114 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
114 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
Bakunin rebukes Nechayev and his Chatechism for vanguardism:
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"To begin with, my views are different in that they do not acknowledge the
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usefulness, or even the possibility, of any revolution except a spontaneous or
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a people's social revolution. I am deeply convinced that any other revolution
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is dishonest, harmful, and spells death to liberty and the people. It doomes
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them to new penury and new slavery.... [He then notes that the greatly expanded
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power of the state and its military/police apparatus has] armed the state with
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such enormous power that all contrived secret conspiracies and non-popular
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attempts, sudden attacks, surprises and coups--are bound to be shattered against
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it. It can only be conquered by a spontaneous people's revolution.
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"Thus the sole aim of a secret society must be, not the creation of an
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artificial power outside the people, but the rousing, uniting and organizing of
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the spontaneous power of the people; therefore, the only possibile, the only
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real revolutionary army is not outside the people, it is the people itself. It
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is impossible to arouse the people artificially. People's revolutions are born
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from the course of events.... There are historical periods when revolutions are
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simply impossible; there are other periods when they are inevitable... I
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maintain that a popular social revolution is inevitable everywhere within
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Europe. Will it catch fire soon and where first? ... Nobody can foretell.
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Perhaps it will blaze up in a year's time, or even earlier, or perhaps in ten
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or twenty years. This does not matter, and the people who intend to serve it
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honestly do not serve for their own pleasure. All secret societies who wish to
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be really useful to it must, first of all, renounce all nervousness, all
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impatience..."
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"If one considers the people as a revolutionary army, here is our General
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Staff, here is the precious material for a secret organization.
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"But this world must be really organized and moralized, while your system
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depraves it and prepares within it traitors to the system and exploiters of the
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people... Choose a hundred people by lot out of this world and put them in a
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situation which would enable them to exploit and oppress the people--one can be
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sure that they will exploit and oppress it. It follows that there is ittle
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original virtue in them. One must use their poverty-stricken condition which
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makes them virtuous in spite of themselves and, by constant propaganda and the
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power of organization, arouse this virtue, educate it, confirm it in them and
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make it passionately conscious. Whereas you [Nechayev] do the opposite:
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following the Jesuit system you systematically kill all personal human feeling
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in them... educate them in lying, suspicion, spying and denunciation....
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"Let us first of all define more exactly the aim, meaning, and purpose of this
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[secret] organization. As I have mentioned several times above, according to my
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system it would not constitute a revolutionary army--we should have only one
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revolutionary army: the people--the organization should only be the staff of
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this army, an organizer of the people's power, not its own... A revolutionary
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idea is revolutionary, vital, real and true only because it expresses and only
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as far as it represents popular instincts which are the result of history. To
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strive to foist on the people your own thoughts--foreign to its
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instinct--implies a wish to make it subservient to a new state... The
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organization must accept in all sincerity the idea that it is a servant and a
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helper, but never a commander of the people, never under any pretext its
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manager, not even under the pretext of the people's welfare.
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"The organization is faced with an enormous task: not only to prepare the
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success of the people's revolution through propaganda and the unification of
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popular power; not only to destroy totally, by the power of this revolution,
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the whole existing economic, social and political order; but, in addition ...
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to make impossible after the popular victory the establishment of any state
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power over the people--even the most revolutionary, even your power--because
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any power, whatever it called itself, would inevitably subject the people to
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old slavery in a new form. Therefore our organization must be strong and vital
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to survive the first victory of the people and--this is not at all a simple
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matter--the organization must be so deeply imbued with its principles that one
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could hope that even in the midst of the revolution it will not change its
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thoughts, or character or direction.
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"Which, then, should be this direction? What would be the main purpose and task
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of the organization? To help the people achieve self-determination on a basis
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of complete and comprehensive human liberty, without the slightest interference
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from even temporary or transitional power...
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"We are bitter foes of all official power, even if it were ultra-revolutionary
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power. We are enemies of all publicly acknowledged dictatorship; we are
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social-revolutionary anarchists. But you will ask, if we are anarchists, by
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what right do we wish to and by what method can we influence the people?
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Rejecting any power, by what power or rather by what force shall we direct the
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people's revolution? An invisible force--recognized by no one, imposed by no
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one--through which the collective dictatorship of our organization will be all
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the mightier, the more it remains invisible and unacknowledged, the more it
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remains without any official legality and significance."
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Bakunin goes on to describe this "invisible dictatorship":
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"Imagine... a secret organization which has scattered its members in small
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groups over the whole territory of the Empire but is nevertheless firmly
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united: inspired by a common ideal... an organization which acts everywhere
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according to a common plan. These small groups, unknown by anybody as such,
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have no officially recognized power but they are strong in their ideal, which
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expresses the very essence of the people's instincts, desires and demands...
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Finally they are strong in their solidarity which ties all the obscure groups
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into one organic whole... these groups will be able to lead the popular
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movement without seeking for themselves priviliges, honors or power, in
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defiance of all ambitious persons who are divided and fighting among themselves
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and to lead it to the greatest possible realization of the socio-economic ideal
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and to the organization of fullest liberty for the people. This is what I call
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the collective dictatorship of the secret organization.
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"This dictatorship is free from all self-interest, vanity and ambition for it
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is anonymous, invisible and does not give advantage or honor or official
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recognition of power to a member of the group or to the groups themselves. It
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does not threaten the liberty of the people because it is free from all
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official character..."
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The claim that
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Bakunin shared Nechayev's politics and organizational methods is simply a
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slander:
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"You wished, and still wish, to make your own selfless cruelty, your own truly
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extreme fanaticism, into a rule of common life.... Renounce your system and you
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will become a valuable man; if, however, you do not wish to renounce it you
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will certainly become a harmful militant, highly destructive not to the state
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but to the cause of liberty..."
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