'Marxism', in so far as that term refers to what the man actually wrote was an unstoppable success; he completely upended the accepted hierarchy of the day, laying the seeds for almost all of the advances in working rights, pay and entitlements we take for granted today.

I'd say the aristocracy were flabbergasted when they read 'Das Kapital', not merely the ideas, but the tone in which they were presented, it oozed a jaw-dropping self-assurance. All of this 'dictatorship of the proletariat'...