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(THE YOUNG BAKUN1N AND LEFr HEGELIANISM: ORIGINS OF RuSSlAN. RADICALISM AND THEOlJY OF P.RAXIS, .1814-1842

.

by

1.' p

M4rtine Del Giudice

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Gr.aduate Studies

and Research in partial fulfU'ment of therequirements fpr the' degree pl Doctor of PhUosophy

.

J

Department of HjstoryMc GillUnive~s ity

Montral, Canada.1\:'

August, 1981.

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(1J

THE'--YOUNG BAKUNIN AND LEFT HEGELIANISM: o1814-1842

" 'by

..Martihe Del Giudtce

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." ABSTRACT..

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Although BakUnln'e 1842 article, ":nte Reactl ln. Germany, " pubUeH.cl ln the organ of the Dresden Let~ Hegeliane, Deutsche JahrbUcher tl generaUy held te, be the mOlt radi al and eloquent manlieeto of Lelt Hegeliantem, the S~dard' hlstorial cbmmentary tends to ,conelder hla pre-1842 Ru.sl~ ,worKa Ra fllr C'emoved -trom thl. 'r"vo1utlary Ideal;,

Most hllltorians have long ~Ued to dls~em the Iogical contlnutty ln MlkhaU Baltunln1e ~tbought belore and alte,.! the "pivotai" date Of 1840. Indeed, hi.s Intellectual developmmt 18 usuallY dlvlded lnto~.

.

iVfO

distinct, mutually

exclusive periode. Durlng the first perlod, ,pre-1840, BaKUJlln Is presented'

as a consprvatlve and a monarchlst, dedicated to a spiritual and pollUcal compromise with the '!ratlal reaUty" of the Tsarlst rgime. Mter hls arrlval ln Berlin ln 1840, however, one 18 8uddenly confrooted wUIt the polltlcaJ, anarchlst and lnstlgator of world revolutloo.. However, thi. abrupt , dlchotomy which appeau in molit hlstorical commentaries dealing wtth1

.

BaJeunln's wrtting' and activltles cann?l be malntalned. The hypothesis that there even occurred a breu ln the evolutl of Buunin's thought ., rests on a mislnterpretation of hls early Russlan Hegel1an warka. The goal of this 8tudlfir Is ta demonstrate that thecon~ern

w,

the

practlcal application of phlloBophy lnto a poUtical tool for revolutionary , action forms the central theme of" BaKUnln'S. early warka; and to show \at his Berlin period const1tutes the

logtc~

continuation of hie early

theoretlcal position. In effect, the present study represents a revlndicaUof the young Baxunln and allempts to plIove thal hls Hegellani8m wu

central to the formation of hl. radical

po~itlon.

Al the same Ume, il

\

situate. Ru.sian Left Hegellanllm in the malnslream of European radicallsm,by shoWing how the 18ea. dev.loped by Baxunin ~re movln, ln a direction'

parallel to thON of the YOUIlI Repltan movemet ln German)'.

" "'~::~j 1lb"~' '~ 1rI~\

Martine .Del Glucflce. Th", Young 8~in and Left Hegel~ism: Orlglnagf

Rulstan Ib.dlcall.m and Tbeory of r ruts, 1814-1842. HI.to Dodor1P~t108oph)'.

\ Depart

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RESUMEl'

8il'lU't1c1e de BIlIWUn1ne IiiUtul "La r'action en Allem&(Clle,"/

(

pub1l6. Dreed4en 1842 par l'organe de la Gauche H.fUenne, le DtutseheJahrbtl~"er,

.st habltueUe~ent te~u pour 1. manUeste le plu. 6loquent et

1

-radlcaliite de cette Gauclle, ceci n'empche aucunement lei critique. tihltorique. de prfaenter l'ensemble de .l'oeuvre de 'B~()llnlne de sa priode' rp.se, an~rieure 1842, com';'e loigne l'extrm'e de cette optique rvolutionnaire.~.

i' \~

.

. Nombteux 8CJIlt ainli les historiens qui,. simplement, ne parviennen!\.

'"

pour.wvre le dveloppement continu et logique !e la pense de

M1khaU Bakounine et l'affublent de aurcrolt d'un retoumement idologique

,u'Us lituent

aut~r de la date

1840. C'elt ainsi qu'il e.t devenu habituel

de scinder danl

te

templ

l'~olutton

intellectuelle de Bakounine en deux

'1

priodes succe'lives et remarquablement antagoniites. Prcdent 1840, la premire priode n~1 Ilgure un ~kountne de - type conlervateur et 'monarchiste, dvou un ompromis poliUco-spirituel avec la "ralit rationnelle" du rgime Tlarlste. Suivant son stage l'UnlvenU de Berlin en 1840, la seconde priOde nOUI dvle loudain un BakOUnine qui a vers politiquement dans l'anarchl.me et la fomentattm d'une rvoluUm mondiale.

,1,-.

1

D n'apparat plui possible, raisonnablement, d~ persisterchang~ment

\

e

accepter

que Baxounine alt opr un

radical de direction

ld~ogique,

comme ie stipulent Ion su,et les critiquel historiques. L'hypothse de la ralll mme d'un tel revirement volutif repoee incontestablement aur une tnterpr,tatlon tQUt fait errone des crits "Htl.Uen." du Jeane Bkountne pendant la premire priode rulse.

