Bakunin, however, tried to leave no room for doubt over his 
complicity in the so-called Nechayev conspiracy. He published a 
proclamation: To the Officers of the Russian Army, dated ‘Geneva, 
January 1870” and signed Mikhail Bakunin.* This proclamation, 
“price one franc”, was announced as Bakunin’s work in all the 
issues of the Kolokol for 1870. Here are some extracts. 

It begins by declaring, as Nechayev had done in Russia, that 

“the hour of the last struggle between the house of Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp 
and the Russian people is approaching, the struggle between the Tartar-German 
yoke and the broad liberty of the Slavs. Spring is on our threshold, and the battle 
will commence in the first days of spring ... the revolutionary force is ready and its 
triumph is assured in the presence of the profound and general mass discontent 
now reigning all over Russia”. 

An organisation exists to direct this imminent revolution, for a 
secret organisation is like the general staff of an army, and this 
army is the entire people.° 

“In my appeal to the young Russian brothers, [ said that Stenka Razin who will 

put himself at the head of the masses during the destruction, so clearly at hand, of 
the Russian Empire, will no longer be an individual hero, but a collective Stenka 

Razin.4 Every man who is not a fool will easily understand that I was speaking of a 
secret organisation existing and acting already at this moment, strong in the 
discipline, devotion, and passionate self-sacrifice of its members and in their passive 
obedience to all the instructions of an unique committee which knows everything and 
is known by no one. 

“The members of this committee have achieved total self-renunciation. This is 
what gives them the right to demand absolute renunciation from all the other 
members of the organisation. They have to such an extent renounced everything 
most coveted by vain, ambitious, and the power-seeking men, that, having finally 
renounced personal property, public or official power, and, in general, all fame in 
society, they have condemned themselves to eternal oblivion, ceding to others glory, 
external appearances, and the renown of the cause, and only keeping for 
themselves, and even then always collectively, the very essence of this cause. 

“Like the Jesuits, only not with the aim of enslaving, but with that of liberating 
the people, each of them has even renounced his own will. In the committee, as in 
the whole organisation, it is not the individual who thinks, wishes and acts, but the 
collective. Such a renunciation of his own life, his own thought and his own will 
may seem impossible, even revolting, to many. It is, in fact, difficult to achieve, but 
it is indispensable. It will seem particularly difficult to the novices, to those who 
have only just joined the organisation, to men who have not yet lost the habit of 
wordy and futile bragging, to men who play at honour, personal dignity and right, 
to those who in general let themselves be diverted by the wretched phantoms of a 
supposed humanity, behind which can be seen, in Russian society, a general 
servility towards the most vile and abject realities of life. This renunciation will 
seem painful to those who seek in a great cause the satisfaction of their vanity and 
an occasion for phrase-making, and who love the cause not for its own sake, but 
for the drama which it confers on them personally.” 

“Each new member joins our organisation voluntarily, knowing in advance that 
once he has become a part of it, he belongs to it entirely and not to himself any 
more. Entry into the organisation is voluntary, but to leave it is impossible, since every 
member who resigns will undoubtedly endanger the very existence of the 
organisation, which must not depend on the irresponsibility, the whims or 
discretion, however great or small it may be, or on the honesty and the strength of 
one or several individuals... Consequently, whoever wishes to join must know in 
advance that he is giving himself to it entirely, with all that he possesses by way of 
strength, means, knowledge and life, unreturnably... This is clearly and precisely 
expressed in its programme, which has been published and is obligatory for all 
members of the committee and for all those who do not belong to it... If a member 
is truly inspired by” (revolutionary) “passion, everything that the organisation 
demands of him will seem easy. It is a known fact that passion acknowledges no 
difficulties; it recognises nothing as impossible, and the greater the obstacles are, 
the greater is the screwing up of the will, strength, and knowledge of the man 
moved by passion. There is no room for minor personal passions in a man 
possessed by this passion; he does not even need to sacrifice them, because they do 
not exist in him any more. A serious member of the association has stifled in 
himself all feeling of curiosity, and he remorselessly persecutes this failing in all 
others. Although he recognises himself as worthy of all confidence, and precisely 
because he is worthy of it, that is to say, because he is a serious man, he does not 
seek, and does not even want to know, more than is necessary for him to fulfil as 
well as possible the mission entrusted to him. He only discusses business with 

persons who have been allocated to him, and he says nothing which has been 
forbidden by the orders he has received, and in general he conforms strictly and 
unconditionally to the orders and instructions which come down to him from above, 
without ever asking, or even wanting to ask about the position of the organisation 
to which he belongs, since he naturally wishes to be entrusted with as many tasks as 
possible, but he nevertheless waits patiently for the moment when it will be 
entrusted to him. 

