DOCSLIB.ORG

Bakunin, Father of Anarchism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bakunin, Father of Anarchism A UhollUh 'lot acknowledged a8 wch by the Bo18heviT.'a. BIII:unin (=nt on thtJ ".,.,") ia one ojtheir ancutoT8. u prominent leader;n the revolutionary proce8a which culminated ill Bo18hevulII. BAKUNIN, FATHER OF ANARCHISM By WALTER GORLITZ ORN on April 18, 1814, at Pryamuk. family, Michael attended the Artillery School hino, an estate in the Province of in St. Petersburg to become an officer, if B Tver, Bakunin was the scion of an possible of the Guards, and graduated after old, distinguished family of the no­ having done fairly well in his final examina· bility. His father, Alexander Bakunin, was tions. He was disappointed when, instead master over several thousand serfs and mar· of being ordered to the Guards, he was shal of the nobility of his native district. posted with an artillery detachment stationed One of his ancestors had distinguished him­ in the provinces. His duties did not offer self in the diplomatic service under Catherine him any satisfaction whatever. Soon he II, and one of his relatives was a general in neglected them entirely, spending days on the Tsarist Army. The revolutionary herit­ end lying on his bed in a dressing gown, age which was later to unfold to such an idling away his time with daydreams. extent in the son was already apparent in Finally, after less than a year, filled with the father: he was a member of one of the loathing at so much emptiness and boredom, two secret conspiracies formed by officers he resigned his commission. After that he and mem bers of the aristocracy which led lived either on his father's estate or in to the Decembrist rising, and after the Moscow, a young aristocrat who, like 80 failure of this rising he had to go to Siberia many of his peers, did not have to work for for a certain length of time. In his mother's a living. family, that of the Counts Muravyov, we Outwardly, Bakunin was of a striking also find a revolutionary tradition, as several appearance. With his tall, athletic figure, of her reh\tives were among the leaders of his wide shoulders, and his big, impressive the Decembrists, one of them, Colonel Sergius head with its shock of waving brown hair, Muravyov-Apostol, having been hanged at he seemed like a bogatyr, one of those the Tsar's orders in St. Petersburg in 182'3. mythical heroes of old Russian legends. In view of the reactionary character of His features pointed to frankness and good Russian absolutism and the scanty hopes nature. A likeable fellow, one might have for liberal reforms, many progressive minds thought, with such unllsual intellectual gifts in Russia were convinced that there could that he would seem to be born for more be no ot,her way but revolution. On the than whiling away his life with the vanities other hand, since an urban middle class and of aristocratic salons. His talents were ob· industrial proletariat did not evolve until viollsly far above the average. He possessed late in the nineteenth century and the a lively imagination, a brilliant intel­ peasant masses continued in their traditional lectual grasp, wrote in an exquisite style, pn,ssi,ity, these ideas of revolution were and was a fluent, even inspiring speaker. mn,intained for a long tiDle almost exclusively But his stock of actual knowledge was by the nobility, as this was the only class to fragmentary. have all the means of education at its (lis­ Thus equipped, or rather unequipped, he posal. Almost aU the standard-bearers of entered the circle of Moscow's intellectual revolt, from the Decembrists (named after je'Unes.3e doree, which wail at that time the Decem ber uprising of 1825) to Lenin greedily absorbing the philosophy of the (who::;o rcal namc was Ulyanov) were de­ Occident. It was, so to speak, a period of .scendants of the nobility. intellectual spring awakening. Russia was The youth of Mikhail Bakunin provides opening her eyes after a long hibernation no inkling of the thorny path which fate and, full of thirst for knowledge, seeking to had destined him to tread one day. He grew catch up with the culture and sciences of up in a comfortable, wealthy, and seoure Europe. An enthusiastic feeling of being ·environment. Following the tradition of his ca.llcd upon to create new and better forms DAKUNIN, FATHER OF ANARCHISM 337 of life permeated all these easily inflamma.ble him the money for the journey, :1"01' Baku­ minds. The tirst ideas of Plln-Slavism, the nin this was the decisive step of his life. mission of t.he Slavic nations under Russia's His stay abroad uprooted him from bis leadership, mingled chaotically with this accustomed environment and, as he lacked youthful storm and streSl·. Men who wer true moral backbone, be 1'0011 lost all led by tho traditions of tbe ancient Moscow stability. period in their desire to 1'100 the Plln-SIl\\'ic In the winter of 1840/41, wht'll Bnkunin idea materialize>, united in this national urge began his studit'll, the "Hegelian Leftisttl" f~r power with the "Westerner:," who held sway over the lecture hulls in the Berlin deemed a n w liberal and democratic Russia University. Bakunin learned to hitl deligbt to be an essontial condition for the realizll­ that there was a truth which went even tion of this great aim. Their chief rep­ beyond the mlulter'g truth, a truth able to resent.ati,·os were the poet Alexander Herzen, wive those