Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818–March 14, 1883) was a German-Jewish[1] philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist, revolutionary, and communist icon.
Marx's approach to history and politics is indicated by the opening line of the first chapter of The Communist Manifesto (1848): “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction.[2] Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, capitalism itself will be displaced by communism, a classless society which emerges after a transitional period—socialism—in which the state would be nothing else but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.[3][4][5]
On the one hand, Marx argued for a systemic understanding of socioeconomic change. On this model, it is the structural contradictions within capitalism which necessitate its end, giving way to communism:
“
The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.
”

— (The Communist Manifesto)[6]
On the other hand, Marx argued that socioeconomic change occurred through organized revolutionary action. On this model, capitalism will end through the organized actions of an international working class, led by a Communist Party: "Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence." (from The German Ideology)
While Marx was a relatively obscure figure in his own lifetime, his ideas began to exert a major influence on workers' movements shortly after his death. This influence was given added impetus by the victory of the Marxist Bolsheviks in the Russian October Revolution, and there are few parts of the world which were not significantly touched by Marxian ideas in the course of the twentieth century.
拜访马克思
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1818年5月5日是卡尔·马克思的生日。在5月4日下午，我们来到这位伟大思想家葬身的墓园拜访他。1883年3月14日马克思病逝后，恩格斯就是在这里发表他著名的讲话（from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_marx）：
“On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep — but forever.”（“3月14日下午两点三刻，当代最伟大的思想家停止思想了。让他一个人留在房间里不过两分钟，等我们再进去的时候，便发现他在安乐椅上安静地睡着了——但已经是永远地睡着了。”）