Цитаты бакунина о государстве

Обновлено: 21.11.2024

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„We … have humanity divided into an indefinite number of foreign states, all hostile and threatened by each other. There is no common right, no social contract of any kind between them; otherwise they would cease to be independent states and become the federated members of one great state. But unless this great state were to embrace all of humanity, it would be confronted with other great states, each federated within, each maintaining the same posture of inevitable hostility.“

„Everywhere, especially in France and England, social and religious societies are being formed which are wholly alien to the world of present-day politics, societies that derive their life from new sources quite unknown to us and that grow and diffuse themselves without fanfare.“

"The Reaction in Germany" (1842)
Контексте: Everywhere, especially in France and England, social and religious societies are being formed which are wholly alien to the world of present-day politics, societies that derive their life from new sources quite unknown to us and that grow and diffuse themselves without fanfare. The people, the poor class, which without doubt constitutes the greatest part of humanity; the class whose rights have already been recognized in theory but which is nevertheless still despised for its birth, for its ties with poverty and ignorance, as well as indeed with actual slavery – this class, which constitutes the true people, is everywhere assuming a threatening attitude and is beginning to count the ranks of its enemy, far weaker in numbers than itself, and to demand the actualization of the right already conceded to it by everyone. All people and all men are filled with a kind of premonition, and everyone whose vital organs are not paralyzed faces with shuddering expectation the approaching future which will utter the redeeming word. Even in Russia, the boundless snow-covered kingdom so little known, and which perhaps also has a great future in store, even in Russia dark clouds are gathering, heralding storm. Oh, the air is sultry and pregnant with lightning.
And therefore we call to our deluded brothers: Repent, repent, the Kingdom of the Lord is at hand!

„A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself or his cause.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)
Контексте: A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself or his cause. If we seek the liberation of the people by means of a lie, we will surely grow confused, go astray, and lose sight of our objective, and if we have any influence at all on the people we will lead them astray as well — in other words, we will be acting in the spirit of reaction and to its benefit.

„The modern State is by its very nature a military State; and every military State must of necessity become a conquering, invasive State; to survive it must conquer or be conquered, for the simple reason that accumulated military power will suffocate if it does not find an outlet. Therefore the modern State must strive to be a huge and powerful State: this is the indispensable precondition for its survival.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга Statism and Anarchy

Statism and Anarchy (1873)

„To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.“

„Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.“

„The great honor of Christianity, its incontestable merit, and the whole secret of its unprecedented and yet thoroughly legitimate triumph, lay in the fact that it appealed to that suffering and immense public to which the ancient world, a strict and cruel intellectual and political aristocracy, denied even the simplest rights of humanity. Otherwise it never could have spread.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

Dover edition, p 75
God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

Следующая цитата

Всякий сколько-нибудь мыслящий и добросовестный русский должен понимать, что наша империя не может переменить своего отношения к народу.

Всем своим существованием она обречена быть губительницею его, его кровопийцею. Народ инстинктивно ее ненавидит, а она неизбежно его гнетет, так как на народной беде построено все ее существование и сила. Для поддержания внутреннего порядка, для сохранения насильственного единства и для поддержания внешней даже не завоевательной, а только самоохраняющей силы ей нужно огромное войско, а вместе с войском нужна полиция, нужна бесчисленная бюрократия, казенное духовенство. Одним словом, огромнейший официальный мир, содержание которого, не говоря уже о его воровстве, неизбежно давит народ.

Такою она была до крестьянской реформы, такою осталась теперь и будет всегда.

+21 anton_t_LiveLib

Всякий сколько-нибудь мыслящий и добросовестный русский должен понимать, что наша империя не может переменить своего отношения к народу.

Всем своим существованием она обречена быть губительницею его, его кровопийцею. Народ инстинктивно ее ненавидит, а она неизбежно его гнетет, так как на народной беде построено все ее существование и сила. Для поддержания внутреннего порядка, для сохранения насильственного единства и для поддержания внешней даже не завоевательной, а только самоохраняющей силы ей нужно огромное войско, а вместе с войском нужна полиция, нужна бесчисленная бюрократия, казенное духовенство. Одним словом, огромнейший официальный мир, содержание которого, не говоря уже о его воровстве, неизбежно давит народ.

