QUOTATIONS FROM "THE EASTERN QUESTION" BY KARL MARX

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP60-00321R000400140011-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 31, 2013
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: July 29, 1958
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/12 :CIA-RDP60-003218000400140011-1
29 July 1958
Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence
Subject: Quotations from "The Eastern Question" by Karl Marx
1. This book is a reprint of Zetters and articles written by
Karl Marx 1853-56, dealing principally with events leading up to the
Crimean War and the war itself. They all appeared in the New York
Tribune.
2. The real issue in Turkey ., April 1$~ 1853 (p. ].$) Russia
is decided~.y a conquering nation, and was so fQr a century, until the
great movement of 1789 called into potent activity an antagonist of
formidable nature. We mean the European Revolution, the explosive
force of democratic ideas and man's native thirst for freedom. Since
that epoch there have been in reality but two powers on the continent
of Europe - Russia and Absolutism, the Revolution and Democracy. For
the moment the Revolution seems to be suppressed, but it lives and is
feared as deeply as ever. Witness the terror of the reaction at the
news of the late rising at Milan. But let Russia get possession of
Turkey, and her strength is increased nearly half, and she becomes
superior to all the rest of Europe put together.
3. The Russian humbug - June 22, 1853 (p? 36-7) All the Russian
Generals and other Russians residing at Paris have received orders to
return to Russia without delay. The language adopted by M. de Kisseleff,
the Russian envoy at Paris, is rather menacing; and letters from
Petersburg are ostentatiously shown by him, in which the Turkish
question is treated adz cavalierement. A rumour has issued from the
same quarter, report~.ng that Russia demands from Persia the cession of
the texritory of Asterabad, at the south-eastern extremity of the
Caspian Sea. Russian merchants, at the same time, despatch, or are
reported to have despatched, orders to their London agents "not to
press any sales of grain at the present juncture, as prices were expected
to rise in the imminent eventuality of a war:." Lastly, confidential
hints are being communicated to every newspaper that the Russian troops
are marching to the frontier; trat the inhabitants of Jassy are
preparing for their reception; that the Russian Consul at Galatz has
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/12 :CIA-RDP60-003218000400140011-1
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/12 :CIA-RDP60-003218000400140011-1
Subject: Quotations from 'iThe Eastern Question" by Karl Niarx
bought up an immense number of trees for the throwing of several
bridges across the Danube, and other canards, the breeding of which has
been so successfully carried on by the Augsburger Zeitung and other
Austro-Russian journals.
These, and a lot of similar reports, communications, etc., are
nothing but so many ridiculous attempts on the part of the Russian
agents to strike a wholesome terror into the western world, and to
push it to the continuance of that policy of extension, under the
cover of which Russia hopes, as heretofore, to carry out her projects
upon the East.
~.. Russian Policy - Dec. 30, 1853 (p. 187) But the great point
is that Nicholas has perfectly relied upon bullying Turkey and her
allies. This has been manifest throughout the affair, though never
before avowed by any authority claiming to express the feeling of the
Russian Court itself. It has been a bullying business all along.
The appearance and conduct of Mentschikoff at Constantinople were simply
those of a bully; the manifestoes of Nesselrode were the menaces of a
bully; and the entry of corps was nothing but the bold pres?unption of
a bully. It has been justified by the result. England, especially
has been imposed on. She has been bullied, and is so still. She has
not dared to declare her soul to be her own from the beginning to the
present day. France, too, has been bullied, though not so seriously.
But both together have been frightened out of the only policy which
could at once have guaranteed the preservation of peace, while
maintaining their own respectability. To the arrogance of the Autocrat
they have replied with the symptoms of cotrardice. They have encouraged
the very assumptions they have deprecated, just as poltroons always
encourage bullies to be overbearing. If, at the outset, they has used
a manly style of language adequate to the position .they hold, and the
pretensions they set up before the world, if they had proved that
bluster and swagger could not impose on theme the Autocrat would not
only have refrained from attempting its but would have entertained for
them a very different feeling from that contempt which must r_ow animate
his bosom. At that time, to show that they seriously meant to preserve
Turkey intact, and were ready t o back up their intention with the last
reason of kings -fleets and armies, tress the sure means of maintaining
peace. 'T'here is only one way to deal with a Power like Russia, and that
is the fearless way.
STAT
Office of National Estimates
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/06/12 :CIA-RDP60-003218000400140011-1