. iJ-

Le but de l'tude prsente re;lent dmontrer que 1.. travaux deJeunes~e

de BaKounine ont pour clef de vote la radicalisation du concept

hglien en une pbUosophle de l'action politique et que la .econde priodeb~r1inOI..

ne constitue plui ainsi qu'un prolongermmt formel des =JIepuonsIII

thoriques de

premire priode russe. Cette tude constitue finalement '!Re la base de la construction de

.00 h'glla.nisme aIt indiscutablement i\

rhabilitation laIIII,lectuelle du Jeune BaKOUnine pour taye El de facto que

la "sUlon rfvolutionnaire. Simultanment, elle situe dans le mme courant la Gauche Hfg~ienne russ. et le radicalisme europen, en rfylant comment les propres ide. de BaKounine cheminaient, comme ceuts des Jeunes Hgliens en Allemagne, vers un mme but. Nom:,l'",

Martine.De1 Gludlee. radicalisme ruSIt et de la thorie de la Praxis, 1814-1842

,

Titre de la thse: Le Jeune Bak()lJnlne et la Gauche Hglienne: brigines duDparte~ent:

Histoire. Docteur en phUolOphle. '

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ABSTRACT . . .

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RESUM:re

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INT RODUCTION .Chapter,

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vi

1

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH: THE E.c\RL YINFL UENCES . . . . . . . .

11

n

. MOSCOW,1

THE ST ANKEVICH CIRCLE AND FICHTE'S PHILO:pr . . . . . . :, \ , .

65

In

THE "RECONCILIATION! WITH 'REA~ITY": HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY . . . . . . . .

151

..4

IV

BAKUNIN AND HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY: THE ~HILOSOPHY OF ACTION ..

.

280

V'"

CONCLUSION: THE T~srrION TO REVOLUTrONARY P rB....\

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384

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iv

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,.Appen'dices

~AB:' ,, \ \ '

E OF CONtENTS (Cool'

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1

~"My Notes" ...'"

Page

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"Md zaP,~ i~"1

419

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II\

erevodchUta.," ~~~~e~a- "Hegel's ~---.;=~~~..;..;.;..~1

424,

441

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IV

470522

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INTRODUCTION

One does not ordfuarUy associate MlkhaU BakUIl!n aqd hiso , \,:.: \ "

, ,

tumultuous career 'as a political figute.tJd,d revolutiooary w1th' the' specu,'", "'""" 1

lative metaphystcal doctrines contained in Hegel'~ Phenomeno,gi of Spirit" and in the Encyclopaedta of the PhUosophical Sttences. Inde'ed,,\

o

a

mo~

striking .contrast than that between the Russian anarchist spreadpassion for

ing the

~creativ

destructi~n"'on

the barricades of Europe

r

in upheaval and the professorial German philosopher lecturing on the wisdom of Absolute Spirit in the Prssia of the restoration, would dtlficult

~

:to find. 'And yet

it was in the speculative ~ea~ch for truth that

the revolutionary activity had it origUi. . While Hegeliant8m in Europe i8 readUy aCknowledged to have given ri se to the most djverse political Ideologies, ranging from.

.

Marxi~

. socialism ta conservative naonalism, its influence on the social and . . political life 'Of Russia has notbeen treated with the same thoroughness. Md although Hegel's phUosophy proVided the basis for the emergence of revolutionary radicalism innineteenth-c~ntury

' '

Russia, the presence

of a well-defined Left Hegelian movement amang the Russian intelligentsia has been somewhat overlooked, or limfted to a few pre-'1848 worltS by' .

.

AleKsander Herzen.

Thf;! present essay constitutes an intellectual biography. of the

~

~

of 1840. 'His intellectual development is usually divided filto two distinct,,

mutually exclusive periods. It ls commonly maintained that during the first period" pre-1840, BalWnin's thought was dominated by theoretico. abstract considerations, whereas alter his departure for Germany, he'

became exclusively preoccupied wilh prOblepls of ~P01itico'!'economic natur. Whlle there is no doubt that 1840 was.an important date for

.

B~in

in terms of

h~s: int,ellectuaI ,formation,

it is highly

questi~~bleTh~

whether the abrupt dichotomy which appears in Most historical studies dealing with his writings and actiyitie!i can l;>e maintained..

.. procedureJ

of categorically divid~g the ideologtcal ~evelopment of a thinlter into two, p~rCula~IY ln the calle of\

separate and irreconcUable pha~es haS' at .times been adoPted un'critically-

"

B~unln,

and 8'V8D"

~f

Hegel, -and without

thorough considration of the documentary sources.

BalruIlin' s early ,

works, written while Jtul in" Russia haye ca~gorically been dismissed

~s ~on,stvative ancusses specifically on Balrunin's early works has

bee~ pubtsheq.

It is our

b~lief that the ''Wfitings of ,the young Ba~in

are . e'ssential to an understanding of his \ intelle~tual formation, and although '

"the final formulation of his doctrine of socialist anarhism was,

.

r~ached

I...Only in _the-- 1860' s, the seminal ideas of his later thonght can be perceived, in a somewhat crystallized form, in his M'oscow and Priamukhino , \ essays. One May surmise thatl most historians have tended\ to overlook

.

,1

these works because they are- not' all publ-shed, ~ readily flccssible,

or'-'

~ranslat~d intp English. Furthermore, ~arly, studies ~n BaKwiip did not

(

utilize them in their research, which has

-cons~quenUy

perception of the importanee of these documents.

led to a narrow . Of equal significance

is the fact that even the Archives-BaKounine (Arthur Lhning, editor,-lx

Leiden, 1961-

) claiming to be the definitive and first publication of has chosen to disregard chronological order. This(

the omplte workS,

bas resulted in the appearance, to date, of Balrunin',s writings of the years 1871 to 1875, which ly serves to Wlderline the continued dis'" reg;u-d for bis early writings,' It is because C{f these numerous historio-

(

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grphical lacunae that it became essential for the pur.poses of this sctYr

to pursue our research in the PriamUkhino-BaltUnin Archives of theU.S. S. R.

