The Socialism of to-day

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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BAKUNIN THE APOSTLE OF NIHILISM. 19/ occupied the town for three days. He was taken prisoner and condemned to death. This sentence was commuted for per petual imprisonment, which he at first underwent in an Austrian fortress, but afterwards, having been claimed by Russia, he was shut up in the fort of Petropavloffski, at St. Petersburg. There he remained for eight years. Imprisonment produced the same effect upon him as upon Blanqui. It transformed in him the revolutionary idea into fanaticism and a kind of religion. He actually compared himself to Prometheus, the Titan benefactor of men, chained to a rock in the Caucasus by the orders of the Tsar of Olympus. He even thought, they say, of making a drama on the subject, and he used sometimes, later on, to chant the plaint of the Ocean Nymphs coming to console the victim of the vengeance of Zeus. Bakunin, of course, was the modem Prometheus, who brought to men the light of truth. Alexander 11, commuted the perpetual imprisonment for exile in Siberia, where Bakunin arrived in 1857. He found there, as governor, Muravieff-Amurski, a cousin of the other Muravieff, and consequently his own connection. He thus enjoyed, it appears, exceptional favours and complete liberty. Katkoff, the famous journalist of Moscow, and former friend of Bakunin, has alleged that he has letters of Bakunin which prove that he used to take money from tradesmen on the understanding that he would recommend them to the governor. He obtained leave to visit the whole of Siberia, in order to make known its resources. Having arrived at the port of Niko- laieffski, he succeeded in getting on board ship, and in 1861 reached England, by way of Japan and America. He wrote in the famous newspaper, the Kolokol (the Bell), edited by Herzen and Ogareff. At the time of the Polish insurrection in 1863, he wished to go to Lithuania to raise the peasants there, but he was unable to get further than Malmöe, in Sweden. Soon afterwards, about 1865, we find him in Italy, fomenting and organizing Socialism. He then for some time placed his activity at the service of the International, but he never admitted its expectation of a brighter future from the reform of existing institutions. What he longed for was their destruction.

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