Dos manifest fun di Ḳomunistishe partey. Mit a forvort fun Karl Kautski. (Russland Sotsyal-Demokratisher Arbeyter partey.)

[Geneva]: Heroysgegeben fun dem Allgemeynem Idishen arbeyṭer Bund in Russland un Poylen, 1899. First Yiddish book edition. First edition of this translation. In somewhat later paper wrappers. Shelfmark vignette on the front cover. Possessor's stamp on the title page, shelfmark on its verso. Possessor's stamp on p. [3], 11, and 15. A tear on the title page with amateur restoration. Corners damaged, with no loss of text. Pp. 93-4 torn at side edge and damaged at the lower corner with no loss of text. The last leaf slightly damaged at side edge, affecting only the margin. Pages yellowed due to the acidic paper. Overall in very good condition.. First Yiddish book edition. First edition of this translation. In somewhat later paper wrappers.

First Yiddish edition in book form of the Communist Manifesto, the greatest piece of revolutionary propaganda, the first edition of Blumshteyn's translation, prefaced by Karl Kautsky.

The book was published by the General Jewish Labour Bund in Russia and Poland as a publication of the movement's party the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The Yiddish translation was initiated by Chaim Zhitlovsky a prominent member of the Bund in Switzerland. The Manifesto was eventually translated by Y. Blumshteyn (with Yitskhok Toymin) and published in 1899 in Geneva with Karl Kautsky's preface.

There were some earlier attempts to interpret the first program of the international Communist movement for the Yiddish readers, an adaptation of the first two sections appeared in the London-based Jewish anarchist paper "Der Arbeiter Freint" in 1890, later Abraham Kahan's translation appeared in installments in "Di Tsukunft" in New York in 1897. The present version is the first complete Yiddish translation to be published in a book form.

Extremely scarce, we could trace only four copies with identical collation in institutional holdings at Florida Atlantic University; Yivo; University of Wisconsin - Madison (missing the last three pages and the back cover); and at the National Library of Israel. (The Brandeis Library and Harvard College Library cite an 1899 edition with 122 p., the copy at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, comprises 97 p., the copy at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is a photocopy).

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