Classical anarchism through the eyes of the Russian radical Mikhail Bakunin.
The history of true anarchism with a Russian aftertaste is closely connected with the personality of Mikhail Bakunin, whose contribution to the fate of the whole world turned out to be colossal. A real Russian man, brought up on European philosophy, his main goal was to create a world where all people will be equal and free, and where lives will not be measured by the thickness of a wallet or the height of a social pedestal. Bakunin’s utopian ideas ran counter to the thoughts of Marx, for whom the radical suddenly turned out to be nothing more than “that fat Russian.” So who is he, and is his philosophy alive today?
Prerequisites for the formation of Bakunin’s anarchism
Mikhail Bakunin “inherited” the ideas of freedom and equality from his upbringing in a large and very friendly family. A small society, consisting of 11 children equal in conditions and relations, formed a kind of commune, where everyone grew spiritually and brought up his “own personality”: “… I mean one freedom worthy of this name, freedom, representing a complete opportunity to develop all the abilities, intellectual and moral, hidden in every person … ”, Bakunin later described.
Not only Mikhail Alexandrovich himself was a representative of the “new revolutionary” thought. His cousin, Ekaterina, was also not from a timid dozen. According to her recollections, in her youth the girl was more like a “muslin young lady”, but already in adulthood she became decisive and strong, a real manifestation of a free person, as Bakunin himself understood it. By perseverance, Catherine managed to be hired to work in the besieged Sevastopol as a nurse during the Crimean War. “I had to resist with all my means and with all my skill the evil that various officials, suppliers, etc., inflicted on our sufferers in hospitals; and I considered and consider it my sacred duty to fight and resist this.”, – so she later described her true goal. The rebellious spirit of opposition to the bureaucracy, stamina and perseverance did not go unnoticed by Nikolai Pirogov: “Every day, day and night, you could find her in the operating room, assisting in operations, while bombs and rockets were falling all around. She showed a presence of mind that was hardly compatible with female nature . What does it say? The fact that not only Bakunin himself, but all members of his family were not just strong personalities, but also those who were not afraid to stand their ground, those who loved freedom and truth. Upbringing and environment invested a lot in the future anarchist and revolutionary.
The revolutionary spirit of Russia, in which he was born and raised, also greatly influenced the formation of Mikhail Bakunin’s ideas. Little Misha met the December uprising of 1925 at the age of eleven. Then society received hope for serious state reforms, most of the Russian noble aristocracy saw this as the real salvation of the country. Various circles were formed, in which many important figures of art and science, influential people of the Russian nobility began to enter. Mikhail Bakunin ended up in one of these circles in 1835 after being expelled from the officer’s school and unsuccessfully serving in the army. It was the lack of freedom of thought and action, as well as strict discipline and strict principles while serving in the army, according to some researchers, that made him think about anarchism as the future of Russia,
Having moved to Moscow, the young thinker made many acquaintances: Stankevich, Pushkin, Chaadaev, Belinsky, Botkin, Katkov, Granovsky, Herzen, Ogarev – these are just some of Bakunin’s circle of friends. It was under the influence of Stankevich that Mikhail Aleksandrovich delved into the study of German philosophy: he began to be interested in the ideas of Kant and Fichte. But here’s what is really interesting: the future anarchist at that time was convinced that love for God gives a person freedom, personal growth and independence.
In the late 1830s, Bakunin became fascinated with the works of Hegel, who, in his opinion, breathed into him “an entirely new life.” Based on the teachings of the German philosopher, Mikhail Aleksandrovich published a number of his works on the spirit as absolute knowledge, on reality as the will of God, etc. Inspired by the Hegelian teachings, Bakunin moved to Berlin in 1840 to receive a decent German education, but there he quickly lost interest in theoretical philosophy and becomes a real practitioner of anarchism, joins the circles of European reformers, shifting his political views “to the left”.
Already in 1942, Mikhail Alexandrovich published the article “Reaction in Germany”, in which the ideas of anarchism begin to be clearly traced, to which he will remain true for a very long time: social equality and the principles of freedom can be achieved only through the complete destruction of the existing political state model. And the very next year, Bakunin was imbued with communist ideas and published an article in which he said that “communism is not a lifeless shadow. He came from the people, and from the people a shadow can never be born. The rather radical and critical thoughts of the “reformer” were not to the liking of the Russian authorities, Mikhail Bakunin literally became an enemy in his homeland, so returning home seemed impossible.
In the mid-1840s, the anarchist met the theorists of communism, among whom was Marx. Soon they will forever remain sworn enemies, but more on that later.
Rebel on the loose: the role of Mikhail Bakunin in the European revolutions of 1848-1849.