contradictions over wbich he had the illegitimate son of II- rich Moseow aristo­ almost despaired, Lacking any inherent cra.t and a. c: mum woman, a brilliant, creative power, he could only appropriate sensitivo, and roma.ntically inclined Ulan, the ideas of others-which, moreover, he and his h'iend Ogare,', tJl6 tlcion of a rich misinterpreted-and ea.rry them to boundless family of the nobility. extremes. The ideological sylltem which he These young people were now joined b~' built up in this way, altbough full of bold Bakunin, whoso active mind was thirsting conclusions was devoid of any reality. for occupntioll and fulfilll1l('nt. All of them Outwardly, too, his studies showed little in were uml('r the influence of a new spiritual the way of results. He reported to Herzen revelation, thc philosophy of Hegel. The on bill attendance at lecture.s, and took part life of the world a.s the l!tcrnal rational in new, night-long debates over tea and process of pure intellect, to be apprehended cigarettes on the riddles of the world, at by perception: that was the new gospel which Turgcnycv. wbo was later to gain filling all these brains with ecstasy. iele by lIuch faille as un author, was also present; side with tho old, torpid world of the state but with that restlessness wbich formed Church wit hits unedueated prie.'lts, the cult. Bakunin's most outstanding characteristic of reason affected the minds of the young he suddenly broke all t.his off. people like fcrme'nting wino. All that en-r He gave up his studies and in I 42, with was, is, or' will be is, according to Hegel, l\ publication on Schellin(J and the H eclat'ion, only divine rc'uson in its unfolding. "What­ Critiq!le of th Ij(lte,~t Att£mpt at Hioction ,in e,er is, is rational: and only that. which i>l Ph·ilos01J!I!I. he appeared on the seene liS a. rational il'!," thnt is the quintc ~cnce of his rdormer of Gcrllllln philosophy. His work philosophy. It :seemcd to ~iH' the reply to f'apti,-ate.s the readl'r by its brillinnt st~'le; nil the quest ionA of life. and flO these you ng thanks to his quick f.,'Tasp he had 111l\~t.t-red Russian!'! hungr'ily sei7.ed upon it. Their the German Inngullgl' in a surpri;;ingly !'hort night.long lu\stlionat.e debat{'s ()\'er tea and time. But through the tnngl<, of Illore or cigarettt.~ 011 every single pamgfl\J.Ih of the Icss misundcrlltood Ht·gelillll thetll~S, the master'/! dfK:tl'ine were the forerullilers of com plete all!lI'chillt is already wsccrnible the later nihilillt,ic discussions with their palt', between the line!!. Hc placeR t.he irlea in feverishly excited, unkempt participant.s j uxtaposit.ioT\ to reality and d(,IlII\l1d,; t.hat who, forgett ing c,-erything aroUlll1 them, in the idea be burned at the stake 80 that, endless loquacity tore e\'l'r~·thillg to pieces like the phoenix of legend. it may arise and mi:;intl'rpr('tcd it all. purified frum thc~ allhes. Tbis meRIlS no less tlml1 the annihilation of tbe exi,_ tin~ world H I:: Ht,ntl' in which Bakullin and llis ill favor of n phtllitom. For thc idea, he friend,.; wc!'!' li,-ing was the H,ussia of proclaiill8. everything must be sacrificed, T even one'· life. The tirst strailll_ of the Tsar ~ icltolas 1 who, after the De­ cemurist reyolt. I'IIthl('&;ly Ruppres'ied uny marching song of that all-embracing rev­ f,lution, who~ upo ·tle he was soon to be­ libcnd thought. Hence it was not long ('Ollie, are alrendy audible in thi work: before doubt made its appt·arance in thesl' "The day of the great decision of the battle nightly discussions as t,o how this reality, which could not bt' rational, waR to be rcc­ of nations is npIlI·ou.ehing, and victory must onciled to Hegt'l's doctrine.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Russian Revolutions: the Impact and Limitations of Western Influence
    Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Faculty and Staff Publications By Year Faculty and Staff Publications 2003 The Russian Revolutions: The Impact and Limitations of Western Influence Karl D. Qualls Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Qualls, Karl D., "The Russian Revolutions: The Impact and Limitations of Western Influence" (2003). Dickinson College Faculty Publications. Paper 8. https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications/8 This article is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Karl D. Qualls The Russian Revolutions: The Impact and Limitations of Western Influence After the collapse of the Soviet Union, historians have again turned their attention to the birth of the first Communist state in hopes of understanding the place of the Soviet period in the longer sweep of Russian history. Was the USSR an aberration from or a consequence of Russian culture? Did the Soviet Union represent a retreat from westernizing trends in Russian history, or was the Bolshevik revolution a product of westernization? These are vexing questions that generate a great deal of debate. Some have argued that in the late nineteenth century Russia was developing a middle class, representative institutions, and an industrial economy that, while although not as advanced as those in Western Europe, were indications of potential movement in the direction of more open government, rule of law, free market capitalism. Only the Bolsheviks, influenced by an ideology imported, paradoxically, from the West, interrupted this path of Russian political and economic westernization.
