Bakunin
~written by Jeff Schmidt
Mikhail Bakunin was considered by many to be the most radical of all anarchists. Most of his life was spent around revolutionary causes, either in trying to organize workers and peasants into revolution or participating in insurrections himself. Most of his theory is discussed in the book, Revolutionary Catechism. In this book, Bakunin rejects the values of the state and organized religion. Bakunin advocated communal autonomy, or freedom of action independent of the government. Believing that power should be distributed from the bottom up rather than from the top down. He believed that the ruins of the old Russian government would form a new society in which anarchy would reign peacefully. Bakunin called for the overthrow of government in general, particularly in the east of Europe, advocating a free association of Slavs. Bakunin thought that any revolutionary action would have to come from the peasants. During his creation of radical philosophies, Bakunin created Russian nihilism, a movement which believed in nothing of the past, denounced anything that was based upon superstition and myth, and based the core of its belief in anything that could be scientifically proven.