Földvári Books

Bakunin, the Founder of Anarchism – Appeal to the Slavs

Bakunin, Mikhail (Alexandrovich)

Odezwa do Slowian Przez Ruskiego Patriote Michala Bakunina Czlonka Zjazdu Slawianskiego w Pradze. / Odezwa do Słowian Przez Ruskiego Patriotę Michała Bakunina Członka Zjazdu Sławiańskiego w Pradze. [Appeal to the Slavs by a Russian Patriot, Mikhail Bakunin, Member of the Prague Slavic Congress.]

Koethen (Leipzig). A. Wiede (Ernst Keil). 1849. First Polish edition (second overall). Papered spine. Light foxing. 40 p. Fine condition.

The proclamation was first published in German, in December 1848 and it followed, presumably in a few weeks, the Polish edition. Early, scarce and important work of the founder of anarchism.

Bakunin (1814–1876) was member at the Pan-Slav Congress which was held in Prague, on June 2, 1848 and ended 10 days later when Austrian troops bombarded the city. After the event he wrote “Appeal to the Slavs”, in which he proposes that Slav revolutionaries unite with Hungarian, Italian and German revolutionaries to overthrow the three major European autocracies, the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. However this work is not merely a statement of Bakunin’s Pan-Slavism but in many ways it anticipates his later anarchist attitudes (e.g. the peasants as revolutionary force; the destruction of the bourgeois social order; anti-parliamentarianism; federalism) and his commitment for the social revolution that – in his view – must be total, and take precedence over the political revolution.

“Appeal to the Slavs” considered as the first call in history for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the building of a Slav state on it’s ruins.

No copy located in the USA according to WorldCat.

[Bibl.: Voegelin, E.: Anamnesis: on the Theory of History and Politics. Vol. 6. Baton Rouge. Louisiana State University Press, 2002.; Carr, E. H.: Michael Bakunin. London. Macmillan, 1937.]

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Price: €3,000.00