''What little explanation Most historians offer to describe the radical reversal of BakUnin's PC?liticai position is," quite simply, limited to the influence of the German Hegelian Left, as well as of the Europeanrev~utionary movement~

of the late 1840's. However, important as the

latter May have been, they cannot completely account for such a sudden shift in orientation. Rather, they must be considered as factors conundergoin~,

tributing to the ideological transition that Ba.lrunin was~

and

had begun to undergo, as of his first reading of Hegel in 1837. His radicalization of the Hegelian~oncept

into a philosophy of acti, of

,

\

revolutiary praxis, can already be discerned in those writings dating from the period of his participation in the. philosophical circle ofStanK~

vich .. Balrunin's writings for this period reveal that the essential foundation of his "practical" philosophy were already talting shape\ at that time.,

For it was in these early essays and letters, written between 1836 and 1840, that

th,

doctrine of the

concr~tization

of metaphysical thought was

elaborated for the first time in .'Russia-and, interestingly, weIl before Man's Theses on Feuerbach. By talting the step that would unite theory

(

ri

and abstract 'thought, with social

pr~cttee,

philosophy was transformed

into an instrument of political critique and action. The implications of

1

1

this new advance can be seen from the influence ft had upon Belinsltii, HerzeI), and, indeed, on the development of Russian radicalism. According to Berdyaev, Hegel had the same importance for Russian. thought as Plato hd for the patristics and Aristolle had for 'the scholae- '1~ \

..

tics. Hegelian

fi

. of his day1

this ie the

case, then Balrunin's raIe as the prinCipal

can hardly be underestimated. Not only was he in~

. --

fact the first to translate several of Hegel's worltS into Russian, but he also represented one of the most energetic and ctive propagators of German idealism in his country.

himself to a reiteration of the tlegelian system, Balrunin rapidly sought to go beyond, it by transposing its method to the realm of practical activity, thus parallelling the efforts of CieszKowslti and of the Young Hegelians in Ge rm any . He recognized these revolutionary principles as inhrent in the philosophy of Hegel aiid attempteility

becam'~

increasingly hostile towards the stateBa:O.lI1~n's

and alienated from the Tsar. S:::>:ne, like

father, were shocKed

into disillusionment, b:It also frig!ltened into reaction and conservatism. Mikhail was only eleven years old at the time of the revoit, but he unquestionably must have been impressed not O:lIy with the drama ofth~l

j.'

events, but also deeply

mark~

by the agitatio:l in his hou se, Jince

members of his vry family were directly implicated in the affair.It wasine'/itahl~

that the younger generation should develop aIl

"cult of the Decembrists,

and IO:lg cherish the cause of the "revoluBut considering

tio:lary martyrs" so ruthlessly crushed by Nicholas 1.

the very ynger had to live at the despised Academy. However, his curriculum still involved attending officers' classes for an additional year. Michel moved into a private apartment in the house of his aunt and uncle, the Nilovs, and began to enjoy his newly-acquirea sense of independence . . . . for the fiJost time, after such a long period of complete downfall, awakened in 'me once again the movement of spiritual life. 37 350ne of Bakunin's btes noires with regard to the Polish cause, and the Poles' distrust of him, was the rumour (initially published by Marx) persistently repeated by his political enemies, that he was a Russian spy and Tsarist agent. This le~r would certainly have provided fodder for their cannons, but, to or knowledge, it was never published during Bakun in , s lifetime. In the "Notice biographique" of Michel Bakounine, Oeuvres, 5 tomes (Paris, 1895), vol. II, p. 12, James Guillaume writes: "Vers l'ge de quinze ans, le jeune Michel entra l'Ecole d'artillerie Ptersbourg; il y passa trois ans. . .. C'tait au lendemain de l'crasement de l'insurrection polonaise: le spectacle de la Pologne terrorise agit puissament sur le coeur du jeune officier, et contribua lui inspirer l 'horreur du despotisme." This is sheer fan ta sy , as our documentation has shawn. 36He was promoted to the rank of praporshchik or ensign, Steklov, Zhizn' Bakunina, p. 21; see aIso Bakunin, "Pis'mo roditelyam i sestram," 17 yanvarya 1833, in Sobranie sochinenii, tom 1, pp. 7072. _ 37Bakunin, "Pis' mo otsu," 15 dekabrya 1837, in Sobranie sochinenii, tom 2, p. 108.

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During the next few months Mifhel. appears to have Wldergme ar

romantic transformation undet the influence 6f Schiller, simar to the1

experiences that Herzen and ogarev were undergoing. 38 The tone of his letters changed, and acquired an exalted character: feeling became intensied, sentiment elevated to a le-generating principle. And what better way to externalize this exquisite sensation than by sharing it \vith another'~schne

,J

Seele"?

