The "Union of Communists," an international labor union that in those conditions could naturally only be secret, at the Congress held in London in November 1847, assigned the undersigned to draft a comprehensive theoretical and practical program of the party, intended for publication. Thus, the following Manifesto was born, which its manuscript traveled to London to be printed, a few weeks before the revolution of February. It was first published in German and printed in at least twelve different editions in this language, in Germany, England, and America. In English, it was first published in 1850 in London, in the "Red Democrat," translated by Helen Macfarlane, and in 1871 it was published in America in at least three different translations. In French, it was first published in Paris shortly before the June uprising of 1848, and it was last published in the "Socialist" of New York. Another translation is now being prepared. In Polish, it was published in London shortly after the first German edition. In Russian, it was published in Geneva in the 1860s and 1870s. And in Danish, it was also translated immediately after its publication. [...] (from the preface to the German edition of 1872)