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MICHAEL BAKUNIN REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST-ANARCHIST (1814- 1876)
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MICHAEL BAKUNINREVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST-ANARCHIST (1814- 1876)Life And Work Bakunin was born in Prjamuchino, Russia in 1814. Because he came from an aristocratic family and was prepared for military service, he gamed a perspective on soldiers and wage-earners that was to color his later writings. He saw soldiers as serfs who were bribed by pay and decorations. They worked like other members of the proletarian class, except that these people were paid to keep down their fellow proletarians. Always highly passionate, he resigned his commission and instead went to study in Moscow. He spent his younger days under the reign of the brutal Czar Nicholas, who was the worst oppressor the Russians had seen to that point. Since the reign of Nicholas tolerated no level of rebellion in politics, or in literature, economics, and/or religion, Bakunin turned to philosophy. Hegalianism was at a high point, and like others, Bakunin was influenced by it. Bakunin draws on Hegel’s notion of Dialectic, which argues that life and history consist of reconciling different notions--thesis, antithesis, and synthesis--to create his own brand of Historical Materialism. He spent five years studying in Moscow, and then obtained permission to study in Germany. Given more freedom than in his native country, he attempted to develop radical ideas predicated on Hegelian philosophy. Also in Germany at the time was Ludwig Feurbach, another Hegelian scholar, who wrote an influential text called The Essence of Christianity. Feurbach took an atheist stance, and called for a materialist interpretation of history. Marx, Engels, and Bakunin were all duly impressed with Fuerbach’s work, and his thoughts influenced their respective philosophies. France, for Bakunin, might be the most important place he studied. There, he visited Paris and met Pierre Joseph Proudhon, who that same year was to publish what many consider his magnum opus, The Creation of Order in Humanity. Bakunin also met Karl Marx, and had many discussions with him. This period is essential to Bakunin’s development as a thinker, because his views began to lean towards Proudhons political beliefs and Marx’s economic analyses. Though Bakunin despised Marx’s egotistical nature, he considered him a genius on matters economic and a sincere revolutionary. Bakunin gleaned from Marx his devotion to the notion of Historical Materialism, the belief that economic facts produce inevitable results and ideas in humanity. Still, he rejected the notion of the state as a mechanism to manage the economy, a vast difference between himself and Marx. This is probably the source of his mistrust for Marx and his admiration for Proudhon: Marx, however sincere his revolutionary desires, mistrusted the people. He believed in the necessity of state intervention to save the masses, which made him an authoritarian in the eyes of the liberty-loving Bakunin, who thought the masses could and should liberate themselves. Bakunin was ordered to leave Paris in 1847 after he delivered a speech advocating freedom for Poland. However, the revolution of February 1848 deposed King Louis Phillipe and brought Bakunin back to Paris, where he took part in many political movements. Soon, though, he was drawn to spread revolution to Prague, where he led a movement to overthrow the state. In Saxony, he tried it again, but was arrested and extradited to Russia. His home country claimed him as a fugitive. He was captured, though, and condemned to death in May 1850. His sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, eight years of which he spent in solitary confinement. His family succeeded in gaining his release after the death of Nicholas I. Even the mild Alexander II felt it would be best to keep the firebrand under watch in Siberia, where he spent four years, only to escape on an American ship bound for Japan. At the end of 1861, he reached London. Brings His Anarchism To The West He threw himself into revolutionary schemes with greater enthusiasm than before. He met with Alexander Hertzen, another Russian in exile, and worked with him on a Polish insurrection. He and Hertzen's publications, which demanded the abolition of the State, were a source of growing conflict with the Marxists. He joined the Congress of the International Association (the First International), founded by Marx, and in September of 1869, a Congress meeting found they had more sympathy for Bakunin’s views on inheritance than they did Marx’s. Marx, notoriously possessive of the First International, was not pleased. This was the beginning of a divide that would last for years. It started with the inheritance question, but that was only a minor skirmish. The real battle was over the role of the state. The Bakuninists felt the state had to be abolished, while the Marxists clung to the notion that the state was necessary to bring about socialism. 