Reactionary people: what to do with them?

[SacRedMan]

Dear RevLeft,

Someone told me that Marx calls for the disappearance of individuals and peoples:


La prochaine guerre mondiale ne se contentera pas de balayer de la surface de la terre des classes et des dynasties réactionnaires, mais aussi des peuples réactionnaires tout entiers. Et cela aussi, c'est un progrès.

http://www.marxists.org/francais/engels/works/1849/01/fe18490113.htm

I hope you guys understand French, and can help me out with this.

[dernier combat]

The next world war will not only scan the surface of the reactionary classes and dynasties, but also people all reactionary integers. And that too is progress.
No, I don't understand what it means, either.

[Zanthorus]

Searching for 'World War' in Marx and Engels works for January 1849 (Thanks to the magic of google advanced search), bring up this as the English Collected Works' translation:


The next world war will result in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only of reactionary classes and dynasties, but also of entire reactionary peoples. And that, too, is a step forward.

It's from an article (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1849/01/13.htm) in support of the Maygar struggle of the 1848 revolutions. By reactionary people's Engels is referring to the Slavic nations, and in particular Russia. It may look like a horrifying sentiment to us, but remember that most Radicals in the mid-19th century would've had similar sentiments with regards to Russia as the centre point of European reaction which would need to be smashed by a revolutionary war, because of prior experiences during the French revolution. This is most certainly not an expression of some kind of proto-Hitlerite sentiment on Engels' part, in case that was ever in question.

[Aurorus Ruber]

Hmm, were Lenin and the other Marxists in Russia aware of what Engels said on that subject? How did they respond to claims that Russians were essentially reactionary and needed to be wiped out?