Mikhail Alexandrovich also played an important role in the Polish liberation uprisings. It was there that his ideas of pan-Slavism arose – the unification of all Slavic peoples into a single federation. To build a new, free world, for complete political and social justice, according to Bakunin, it is necessary to cut down the existing systems from the root, to destroy everything to the ground. He believed that by the joint efforts of the Western and Southern Slavs it was possible to achieve changes in Russia: liberation from the “German yoke” by overthrowing the power of the rulers, who are the main enemies of the Slavic people.
The rebellious spirit of the Russian arbiter of the destinies of the state found application not only in words, but also in deeds. Bakunin was impatiently waiting for the revolutionary wave to begin in Europe, and, finally, he waited. In 1848, he actively participated in the so-called “Spring of the Nations”, which affected France, Germany, Poland and other countries. The radicalism of Mikhail Alexandrovich was very clearly manifested in Dresden. By the will of fate, a Russian nobleman, who had military service behind him, ended up in a city captured by the interim government. There is a legend according to which he was asked to help organize the defense and raise the revolutionary spirit of the citizens. When the royal troops began to advance, Bakunin proposed several drastic measures for protection: to begin with, hang the greatest works of art, including the “Sistine Madonna”, on the walls of the city so that the military, who grew up in love and respect for art and history, would not dare to shoot. And if they dared, they would be called barbarians and marauders. A little later, Mikhail Bakunin made several more proposals: burn the houses of local aristocrats, blow up the town hall and cut down ancient trees that would interfere with the way of the royal troops. However, the provisional government, frightened, decided not to resort to the ideas of the Russian revolutionary and surrendered without a fight.
What does this case, later described in the works of Herzen, testify to? First of all, Bakunin believed that the Russian people were already ready for the revolution, because they were poor and already at that time possessed the “habits and instincts of a democratic society”, but the Europeans should first get rid of the material “echoes of the past”, the symbols of which are the works of Raphael, the old town hall and centuries-old trees. And you need to do it quickly, not slowly.
After an attempt to overthrow the government in Dresden, Bakunin was sent into exile, he was returned to his homeland and after 8 years of imprisonment was sent to Siberia, where he married and in 1861 fled to Europe through Japan. It was 1861 that became a new chapter in his philosophical and practical activities. After all, the next 20 years, Bakuninism will literally fall into all, even the most remote, streets of European cities, and Mikhail Aleksandrovich himself will become a symbol of the socialist movement.
The main ideas of anarchism, federalism and the state without statehood
During this period, his atheistic and materialistic view is finally formed. Idealism, according to Bakunin, inevitably leads “to the organization of gross despotism and to vile, unjust exploitation in the form of Church and State.” It would seem how sharply sometimes a person’s views on simple philosophical questions change: being young, still not strong in mind, Bakunin remained faithful to God, seeing in him the true freedom of man. But after a while, thanks to the influence of the communist ideas of equality and fraternity, he renounced religion, showing that faith is one of the manifestations of an already stagnant, obsolete, oppressed society that turns to God only in order to survive unbearable living conditions. At the same time, the philosopher believed that religion is an integral historical part of any nation, it must be treated with caution, not to harm. “With the help of religion, a man-animal, leaving animality, takes the first step towards humanity,” he wrote.
It is also interesting that a fierce opponent of laws and state control, nevertheless, did not deny the possible existence of a provincial government (a parliament consisting of two chambers: representatives of the entire population and communities), a Constitution, and a court. The communities that united in the federation were to “coordinate their own system with the main foundations of the provincial system and receive the sanction of the provincial parliament for it.” At the same time, “community legislation retained the right to deviate in minor points from provincial legislation, but not from its foundations.”When building statehood, Bakunin singled out the principle of the “inverted pyramid”, when the main “decisive powers are concentrated in the field”. At the same time, he did not deny the possible existence of a vertical of power and noted that all actions of the communities should correspond to the interests of the state itself.
According to the ideas of Mikhail Alexandrovich, it was supposed to create National governments, which, just like the provincial ones, should have developed a draft Constitution, provided that the provinces could deviate from it in minor points. The powers of the National Parliament would include control over the activities of the elected executive, development and adoption of laws, building international relations with other states, etc. The creation of an international federation of countries was supposed to be based on the same principle.
