Bakunin Library Archives - Page 11 of 13 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Letter to “La Réforme” (January 1845)

December 14, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

Letter to “La Réforme” (January 1845) Monsieur! The Gazette des Tribunaux has announced, together with other Paris newspapers, the ukase issued against Mr. Golowine and myself. I regard the proceedings, certainly not so delicate, of the Russian government against us as something so natural and above all so insignificant, in comparison with the enormous iniquities which it commits each day in our unfortunate homeland, that I certainly would not allow myself, Monsieur, to speak to you of myself, if I did not find myself forced to it by a letter that Mr. Golowine thought he should address to the Gazette […]

Letter to Le Constitutionnel, March 19, 1846

December 13, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

Monsieur. I am Russian, and I love my country. It is for that very reason that I make some wishes at this moment, like many Russians, for the triumph of the Polish insurrection polonaise. The oppression of Poland is a shame for my country, and its liberty would perhaps be the beginning of our own. I want first of all to bring my testimony, as an honest man, in an affair which occupies at this moment all the French papers, I want to speak of the persecution of the Basilian nuns of Lithuania. For my part, I am completely convinced […]

Mikhail Bakunin, “The Principle of the State” (1871)

September 30, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Principle of the State [manuscript, 1871, Locarno, Switzerland] At base, conquest is not only the origin, it is also the crowning aim of all States, great or small, powerful or weak, despotic or liberal, monarchic, aristocratic, democratic, and even socialist, supposing that the ideal of the German socialists, that of a great communist State, is ever realized. That it has been the point of departure for all States, ancient and modern, can be doubted by no one, since each page of universal history proves it sufficiently. No one contests any longer that the large current States have conquest […]

James Guillaume, “Proudhon: Communist” (1911)

February 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

This essay by James Guillaume is probably more historically significant than it is convincing, focusing as it does on one very early bit of Proudhon’s writing, but it is certainly an interesting interpretation. Proudhon: Communist At the basis of Proudhon’s economic theory we find two essential ideas, that of value and that of exchange. These two ideas are only of interest in the regime of individual property. in a communist society, in fact, one does not produce in order to sell, but to consume; the question of the exchange value of objects for consumption is thus no longer posed, as […]

Michael Bakunin: A Biographical Sketch (London, 1862)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

MICHAEL BAKUNIN. (A Biographical Sketch.) Bakunin is in London! Bakunin, buried in dungeons, lost in Eastern Siberia, re-appears in the midst of us, full of life and energy. Redivivus et ultor, we might say, with Pougatscheff, were not Bakunin and ourselves, too much occupied to waste time in thoughts of vengeance. Bakunin returns more hopeful than ever, with redoubled love for the Russian people. He is invigorated by the sharp, but healthy, air of Siberia. Is it that spring approaches? Old friends return to us from beyond the Pacific Ocean. How many images, how many shadows, rise from the dead […]

“The Working Man” of London greets Bakunin (1862)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

MICHAEL BAKUNIN THE Committee of the “Working Man,” on Tuesday, the 7th of January, having been informed that Michael Bakunin had arrived in London, a deputation was appointed to go and present to this martyr of human progress an address of welcome. On Friday, the 10th, accordingly the deputation waited upon Alexander Herzen, the celebrated Russian exile and “publiciste,” who introduced them to Bakunin, surrounded by a goodly staff of Russians, Poles, &c, all friends of progress, united by the brotherly love for one common mother—Liberty. The following address was then read:— The Committee of the “Working Man” to the […]

M. Jourdain, “Mikhail Bakunin” (1920)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

MIKHAIL BAKUNIN. BY M. JOURDAIN. “It is only by tracing things to their origin,” writes Paine in his Essay on Agrarian Justice, “that we can gain rightful ideas of them,” and the deepest foundations of the Russian Revolution owe much to the violence and perfervid genius of Bakunin, a name less frequently in the mouths of men than that of his adversary, Karl Marx. Marx, who recognized in himself a pioneer, comes within well-known categories, and his doctrines can be clearly tabulated, but Bakunin is more elusive. He was not, in any respect, leader of a party, nor founder of […]

Louise Michel’s “Nadine,” a drama featuring Bakunin

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

I have previously posted a short excerpt from Louise Michel’s novel, The Imperial Bastard, which featured Bakunin as a main character. Michel also adapted some elements from that novel in dramatic form as Nadine, a political tragedy set in the Polish rebellions of 1846. I’ve posted a working translation of that play now at the Working Translations blog. As with all of these new translations, there are some rough spots to smooth, but in this case it’s mostly a case of making sense of the details of the stage directions, and I think all the charm of Michel’s Bakunin comes […]

The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] 1871 was a huge year for Bakunin as a writer. Along with The Knouto-Germanic Empire (the manuscript from which “God and the State” is drawn), he wrote “The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International,” a lengthy polemic against Giuseppe Mazzini. Like “God and the State,” which was translated into English by Benjamin R. Tucker, it was translated by an individualist anarchist in the United States, Sarah E. Holmes, and appeared in serial form in Tucker’s Liberty. Both translations were quite good. “The Political Theology…” is comparatively little-known, but well worth reading. A continuation of […]

Guy A. Aldred, “Michel Bakunin: Communist” (1920)

January 17, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

MICHEL BAKUNIN: COMMUNIST GUY ALDRED 1920 FOREWORD. “A spectre,” wrote Karl Marx in 1847, “is haunting Europe, the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of Old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre.” But the exorcism has failed. In vain does the holy alliance reconstitute itself in order to perform its chosen task. The spectre of 1847 is a mere sprite no longer. It has emerged from the darkness in which it was wont formerly to play the part of a miserable shadow. It has become an embodied spirit, a power incarnate; and to-day it boldly […]