Back to Engels: A Long Century of the First Fiddle without the Second

In hearing nature hears itself, in smelling it smells itself, in seeing it sees itself. (Marx, 1841) OTH WESTERN MARXISM AND SOVIET MARXISM share the assumption that Engels and Marx agreed upon a division of labour between them: Engels had specialized in nature and Marx in history. 1 Therefore, the contributions of Engels were either rejected or embraced for this exact reason in Western Marxism and Soviet Marxism, respectively. Consequently, these two seemingly contrasting camps had agreed on a similar positivistic approach that amounted to a 'Marxism without Engels'.