The struggle for the International: how former friends and comrades-in-arms, Marx and Bakunin, became sworn enemies
In 1864, the story of Bakunin’s difficult relationship with Marx began. Mikhail Alexandrovich left for Italy to spread the ideas of the International, where he went against the philosophy of the proletariat and attempted to create his own secret “International Revolutionary Society”, where everyone would be brothers. It was based on the idea of the destruction of all European states, except Switzerland, in order to eliminate the model of centralization of power. It was planned to create communities that would unite in federations at different levels. At the same time, the anarchist considered it necessary to have democracy in the form of an autonomous community of all adult citizens through the election of representatives of various civil servants, but with the obligatory condition of their constant turnover, which, according to Bakunin, would not give a privileged status and would guarantee democratic freedoms. “All aristocrats are excluded, all supporters of any kind of privilege, … for the word democracy means nothing more than the government of the people, by the people and for the people, meaning by this the whole mass of citizens – and at the present time we must add citizens, constituting a nation , ”wrote Mikhail Alexandrovich.
In 1868, Bakunin prepared a draft of the “International Brotherhood”, where he formulated the basic principles of anarchism in his understanding, involving “the complete destruction of every state, every church, all religious, political, bureaucratic, judicial, financial, police, economic, university and fiscal institutions” .
The transition to a new device was to occur as a result of the revolution. Its main driving forces, according to Bakunin, are the peasantry and the working class, who instinctively feel hatred for the privileged strata of society. And their main tools are riots and the struggle for freedom. Brought up in poverty and slavery, the Russian people dislike the state, because their main desire is free land, common labor and the absence of bureaucracy and landlord property. At the same time, only the young revolutionary intelligentsia can bring together the peasantry and the working class and direct their strength to the common cause.
The result should be a society without any power, where the people will submit to the authority of public opinion, and the peasants and workers will become the only classes existing in harmony – “some owners of capital and instruments of production, others – the land they cultivate with their own hands; both are organized, prompted by their needs and mutual interests, equally and at the same time completely freely, necessarily and naturally mutually balancing each other.
Bakunin’s controversy with Marx consisted mainly in a different worldview. First of all, Mikhail Bakunin said that the dictatorship of the proletariat would lead to the same result that the revolutionaries were leaving. In other words, the government and the political regime will change, but their essence will remain the same, only now the power will be concentrated in the hands of the proletariat. The state is a true evil: “Where the State begins, individual freedom ends, and vice versa… If there is a state, then there is certainly domination, hence slavery; a state without slavery, overt or masked, is unthinkable – that’s why we are enemies of the state . “
The culmination of the confrontation between Bakunin and Marx was an attempt by the first to pull the blanket of influence in the International over himself. As a result, the struggle of ideas turned into a personal war between two strong personalities of that time. Marx believed that the activities of the Bakuninists undermined the ideas of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and in 1972 the followers of Mikhail Aleksandrovich were expelled from the International.
Modern followers of Bakuninism
Today, the ideas of the great rebel are in the past, although adherents of Russian anarchism still exist. However, now they represent not just an association against the state, but also an ideological struggle against certain global problems of mankind, such as ecology and environmental protection. At the same time, there is a certain crisis among anarchists: there are fewer and fewer followers due to the lack of community and integrity of the movement.
In Russia, the Russian Anarchist Union has played an important role in this issue today, which based its ideas on national- and ethno-anarchism. In other words, it is an association of people of the same nationality living in the same territory. Here is Bakunin’s pan-Slavism and Kropotkin’s idea of anti-statism. Yes, the people still believe in the accomplishment of the revolution, the main instrument of which remains protests and riots. But at the beginning of the 21st century, the movement of followers of Bakunin, Kropotkin and other philosophers and revolutionary figures turned into a kind of subculture, and now in the minds of most Russians it is associated with lack of will and lawlessness. The followers of anarchism, as in the 19th century, position themselves as a movement outside of any political forces, but at the same time they themselves have not become any serious driving force that has an impact on the minds of young people and society as a whole.
Are the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin relevant now? Most likely no. In modern conditions of constant political struggle, it is necessary to have a clear centralized authority capable of holding the people together. Although, it can be said that attempts at complete freedom were made in the 90s, however, this became a serious challenge for the further existence of the state.
Unfortunately, utopian ideas about the existence of federations consisting of communities of people are impossible. One may agree or not, but we live in a period of “cold war”, when each country is fighting for its own resources and interests more than for human lives. To survive, it is necessary not only to unite, but also not to let the state be destroyed by absorbing its small “communities”, as in the days of the feudal split. Democracy will only give rise to even greater disputes and conflicts. Of course, freedom is an integral part of a democratic society, which everyone is now so eager for. But at the same time, the appearance of greater freedom in various matters simultaneously gives rise to the emergence of ever greater prohibitions in others. Therefore, the existence of anarchism in modern conditions turned out to be a big question. And keep it open…