Did Karl Marx say that only a guest, an idiot or occupier could not know the language of the country?

In recent years, activists in the post -Soviet space often quote the phrase attributed to the German philosopher. We checked whether it really belongs to Karl Marx.

The statement is completely like this: "The guest, an idiot or occupier that imposes his own language can not know the language of the country of residence." In the 2010s and 2020s, he could often be found on the posters of protesters and even billboards in the states of the former USSR, where the language question is especially acute: in Moldova, Ukraine, Latviaas well as in the national republics RF. On the Internet, a quote is mentioned and Kazakhstani Activists. In the summer of 2023, the publication of the former vice speaker of the Moldovan Parliament Alexander Sucker With this phrase, the signature of Marx scored almost 3,000 reposts on Facebook.

The problem of the status of the Russian language in the post -Soviet space arose immediately after the collapse of the USSR. It was especially relevant in those republics where a significant part of the population did not speak the language of the titular nation, for example, in the Baltic countries. The situation was aggravated after the beginning of a full -scale Russian invasion of Ukraine - in particular, by accepted In 2022, in Latvia, the law of Russian citizens living in the country, who were previously citizens or non -citizens of Latvia, must pass the language exam to extend a permanent residence permit if they did not do this before and do not fall under exceptions. Local ministries recently Refused From the use of the Russian language in communication with citizens and on official sites. Although the policy of the Latvian authorities sharply tightened relatively recently, language Activists They called for such measures for more than one year and at one time at the demonstrations they used a quote attributed to Marx.

The written heritage of Karl Marx has been well studied, primarily due to the cult role of his personality in the USSR. "Verified" investigated two publications The complete works of the German philosopher (a couple with Frederick Engels), published in the Soviet Union. However, neither there nor in the original German -speaking publications There are no similar thoughts behind the authorship of Marx. Moreover, options for the translation of the desired statement to German are not found on the network at all, that is, this language is not original for a viral phrase.

However, the language of its origin was hardly Russian. In classical form, a quote appears on the Internet only around 2012, when it Used On his poster, one Ukrainian activist. But in the formulation “a person who does not speak the language of the people on the land of which is a guest, or an invader, or a slave of this occupier” (also “... either a slave or an invading”) a statement was quoted And earlier, in 2006. Moreover, each time they were Ukrainian users, sometimes led by translation of the phrase into Ukrainian - this version Used And at the demonstration in 2010 in Kyiv. And it is in Ukrainian Found In print publications of the first half of the 2000s: ""The soul inside out"(2000),"The history of the Ukrainian language in the notes of Yuri Kuzmenko"(2003),"Ukraine and communism"(2003),"Independent cultural magazine"(2004). At the same time, in some cases, the name of Karl Marx is not mentioned nearby-for example, he is replaced by a French identity philosopher Charles Bernard Renum Or a poet Charles de Bernard, in which we, however, also did not find such a quote.

The oldest of the discovered "verified" mention of a quote in Ukrainian dates back to 1997, when it met in book Anatoly Goruti "East and Westerners: similarities and differences." It says: “It will be appropriate to bring very well -aimed words that are allegedly belonging to the unpopular now K. Marx (I quote on the newspaper" Fleet of Ukraine "from 11/16/1996):" A person living in the country and does not know the state language, or a guest, or a slave, or occupier. "

Currently the archive of the newspaper "Fleet of Ukraine", Which has been published since 1992 in Sevastopol in Ukrainian, is not in the public domain. Nevertheless, this publication, judging by the quote, does not give an answer to the question of what work the desired words are taken from. Already in the 1990s, the authorship of the quote was questioned, and before that it simply did not meet in famous publications either in German or in Russian. Thus, most likely, it was attributed to the German philosopher many years after his death, and in another country.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Incorrect attribution of quote

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