‘So rigid and so absolute a discipline may astonish and even shock the novice; 
but it will neither astonish nor offend a serious member, a man truly strong and 
sensible. On the contrary, it will afford him pleasure and guarantee his security, 
provided that he is under the influence of that absorbing passion, which I have 
already mentioned: for the people’s triumph. A serious member will realise that such 
discipline is an indispensable pledge of the relative impersonality of each member, a 
sine qua non of the common triumph; that this discipline alone is capable of forming a 
true organisation and of creating a collective revolutionary force which, basing itself 
on the elemental power of the people, will be in a condition to conquer the formidable 
force of the State organisation. 

“You may ask: how can you submit to the dictatorial control of a Committee 
unknown to you? But the Committee is known to you: first, by its published 
programme, which has been drawn up with such clarity and precision, and which is 
explained in even greater detail to every member who joins the organisation. 
Secondly, it recommends itself to you by the blind confidence placed in it by 
persons whom you know and respect—the confidence which makes you give 
preference to this organisation rather than to any other. It makes itself known even 
still more fully to the active members of the organisation by its indefatigable and 
determined activity, which extends everywhere and always conforms to the 
programme and goal of the organisation. And everybody submits voluntarily to its 
authority, becoming more and more convinced, through practical experience, on 
the one hand, of its truly astonishing foresight, of its vigilance, of its energy so full 
of wisdom and of its ability to match its instructions to the sought-after goal; and, 
on the other hand, of the necessity and salutary effect of such discipline. 

“I could be asked: if the identity of the personnel constituting the Committee 
remains an impenetrable mystery to everyone, how were you able to find out about 
it and convince yourself of its real worth?—I will answer this question frankly. I do 
not know a single member of this Committee, nor the number of its members, nor 
its place of residence. I know one thing: it is not abroad, but is in Russia itself, as is 
only right; for a Russian revolutionary committee abroad would be an absurdity, 
the very idea of which could only occur to those empty-headed and stupidly 
ambitious phrasemongers who belong to the emigration and who hide their 
conceited and evilly intriguing inactivity behind the sonorous name of The People’s 
Cause .* 

“After the Decembrist conspiracy of the nobility (1825),38! the first serious 
attempt at organisation was made by Ishutin and his comrades.382 The existing 
organisation is the first organisation of revolutionary forces in the whole of Russia 
which has truly succeeded. It has profited by all preparations and experience; no 
reaction will force it to dissolve; it will survive all governments, and it will not cease 
to act until its entire programme has become daily life in Russia and everywhere 
else in the world. 

* The reader will remember that this was the title of a Russian newspaper of 
the International published in Geneva by a few young Russians who knew perfectly 
well the real worth of the so-called committee and Bakunin’s organisation. 

“About a year ago, the Committee thought it would be useful to inform me of 
its existence and it sent me its programme, together with an exposition of the 
general plan of revolutionary action in Russia. Completely in agreement with both 
of these, and having assured myself that the enterprise, like the men who had 
taken the initiative with it, was truly serious, I did what, in my opinion, every 
honest refugee ought to do: I submitted unconditionally to the authority of the 
Committee as the sole representative and controlling body of the revolution in 
Russia. If I am addressing you today, I am only obeying the Committee’s orders. I 
cannot say more to you about this. I will add one more word on this subject. I 
know the organisation’s plan sufficiently well to be convinced that no force is 
capable of destroying it. Even if, in the imminent struggle, the popular party has to 
suffer a new defeat—which none of us fears, since we all believe in the 
forthcoming triumph of the people—but even if our hopes should be dashed, in 
the midst of the most appalling reprisals, in the midst of the most savage reaction, 
the organisation will still remain safe and sound... 

“The basis of the programme is the widest and most humanitarian possible: 
complete liberty and complete equality of all human beings, based on communal 
ownership and communal labour and equally obligatory to all except, of course, those 
who would rather die of hunger than work. 

“This is the present programme of the working people in all countries, and it 
fully corresponds to the age-old demands and the instincts of our people... In 
submitting this programme to the lower orders@ of the people, the members of our 
organisation are astounded to notice how immediate and broad is their grasp of it, 
and with what eagerness they accept it. This means that the programme is ready. It 
is unvarying. He who is for this programme will come with us. He who is against us 
is the friend of the people’s enemies, the tsar’s gendarme, the tsar’s executioner, 
our own enemy... 

