Biography of Mikhail Bakunin

Instinct of revolution

30 May 1814 1 July 1876 Russian revolutionary anarchist, Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin cofounder was born in the small village of Prjamuchino, near Tver (Russia), on 30 March 1814. In the years ' 30 was a follower of Hegel, translating into Russian for the first time one of his works ("reading high school"). In 1842 Bakunin writes "the reaction in Germany", article whose popularity is spread out among many youth groups; the conclusion of this essay provides one of the most cited statements by Bakunin: "the desire for destruction is, at the same time, a creative impulse". Bakunin first met Marx and Proudhon in Paris in 1844; a short time later with Marx, Feuerbach and Ruge he founded Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. In 1848 he took part in Dresden in the German revolution. the following year in Saxony was arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was soon commuted to life imprisonment. At the request of the Austrian Government is exiled to Austria, where he was again sentenced to the death penalty and life sentence before then, suffering during this period various tortures. In 1950 it is finally delivered to the Russian Government that the life sentence. After the death of Tsar Nicholas I and after 11 years in the galleys discounted around the continent, is exiled to Siberia: is the 1857. Four years later, in 1861, Bakunin managed to escape. Changes from Japan and United States for retreat finally London. To 1865 dates from his stay in Naples, where he founded the newspaper "freedom and justice". Are from this period articles against statist vision of Giuseppe Mazzini, great opponent of Bakunin. Also in 1868, to take part in the first Congress of the "League for peace and freedom," deluding themselves that the revolutionary socialism would have made inroads in the Association. On 25 September 1868, the faction of the revolutionary socialists split from the League for peace and freedom, joining the international workingmen's Association. In 1870 is expelled from the Association for having declared solidarity with the Jura section that had become a symbol of the contrast between authoritarian and anti-authoritarian regimes. During the franco-Prussian war in 1871, Bakunin tries to foment a popular uprising in Lyon. In 1872, in Saint-Imier, organizes with sections of the international, the first International Congress rebels anti-authoritarian. The following year he wrote "State and anarchy", her only complete opera. Bakunin writes most of his own political work after the long period of captivity, consolidating and defining his theory of anarchism, time man's spiritual empowerment and the achievement of freedom and equality for the people. Bakunin embraces the principles of Hegelian thought and with Marx and Engels shares the consciousness of the need of a socialist society. But his socialism, instead of deriving from scientific analysis and materialistic society, has essentially istintivistico. After a successful revolution-for him the violence should be directed to the destruction of institutions, not to people who are in charge-we must not rely on the State to achieve socialism. If equality is maintained by the State, for him liberty is necessarily excluded. For Bakunin instead of a need to form an international organization not be identified. National branches of this organization will be headed by national central committees, subject to the international body, whose location will be unknown to most of the members of the Committee. This organization cannot create the revolution, but his task is to "facilitate the birth of the revolution, spreading among the masses ideas that are correspond with their instincts, without creating any revolutionary army, since the army should always be popular, but rather something like a Headquarters consisting of ... friends of the people, able to act as intermediaries between the revolutionary idea and the instinct of the masses". Marx and Engels will fight for a long time against the superficiality of this approach to politics, against this refusal to consciously oriented political action which leads to disarming the proletariat and to make it a person helpless in the hands of the bourgeoisie. According to Bakunin in future society there is no authority, because for him the paradigm is "authority = status = absolute evil". Mikhail Bakunin dies in Bern on day 1 July 1876, at the age of 62 years.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.