The object of Michel' s newly-found exaltation

.

was a distant cousin, Maria Alekseevna Voeykova. Together they indulged in endless discourse on the spiritual aspects of love, on "fulfillment of the individual, " and preoccupied themselves with the development of their inward beings. The two read poetry, listened to "music, and discussed the higher meaning of lUe and of art. Every possible variation of sentiment was scrupulously analysed: Nous avons dfini l'amour, l'exaltation, le sentiment et la sensibilit, que nous distinguions fort bien de la sensiblerie et de mille autres choses. 39In effect, the 1830' s saw the flowering of German Romanticism

in Russia. If the previous generation (i. e., that of the Decembrists) had been raised on the French Philosophes,40 the "idealistSr' of the 30's, on the other hand, were deeply immersed in German Romanticism, Schiller, Goethe, Hoffmann, Schelling, and later Hegel. This turning away from the ideas of the Enlightenment and from French political radicalism, 38Gertsen, "Bvloe i dumy, " tom 4, pp. 143-157. 39Cited in Kornilov, Molodye godY, p.

51.

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23 and looking to Germany for ideological leadership was a process begw1 in the mid- to late twenties by the Liubomudry~l The Liubomudry had

..

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actively sought to propagate the ideas of German Romanticism and idea:" list philosophy in Russian intellectual circles, and its contemplative and introspective aspect seemed to find Immediate response in the m90d of resignation and despair which followed the suppression of the Decembrist uprising. The diffusion of German philosophy in Russia corresponded to a period where any practical, political action was entirely Impossible. 42 German philosophy

.

engend~r{a mood whereby ~tisin

and contemplation were able to thrive; intellectual energies were now directed inwards, away from external reality, to the individual personality, and to the more ethereal realms of pure thought, fantasy and imagination. 4:f German romanticism encouraged the transition away from interest in c.oncrete action and politics to the more intangible domains of moral s, aesthetics and metaphysics. The diffusion of idealism in Russia coincided with a period of forced political inactivity: . . the defeat of the Decembrists in Russia provoked the same'1o.'mu9dying of the intellectual wate,rs that the disappoint~g outcome of the French Revolution had provoked in Europe as a whole. The generation of the aftermath in Russia, lilte that of a few years earlier in the West, was driven to seek the explanation of . reality no longer clear and simple in the sinuosities of metaphysics rather than on the straight highway of empiricism. In their search for an explanation of life1

"-

41An archaic Russ~an derivation of the Greek "philosopher." 42See Malia, Alexander Herzen, hapter V. See G. Planty-Bonjour, Hegel et la pense philosophique en Russie, 1830-1917 (La. Haye, 1974), pp. 5-8; D. 1. Chiz~evski, Gegel' v Rossti (Paris; 1939), tPP. 7-8; Gershenzon, Istoriia molodoi Rossit, p. 6. 43

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24 they turned inevitably to the school of frustration, Germany, just as their prede~~ssors had tumed to the school of action, France. Indeed, the crushing of the Decembrists did not destroy the striving . after politicaI liberty and reform, nor merely drive it underground, into secrecy and hiding, but rather, drove it upward, into the "stratosphere. ,,45 Conversely, the subsequent return to French innuenc~, to,

the socialism of Saint... Simon, four-ieT Uld ultimately, to Proudhon inf, ......"

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! J

the late 40' s, can be understo~ as a disenchantment with the political passivity and lethargy of German idealism. It symbolized a definite realization of the need for practical, positive action. Bakunin, however, was to use Hegelian philosophy (as Marx would aIso do) as his instrument for political praxis and revolutionary activity, as we shall examine in a later section. As we saw, Michel was a typical, exuberant product of this romanticism which was then in full swing in St. Petersburg, and both he and Marie Voeykova were much more infatuated with the idealization of love and sentiment than with any of its more concrete, and mundane, . implications. The roman came, to a hait when a worried Madame Voeykova, suspicious of all this "exaltation of sentiment," unceremoniousIy packed' off the "divine Marie" and hastUy left St. Petersburg. 46 . Fortunately, Michel was not left to pine away for very long, and in the summer of 1833 his brigade was despatched to a military training camp),

1

.

,1

1

for artillery manoeuvres. Bored and lonely in this desolate spot, he

1

4~alia, Alexander Herzen, p. .rr 1.45 Ibid., pp. 43-44. 46 Bakunin , "Pis'mo roditelyam '. " 28 Marta 1833, sochinenii, tom 1, pp. ~5-98.

1.

1

iD

Sobranie

1f

1 ,1

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_ _ ,lI .. t . .....

25

here came across the philosophical works of Venevitinov, which he claimed had a most profound effect on his intellectual orientation. 47 The fact that Ba1runin was deeply inspired by the Russian poet and philosopher, Venevitinov, is of great importance and merits ample consideration, for it constitutes his first contact and strong attraction to idealist philosophy. D. Ve?evitinoV, the driving~pirit

.and most eloquent member of

the Liubomudry, 48 sought to give art a religious and myst,ic tint, in the manner of Novalis. and Schlegel. His poetry and essays, such as Skulptura, zhivopis' iITIl zyka

~SculPture,

Painting and Music), represent

an attempt to establish the foundations for a national art-form in Russia, as well as to explore the nature of poetic inspiration and artistic c reativity. Interestingly, Venevitinov seems to be the only Russian philosopher-poet deeply influenced by Hlderlin, and echoes the latter's idealJzation ol, and nostalgia for, the aesthetic harmony of Classical Greece. His Pis'mo k Grafine N.N" (Letter to Countess N.N.), which Bakunin read, is a series of lectures exposing the basic principles of German philosophy, and as such provided Michel with an excellent introduction to idealist metaphysics. In this letter, Venevitinov sought to define the nature of philosophy and its, fWlctions, and he poses essential

.;'i

questions concerning the possibility' of knowledge.'

..

The letter is essen-

tially a summary of the views of Fichte and Schelling, as they had been

47Bakunin , "Pis'mo otsu," 15 dekabrya 1837, 'in Sobranie sochinenii,.. tom 2, pp. 109 ff.C

48Chizhevski, Gegel' v Rossii, p. 43.

