In 2014 is completing 200 years of the birth of Mikhail Bakunin. He was one of the main
theoretical and revolutionary activists of the nineteenth century. His thought and
practice are still today a heritage of the working class and oppressed peoples. ---- The
revolutionary anarchist Mikhail Bakunin Alexandrovitsch, from a family of landed gentry,
was born on May 30, 1814, in the city of Premukhimo, russian province Twer, and died on 1
July 1876, in the city of Bern, Switzerland. As was common for the elites of the time,
Bakunin joined the army in 1829 and came to reach the officer corps. ---- In 1835, he
changed his uniform and weapons for books, abandoning the army and went to study in Moscow
and St. Petersburg. Has his first contacts with the philosophies and the contesting
theories of his time in 1834, when in Moscow participated in important circles of
philosophical discussions. In these circles had access to discussions authors of
romanticism and German philosophy, French socialism and the rising issue of the Slavic
peoples.
In 1840 Bakunin moves to Germany where he deepened his studies, especially on the Hegelian
dialectic and the interpretations of the Left Hegelians. During this period lies with the
French anarchist Proudhon.
In 1848, known as the Springtime of the Peoples because of the numerous revolutions and
revolts against monarchical despotism throughout Europe almost simultaneously (Berlin,
Vienna, Paris, Venice, Rome, Prague, Munich, Budapest and Milan), Bakunin participated in
the Slav Congress in Prague, and the insurrection that happened (the Uprising of
Pentecost) and the same year attended the Proletarian Revolution in Paris. The following
year participated in another uprising, this time in Dresden (Germany).
For its intense armed revolutionary action gained the label of terrorist and guerrilla,
arrested and sentenced to death in 1850.'s Death sentence was converted to forced labor,
life imprisonment and finally extradition to Russia. In 1857 he was exiled to Siberia, but
in 1861 fled to Japan, passed by the United States and returned to Europe.
In 1864 Bakunin, Proudhon finds that weeks later he died. Bakunin gives continuity and
deepening the work of Proudhon from the two fundamental pillars: socialism and federalism.
The socialist conception is guided by identification of private property as the source of
economic inequality, so the proletarian revolution would abolish property. In turn,
federalism is the basis of political equality, as opposed to centralization of power and
ensures the effective political participation of individuals in entities organized working
class.
Therefore, inserting itself in the struggles of the European proletariat of that period,
whose main experiences were the organization of the International Workers Association
(IWA) and the revolutionary process of the Paris Commune (1871). We can say that through
his activism Bakunin developed systematization of ideology and revolutionary anarchist
theory. Given the perception that Bakuninist spheres of society (economic, political,
ideological and cultural) are intertwined in a dialectical system of mutual influence,
could not fail to highlight the ideological and scientific transformations that marked the
nineteenth century.
Today the contribution of Bakunin is still alive: through its critical sociological
theory, the concept of Bakuninist insurrectionary political organization and also the
revolutionary syndicalist organizations. The anarchism of Bakunin is an important tool for
the rebels and fighters of the people. So the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bakunin
are celebrated worldwide.
Bakunin Live!
Anarchism is Fight!
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