Bakunin, Mikhail (1814–1876)

Mikhail Bakunin was a Russian radical whose ideas created the theoretical foundations for anarchism and terrorism.

Born in February 1814 to members of the Russian nobility, Bakunin spent an idyllic childhood on his father's country estate. At the age of 14, he was sent to St. Petersburg to study at the Artillery School in preparation for a military career. A somewhat indifferent student, Bakunin's time in military school helped to inculcate in him the loathing for all forms of coercion and authority that would be codified in his anarchist philosophy.

After graduating, Bakunin was stationed at a remote post on the Polish frontier, where he began to study history and philosophy. Within six months, [Page 86]however, he decided that the army was not for him. He left his post and returned to Moscow, where he began mingling with radical students. During the early 1840s, Bakunin traveled widely in Europe, consorting with Russian expatriates, Polish nationalists, and radical European philosophers, and becoming noted for his eloquent and fiery oratory. He began to publish pamphlets and treatises outlining his new philosophy, most importantly an 1842 essay that concluded with the aphorism, “The passion for destruction is also a creative passion,” perhaps his most famous saying. These activities caused the Russian government to demand that he return to Russia. When he refused, his passport was revoked, and he was tried in absentia for treason and sentenced to Siberian exile.

Already a fugitive, Bakunin achieved international infamy through his participation in the revolutions of 1848. In that year, massive revolts in several European countries brought down the French monarchy and shook the governments of Germany and Austria to their core. Bakunin flitted from disturbance to disturbance, showing up at the barricades in Paris, Dresden, Berlin, and Prague in the course of 1848–1849. His participation in the events of 1848 led to successive trials in France and Austria, and he was sentenced to death both times. The Austrian authorities, however, transferred him to Russia at the behest of the czar. For more than three years, Bakunin was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Moscow; while there, he wrote his enigmatic Confession in a plea for clemency. He was allowed to go into exile in Siberia in 1857. Four years later, he managed to escape from Siberia on a ship, returning to Europe by way of Japan and the United States.

Following his escape, Bakunin entered his most active period of revolutionary agitation, becoming the leader of the anarchist groups already active in Europe and attracting a strong following in Spain, Italy, and France. The anarchists were not the only revolutionary ideologues in the Europe of the 1860s, for this period also saw the rise of communism, with Karl Marx forming the International Workingmen's Association (the First International) in 1864 in an attempt to unite all European radicals. Bakunin and his anarchists soon entered a fierce battle with Marx for control of the European radical movement.

In 1872 Marx succeeded in expelling Bakunin and the anarchists from the International, primarily because of allegations that Bakunin had been forming secret societies within the group with the intent of taking it over. The opinions of later commentators have differed sharply on this question, but the evidence appears to support Marx's accusation. Such clandestine power plays are the antithesis of anarchist philosophy, and that Bakunin would support such a strategy highlights the complexity of his personality and his politics. Throughout Bakunin's life, his desire to personally participate in the anarchist revolution often caused him to behave in a self-contradictory manner.

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