26c

expounded by Professor Davydov of Moscow University. 49

(

The "dramatic transformation" of which Bakunin speaks upon discovering Venevitinov's poetry and philosophical Letter, marks a signicant stage in his developmenl, and must b~ understooq as( a necessary step in his conversion to German metaphysics. Together with one of my comrades, with whom Il was sharing a tent, 1 began to read the poems of the late Venevitinov, as weIl as his letter to a countess. That marvellous night, that sky covered with stars, the fiickering and mysterious brilliance of the moon, and the verses of that lofty, noble poet moved .me completely. AlI this fUled me with a sad, painful beatitude. 0, 1 was pure and holy at that moment, 1 was totally permeated by a feeling of eternity and of ardent love, of powerful love for the entire wonderful, divine, world .... 50, The "intellectual revolution" that Bakunin was to speak of during the ensuing months can directly be related to his "discovery" of and infatuation with philosophy in the summer of 1833. How ta account for this? Although 1 know that there is a reason, 1 can 't explain it precisely. The past month has witnessed an intellectual revolution in me. 1 considered my inclinations, my feelings, my aptitudes, and reached, it appears, a definite decision regarding my future and my mode of lUe ~ 51~1 haven 't written in a long time.

r

4~oyr, La philosophie et le problme national, p. 211. In fact, a large majority of the yolmg Russian intelligentsia, both of the twenties and thirties, rarely read German phUos6phy in the original, relying predomlnantly on the few Russian translatioQs available, as weIl as on French secondary sourc~ and 'Commentaries, the most popular of which were the studies by Victor Cousin and Barchou de Penhoen; see, for additional information, Koyr, p. 181, who notes how German idealism came to Russia Yi! France.,"\

(

50Bakunin, "Pis'mo otsu, sochinenii, tom 2, p. 109.,

fi

~ d~kabrya

1837, in Sobranie

51Bakunin, "Pis'mo ses tram, " 25 ynvarya 1834, in Sobranie sochinenii, tom 1, p. 122.

27

The twenty-year old Bakunin goes on to'?

~xpress

a disdain for

the contemporary mores and a feeling of "world-weariness": 1 never feIt any particular inclinations toward lUe in high society. 1 always feIt fooltsh and awkward there, never knowing what to say. 1 thought, however, that this was due to inexperience and to a faIse shyness resulting from this inexperience. 1 made one final attempt; 1 decided to overcome this: 1 entered into high society, 1 threw myself into it, and what did 1 find there? An awful emptiness. The diversions and pleasures which deli ght\1 others left me cold, ... bored me to death .... He had become disenchanted with the secular world and with the aristocraticIl

society" of St. Petersburg which he found superfieial, vapid,

and hollow. Consequently, he began ta search for a means to fiU that

~Oid

in his life, 53, and

ar~ived

at the realization that he possessed within

himself exceptional though yet undeveloped intelleetual capacities. At the same time, Michel aeknowledged that he felt an irrepressible attraction for nauka. 54 This important letter reveals :sakunin's naseent awareness of a sense of mission, of a h1stor1eal role, akin to the famous Il Hannibalic Oath l1 taken a few years

e~lier

by Herzen and bgarev: 55 .

1 finally reaehed a decision, and as soon as 1 reached 1t, a swe'et warmth entered my heart. 1 threw myself , into sc ience, 1 threw myself into 1t with passion and this has benefited me. 1 feel that 1 am being reborn; 1 feel grown up in my own eyes. Up until the present, 1 CIlly lived an exterior lUe, whereas 1 now wish to form an interior existence. . .. It is only in the knQ,wledge of nature that 1 perceive happiness on earth .... ~6 52Ibid., pp. 122-123. 53Ibid. 54Literally, "science," philosophy or knowledge.5,5 aertsen , "Byloe i dumy," tlfm 4, pp. 72-80.( j

,

.. 56aakun in , "Pis'mo sestra~," 25 yanvarya 1834, in Sobranie sochinenii, tom 1, p. 123-124.

L

1

.

-..

-~

~~-

~--

._------i!

-~

~

.Bakunin's growing awareness of his sense of mission nd conviction in his calling so early in life is truly remarkable and reveals exceptional ... strength of character: He categorically described the purpose of hisexistenc~

in these exalted terms:... .q.. \

1 am a man of circumstance, and the hand of God has traced within my heart the following sacred words, which have marked my entire destiny: 'he shaH not live for himself alone.' 1 want to realize this wonderful . future. 1 wish to become worthy of it. To be in a position to sacrice everything for this sacred goalthis is my only ambition! 57

An9 again:Henceforth, only my love for humanity, my faith in its progress, and friendship, must sustain me. But really, is this fate not a wonderful one? . . To live for one's brothers, to point out to them the' road to truth, to tear out from nature its secrets, in order to disc~ose them.l to humanity, to repress matter and habits by the sheer strength of one's idea, -really ls this not a wonderful vocation? Ah, once \ain 1 repeat to you: my ambition knows no other goal!.'

