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Born: May 30, 1814 at

Pryamukhino, Tver, Russia

Died: July 1, 1876

in Bern, Switzerland

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` 1814: Born in aristocratic family.

` 1828-32: Receiving military

training in St. Petersburg.

` 1834: Commissioned as ajunior officer in Russian

Imperial Guard, sent to Minsk

and Grodno in Lithuania.

` 1835: Resigned commission.

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` 1836: Moved to Moscow and studied Philosophy.Translated Hegel's works into Russian. Met Russiansocialists such as Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Ogarev.

` 1840: Moved to Berlin to study and prepare for aprofessorship. Joined radical students of the "HegelianLeft" and published an essay 'The Reaction in Germany'.

` 1842: Moved to Dresden and collaborated with ArnoldRuge in publishing Deutsche Jahrbcher. Developed a

passion for socialism and abandoned his academicinterest.

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` 1843: Went to Bern and Zurich and became closelyassociated with Wilhelm Weitling.

` 1843: Went to Brussels and met with the Polish

nationalist Joachim Lelewel.

` 1844: Moved to Paris adn established contact withKarl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

` 1844: The Russian government ordered him home,and later stripped of his nobel status and sentencedhim in abstensia to hard labor in Siberia.

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` 1848: Left for Germany through Baden. Supported the

German Democratic Legion led by Herwergh in anabortive attempt to join Friedrich Hecker's insurrection in

Baden. The split between him and Marx began over

Herwergh. Marx published a false report on Bakunin.

1847: Expelled from Franceand went to Brussel again.

Renewed his contact with Karl

Marx.

1848: Returned to Paris afterthe revolutionary movement.

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` 1849: Played a leading role in the May Uprising inDresden, and he was arrested by The Prussian troops.

` 1850: Condemned to death sentence that later commutedto life imprisonment after being extradited to Austria.

1848: Participated in Slav

Congress and insurrection

in Prague. Published his

"Appeal to the Slavs".

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` 1851: Transferred to Russia and imprisoned in theFortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. Madeconfession to Tsar Nicholas I.

` 1854: Transferred to the castle of Shlisselburgwhere he suffered from scurvy, causing his teethto fall out.

` 1857: Released from prison by the new EmperorAlexander II, and sentenced to perpetual exile inSiberia.

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` 1862: Published To My Russian, Polish andOther Slav

Friends, and The People's Cause: Romanov, Pugachev,or

Pestel?

1858: Married Antonia

Kwiakowski and moved to Irkutsk.

1861: Escaped from Siberia and

sailed to San Fransisco throughYokohama. Crossed to NY and

arrived in London in December.

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` 1863: Went to Stockholm and was reunited with his

wife, then back to London and on to Florence.

`

1864: Founded the journalLiberta e Giustizia andbegan to develop his anarchist ideas.

` 1866: Founded the International Brotherhood, or the

Alliance of Revolutionary Socialists. Wrote

Revolutionary Catechism , in which he expressed his

opposition against religion and state

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` 1867: Travelled to Geneva for theinaugural Congress of the League forPeace and Freedom. Wrote Federalism,Socialism andAnti-Theologism.

`

1868: Moved to Geneva and joined theGeneva section of the InternationalWorkingmen's Association. Founded theInternational Alliance of SocialistDemocracy.

1869: Moved to Locarno and translated first volume of Marx'sDas Kapital. Began his collaboration with Sergey Nechayev in

a number of clandestine projects.

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` 1870: Expelled from the Geneva section of the

International due to his support for the Jura faction.

Published Letters to a Frenchmanon the Present

Crisis in which later his idea become known as"propaganda by deeds".

` 1870-71: Wrote The Knouto-Germanic Empire,

including the sections published posthumously God

andthe State.

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` 1871: Wrote The Paris Commune and

the Idea of the State. Published The

PoliticalTheologyofMazzini.

` 1872: expelled from the Internationalat the Hague congress

` 1873: Published Statism andAnarchy

` 1876: Died in Bern.

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Rejection to any form of state and religionauthority:

` "absolute rejection of every authority including that which

sacrifices freedom for the convenience of the state(Revolutionary Catechism, 1866)

` "The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeysthe laws of nature because he has himself recognized themas such, and not because they have been imposed uponhim externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human ordivine, collective or individual" (God and State, 1871)

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Rejection to any privileged position

or class:

"It is the peculiarity of privilege and of every

privileged position to kill the intellect and heart of

man. The privileged man, whether he be

privileged politically or economically, is a man

depraved in intellect and heart." (God and State,

1871)

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Equal liberty:

` In a positive sense, liberty consists of "the fullest developmentof all the faculties and powers of every human being, byeducation, by scientific training, and by material prosperity." Such

a conception of liberty is "eminently social, because it can onlybe realized in society," not in isolation. In a negative sense,liberty is "the revolt of the individual against all divine, collective,and individual authority" (Man, Society, and Freedom, 1871)

` "I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with

other men... I am not myself free or human until or unless Irecognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen (Godand State, 1871)

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Collective anarchism:

There would be "equal means of subsistence,support, education, and opportunity for every

child, boy or girl, until maturity, and equal

resources and facilities in adulthood to create his

own well-being by his own labor."(Revolutionary Catechism, 1866)

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Federalism:

the organization of society "from the base to the summitfrom the circumference to the centeraccording to the

principles of free association and federation... [Societyshould be organized] on the basis of the absolute freedomof individuals, of the productive associations, and of thecommunes," with "every individual, every association,every commune, every region, every nation" having "the

absolute right to self-determination, to associate or not toassociate, to ally themselves with whomever they wish."(Revolutionary Catechism, 1866)

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Anti-theologism:

"the idea of God implies the abdication of humanreason and justice; it is the most decisive negation

of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the

enslavement of mankind, in theory and practice. ...

[I]f God really existed, it would be necessary toabolish Him." (God and State, 1871)

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Propaganda by deeds:

"we must spread our principles, not with words but

with deeds, for this is the most popular, the mostpotent, and the most irresistible form of

propaganda."

(Letter to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis,

1870)

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Critique of Marxism:

Bakunin strongly rejected Marx's concept of the"dictatorship of the proletariat" as he says: They [the

Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorshiptheirdictatorship, of coursecan create the will of the people,while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have anyother aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can begetonly slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can becreated only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on

the part of the people and free organization of the toilingmasses from the bottom up."(Statism and Anarchism, 1873)

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