Mikhail Bakunin

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Trolo) (Russian — ?????? ????????????? ???????, Michel Bakunin — on the grave in Bern), (May 30, 1814–June 13, 1876) was a well known Russian anarchist. He was best known as one of the first generation of anarchist philosophers, and has been called one of the "fathers of anarchism".

Biography

Bakunin was born of an aristocratic family in the village of Pryamukhino (?????????)

Related Topics:
Aristocratic - Pryamukhino

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between Torzhok (??????) and Kuvshinovo (?????????), in Tver guberniya, northwest of Moscow, in the spring of 1814. At the age of 14 he left for St. Petersburg where he was given military training at the Artillery University. On completion of his studies in 1832, he was commissioned as a junior officer in the Russian Imperial Guard and sent to Minsk and Gardinas, Lithuania (now Belarus). Though his father wished him to continue in either the military or civil service, Bakunin abandoned both in 1835 and fled to Moscow, where he hoped to pursue the study of philosophy.

Related Topics:
Torzhok - Kuvshinovo - Tver - Guberniya - Moscow - 1814 - St. Petersburg - 1832 - Russian Imperial Guard - Minsk - Gardinas - Lithuania - Belarus

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In Moscow, Bakunin became fast friends with a group of former university students, then engaged in the systematic study of Idealist philosophy, in particular Schelling, Fichte, and Hegel. All along, he and his friends hoped to complete their studies with a trip to Berlin, then considered the capital of modern science. Bakunins' parents refused at first to pay for this journey; but in the end, they relented and in 1840 Bakunin went abroad.

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His stated plan at the time was still to become a university professor (a "priest of truth," as he and his friends imagined it). But he soon encountered and joined radical students of the so-called 'Hegelian Left,' and joined the socialist movement in Berlin. From there he went to Paris, where he met Proudhon and George Sand, and also made the acquaintance of the chief Polish exiles. From Paris he journeyed to Switzerland, where he resided for some time, taking an active share in all socialistic movements.

Related Topics:
Socialist - Berlin - Paris - Proudhon - George Sand - Switzerland

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While in Switzerland, Bakunin was ordered by the Russian government to return to Russia, and on his refusal his property was confiscated. In 1848, on his return to Paris, he published a fiery tirade against Russia, which caused his expulsion from France. The revolutionary movement of 1848 gave him the opportunity to join a radical campaign of democratic agitation, and for his participation in the May Uprising in Dresden of 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death. The death sentence, however, was commuted to imprisonment for life, and he was eventually handed over to the Russian authorities, by whom he was imprisoned and finally sent to eastern Siberia in 1855.

Related Topics:
1848 - France - May Uprising in Dresden - 1849 - Siberia - 1855

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Bakunin received permission to move to the Amur region, from where he succeeded in escaping, making his way through Japan and the United States to England in 1861. He spent the rest of his life in exile in western Europe, principally in Switzerland. In 1869 he founded the Social Democratic Alliance; however, this organisation was refused entry to the First International, on the grounds that it was an international organisation in itself, and only national organisations were permitted membership in the International. The Alliance dissolved in the same year it was formed, and the various groups which composed it joined the International separately.

Related Topics:
Amur - Japan - United States - England - 1861 - 1869 - First International

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In 1870 Bakunin led a failed uprising in Lyons on the principles later exemplified by the Paris Commune. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels later approved of the Paris Commune and described it as an example of a dictatorship of the proletariat; however, Marx was of the view that the rising in Lyons had been premature and adventurist.

Related Topics:
1870 - Lyons - Paris Commune - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels - Dictatorship of the proletariat

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Bakunin's disagreements with Marx, which led to Bakunin's expulsion from the International in 1872 after being outvoted by the Marx party at the Hague Congress (1872), give a clear-cut representation of the differences between the Marxist view of the need for a transitional workers' state prior to the final dissolution of the state, and Bakunin's opposition to the notion that such an intermediate step was needed. Although Bakunin accepted Marx's class analysis and economic theories regarding capitalism (acknowledging "Marx's genius"), he thought Marx was arrogant, and that his methods would compromise a communist revolution (a prediction that many believe has been proved accurate). Bakunin also gave vent to his anti-semitism by attacking Marx for being Jewish. Marx in turn said Bakunin was a "sentimental idealist," which Bakunin freely admitted.

Related Topics:
1872 - Marx party - Hague Congress (1872) - Class analysis - Anti-semitism - Jew

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Bakunin retired to Lugano in 1873 and died at Bern on June 13, 1876.

Related Topics:
Lugano - 1873 - Bern - June 13 - 1876

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