    [Show full text]
  • Offord, Derek. "From National Backwardness to Revolutionary
    Offord, Derek. "From National Backwardness to Revolutionary Leadership: Alexander Herzen's Book On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia." Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts. Ed. Rachel Hammersley. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. 117–124. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 30 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474252669.0021>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 30 September 2021, 17:55 UTC. Copyright © Rachel Hammersley 2015. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 1 4 From National Backwardness to Revolutionary Leadership: Alexander Herzen ’ s Book On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia D e r e k O ff o r d On the one hand, the Russian government is not Russian, but in general despotic and reactionary. It is more German than Russian, as the Slavophiles say, and that is what explains the sympathy and love with which other governments turn to it. St Petersburg is the new Rome, the Rome of universal slavery, the metropolis of absolutism; that is why the Emperor of Russia fraternizes with the Emperor of Austria and helps him to oppress Slavs. Th e principle of his power is not national, and absolutism is more cosmopolitan than revolution. On the other hand, the hopes and aspirations of revolutionary Russia coincide with those of revolutionary Europe and portend their future alliance. Th e national element that Russia brings is the freshness of its youth and a natural leaning towards socialist institutions. Th e impasse at which the states of Europe have arrived is plain to see.
    [Show full text]
  • First Socialist Schism Bakunin Vs
    The First Socialist Schism Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Working Men’s Association Wolfgang Eckhardt Translated by Robert M. Homsi, Jesse Cohn, Cian Lawless, Nestor McNab, and Bas Moreel The First Socialist Schism Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Working Men’s Association The First Socialist Schism: Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Working Men’s Association Wolfgang Eckhardt © 2016 This edition published in 2016 by PM Press ISBN: 978-1-62963-042-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014908069 Cover: John Yates/Stealworks.com Layout: Jonathan Rowland PM Press P.O. Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 thoughtcrime ink C/O Black Cat Press 4508 118 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5W 1A9 Canada 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan www.thomsonshore.com This book has been made possible in part by a generous donation from the Anarchist Archives Project. I am profoundly grateful to Jörg Asseyer, Gianluca Falanga, Valerii Nikolaevich Fomichev, Frank Hartz, Gabriel Kuhn, Lore Naumann, Felipe Orobón Martínez, Werner Portmann, Michael Ryan, Andrea Stei, Hanno Strauß, and Michael Volk for their support and to the translators named above for their excellent job creating this English edition of my book. Contents 1 Bakunin, Marx, and Johann Philipp Becker 1 • The Alliance ‘request’ by Johann Philipp Becker (November 1868) • The Alliance joins the International (February–July 1869) • Becker’s position paper on the question of organisation (July 1869) 2 The International in Geneva and in
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchist Social Science : Its Origins and Development
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 1974 Anarchist social science : its origins and development. Rochelle Ann Potak University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Potak, Rochelle Ann, "Anarchist social science : its origins and development." (1974). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 2504. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/2504 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANARCHIST SOCIAL SCIENCE: ITS ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT A Thesis Presented By ROCHELLE ANN POTAK Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the den:ree of MASTER OF ARTS December 1974 Political Science ANARCHIST SOCIAL SCIENCE: ITS ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT A Thesis By ROCHELLE AliN POTAK Approved as to style and content by: Guenther Lewy, Chairman of Committee Dean Albertson, Member — Glen Gordon, Chairman Department of Political Science December 197^ Affectionately dedicated to my friends Men have sought for aees to discover the science of govern- ment; and lo l here it is, that men cease totally to attempt to govern each other at allJ that they learn to know the consequences of their OT-m acts, and that they arrange their relations with each other upon such a basis of science that the disagreeable consequences shall be assumed by the agent himself. Stephen Pearl Andrews V PREFACE The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine anarchist thought from a new perspective.
