Michael Bakunin (1814-1876)

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, was born in May 30. 1814.He was a Russian aristocrat, but became an anarchist and revolutionist soon. He left Russia in 1840 in order to study philosophy in Germany. He became there very interested in revolutionary socialism. After being actively involved in the revolutions of 1848 in Germany, France, and Austria, he was arrested in Dresden in 1849 and deported to Russia. After escaping from Siberia in 1861, he went to England and Western Europe and resumed his revolutionary work there. Bakunin taught that everybody is basically good but corrupted by existing institutions.  Accordingly to this, he advocated the violent overthrow of the state, the churches, and the economic system to permit people to start over again in deliberated associations of free individuals.  He was a hard critic of marxism, which he saw as authoritarian.  Although Bakunin was never precise about how his visions would be achieved in practice, he won a big following in Spain and Italy.  He died in July 1. 1876 in Bern, Switzerland.