Karl Marx was an extremely significant character in Russian History. He was known for his political achievements, his creation and formation of Marxism, and his contributions to modern-day socialism. He was a man of all works, being an economist, historian, political researcher, author, and journalist.

As a young adult, Marx attended college at the University of Bonn; he studied law and philosophy. Around this time, he started questioning the religious and political customs that were being taught. In 1842, He became a journalist and editor for a liberal newspaper. After only a year, the government demanded the newspaper to stop publishing such humanistic news. He moved to Paris soon after with his recently-wed partner. During his stay, Marx established a liberal journal with a new friend, Arnold Ruge. They were only able to publish one article before the two men’s disagreements resulted in an argument that resulted in its collapse. Only a year later, Marx met Friedrich Engels, and the two established a friendship that lasted until Marx’s death. Together, the two immediately began writing. By 1845, The duo had already written and published “The Holy Family.”

Only a few months later, Karl Marx was banned from France for writing yet another profound newspaper. The newspaper was tied to an organization that became known as The Communist League in later years. While in Brussels, Marx was introduced to socialism by a man named Moses Hess. This led to Marx dropping all of the beliefs he was taught in college. During this time, he wrote many texts, but they were only published after his death, due to a lack of willing publishers. In early 1846, Marx founded the Communist Correspondence Committee, with the intentions of connecting socialists located all across Europe. Many socialists were inspired by his ideas, so a conference was held in England to spark conversation. At this conference, the Communist League was established. Only one year later, the organization asked Karl Marx and Frederick Engels to write The Manifesto of the Communist Party. Nowadays, this very popular text is known as “The Communist Manifesto”, and shortly after its publishing, Marx was banned from Belgium. He attempted to go back to France to trigger a rebellion, but he was immediately dismissed there too. Britain denied to give him citizenship, but he still settled until his death in 1883.

Once he was in Britain, Marx helped establish the German Workers’ Educational Society, plus a new headquarters for the Communist League. He worked as a journalist for 10 years, but was never able to earn minimum wage. His good friend Frederick Engels supported him greatly during this time. During which, he began to study economics and the principles of capitalism even more. Five years after he quit his job as a journalist, he wrote and released the first edition of his book, Das Kapital. He spent the rest of his life writing and editing additional books, though none of them were completed before his death.

Around the time of his death, many of Karl Marx’s supporters had began calling themselves “Marxists”. Nowadays, “Marxists” are known as socialists. Many Marxism beliefs are still shared and studied via nonprofit organizations or college classes. One organization that believes in these beliefs is the Democratic Socialists of America. They believe, “Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically-to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few.” Karl Marx believed many of these exact beliefs.

Karl Marx did many things for modern-day politics. He inspired an entire generation through his writing an opened the eyes of many. He had many political achievements, he created and formed Marxism, and made many contributions to modern-day socialism.