~

As Koyr points out with acuity, idealism through the counter:

ak~in'S discovery of post-Kantian writing~itinOV was a most decisive en-

\

. . . travers lui [Venevitinov J, une lueur ~an~ de l'esprit de Schelling tombe sur Bakounine. Cela .suffit pour l'enflammer. n aspire dsormais la 'science', il veut se plonger dans les mystres de la nature, dans , , les profondeurs de la vie intrieure, Un vagu~ 'systeme,' conception du monde o des ides philosophiques re ... joignent des ides religieuses et mystiques, ou plus exactement thosophiques, s'bauche dans son esprit. La vie de fa nature, ainsi que la vie des hommes lui . apparaissent comme une aspiration vers Dieu .... Lorsque Bakounine c!couvre la philosophie, il est57"PiS'JIlO sestram Beyer, " 7 maya 183) in SobrfUlie sochinenii. tom 1; p. 169. ,58Ibid., pp. 170-171....

(

- ~'

"

,-, . -'----,' ',"ft""'''--,"",,:'....._ .....

officier d'artilterie. Rencontre dcisive: pour ce caractre inflexible et entier, plus que pour quic que, la philosophie est affaire ~e vie, justement parcequ'elle es' affaire de pense. 5In addition to the siren song of nauka, Bakunin' sri

intellectual

transformation" may also be partially attributed to the influence of his } uncle, Nikolai Nazarevich Muraviev, to whom he became exceptianally close in 1834. N. N. Mur avi ev, a retired Senator and former Governor

of Novgorod, lived on bis estate in Pokrovskoe, on the outskirts of St."

Petersburg.

Baltunin travelled there daily and spent Many long hours

engaged in conversation with Nikolai Nazarevich, as weIl as with a cousin, Sergei, the younger brother of those two Muravievs who had been directly implicated in the Decembrist mQVement. Although the "cult of the Decembrists" was then very much alive (especially in the military academies to which the rebels had once belonged and where f1secret literature"-i. e., sorne of the poetry of Pushkin, Ryleev and Baratynsky-circulated), and Bakunin had undeniably been exposed to'.~ ~

.

."

its romantic

Il

aura" and appeal, the memory of the heroes had become

idealized over the years and accounts of their achievements somewhat mythologized. Thr'ough bis personal contact with the Muraviev family,

Michel 'must have, iilevitably been granted access

~a

host of detaiIS_,

hitherto only hinted at, and Many vague impressions on the actual social and political goals of the Northern societies clarified for him. Though none of bis letters of this period contain any explicit-references to the Decembrists, this was probably due to the ubiquitous and heavy-handedII

Bakounine. la ,

e d'un rvolutionnaire. p. 31. il

". ,

,.

I1 For a disc~sslon of the Balons and kruzhki, see Literaturnye kruzhki i salany. ed. N. Brodski (Moskva, 1930).

69and far-reaching revolutionary theories, l'anging from, socialism to anarchism. The circle (or kruzhok) played a MOst outstanding and seminal l'ole in the intellectual lUe of Russia in the nineteenth~, eentury, and,in fact, progressive intellectual activity wa~ almost exclusively carried

.'

on by the circle throughout the reign of Nicholas I.

That such a variety"

and richness of ideas could not only take form but fiourish during one of the bleakestan~

most stultifying epochs of Russia's past, ie a

slgnicant phenomenon in the social and- intellectual history of the period, and ls laden with many implications', which we shall below. Theorigin~~amine

of the main currents of lIDssian

radt~al

theory, can,

almost without exception, be traced back to the issues debated and ' elaborated within the Moscow circles, to which the best minds of, the,

"day had gravitated. And, itldeed, Bakunin's intelleetual development1

during those years cannot be properly understood apart from the context of his association with Stankevich and the kruzhki. As Malia states: The eircle of Herzen and Ogarl!v, along with Us pendant and rival, the eircle of Stankevich, . . . was one of the two pales of attraction among the serious-minded students of the day. Between them, they produced most of the phUosophically- and politically-minded talent of the 30's and 40's, and they dominated the intellectual lUe of Moscow and !ndeed of Russia for the bulk of the reign of Nicholas. 12 The pre-e~inence of the circles over the intellectual lUe ofUJi~versity\

th

largely acc-ounts for the tone of Russlan ideas of this periode~ormatt)l\'-'of

The conditions of the

ctrcles, th peculiar manner and

mode' of theoretical discussion that was typical " . ...

oj

1

them, set its distinc

tive mark on -~ whole of R~sslan social and polttieal -theory. o ,

"12Malia,' Al exander H' erzen, p. 64

,1','

~

-----_

,............ -~------~

)(1

'10

Although ~e circles ext~ded beyond the confines of ,the univ,ersity", they were nevertheless in a state of loose association and constant ex:' change with the academic milieu. "Membership consisted, for the most part, of students and former students, although professors also participated 'in the circles and came to assume the roles of ideological mentors and advisers._ However, the id~as which took root in these phUosophicalft

.

.

_1

nd literary

kr~hld

were heavlly inDuenced by their place

~d

conditions .

of or,1gin. The fact that in Russia phUosophy was forced out of its usual habitat, 1. e., the classroom, and into small secret ! societies-"away , from the atmosphere of critical discipline and into unc,ritical enthusi-

aSn1"l~-helps to account for Us Iess scholarly, more mUitant charac..ter. 14,,

.

" . . la pense philosophique, prive de la transmission magistrale, n'aura ni le degr de technicit ni le degr d J;"igueur qu'elle aurait atteint d'Yls .les universits allemandes de la mme poque. 15(

Ideas, whic~ could no longer freely develop in an academic setting,

migrated todlte circles and salons; where they became more radical, politlcized, and- engag. This can be explained by the fact that the modeof discussion in the clrcles and salons rendered possible, and even1>

,

-

~

-

'1

facUitated, a radicalizatlon of phUosophical thought. Away from the lecture halls, the issues acquired a more dynamic and immediate dimension, and the debates becanil! lnfused with a new and vital sense of urgency.An analogous phenomenon can be obserVed 'in the fi~lds of literary

11

criticism and aesthetics, which ~a~quired dist)ctly

practic~

and socialo

11~3BUlingtO~'

The lcon and the Axe, p.

