Laura Marx
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Jenny Laura Marx (26 September 1845 - 26 November 1911) was the second daughter of Karl Marx and Jenny von Westphalen. In 1868 she married Paul Lafargue. The two committed suicide together.
Life and Death with Paul Lafargue
Marx was born in London. Paul Lafargue was a young French socialist who came to London in 1866 to work for the First International. There he became a friend of Karl Marx and got to know Marx's family, especially Laura Marx, who fell in love with him.
Paul and Laura married in 1868, and the Lafargues began several decades of political work together, translating Marx's work to French, and spreading Marxism in France and Spain. Most of their lives Laura and Paul Lafargue were financially supported by Friedrich Engels. They also inherited a lot of Engels' money when he died in 1895.
In 1911, the elderly couple committed suicide together, having decided they had nothing left to give to the movement to which they devoted their lives. Paul Lafargue left a suicide note saying:
- "Healthy of body and spirit, I give me death before the implacable old age, that has stealed me one after the other all pleasures and joys of existence, and has expoiled me from my physical and intellectual strength, paralizes my energy and ends with my willpower, making me a burden for myself and others.
- Since years ago I have promised myself not to surpass the age of seventy; I have fixed the season for my departure from this life and prepared the means to execute this decision: a hypodermic injection of hydrocyanic acid.
- I die with the supreme happiness of having the certainty that very soon will triumph the cause to which I have given myself since 45 years ago.
- Long live Communism! Long live the International"
