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Birth of Mikhail A. Bakunin, Russian revolutionary
18 (30) May 1814, in the village of Pryamukhino, Novotorzhsky county, Tver province in a noble family was born Mikhail A. Bakunin, Russian revolutionary, writer, one of the founders of anarchism, ideologue of populism.
From 1829 Bakunin studied at the St. Petersburg Artillery School, served in the army, but soon resigned and moved to Moscow. In 1835, he joined the circle of writer N. V. Stankevich, under the influence of which he took interest in the works of German philosophers, such as I. Kant, I. G. Fichte, and G. W. F. Hegel. In 1836 Bakunin published the translation of Fichte’s "Lectures on the purpose of scientists". His first original article, "High-school speeches of Hegel. Preface of interpreter," which appeared in the "Moscow Observer" in 1838, expressed the views of the members of the circle of Stankevich and served as the program of the updated journal.
In 1840 Bakunin went to Germany to study philosophy. At the University of Berlin he attended lectures of German philosophers K. Werder (logic), and F. Schelling ("philosophy of revelation"). In the article "The reaction in Germany," published in 1842 in "The German chronicle of science and art" ("German Yearbook of Science and Art") under the pseudonym Jules Elizar, Bakunin predicted a near collapse of the old order and called for revolution, arguing that "the passion for destruction is also the passion for creativity."
In Switzerland, Bakunin met a German philosopher W. Weitling and became interested in utopian socialism and communism, the egalitarian communism theory. For refusing to return to Russia at the request of the government, he was stripped of the nobility, all property rights and sentenced in absentia to hard labor in Siberia. Bakunin moved to Paris, where he met German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as well as the French philosopher P. J. Proudhon.
From the mid-1840s Bakunin advocated the creation of a federation of Slavic peoples, and participated in the work of liberatif Slavic organizations. In Paris, at a meeting of Polish immigrants, members of the Polish uprising of 1830-1831 Bakunin gave a speech in which he praised optimistic outlook of the revolutionary movement in Russia and in the name of progressive Russia urged Poles to the union for the liberation of all Slavs. At the insistence of the Russian government, he was expelled from France.
In 1848, Bakunin wrote a manifesto "Appeal of a Russian patriot to the Slavic peoples," in which he called for the overthrow of the Habsburg Empire and the creation in the Central Europe of a free federation of Slavic peoples. He took part in the Slavic Congress and the Prague uprising in 1848, was one of the leaders of the Dresden uprising in 1849. For revolutionary activities Bakunin was twice sentenced to death (in Saxony and then in Austria), which was replaced in both cases with life imprisonment.
In 1851, Bakunin was given away to the Russian government and imprisoned in Alexis Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. At the request of Emperor Nicholas I, Mikhail wrote "Confessions," in which he spoke of the revolutionary events in Europe and his participation there. The revolutionary spent six years in Schlisselburg fortress, and after the ascension to the throne of Emperor Alexander II, he was exiled to eastern Siberia, where he lived in Tomsk and Irkutsk. In 1861, he received permission to go on a business trip down the Amur and, taking advantage of the situation, escaped, having reached Great Britain through Japan and America.
In 1862-1863 in London Bakunin worked with Herzen and Ogarev, had relations with a revolutionary organization "Land and Liberty". In "The People's case. Romanov, Pugachev, or Pestel?" (London, 1862), he announced that the main role in the revolutionary movement will play people, and brought forward the demands for people’s governing. With the assistance of Karl Marx in 1864, he joined the International Workingmen's Association (First International), translated into Russian “The Communist Party Manifesto."
In the mid 1860's in Italy, Bakunin founded the anarchist Union "Brotherhood," and then in Switzerland - "International Alliance of Socialist Democracy." Having managed to make the "Alliance" part of the International on the rights of one of the Geneva sections, he kept it as a secret international organization. In 1872, the Hague Congress excluded Bakunin and his supporters from the International. However, the Russian revolutionary soon started to create a network of secret revolutionary societies across Europe.
In his works, "Federalism, Socialism and anti-theologism" (1867), "Knout-German Empire and social revolution" (1871), "Statehood and Anarchy" (1873), Bakunin rejected the need for political power, centralization and obedience to authority, protested against any form of use of state power by revolutionaries. Rejecting the Marxist theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the organizing role of the proletarian party, the Russian revolutionary contrasted it with the idea of spontaneous revolt.
Bakunin's concept had a lot in common with the teachings of the German philosopher Max Stirner about anarchism. Seeing the state as the main source of oppression of the masses, of all social evils, the Russian thinker opposed any statehood. Upholding the slogan of a "free federation" of farming and factory-craft associations, Bakunin and his followers denied involvement in the political struggle within existing states, the use of the election campaign, parliaments; they pinned the main hopes on the peasantry, on craft semi-proletarian layers of the city, on lumpenproletariat . He inspired confidence in young people in a deep and inexhaustible revolutionary nature of peasants.
Bakunin believed that "science, the most rational and deep, cannot predict the future shapes of public life," and therefore considered theorizing attempts as harmful, distracting from the preparation of rebellion that would sweep away the old order, after which the new society will form by itself, in accordance with the ideals of the people. Therefore, the main effort of Bakunin and his supporters focused on the organization of the revolution, not the development of a detailed vision of the future society. Russian thinker's ideas had had a strong impact on the general public and spread far beyond the borders of Russia - in Italy, Spain and Latin America. Bakunin's views had also had an impact on the program and tactics of revolutionary populist organizations "Land and Liberty" and "Narodnaya Volya".
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, in September of 1870, Bakunin took part in the Lyon uprising. In 1874, he led a protest action of anarchists in Bologna in northern Italy.
June 19 (July 1) 1876 Mikhail Bakunin died in Bern (Switzerland), where he was buried.
Lit.: Амфитеатров А. В. Святые отцы революции: М. А. Бакунин. Вып. 1. СПб., 1906; Бакунин М. А. Избранные сочинения. Т. 1—5. Пг. ; М., 1919-1921; Он же. Собрание сочинений и писем. Т. 1—4. М., 1934-1935; Графский В. Г. Бакунин. М., 1985; Должиков В. А. Михаил Александрович Бакунин и Сибирь. Новосибирск, 1993; Зильберман И. Б. Политическая теория анархизма М. А. Бакунина. Критический очерк. Л., 1969; Корнилов А. А. Молодые годы Михаила Бакунина. Из истории русского романтизма. М., 1915; Он же. Годы странствий. М. Бакунина. М. ; Л., 1925; Материалы для биографии М. А. Бакунина. Т. 1—3. М. ; Л., 1923-1933.; Пирумова Н. М. Бакунин. М., 1970; Она же. Социальная доктрина М. А. Бакунина. М., 1990; Полонский В. П. Михаил Александрович Бакунин. Жизнь, деятельность, мышление. Т. 1, 2. М. ; Л., 1925.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Стеклов Ю. М. Михаил Александрович Бакунин: его жизнь и деятельность. Т. 1: 1814-1861. М., 1926;