FORERUNNERS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
thinking man . . . Bakunin in this Philosophy of the Deed permitted not merely revolution of the masses, but also murder and expropriation of the individual, as means of producing a general panic, and in terrorism he saw an educational means to revolution.
As Tsar of the Secret League, Bakunin was irresponsible, quite according to his Russian model and so he had a horror of plans for the future. It is true that such plans are easily made, if they are merely a collection of wishes: but from one who for his reforms actually arrogates the right to kill, we must first of all demand a very detailed and conscientious analysis of social institutions and their shortcomings, and then a similar analysis of historical development, in order to be able with some degree of probability to risk some conclusion as regards future development. Marx was not quite just to Bakunin in details, but was quite right in condemning his preference for blind risk. Meanwhile, Bakunin’s great deeds are insignificant enough, when “pandestruction” is converted into deeds. He recommended continual small risings and conspiracies, peasants’ and workmen’s unrest, and indeed revolts and disturbances of all kinds, in order to keep up revolutionary feeling and prepare for the final catastrophe. This is what he and his followers called “par-le-fait-isme.”
Bakunin’s individualism ends with a negation of individuality, with absolutism. He wanted “An-archy” (treating the word thus etymologically) as the annihilation of all authority. He conceived the struggle à outrance on the lines of the robber chiefs of popular legend, and in 1869 declared brigandage to be one of the most honourable forms of Russian state life. “We need something else [than a constitution]: storm and life and a world without laws and, therefore, free,” he cried in 1848. And in the same way we read in the secret statutes of 1869 that the international brother must combine intelligence, energy, honour, and secrecy with “revolutionary passion;” in short, “must have the devil in his body.” Bakunin had this devil and nourished him on feelings of revenge. It is natural that the régime of Nicholas I. should awake such feelings, but hatred and revenge cause blindness, and victorious battles cannot be waged with such blindness of feeling. Marx and his followers, and even Liberals like Ruge,
350