    [Show full text]
  • 8. MO Gershenzon — Metaphysical Historian of Russia's
    —————— 8. M. O. Gershenzon — Metaphysical Historian of Russia’s Silver Age: Part 1 —————— 8. M. O. Gershenzon — Metaphysical Historian of Russia’s Silver Age: Part 1 It is intriguing to consider Mikhail Gershenzon’s historical writings in the light of Russia’s Silver-Age cultural system.1 Certainly the poetry of the time was intimately connected with the spirit of the age, but historiography? Was it also influenced by formal experimentation, an interest in religion, and a concern with psychology and the life of the individual rather than issues of politics and legal rights?2 Above all, M. O. Gershenzon would make a perfect test case, since among historians he was perhaps the most in tune with his time; he befriended symbolist poets, studied religion, and took a deep interest in spiritual problems. Gershenzon should be viewed as a representative of what Marc Raeff called “the Slavophile historiographical tradition, ” because he tried to reveal to his readers the internal, spiritual life of his heroes.3 As opposed to the “Westernizer” tradition represented in Gershenzon’s day by Ivanov-Razumnik, Semyon Vengerov or Pavel Miliukov, who saw the evolution of Russian history as revealing an on-going struggle for social progress, the “Slavophile” historians focused their attention on the “accomplishments of the spirit.” Not social justice, but evidence of religious inspiration excited their interest. Of course some of the differ- ences in historiographical approaches derived from the subjects being studied, but the choices of what to study and how to present material also characterize each group. Gershenzon was among the most promi- nent figures in the group, which included historians and writers as Vladimir Ern, Georgy Fedotov, Vasily Rozanov, Konstantin Mochul’sky, Lev Karsavin, Nikolai Berdiaev, and Georges Florovsky.
    [Show full text]
  • A Case Study on the Relationship Between Anarcho-Syndicalists and Bolsheviks in Revolutionary Russia, 19
    THE BOLSHEVIK ILLUSION: A CASE STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS AND BOLSHEVIKS IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA, 1917 A Thesis Presented to the faculty of the Department of History California State University, Sacramento Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in History by Kyle Joseph Brislan SUMMER 2018 © 2018 Kyle Joseph Brislan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii THE BOLSHEVIK ILLUSION: A CASE STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS AND BOLSHEVIKS IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA, 1917 A Thesis by Kyle Joseph Brislan Approved by: __________________________________, Committee Chair Dr. Aaron Cohen __________________________________, Second Reader Dr. Christopher Castañeda ____________________________ Date iii Student: Kyle Joseph Brislan I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this thesis is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the thesis. __________________________, Graduate Coordinator ___________________ Dr. Rebecca Kluchin Date Department of History iv Abstract of THE BOLSHEVIK ILLUSION: A CASE STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS AND BOLSHEVIKS IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA, 1917 by Kyle Joseph Brislan The revolutionary semblance between anarcho-syndicalism and Bolshevism, amplified by the reemergence of populist ideals among factory workers, engendered a temporary alliance between Russia’s anarcho-syndicalists and Bolsheviks at various times during 1917 and the Civil War. Lenin’s vague and politically elusive concepts of revolution and social organization persuaded some anarcho-syndicalists to join the Bolshevik vanguard. Many of Russia’s anarcho-syndicalists fell victim to the Bolshevik illusion, which necessitated the revolution’s success upon the unification of Russia’s revolutionary forces, either to overthrow the Provisional Government or defeat the Whites in the Civil War.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Libertarianism
    9 Political Libertarianism Jacob T. Levy part 1 Benjamin Constant, the great classical liberal theorist and constitutionalist, under- stood the problem. In “The Liberty of the Ancients Compared With That of the 1 Moderns,” his defense and celebration of the modern liberty of pluralism and the private sphere, he warned that the very richness of our modern private lives would lead moderns to neglect what was vital in the liberty of the ancients. Wrapped up in our private lives, we would find democratic politics too burdensome and time- consuming; anxious to protect what is ours, we would find elections too unpredict- able. And so we – by which he meant, especially, the commercial and propertied middle classes – will easily be tempted by the Bonapartist offer: I will take the trouble of governing off your hands and protect you from unpredictable political give and take. Constant was sure that such offers are made in bad faith, and that they would represent a bad exchange even if they were not; they end with even our private modern liberty being at the mercy of strongmen and dictators. But this wouldn’t make us immune to the temptation. He worried, in short, that liberals would not be committed enough democrats to make good constitutionalists. And this would ultimately mean that we are not good enough liberals. For all the transformations of modernity, the regime of religious liberty and free speech, commercial liberty and free trade, and the rule of general law with protection against arbitrary punishment could never be taken for granted. It could always be politically undone.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Kropotkin's Radical Communalism Matthew S
