Friedrich Engels was a German thinker and, probably, the brightest polemical scholar of the 19th century. There’s no doubt that without the talented pen of F. Engels, K. Marx would have had far fewer supporters and like-minded people, and the ideas of Marxism would have taken much longer to become political and moral convictions of ordinary people. Reading the works of F. Engels even after more than a century is endlessly interesting, because Engels had an unusually light style—its lightness can still be felt even after translation into foreign languages. But the main “magic” of what was written by F. Engels lies in the fact that he is ironic to the point of artistry. His irony, which is often unnoticed on a first reading, could justifiably be compared to Chekhov’s style. A case in point is “Anti-Dühring,” which has become a classic of Marxism. The book includes two works by F. Engels—“Anti-Dühring” and “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,” which have not lost their relevance to this day. Their author presents, simply and convincingly, the dynamics of the development of humankind, equipping the reader with scientifically grounded knowledge about the past. This makes it possible to think sensibly about the present and to forecast the future of civilization.