-profit online archive of Marxist and socialist texts. Marxists.org hosts writings from "close to 1,000 authors" in 83 languages,[1] often with explanatory notes and introductions providing historical context for the reader. In addition, the site maintains the Marxists Internet Archive Encyclopedia (MIAE), which contains brief entries on topics relevant to Marxist philosophy, Marxist economics, historical materialism, and leftist history. The MIA claims to have over 100 active volunteers from several dozen countries around the world.[1] In addition to leftist authors, the site also hosts some material which is otherwise relevant to the study of Marxism, including selected works from Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and J. M. Keynes. The founders of the site were primarily Trotskyist, and the Encyclopedia and other aspects of the site are considered to have a Trotskyist bias.
As of April 2014, the Marxists Internet Archive is missing a significant number of rarer Marx and Engels works, primarily letters, due to a copyright notice from the holders of the rights to the Marx/Engels Collected Works.[2]
Content
The Marxists Internet Archive is most notable for its library and encyclopedia but also hosts other types of resources, including photos, portraits, artworks, and images of historical documents.
Library
In addition to annotated reproductions of dozens of works from Marx and Engels, the MIA Library contains works from the most prominent socialist writers of the 20th century, including Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Kautsky, Plekhanov, Bukharin, Gramsci, Rosa Luxemburg, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Louis Althusser, Kim Il Sung, Kwame Nkrumah, Enver Hoxha, and hundreds of others in addition to articles from dozens of communist and anarchist publications. Many of the most notable works are available in PDF format. However, other sites may be considered better resources for more specific areas or tendencies, such as marx2mao.com, bannedthought.net, or The Anarchist Library.
Encyclopedia
The Marxists Internet Archive Encyclopedia (also known as the Glossary) contains entries on various topics:
- Marxist economic concepts, such as alienation, productive forces, exploitation
- Political theory, such as fascism, liberalism, the state, proletarian democracy
- Leftist history, such as the October Revolution
- Marxist historiography, such as slave society
- Philosophy, such as dialectics, Being, Becoming, structuralism, species being, reification
- Biographical and intellectual sketches of various authors and figures
The Encyclopedia is cumbersome to use, but it can be searched using the Index or the modified Google search box, both available here.
History
Criticism
Bias
The Marxists Internet Archive's potential use as an educational resource is hampered by the Trotskyist bias imparted by the site's earliest contributors. The most obvious example is the inclusion of Trotsky's writings on the curated "Selected Marxists" page while omitting authors like Stalin and Mao.[3] Trotsky's portrait is also featured on many of the front pages for different languages on the site, including Chinese, French, Spanish, and Persian. The site's glossary entry for "Stalinism" holds the USSR under Stalin's leadership, and "Stalinism" itself, to be unrepresentative of Marxism, having "uprooted the very foundations of Marxism and Leninism" and representing a "totalitarian" and "bureaucratic dictatorship."[failed verification][4][Note 1]
Notes
- ↑ The MIAE classifies Josip Broz Tito and Mao Zedong and others as "Stalinists",[citation needed] both of whom were known for theoretical disagreements with Stalin.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Introduction Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed 23 Sep 2023.
- ↑ “File No Longer Available!”, Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed 23 Sep 2023.
- ↑ Frequently Asked Questions. Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed 23 Sep 2023.
- ↑ Glossary of Terms — Stalinism Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed 23 Sep 2023.
External links
- Front page, including links to several language options
- Index of works by Karl Marx