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Loughborough University Institutional Repository To cite: Matthew S. Adams, ‘Rejecting the American Model: Peter Kropotkin’s Radical Communalism’ in History of Political Thought – in press. Rejecting the American Model: Peter Kropotkin’s Radical Communalism 1 Matthew S. Adams Abstract: Kropotkin’s anarchism looked to a future defined by communalism. However, his understanding of this potential communal future has rarely been subject to analysis. Particularly important was his distinction between communalism and the tradition of communal experimentation in the US, which drew heavily on the ideas of Charles Fourier. Kropotkin was influenced by Fourier, but thought that attempts to found phalanstèries had been disastrous, vitiating the power of communalist propaganda. To defend the idea of a communal future, Kropotkin therefore advanced a tripartite critique of the US model of utopian experimentation. The image of American utopianism he created consequently served as a useful rhetorical device, allowing him to advance a counter-image of the anarchist communal theory that lay at the heart of his political theory. Keywords: Peter Kropotkin, anarchism, utopianism, communalism, intentional communities, Social Darwinism, Charles Fourier. Peter Kropotkin’s anarchist utopia The Conquest of Bread attempted to anticipate the multiple objections to the viability of anarchism. Addressing the critical questions of an imaginary interlocutor was one of Kropotkin’s favoured rhetorical devices, and in his 1892 work, it was applied thoroughly to present a detailed exposition of what an anarchist world might look like. In a preface added to the 1906 translation, Kropotkin made it clear that 1 Department of History, Durham University, 43 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3EX.
    [Show full text]
  • Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism'
    H-Ideas Burrow on Malia, 'Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism' Review published on Friday, September 1, 2000 Martin Malia. Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1965. ix + 486 pp. Reviewed by David Burrow (Department of History, University of Wisconsin at Madison) Published on H-Ideas (September, 2000) Martin Malia and the Birth of Russian Intellectual History Martin Malia and the Birth of Russian Intellectual History Martin Malia's tasks in his 1961 work are threefold: to understand why socialist thought emerged in Imperial Russia in the middle of the nineteenth century, prior to the economic conditions emplotted by Marxism that were supposed to produce a socialist movement; to "explain the extraordinary impact of post-Kantian romantic idealism in Russia;" and to explain the contemporaneous emergence of "ideological nationalism" (p. vii). His method is to examine "the 'social psychology' of ideas. .how ideological patterns emerge from, or express in transposed form, the social, political, and historical pressures of a given period" (p. vii). He places ideas in a psychological context, a critical act which provides much of the enduring power of this work as well as proving the source for much of the controversy it raised. Malia puts forward psychological assumptions as certainties. For example, he proposes as an essential element of human nature that "men are never 'influenced' by ideas they do not already hold in embryonic form" (p. 38). Thus, ideas are neither borrowed nor merely influential; ideas that are adopted always correspond with circumstances and deep inner needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethical Historiography: the Berlin-Carr Debate and the Revolutionary Realism of Alexander Herzen
    Wesleyan University The Honors College Ethical Historiography: The Berlin-Carr Debate and the Revolutionary Realism of Alexander Herzen by Alex Holachek Class of 2010 A thesis submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors in History Middletown, Connecticut April, 2010 Acknowledgements Thanks to Professor Susanne Fusso, who was always hugely helpful and sympathetic, offering thought-provoking comments every week without fail. She agreed to be my adviser while I was studying in England, and I will always be very grateful for how she went out of her way to help a student with whom she had not previously worked. Thanks also to Professor Bruce Masters for facilitating the arrangement and agreeing to be my connection with the History Department and for reading parts of my thesis. Many thanks to my parents, the best people of all time. I've had a wonderful four years of college and I could (probably literally) never repay them for all the financial support they've given me, though I hope to always reciprocate the expansive love and encouragement they have lavished on me all these years. Thanks lastly to Jason, who put up with a lot of thesis-related kvetching. Isaiah BerlinFigure Edward Hallett Carr Isaiah Berlin Alexander Herzen A Note on Translation and Style: The research for this project was done in both the original language and in translation. The four key texts written by Herzen—Dilettantism in Science, From the Other Shore, Letter on Free Will, and Letters to an Old Comrade—are in this paper always cited giving both the Russian and English references.
