He isn't saying that a woman would not have started the war. So either he claims any woman leader would be so incompetent that Russia would lose the war, or so competent that she would win the war faster (which would according to him be a good thing).
We have Marx's personal letters to family and friends, plus all the articles he wrote to newspapers like when he'd argue with Herbert Spencer. I've read a lot of those.
Those actually paint Marx as genuine. He lived and breathed the theories he wrote. There are a few times where he expresses standard bigotries you'd expect from a middle class European at the time, like at one point he calls Mexicans uncivilized, another time he calls Ferdinand Lassalle the n-word. Otherwise I think reading Marx's entire body of writings enhances his image. He truly was committed to research and worker movements and took it seriously as much as he could, despite the limitations of his health and poverty. He seemed like a good father to his kids too.
Marx on social media would be probably be a firebrand of a poster. He'd never be the first to log off.
He doesn't say that, he used the words Juden Itzig. Translates more appropiately to the antisemitic k-slur.
Still, never used Lasalle's Judaism against him yada yada, not an antisemite, etc - just wanted to :posting: about this common mistranslation.
I'm sorry, but that's not true. He uses the antisemetic term you said, but Marx also uses the phrase "Der jüdische N----- Lassalle." He used the English n-word in his letter. Check it out (best German version I could find):
https://www.iisg.nl/collections/herzenstichting/marx.pdf
I remember Marx also used the word in another letter to Engels about the American civil war, saying something like "one n----- regiment could muster up morale among northern soldiers." I can try to find that one too if you want.
Marx knew what to say publicly and privately. He knew not to use racist terms in his public writings since he didn't want to muster racist organization. He publicly kept his disagreements with Lassalle purely on theory and practice.
Ah, I had never read that letter before, thanks! Until this point I had only seen the Itzig passage quoted in this context, so I thought ppl were mistranslating.