Marxists Internet Archive facts for kids
Screenshot of Marxists.org as of March 26, 2017
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Type of site
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Online encyclopedia |
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| Available in | Multi-lingual (80 languages) |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | 1990 1993 (gopher site) |
The Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a special online library. It is a non-profit website, meaning it doesn't aim to make money. This archive holds a huge collection of writings from people who wrote about communist, anarchist, and socialist ideas.
Some famous writers whose works are found here include Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg. The archive also includes writers with other ideas, like Sun Tzu. Volunteers from all over the world help to keep this collection updated. It started in 1990 and now has over 180,000 documents in 80 languages. Everything on the site is free for anyone to read.
Contents
How the Marxists Internet Archive Started
Early Days of the Archive
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The archive began in 1990 with a person known as Zodiac. They started typing up important texts by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The very first text was the Communist Manifesto. By 1993, these texts were put on an early internet system called a "gopher site."
More volunteers joined to help. They copied the main archive to other servers, creating "mirrors." However, by 1995, most of these early sites were shut down.
Growing and Changing
In 1996, the website Marx.org was hosted by a company. This made the volunteers work even harder. Over time, the volunteers wanted to include more types of Marxist writings. But Zodiac, who controlled the site, wanted to keep it focused only on Marx and Engels.
This disagreement led to a big change. In July 1998, volunteers created a new site called Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org). They moved all the files from Marx.org to this new home. This new site allowed for many more writers and ideas. Zodiac closed Marx.org in 1999. Later, MIA even bought the Marx.org name.
Today, the Marxists Internet Archive is much bigger. By 2014, it had 62 volunteers in 33 countries. It is now a recognized place for both Marxist and non-Marxist writings. Important libraries like the British Library and the US Library of Congress have chosen to save copies of its content.
Online Attacks in 2007
The Marxists Internet Archive has faced problems from online attacks. Starting in late 2006, the site was hit by "denial-of-service" attacks. These attacks try to crash a website by sending too much traffic to it. By early 2007, the attacks made the archive very slow.
Many of the attacks seemed to come from China. This led some to think the attacks might be politically motivated. The website had been blocked in China since 2005. The attacks were so bad that the main server and some mirror sites had to close for several weeks in early 2007. Luckily, the problem was fixed.
Copyright Challenges
In 2014, a British publisher called Lawrence and Wishart asked MIA to remove some of their English translations of Marx and Engels' works. The publisher owned the copyright to these specific translations. MIA agreed to remove the material.
Many people were upset by this. An online petition was started, arguing that these writings should be free for everyone. A representative from MIA, Andy Blunden, said that if these works were not freely available, ordinary people would not be able to read them easily. Lawrence and Wishart later said they were against the "online abuse" they received.
How the Archive is Organized
Managing the Website
The Marxists Internet Archive is run by a "steering committee." This committee is made up of all the active volunteers. They make decisions about how the site is organized and how money is handled.
MIA is a registered non-profit organization in the U.S. state of California. This means it operates for a public benefit, not to make a profit. The archive's rules say that all its content will always be free. All the material on the site is either in the "public domain" (meaning anyone can use it freely) or used with permission from the copyright owners.
Where the Website is Stored
The main website is hosted by an internet provider in Germany. There are also three "mirror" sites. These are copies of the website stored in different places. Two mirrors are in Europe (France and Germany), and one is in the USA. This helps people access the site faster and ensures it stays online even if one server has problems.
Sharing the Archive's Content
For many years, MIA sold a 3-disc CD/DVD set containing all the website's material. They also gave away many copies for free to people in developing countries. This was done to make sure people could access the information easily. It also helped ensure the archive's survival. If the website ever got shut down, the information would still be available worldwide on these discs.
By 2014, the archive had grown very large, about 138 GB. So, they stopped making DVDs. Instead, they started distributing the entire archive on portable USB hard drives. However, these hard drives have also been stopped.
Publishing Books
In 2008, MIA started its own publishing group called Marxist Internet Archive Publications. They have published several books on topics like philosophy and social history.
How Content is Stored
Most of the documents on the website are in HTML format, which is what web pages are made of. The look of the documents is controlled by CSS. Sometimes, PDF files are used, especially for languages that don't have special computer fonts. Many PDFs are added to show revolutionary publications exactly as they were printed.
The way documents are marked up can be a bit different in each section. This depends on the volunteers who work on that part. But they all follow a basic template.
The archive has sections dedicated to specific historical events, like the history of the Soviet Union or the Paris Commune. It also covers broader topics like philosophy. There's also a special "Encyclopedia of Marxism" section. This part defines Marxist terms, gives short biographies, and shares historical facts.
The MIA also has many sections in languages other than English. As of 2020, there was content in 80 languages. Some language sections are small, with just a few documents. Others are very large. For example, the Chinese section has the complete collected works of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and V.I. Lenin.
Audiobooks
Many audio versions of the works on the Marxists Internet Archive have been created. These audiobooks are not on the main MIA website. Instead, they are made by an independent YouTube channel called "Socialism For All."
See also
In Spanish: Marxists Internet Archive para niños
- List of digital library projects
- List of online encyclopedias