    [Show full text]
  • PETER KROPOTKIN: Portrait of an Anarchist Prince
    1 PETER KROPOTKIN: Portrait of an Anarchist Prince Andrew Cornford, Observatoire de la Finance, Geneva Paper prepared for remarks on the thought of Peter Kropotkin, the anarchist prince, at the office of the Geneva Socialist Party, October 2011 2 1. Life and career Peter Kropotkin, Russian prince, was a person of many parts ‐ indeed of remarkably many parts: would‐be administrative reformer in Tsarist Russia, explorer, geographer/geologist, participant in the European anarchist and socialist movements as activist, journalist, pamphleteer and theoretician, explicatory scientific writer, campaigner for prison reform, social anthropologist, economic sociologist, historian, literary critic, and ethicist. What were Kropotkin’s origins? Whence came this unusual combination of political activism and of polymathy fully meriting the characterisation of Kropotkin as “a renaissance genius who aspired to universal knowledge”, to quote his principal biographers (Woodcock and Avakumovic, 1950:445)? And how did Kropotkin exercise his many talents throughout his life? Childhood and schooling Kropotkin was born in 1842 into an aristocratic family which claimed to be descended from the dynasty of Rurik that had governed Russia before the Romanovs. Fellow revolutionaries jested that Kropotkin had more right to the throne of Russia than Alexander II who was only a German. Joking apart, the Kropotkins were a family which had played an active part in medieval Russia with its loose structure of semi‐independent principalities. In 1857 Kropotkin left home for the élite military school, the Corps of Pages, where after a stay of four or five years those who passed the final examinations were received in any regiment which they chose.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 22 Glossary Archduke Maximilian of Austria: Made Emperor of Mexico in 1864 by Napoleon III Who Wanted to Dominate Mexico
    Chapter 22 Glossary Archduke Maximilian of Austria: Made Emperor of Mexico in 1864 by Napoleon III who wanted to dominate Mexico. Ausgleich: AKA compromise of 1867 when Austria granted limited independence to Hungary thus creating the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary (AKA Austro-Hungarian Empire). Austro-Prussian War: 1866. Bismarck goads Austria into a war over Schleswig and Holstein in order to replace Austria as the main power in Northern Germany. Otto von Bismarck: Prussian realpolitik chancellor (1862-1890) and architect of German unification in 1871. class struggle: Central theme in Communist Manifesto that the working and owning classes are in opposition. Auguste Comte: French scientist whose System of Positive Philosophy created the field of sociology. Conservatives: New name for the Tory party which began being used around 1860. Count Camillo Cavour: Victor Emmanuel’s prime minister after 1852 who was the architect of Italian unification. Crimean War: 1853-1856. Russia tried to occupy a peninsula on the Black Sea vacated by Ottoman Empire but Britain, France and Ottomans prevent it. Danish War: 1864. war in which Prussia and Austria defeated Denmark after it seized the “German” areas of Schleswig and Holstein. Charles Darwin: British author of On The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) which put forth the theory of evolution and natural selection (i.e., “survival of the fittest”). Charles Dickens: most famous British realist novelist. Benjamin Disraeli: British conservative leader from the 1860s-1881. Ems Telegram: Bismarck-altered telegram which goaded France into declaring war with Prussia over Prussia’s suggestion that Leopold (a Hohenzollern) be placed on throne of Spain in 1870.
    [Show full text]