Такою она была до крестьянской реформы, такою осталась теперь и будет всегда.

Казенное повсеместное воровство, казнокрадство и народообирание есть самое верное выражение русской государственной цивилизации

+14 anton_t_LiveLib

Казенное повсеместное воровство, казнокрадство и народообирание есть самое верное выражение русской государственной цивилизации

„Of escape there are but three methods — two chimerical and a third real. The first two are the dram-shop and the church, debauchery of the body or debauchery of the mind; the third is social revolution.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.“

„Liberty is so great a magician, endowed with so marvelous a power of productivity, that under the inspiration of this spirit alone, North America was able within less than a century to equal, and even surpass, the civilization of Europe.“

"Reasoned Proposal to the Central Committee of the League for Peace and Freedom" also known as "Federalism, Socialism, Anti-Theologism" (September 1867)

„The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men.“

Variant translations:
A natural society, in the midst of which every man is born and outside of which he could never become a rational and free being, becomes humanized only in the measure that all men comprising it become, individually and collectively, free to an ever greater extent.
Note 1. To be personally free means for every man living in a social milieu not to surrender his thought or will to any authority but his own reason and his own understanding of justice; in a word, not to recognize any other truth but the one which he himself has arrived at, and not to submit to any other law but the one accepted by his own conscience. Such is the indispensable condition for the observance of human dignity, the incontestable right of man, the sign of his humanity.
To be free collectively means to live among free people and to be free by virtue of their freedom. As we have already pointed out, man cannot become a rational being, possessing a rational will, (and consequently he could not achieve individual freedom) apart from society and without its aid. Thus the freedom of everyone is the result of universal solidarity. But if we recognize this solidarity as the basis and condition of every individual freedom, it becomes evident that a man living among slaves, even in the capacity of their master, will necessarily become the slave of that state of slavery, and that only by emancipating himself from such slavery will he become free himself.
Thus, too, the freedom of all is essential to my freedom. And it follows that it would be fallacious to maintain that the freedom of all constitutes a limit for and a limitation upon my freedom, for that would be tantamount to the denial of such freedom. On the contrary, universal freedom represents the necessary affirmation and boundless expansion of individual freedom.
This passage was translated as Part III : The System of Anarchism , Ch. 13: Summation, Section VI, in The Political Philosophy of Bakunin : Scientific Anarchism (1953), compiled and edited by G. P. Maximoff
Man does not become man, nor does he achieve awareness or realization of his humanity, other than in society and in the collective movement of the whole society; he only shakes off the yoke of internal nature through collective or social labor. and without his material emancipation there can be no intellectual or moral emancipation for anyone. man in isolation can have no awareness of his liberty. Being free for man means being acknowledged, considered and treated as such by another man, and by all the men around him. Liberty is therefore a feature not of isolation but of interaction, not of exclusion but rather of connection. I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows. I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation.
Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)
Контексте: The materialistic, realistic, and collectivist conception of freedom, as opposed to the idealistic, is this: Man becomes conscious of himself and his humanity only in society and only by the collective action of the whole society. He frees himself from the yoke of external nature only by collective and social labor, which alone can transform the earth into an abode favorable to the development of humanity. Without such material emancipation the intellectual and moral emancipation of the individual is impossible. He can emancipate himself from the yoke of his own nature, i. e. subordinate his instincts and the movements of his body to the conscious direction of his mind, the development of which is fostered only by education and training. But education and training are preeminently and exclusively social … hence the isolated individual cannot possibly become conscious of his freedom.
To be free … means to be acknowledged and treated as such by all his fellowmen. The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men. In the presence of an inferior species of animal I am neither free nor a man, because this animal is incapable of conceiving and consequently recognizing my humanity. I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen.
Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own.
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.

