I quote a report from "The Japan Times" Tuesday, Sep. 30, 1997
as follows;
**********
Susumu Nakagawa, an ditor at a Tokyo-based publishing company,
cannot forget the excitement he felt when he entered a basement valult
in Moscow in spring 1996.
"We passed the first thick concrete wall and then came to the
second concrete wall, which was about 2-meters thick," Nakagawa recalled.
"Then a steel door looking like a submarine bulkhead door was opened and
we were led into the storage vault. Three keys were needed to get there."
What Nakagawa and his cameraman gained access to were six notebooks
of discursive drafts by Karl Marx. Written in the winter of 1857-58 in
London,
they are now stored at the Russian Center of Conservation and Study of
Record
for Modern History, formerley the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute of the Soviet
Communist Party's Central Committee.
The notebooks, in addition to two others stored at the Instenational
Institute of Social History in Amsterdam constitute "Grundrisse der Kritik
der Politischen Oekonomie" ("Outlines of the Critique of Political
Economy").
The work is one of a number of manuscripts by Marx first printed in
the 20th century along with the "Economic-Philosophical Manuscript of 1844"
("Paris Manuscript"), in which the young Marx deals with such themes as the
alienation of labor and private property and communism.
Nakagawa, editor at Otsuki Shoten Publishers Co., and his cameraman
spent two weeks in Moscow and then four days in Amsterdam to photograph the
covers and the 390 pages that make up the eight notebooks.
The company plans to publish on Oct. 16 a copy of the "Grundrisse"
manuscript that faithfully reproduces the handwriting, ink and pencil colors
that Marx used, and even the watermarks of the paper. The publisher made one
concession in the reproduction, enlarging it to 1.3 times tha original size
to increase clarity. An accompanying monochrome copy will be the same size
as the original.
Although typeset ediions and translations have been printed, this
will be the first time that the handwritten "Grundrisse" manuscript in its
original form is published.
Otsuki Shoten plans to sell only 150 copies of the edition both in
Japan and abroad for 850,000 yen (about 7,100 dollas?: Akama) with an
explanatory booklet written in Japanese, German and English. "We hope that
in each country, at research institutes will be interested in buying our
edition," Nakagawa said.
David Mclellan, a British scholar, called "Grundrisse" "the most
fundamental of all Marx's writings," and writes in the introduction to his
book containing Englisch-translated excerpts from "Grundrisse": "It is ...
the centerpiece of Marx's thought: any selection of Marx's writings that
does not quote fairly widely from the 'Grundrisse' must be judged severely
inadequate."
"Grundrisse" is not limited to economic doctrines but deals with
Marx's vision of the full and free development of an individual's creativity
in a future communist society through increased free time or nonworking
time brought about by extensive use of automation and technology.
In "Grundrisse," Marx also touches on the concept of the Asiatic
mode of production to explain the characteristics of the development of
Oriental societies as distinct from European societies.
The history surrounding the manuscript is mysterious.
In 1923, the discovery of the "Grundrisse" notebooks was announced
to scholars in Moscow. But then the notebooks apparently disappeared only
to be rediscovered later.
Nakagawa said that according to one theory, many of Marx's
notebooks,
including the "Grundrisse" notebooks, were in the safe of the Social
Democratic Party of Germany when Adofl Hitler came to power in 1933. Then
they disappeared. The notebooks turned up both in France and the Netherlands
between 1943-44, and were collected at the Amsterdam institute. Later the
Soviet Union obtained some of the notebooks from the institute.
There is another theory: Marx's notebooks were buried in a field in
Germany after Hitler came to power, and when the Soviet Union occupied East
Germany it obtained the notebooks
Nakagawa believes the change in Russia since the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1991 is a factor behind the Moscow institute's decision
to allow cameraman to photograph the manuscript.
"A Russian interpreter told us that it is like a dream being able
to go inside the storage vault because the place was not the kind of place
ordinary people were able to come close to," the editor recalled." Before
contacting the Moscow institute, we had expected hard negotiations. But
we were able to strike a normal commercial deal.
"This means that they want firms outside Russia to publish their
possessions."
Stressing the value of the exact reproduction of the "Grundrisse"
manuscript, Nakagawa said, "The manuscript is a precious piece of property
of humankind. I believe that there is a need all the more nowadays to find
out what Marx was actually thinking or was trying to say by going back to
history, that is, to his original manuscript.
"I guess that in the editing process for typeset editions of the
'Grundrisse,' there were many interpretations. The exact copy of the hand-
written manuscript will be of great help in interpreting Marx because the
copy shows crossedout word or sentences and different words not used in
typeset editions, and where Marx switched from pen to pencil."
Because the original notebooks kept in Moscow and Amsterdam are in
danger of deteriorating, the coming edition, which uses neutralized paper,
will be of use in preserving Marx's manuscript in its original appearance,
Nakagawa added.
(Sorry. Captions and copies are ommitted: Akama)
**********
I hear that this edition has a poor sale; about 30 sets so far. Why?
It's very expensive for personal purchase. But my faculty has just bought
two sets of 30 sets! There is no knowing what may happen in a new plan at
the later 20th century.
Otsuki Shoten also has a typeset edition of the "Deutche Ideology"
("German Ideology") all, though cannot publish it till I/5 of the MEGA
is published.
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##赤間 道夫(AKAMA, Michio; akamac@ll.ehime-u.ac.jp)##
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