‘Architect of genocide’ daubed on Karl Marx’s grave

A memorial to Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery in London has been vandalised for the second time in two weeks, with references to the “Bolshevik Holocaust” spray-painted across the monument.

Phrases such as “architect of genocide” and “doctrine of hate” were scrawled across the listed marble plaque and reported by Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust on Saturday. The words “66,000,000 dead” were also prominent.

The overtly political graffiti, which included the dates 1917 and 1953 – key dates in the Soviet Union’s history during the last century – were the second attack in as many weeks, after vandals took a hammer to the memorial earlier this month.

Jewish philosopher Marx, whose maternal grandfather was a Dutch rabbi, was a German-born political scientist whose critiques of capitalism gave birth to Communism.

He died a “stateless person” in London in 1883, still advocating a revolution of the working class, and was buried in a section of the cemetery reserved for agnostics and atheists, alongside writer George Elliott. In 1999 his tomb was given the highest level of national protection, being listed as a Grade I monument.

The Trust’s chief executive Ian Dungavell said: “It was not random. You can see that the person has really done their best to obliterate Karl Marx’s name.”