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Bakunin, Mikhail (1814–1876)———67

May 9, 1976, just before the trial, Meinhof hanged After graduating from the academy, Bakunin was
herself in her cell. On October 18, 1977, after a last- stationed at a remote post on the Polish frontier. There,
ditch attempt at getting the prisoners released had he began to study history and philosophy; within six
failed, the four remaining Baader-Meinhof leaders months had decided that the Army was not for him. He
attempted suicide in their cells (one member survived left his post and returned to Moscow, where he began
and was released in 1994). mingling with radical students. During the early 1840s,
Rumors that the prisoners had not committed sui- Bakunin traveled widely in Europe, consorting with
cide but had been killed persisted after their deaths. Russian expatriates, Polish nationalists, and radical
The Baader-Meinhof Gang and its activities have European philosophers and becoming noted for his
attained an almost mythic status in Germany, while eloquent and fiery oratory. He began to publish
their Red Army descendants have persisted in terror pamphlets and treatises outlining his new philosophy,
until very recently. They will be remembered as one most important, an 1842 essay that concluded with the
of the most feared terrorist groups in Western Europe aphorism “The passion for destruction is also a cre-
during the turbulent 1970s. ative passion,” perhaps his most famous saying. These
activities caused the Russian government to demand
See also ANDREAS BAADER; GERMAN RED ARMY FACTION;
that he return to Russia. When he refused, his passport
JAPANESE RED ARMY; ULRIKE MEINHOF
was revoked, and he was tried in absentia for treason
and sentenced to Siberian exile.
Further Reading
Already a fugitive, Bakunin achieved international
Aust, Stefan. The Baader-Meinhof Group. London: Bodley infamy through his participation in the revolutions of
Head, 1985. 1848. In that year, massive revolts in several European
Becker, Jillian. Hitler’s Children. Philadelphia: J. B. countries brought down the French monarchy and
Lippincott, 1977. shook the governments of Germany and Austria to
Gedye, Robin. “Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Freed After their core. Bakunin flitted from disturbance to distur-
22 Years.” Daily Telegraph, December 2, 1994, 18. bance, showing up at the barricades in Paris, Dresden,
Harclerode, Peter. Secret Soldiers: Special Forces in the Berlin, and Prague in the course of 1848–1849. His
War Against Terrorism. London: Cassell, 2000.
Horchem, Hans Josef. West Germany’s Red Army Anarchists. participation in the events of 1848 led to successive
Institute for the Study of Conflict, 1974. trials in France and Austria—he was sentenced to
Huffman, Richard. This Is Baader-Meinhof: Germany death both times—but the Austrian authorities trans-
in the Post-War Decade of Terror, 1968-77. http://www. ferred him to Russia at the behest of the czar. For
baader-meinhof.com. more than three years, Bakunin was imprisoned in
Proll, Astrid. Baader Meinhof, Pictures on the Run 67-77. the Peter and Paul fortress in Moscow; while there,
Berlin and New York: Scalo, 1998. he wrote his enigmatic Confession in a plea for
clemency. He was allowed to go into exile in Siberia
in 1857. Four years later, he managed to escape from

BAKUNIN, MIKHAIL (1814–1876) Siberia on a ship, returning to Europe by way of Japan
and the United States.
Following his escape, Bakunin entered his most
Mikhail Bakunin was a Russian radical whose active period of revolutionary agitation, becoming the
ideas created the theoretical foundations for anar- leader of the anarchist groups already active in Europe
chism and terrorism. and attracting a strong following in Spain, Italy, and
Born in February 1814 to members of the Russian France. The anarchists were not the only revolutionary
nobility, Bakunin spent an idyllic childhood on his ideologues in the Europe of the 1860s; this period also
father’s country estate. At age 14, he was sent to saw the rise of communism, with Karl Marx forming
Moscow to study at the Artillery School in preparation the International Working Man’s Association in 1864 in
for a military career. A somewhat indifferent student, an attempt to unite all European radicals. Bakunin and
Bakunin’s time in military school helped to inculcate his anarchists soon entered a fierce battle with Marx for
in him the loathing for all forms of coercion and control of the European radical movement.
authority that would be codified in his anarchist In 1872, Marx succeeded in expelling Bakunin
philosophy. and the anarchists from the International, primarily