Mikhail Bakunin
Revolutionary anarchist · 1814–1876
Bakunin was a Russian revolutionary and a founder of collectivist anarchism who clashed with Karl Marx in the First International. He took part in several European uprisings and argued for the destruction of the state and the church.
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Estimated from their documented words and actions. A simplification, not a verdict.
He called for a federation of free communes and associations organised from the bottom up.
He rejected parliamentary politics and proposed secret revolutionary societies to guide uprisings.
He opposed all state authority, including laws, police and courts, as forms of domination.
He was a leading figure in the First International, though early in life he promoted Pan-Slavism.
He believed revolution required violent insurrection and took part in uprisings in Dresden and Lyon.
No strong recorded view on immigration; some of his writings contain antisemitic passages.
He advocated collective ownership of land and the means of production.
He opposed state control of the economy, warning that Marxist planning would create a new ruling class.
No strong recorded view on trade.
In God and the State he argued that belief in God was incompatible with human freedom.
He sought to overturn all inherited authority, including family and religious hierarchies.
No strong recorded view on technology.