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Mikhail Bakunin Михаил Бакунин | |
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| Born | 30 May 1814 Pryamukhino, Russian Empire |
| Died | 1 July 1876 (aged 62) Bern, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Political orientation | Anarchism Libertarian socialism |
| Political party | First International |
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (30 May 1814 – 1 July 1876) was a Russian anarchist and member of the First International.
Political beliefs[edit | edit source]
Bakunin rejected the existence of the state, including a workers' state. He advocated for complete abstention from bourgeois politics while Marx believed reforms could be useful in some cases to raise class consciousness. Bakunin believed the peasantry would lead the revolution while Marx believed the proletariat would lead it. He believed in revolutionary spontaneity and thought secret societies would start the revolution.[1]
Philosophical beliefs[edit | edit source]
Bakunin defined freedom as the ability of individuals to act according to one's natural impulses. He believed human nature was fixed and not developing dialectically.[1]
Antisemitism[edit | edit source]
Bakunin believed that Jews controlled the banks and exploited workers.[2] Bakunin repeats the false ABC theory of Jewish conspiracy against the proletariat and in his own words wrote:
As you know, for more than two years, since the last Congress of the International held in Basle in September 1869, I have become the object of the most foolish and odious calumnies of the Socialist press in Germany, as well as in the organ of the Geneva Federation. the organ of the Geneva Federation, "L'Egalité", a paper which, after having been the serious representative of a serious socialism, fell into the hands of a little Russian Jew, a shameless liar and schemer if ever there was one. It was a kind of unrestrained conspiracy, and to tell the truth, a dirty conspiracy of German and Russian Jews against me.[3]
This is proved false by Vladimir Lenin:
It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of the workers are the capitalists of all countries. Among the Jews there are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism. Among the Jews there are kulaks, exploiters and capitalists, just as there are among the Russians, and among people of all nations. The capitalists strive to sow and foment hatred between workers of different faiths, different nations and different races. Those who do not work are kept in power by the power and strength of capital. Rich Jews, like rich Russians, and the rich in all countries, are in alliance to oppress, crush, rob and disunite the workers.[4]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ann Robertson (2022-11-27). "The Philosophical Roots of the Marx-Bakunin Conflict (2003)" Red Sails. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ↑ “The Communism of Marx seeks enormous centralization in the state, and where such exists, there must inevitably be a central state bank, and where such a bank exists, the parasitic Jewish nation, which speculates on the work of the people, will always find a way to prevail.”
Mikhail Bakunin (1871). Bakunin on Marx and Rothschild. - ↑ Mikhail Bakunin (1872). To the Companions of the Federation of International Sections of Jura.
- ↑ Vladimir Lenin (1919). Anti-Jewish Pogroms.