“T have told you that our organisation is solidly built and now I add that it has 
taken root so strongly among the people that, even if we suffer a defeat, the 
reaction will be powerless to destroy it... 

“The servile press, obedient to the orders of the Third Department, is trying to 
persuade the public that the government has managed to seize the conspiracy by its 
very roots. It has not seized anything whatever. The Committee and the 
organisation are intact and always will be, the government will soon be convinced 
of this, for the explosion of the people is near at hand. It is so near, that everyone 
must now decide if he wishes to be our friend, the friend of the people, or our 
enemy instead and that of the people. To all friends, to whatever place or position 
they belong, our ranks are open. But how are we to find you, you will ask? The 
organisation, which surrounds you on all sides, which counts among you its numerous 
adherents, will itself find him who seeks with sincere desire and strong will to serve 
the cause of the people. He who is not with us, is against us. Choose.” 

In this pamphlet signed with his name, Bakunin pretends not to 
know the place and composition of the Committee on whose behalf 
he speaks and on whose behalf Nechayev acted in Russia. 
However, the only authority which the latter had to act on the 
Committee’s behalf was signed by Mikhail Bakunin, and the only 
man who received reports on the activity of the sections was, once 
again, Mikhail Bakunin. And so when Mikhail Bakunin vows 

passive obedience to the committee, it is to Mikhail Bakunin 
himself that he swears obedience. 

We consider it useless to insist that the trend and even the 
language of this work signed by Bakunin are entirely identical 
with the other anonymous Russian documents. What we want to 
point out is the manner in which Bakunin applied the morality of 
the catechism here. He commences, first, by preaching it to the 
Russian officers. He tells them that he and the other initiates have 
simultaneously carried out a duty and filled a gap in setting 
themselves up as the Jesuits of the revolution and that, as far as 
the Committee is concerned, they have no more personal will than 
the celebrated “corpse” of the Society of Jesus. In order that the 
officers should not be shocked by the murder of Ivanov, he tries 
to make them understand the necessity of assassinating every 
member who would like to leave the secret society. He then 
applies this same morality to his own readers by lying flagrantly to 
them. Bakunin knew that the government had arrested not only 
all the initiates in Russia, but ten times more that number of 
persons who had been compromised by Nechayev for belonging to 
the famous “fifth category” of the catechism; that there was no 
longer so much as the shadow of an organisation in Russia; that its 
Committee no longer existed there and never had existed apart 
from Nechayev, then with him in Geneva; furthermore, that this 
pamphlet would not bring in a single recruit in Russia; that it 
could only furnish the Government with a pretext for fresh 
persecutions. Yet he proclaimed that the Government had seized 
nothing whatever; that the Committee was still holding sessions in 
Russia and was displaying indefatigable and determined activity 
that extended everywhere, truly astounding foresight, vigilance, 
energy full of wisdom, and staggering ingenuity (the statements 
made at the trial testify to this); that his secret organisation, the 
only serious one that had existed in Russia since 1825, was intact; 
that it had penetrated down to the lower orders of the people, 
who were eagerly accepting its programme; that the officers were 
surrounded by it; that the revolution was imminent and would 
break out in a few months, in the spring of 1870. It was purely to 
give himself the pleasure of the drama which it conferred on him 
personally in front of his false international brethren and in front 
of his mirror that Bakunin, who pretended to have “renounced 
his own life, his own thought, and his own will’, to be superior to 
the “wordy and futile bragging” of “men who play at honour, 
personal dignity, and right”, that he, Mikhail Bakunin, addressed 
the Russians with these lies and this bragging. 

This same man who in 1870 preaches to the Russians passive, 
blind obedience to orders coming from above and from an 
anonymous and unknown committee; who declares that Jesuitical 
discipline is the condition sine qua non of victory, the only thing 
capable of defeating the formidable centralisation of the State— 
not just the Russian state but any state; who proclaims a 
communism more authoritarian than the most primitive commun- 
ism—this same man, in 1871, weaves a separatist and disorganis- 
ing movement into the fabric of the International under the 
pretext of combating the authoritarianism and centralisation of the 
German Communists, of introducing autonomy of the sections, a 
free federation of autonomous groups, and of making the 
International what it should be: the image of the future society. If 
the society of the future were modelled on the Alliance, Russian 
section, it would far surpass the Paraguay of the Reverend Jesuit 
Fathers,* so dear to Bakunin’s heart. 

IX