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 accused Bakunin of nationalist Panslavism, and, therefore, called him illogical. Even to-day many historians of Socialism keep asking whether he was not after all a Russian agent, as the Marxists often maintain. Now it is true that Bakunin, even in 1862, thought of the Tsar as a possible executor of his plans; but Proudhon indulged in similar illusions regarding Napoleon, while Mickiewicz and others sometimes hoped to convert their powerful enemies. Herzen shared these hopes, and to him Bakunin told this plan, which was, of course, the very opposite of “from below.” It was not political and nationalist Panslavism, but Slavophil Messianism, which Bakunin shared with Herzen; but, unlike the latter, he laid stress more on its Slav than its Russian side. This was due to the fact that Bakunin came into personal contact with the Polish, Czech, and Southern Slav revolutionaries.

The Marxists and other German opponents of Bakunin are right in saying that he was wrong in his estimate of the capacity of the Slavs for revolution; but, otherwise, his Slav programme was not more national than that of Marx and the Liberals. Marx demands a German-Polish-Magyar union against the Slavs, and preaches hatred of the Russians, Czechs and Croats. Bakunin, in his appeal to the Slavs (1848), which Marx criticises so sharply, summons them to declare for the Magyars against Windischgrätz. In the same way Bakunin is for the Poles and also for the Germans—for the people, not for Germany’s despots. The real difference is that Bakunin was Russian, while Marx, Engels, Ruge and others were German. That the Marxists long afterwards, and even to-day, have German national feelings and antipathy towards the Slavs I have already proved in my book on “The Foundations of Marxism.” Nor is any fresh proof needed, in view of the present national struggles inside Social Democracy.

This view, which is certainly not Chauvinistic, Bakunin never changed. He simply was a Russian, and as such wanted the Russians and the Slavs to be included in the revolutionary family of peoples. In 1848 he took part in the Prague rising, in 1863 he wanted to help the Poles; he took his part in the first revolutionary Russian organisations. He believed in the revolutionary power of the Slavs. His preference for the Poles was due to the general enthusiasm