Objective:

Of the wide universe of socialist literature, the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels has been by far the most successful pamphlet. First published in 1848, by the end of the 19th century it had become the liminal text of modern socialism. Translated into more than seventy languages, it managed to circumvent censorship, prohibitions and persecutions, being printed in all corners of the globe, legally or clandestinely. This study follows the vicissitudes of its Chilean editions.

Methodology:

Framed in a continental perspective of reception and diffusion of the Communist Manifesto in Latin America, the work reconstructs these editions from the brochures and magazines of the time, as well as from various memories and testimonies.

Originality:

The article traces a cartography of the reception and diffusion of Marxist culture in Chile, a problem that appears diagonally referred to in the bibliography, but whose complexity has yet to be reconstructed.

Conclusions:

It is concluded that the late nature of the first impressions in Chile derives from the unique conditions in which the working-class culture of the country developed at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. From a comparative perspective on a continental scale, this study highlights the relevance of the clandestine edition of the Centennial prepared by Babel as well as the mass edition of Quimantú, published in the years of the Popular Unity.