Bakunin

From MarxWiki

Mikhail Bakunin 1814-1876

"freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice -- socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality"

Often referred to as an originator of anarchism, Bakunin is also known as a fierce critic of the authoritarian aspects of Marxism. Bakunin does not have a comprehensive pool of work; many of his ideas are found in the thousands of letters he wrote and in the fragments of a series of works.

Like Karl Marx and Engels, Bakunin was a member of the bourgeoisie who had Hegelian leanings. He fought in the German Revolution of 1848 and many of his writings bear a semblance to Marxist thought. For example, Bakunin believed that a national struggle could end class rule as the nation itself achieved independence.

Bakunin was arrested in Dresden after a failed revolt that was inspired by a constitutional crisis. He was sent to various jails in the next ten years and was finally exiled to Siberia. After regaining his health Bakunin fled through Japan to the United States, finally ending up in London in the 1860's. It is during these years Bakunin distanced himself form Marxist thought by leveling attacks on what he perceived to be the flaws of the system.

Bakunin's late works warned of the travails of a dictatorship of the proletariat where intellectuals would replace the former ruling class and obscure freedom. He believed that government was the means by which the minority rules, and that a social revolution was necessary to change the power dynamics of the modern nation.