1870 saw the advent of the Franco-German war, a period that spawned some of Bakunin’s best work. He hoped for social revolution in France to depose the oppressive Napoleon Ill. He wrote A Letter To A Frenchman for the purpose of inciting such a movement He even went to Lyons to spark an anarchist movement, but when the movement sputtered and failed, he was forced to flee. Depressed over the failure, his growing cynicism about the bourgeoisie spurred him on to write what many consider his finest book, The Knouto-Germanic Empire and the Social Revolution. Though not totally finished, Bakunin worked on it from 1870 to 1872, and covered all manner of subjects, from philosophical to political to economic to historical. It is here where he develops his Historical Materialism in detail. Though not optimistic about the prospects for a social revolution, Bakunin was nevertheless drawn to the cause of the Paris Commune, which existed from March through May of 1871. Interestingly enough, this is still touted by DeLeonist members of the Socialist Labor Party USA to be the ideal expression of socialism. Bakunin, on the other hand, saw the Commune as the justification why his theories were superior to Marx’s, because there was no vanguard party involved. In 1872, the split between the Marxists and the Bakuninists became too much, however, and Bakunin was expelled from the Congress of the First International. Bakuninists were to start a new International in Switzerland, though, which would outlive Bakunin himself. Prematurely old due to his lifelong activist struggles and his eight-year confinement, he died on July 1st, 1876. The Philosophy Of Bakunin Bakunin, though not a Marxist, subscribed to many Marxist tenets, including Historical Materialism. He accepted the Marxist notion of the class war. He also believed in the abolition of private property and the necessity of democratizing the means of production. However, Marx favored the use of the state, which Bakunin was unwilling to accept He thought Marx an elitist for not believing in the workers’ ability to liberate themselves, and thought him short-sighted for thinking a state--which to Bakunin was, of necessity, competitive and a dominant ‘capitalist’ structure--could establish true egalitarian socialism. This helps explain Bakunin’s other beliefs, like his delineation between individual liberty and ‘true’ liberty. Unrestrained individualism was, of course, anathema to Bakunin, but he also believed that individualism without social concern was simply an excuse for “egoism.” He thought that true liberty “could only be achieved in and through society.” This is not to say that Bakunin felt the individual could be forced into a social compact A student of Proudhon and a lover of liberty, Bakunin believed in free association and voluntary cooperation, mistrusting the communists for their unwillingness to commit to the goal of liberty. Bakunin also thought, however, that there could be no liberty while “economic slavery” to the state existed. Bakunin also rejects the notion of voting and universal suffrage. For him, to vote is to justify the system, and since it serves no revolutionary good, there is no reason whatsoever to partake in it. Though, as a Historical Materialist, he believed in the inevitability of class struggle, Bakunin also thought that inevitability meant giving up. He explains several places that just because the situation looks hopeless, it is good for the human spirit and for the collective good to struggle against evil. 15 Debate Application Bakunin’s critique of the social contract thinkers, particularly Rousseau, is scathing. He sees no such “free” organization of people taking place under the state. Besides, Bakunin argues, if the social contract theory is true, we don’t need the state anyway, because we can enter into voluntary, mutual agreements with each other. This is useful against any case that values the social contract, or argues that we get rights from the state. Bakunin’s value against socialist philosophers is obvious. What is less obvious, however, is the depth of his criticism. Not only can he be used to characterize Marx et. al as authoritarian, but also to attack their theories for ignoring the rights of individuals. Bakunin argues that there will always be victims under such a program, and his commitment to stopping such injustice makes his theory superior to most. Bakunin also staunchly opposes notions of “patriotism” for obvious reasons, given the allegiance it implies to a state. This can be useful against any case that attempts to rally the judge around a flag or the good of a specific nation. Bakunin, needless to say, is useful against any case that glorifies voting, democratic participation, or allegiance to a representative government. For Bakunin, this just ignores the economic chains we are beholden to. To Bakunin, any act of change that doesn’t fundamentally alter the state system is as useless as running in place. All these fiery sentiments make him a very useful thinker to debaters. 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