~10.0

,,,~JJI

1

~ l?lanty~Bjour, Hegel et la pense phUosophiQ1!e, p. 4."

00.

...

.)

... _._._~~ _____ .' .. ~ _ _ .. _ _ _ .. _ . , . _ _ , .....,~ . . . . . . . __ .............. t--:~-

- ....-..-,..-....,,-

1I:-!.:-~.

~

~~~=

'"

--

..

"

71,

overtone~

in the hands of"Belinsky during the 1830's and 1846's. Formal

"

aestheticism and "pure art" were rejected in favour of a Iiterature and an, art form 'inore deply, imbued ~th social, everi moral,"' dimensions. Both aesthetics and philosophy, the principal areas of study in the Moscow circles, lost the character of objectivity and detachment which they would 'have retained in an academic setting, taking on instei an .immedi3:te, practical turne Among these

'autodi~acts,)

removed

from the critical atmosphere of the university, political and philosophical . , extremism found a fertil~ groun~ in which to' grow.

The kruzhki were initially composed of loose groupings of students who gathered together to discuss and exchange ideas on various literary, aesthetic and philosophical questions. The young men who participated/\

in the circles ~ared a common passiOl~ for new idea and a thirst for

knowledge. They were united by an intense feeling of solidarity, and their conduct was governed by a well-defined and self-imposed ethical cdde which reflected their high moral standards. True to the Most noble ideals of the German Burschenschaften, which served as a source ofr

v-fl1t

!

inspiration to them, af? weIl as to the best tradition of romanticism, the young men extolled the virtues of love, friendship and camaraderie.,v

;Feeling themselves morally alienated from their society, they sought to mutually encourage and help each other in their common quest. 16 Furthermore, the membejf of the kruzhki espoused high humanistic ideals and were yuea with an urgent sense of mission. Indeed, it was this ethical sense of purpose which served as the cohesive force operatlvein these circles.

From a strictly practical point of view, this "vocation"

was still, as yet, amorphous and ill-defined, for given the conditionsIl

16As Chizhev'ski descr1bed it, the atmosphere of the circ1es was enthusiastic, eschatological, fantastic, and romantic" (Gegel' v Rossii,'

p. 55).

l

72

under whieh they lived, any concrete, practicaI (viZ.,' po\iticaI) activity~

was an impossibility. However, in view of the dficulty of the situation,it was commonly feIt that a period of intense self-preparation and

11

1(

education ws the order ,of the day and aIso a necessary prerequisite to any future "activity. Fo'r tIlis "preliminary work;,17 ideas from the West'"

-1

were eag,erly seized upon and avidly studied. For members of the ' , , kruzhki. the road to salvation was unanimously held to lie in the mastering and assimiIating of the more"enlight~ned"

! ,1

elements of progressive

European thought; they believed that Young Russia nEfcessarily had ta integrate itself to the mainstrea'm of contemporary WesterIt; thought.,

~

Members of the circles provided one another with routual e~ouragement' and support in their intellectuaI endeavours, and helped each other during

.

tirnes of moral crisis and dejeetion.

The kruzhok furnished'thern with a

forum for the discussion and elaboration of philosophi~ ideas, and. as such, fulfilled 'primarily' a pedagogical purpose. A strong cohesive element of the ircle was a serious commitment ta progressive philosophie thought; whether it be German metaphysics or French soeialism, the

t

young Russian intelligentsia enthusiastieally studied, in turn, each and every major idea imported froro Europe. The publication of an obscure article in sorne unknown journal or the latest philosophie ai system of Schelling eould bath .be greeted with avid inter est and constitute a literary "event." Every new book from the West smuggle,d into Russia was taken to be the ne plus ultra 'of occidental thought. \ ' ,

The feeling of c10seness and cooperation that prevailed among the"" members of the cireles was fostered by the deep conviction that they were not only an intellectuaI minority, but aIso a w.eak, cl~~e group /' 17 Gertsen, "Byloe i dumy, ' tom 4, p. 138.~

.L....

!i1

i>

.1

o

73

th.1 was 'vulnerable 10 the

arb!lr:;:y~easures of the~trglme.'"

They were profound.ly aware of their spiritual isolation from R&sian -:>sqciety in general and of theirpretarious position within the autocratie state. Isaiah Berlin desribed the predicament of the circles in the

~

e>

~

-

..

following terms: Like persons in a dark wood,. tliey tended to fel a - -rtain solidarity simply beeal:it;e they wer so few and far between; because they were weak, beeause they were truthful, because they were sincere, because they were unlike the othe*'s. Moreover, they had accepted the romantie doctrine th'at every man is called upon to perform . a mission beYohd mere seUish purposes of material existence; that because they had had an education superior to that of their oppressed brothers they had a dire~t duty to help them toward the light; that this duty was uniquely binding upon them, and that, il they fulfilled it, as history surely intended' them to do, the future of Russia might yet be as glorious as her past had beet empty and dark; and that for this they plUst preserve their inner solidarity as a dedicated grouP. They were a persecuted minority who\.\drew strength from their very persecu~ion; they were the self-onscious bearers of a Western message, freed from the chains of ignorance and prejudice,. stupidity or cowardice, by sorne great Western liber; at6l-- a German romantic, a French soeialist-who had tr3.I)sformed their vision. 18 ' " The young intelligentsia of the 1830's deprived of any outlet for practical activity, political or otherwise, sought recourse in a period of relentless "education in ideology, ,,19 in preparation for the radical trans, formation of Russiart society. AlI these young men, whether they belonged to the circle of Herzen-Oragv or that of Stankevich, understood that because of the treacherous poli:tical climate in w~ih they lived, . . they nece~sarily had to draw thei: intellectual and moral resources"

