Year: 2015

Saint Ravachol

Letter to the Police Prefect

July 10, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
Paris, March 30, 1892       Monsieur Lozé I learn from the newspapers that you are sure of catching me. Well, let me tell you that you will not take me alive at least; dead, it is possible, I am throwing myself in the Seine in [   ] I have had enough of life. Do not look for the guilty ones in the explosions of the Blvd. St. Germain and the rue de Clichy, for you will not find them. I am the guilty party. It is the magistrates I wanted [to strike]. But pardon me, for I am going to […]
Bakunin Library

Looking forward (July 2015)

July 9, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] “Chaque commentateur de Bakounine fait un choix.” – Frank Mintz, Saint-Imier, 2012. It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on the publishing side of the Bakunin Library project. Work on the Bakunin Reader inches along steadily, as I wrestle with the content of the introduction. At the same time, I am making yet another pass through the correspondence, as well as minor, fragmentary and lesser-known texts, comparing my rough plan for the various volumes of the Library against the available work and existing editions. I’ve been trying to balance my developing plan with the criticisms I have […]
Bakunin Library

Letter to Ogarev and Ozerov (April 5, 1871)

July 5, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
Letter to Nikolay Platonovich Ogarev and Vladimir Michajlovich Ozerov April 5, 1871, Locarno 1. To Jean. Here is a letter to Varlin for you. I send it to you today in case, enflamed by our impatient friend Ross, you should decide to leave Paris before circumstances and especially financial means have allowed me to join you. On that subject, I have already written to Ross and to you yesterday. Return the letter to Varlin only from hand to hand. In all probability the Parisians succumb, but they will not succumb in vain, having accomplished their task, and posed the question; […]
Bakunin Library

Letter to Nikolay Ivanovich Zhukovsky (May 5, 1870)

July 5, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Letter to Nikolay Ivanovich Zhukovsky, in Russia]                              May 5, 1870. Locarno.                              Casa Pedrazzini. Dear Zhuk, The day after my arrival, I responded briefly to you few words. Now I want to discuss with you. You probably already know that I have punctually fulfilled, towards Guillaume and Fritz Robert, what we have decided among us; and I see, in the latest issues of Solidarité, which I have found here in the home of a friend, that Guillaume has held strictly to the direction fixed. The last two issues are excellent. I wish very much to know the impression that […]
Bakunin Library

Revolutionary Socialism in Russia (1875)

July 5, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
Revolutionary Socialism in Russia [1875] We have before us a very curious text, the translation of which the reader will find, added as an appendix, at the end of this article. It is a confidential circular, recently issued by Mr. le Comte Pahlen, minister of what is called justice in Russia. We find there an indisputable proof of the threatening invasions of revolutionary socialism in that country. Indeed, it is not the fanatical exaltation of a sectarian, nor the interested calculation of a socialist politician, it is the authorized voice of a statesman, minister of a great Empire, that speaks […]
Bakunin Library

Fragments concerning Freemasonry – B (1865)

July 4, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
FRAGMENTS CONCERNING FREEMASONRY [Summer-Fall 1865] B. Catechism of Freemasonry I. Theology Leaving aside the transcendent question, probably insoluble for man, of the Absolute and the existence or non-existence of an otherworldly and extra-human God; – Considering at the same time that as soon as man posits the truth and justice, the principle regulator of his acts, outside of his being, outside of his reason and conscience, he declares himself at that moment incapable of justice and truth, and posits the necessity of a revelation, and consequently the necessity of an absolute authority, which, in the form of the Church and […]
Bakunin Library

Fragments concerning Freemasonry – A (1865)

July 4, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
FRAGMENTS CONCERNING FREEMASONRY [Summer-Fall 1865] A. In order to become once again a living and useful body, Freemasonry must once again seriously take up the service of humanity. But what does these words mean today: to serve humanity? – Would it be to protect the innocents and the weak, to care for the sick, to feed and clothe the destitute, to give education to poor children? All of these works are extremely commendable and as practical applications of the principle of human fraternity, they are more or less part, according to the capacity of each, of the duties not only […]
Bakunin Library

Speech at Malmö, Sweden, March 30, 1863

July 2, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur
The working documents of an international movement can pose complicated problems for translators. Here, for example, is the text of a speech, apparently written in French, first reported in English, then translated back to French for the Collected Works from a Russian translation, though it is not immediately clear from which source the Russian translation was made. Now I have translated the second French version into English. In this case, given the simplicity of the sentiments expressed, all of this translation probably obscures very little in the text, but we can easily imagine cases where the vagueries of document preservation […]