,1l

!

i

.

exc1usively from within themselves. Hpwever, for ideological direction, 181, Berlin, "A Remarkable Decade," in R1(ssian Thinkers, pp. 126-127.j, ,

l~alia, Alexander Herzen, p. 68.1

.

/

74they all turned to the West.. Sorne frond their panacea in Saint Simon or Lamennais, whil others looked to Fichte,Schille~,

or Hegel. From

whichever side of the Rhine salvation was expected, the goal was ulti-

"

rnately the sarne: the social and political liberation of Russia. , The belief that Russia did have an important part topla~

on the

world-historical stage was to prove orie of the most vocal and persistent leitmotivs of the. c.entury. It has been pointed out that the circles of

2

the 30' s and 40's came into being during one of the bleakest epochs of Russian history, not only politcally, but also intellectually and culturally. Three foremost writers and critics of the day had succeasively declared

~t

RusBia

poss~ssed no,

culture or history

wh~tsoever,

that it was an

artistic and intellectual wasteland. 20, ln his first polernical es say, Literaturnye mechtaniya (Literary Dreams), BelinsKy had deplored the fact that Russia had no "national" literatux+.e or art, apart from a few scattered and weak epigones of European genres. Chaadaev' s notorious first Philosophical Letter (1836), which provoked the ire of the tsar and caused the suppression of the Telescope, held as its central thesis RUBsia' s deviatiol1 from the main stream of European history and c~lture. The author blam,ed this deviation on Russia's unfortunate embracing of the Orthodox faith, rather than of Roman Catholic1sm. Fin all y , Ivan

Kireevsky's journal, Evropeets (The European), upheld the principle that since Russia had no philosophy or art forrn of !ts own, it was in its best interest to assimilate the finest in European culture. This unmasking of the Emperor as having no clothes hardty fitted in with Count Uvarov's scheme for an official national and "positive" ideology 20 ' Edward J. Brown, ~S~tan~k;.;;.e..;.v..;;.ic;;..;;h~an~~.;;.;is;;.....;;.M~0.;;.;s;;.,;;c;;.,;;0;;.,;;w.;.....;C;;..;i~rc.;;;.;l;;;..;e~...;;;1..;;.8~301840 (Stanford, Cal ifornia, 1966), p. 12; lanty-Bonjour, Hegel et la r pense philosophique, pp. 2-3. \1

;

.

1

'f

'151 \

(offitsial'naia natodnost') and the jqurnal was prompUy banned. However, ' ..1 (

the effct of all these attacks on Russia' s heritage and culture wa8 notOIycriti~al

and negative. One salutary result was the formation of

the Intellecht,al circles, whose pri!tcipal raison' d'tre was the formulatiIl1(

oZ a typically national aesthetic 'and philosophical tradition.,

In the circles,.

these ideas of artistic and cultural self-identity fused with the -prevalent nationalist, sentiment of the romantic epoch. Reinforced with the political romanticism of Herder, Fichte and ScH~l1ing, who saw expressions of

\

national genius (Volksgeist) in aIl people" no matter at what stage of social~d

political evolution they were, tl)e Russian intelligentsia ac-

quired a feeling of optimism and national confidence. 21 These romantic philosophies of history, which all looked to the future with optimism, , , provided them with the reassurance that no matter how Qackward their,,

,

country might appear _to them, it would nevertheles$ be called upon

e~ehfuahy

to play a foremost role in world history. Finding solace in

this tlhought, they set about on the prep~ratory theoretical work for impending transformation of their society. Under the influence of

the

!)

1

. German idealist ph il os ophy , the Russian integntsia sought\

1\1

'

)19

. . . ~ans une philosophie de l'histoire, dans une philos phie de l'art, dans Une philosophie de la lieligip', une solution au problme de son essence, propre, de Pessence nationale ou de l'tre national ar ost' VolkStum) de,. la Russie ... le problme de la c nsClence nationale, le problme du sens de l 'histOi~- russe, le GNOTHI SEAlITON historique qui tai,\ au premier plan,. 22 E:ven at

,

i

th~St

early stage, the Rusian intellectuals of the 30' s

unru:rstood the nefessth. of uslng theory as an Instrument for the :esolution of the social \questioo .. With the poss\ble except\on of Stankevich 21See Berlm, "A Rerparkable Decade," pp. 31-37. ", 22Koyr, La pense Shilosophique en Russie, p. 181.

'

78

....J

1

himself, "the principal members of his circle, as weil as Herzen, "all

(

\

...

approached phUosophy Dot as an end in itself, but rather applied it to practical problems ~f everyday itfe, ta questions, of morality, and to social and national, issues. :An excellent example of the "prac tic al " dimension of the, circles' activ}ty was theirc~ose

association with the

periodical press throughout the 1830's and 40's. tThe intelligentsia's urge to activism, denied any other ouUet for Us expression, manifested , itself in an unpr'ecedented- er~ of critical journalism. 23 Philosophical and literary journalism became the new avenue for the propagation of progressive ideas. This serves to rej,nforce the interpretation that the orientation of the circles was definit~ly activist in nature, rather than\

'