„I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen.
Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own. …
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.“

Variant translations:
A natural society, in the midst of which every man is born and outside of which he could never become a rational and free being, becomes humanized only in the measure that all men comprising it become, individually and collectively, free to an ever greater extent.
Note 1. To be personally free means for every man living in a social milieu not to surrender his thought or will to any authority but his own reason and his own understanding of justice; in a word, not to recognize any other truth but the one which he himself has arrived at, and not to submit to any other law but the one accepted by his own conscience. Such is the indispensable condition for the observance of human dignity, the incontestable right of man, the sign of his humanity.
To be free collectively means to live among free people and to be free by virtue of their freedom. As we have already pointed out, man cannot become a rational being, possessing a rational will, (and consequently he could not achieve individual freedom) apart from society and without its aid. Thus the freedom of everyone is the result of universal solidarity. But if we recognize this solidarity as the basis and condition of every individual freedom, it becomes evident that a man living among slaves, even in the capacity of their master, will necessarily become the slave of that state of slavery, and that only by emancipating himself from such slavery will he become free himself.
Thus, too, the freedom of all is essential to my freedom. And it follows that it would be fallacious to maintain that the freedom of all constitutes a limit for and a limitation upon my freedom, for that would be tantamount to the denial of such freedom. On the contrary, universal freedom represents the necessary affirmation and boundless expansion of individual freedom.
This passage was translated as Part III : The System of Anarchism , Ch. 13: Summation, Section VI, in The Political Philosophy of Bakunin : Scientific Anarchism (1953), compiled and edited by G. P. Maximoff
Man does not become man, nor does he achieve awareness or realization of his humanity, other than in society and in the collective movement of the whole society; he only shakes off the yoke of internal nature through collective or social labor. and without his material emancipation there can be no intellectual or moral emancipation for anyone. man in isolation can have no awareness of his liberty. Being free for man means being acknowledged, considered and treated as such by another man, and by all the men around him. Liberty is therefore a feature not of isolation but of interaction, not of exclusion but rather of connection. I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows. I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation.
Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)
Контексте: The materialistic, realistic, and collectivist conception of freedom, as opposed to the idealistic, is this: Man becomes conscious of himself and his humanity only in society and only by the collective action of the whole society. He frees himself from the yoke of external nature only by collective and social labor, which alone can transform the earth into an abode favorable to the development of humanity. Without such material emancipation the intellectual and moral emancipation of the individual is impossible. He can emancipate himself from the yoke of his own nature, i. e. subordinate his instincts and the movements of his body to the conscious direction of his mind, the development of which is fostered only by education and training. But education and training are preeminently and exclusively social … hence the isolated individual cannot possibly become conscious of his freedom.
To be free … means to be acknowledged and treated as such by all his fellowmen. The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men. In the presence of an inferior species of animal I am neither free nor a man, because this animal is incapable of conceiving and consequently recognizing my humanity. I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen.
Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own.
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.

„All religions, with their gods, their demigods, and their prophets, their messiahs and their saints, were created by the credulous fancy of men who had not attained the full development and full possession of their faculties. Consequently, the religious heaven is nothing but a mirage in which man, exalted by ignorance and faith, discovers his own image, but enlarged and reversed — that is, divinized. The history of religion, of the birth, grandeur, and decline of the gods who have succeeded one another in human belief, is nothing, therefore, but the development of the collective intelligence and conscience of mankind.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„We must make a very precise distinction between the official and consequently dictatorial prerogatives of society organized as a state, and of the natural influence and action of the members of a non-official, non-artificial society.“

Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)

Следующая цитата

Всякий сколько-нибудь мыслящий и добросовестный русский должен понимать, что наша империя не может переменить своего отношения к народу.

Всем своим существованием она обречена быть губительницею его, его кровопийцею. Народ инстинктивно ее ненавидит, а она неизбежно его гнетет, так как на народной беде построено все ее существование и сила. Для поддержания внутреннего порядка, для сохранения насильственного единства и для поддержания внешней даже не завоевательной, а только самоохраняющей силы ей нужно огромное войско, а вместе с войском нужна полиция, нужна бесчисленная бюрократия, казенное духовенство. Одним словом, огромнейший официальный мир, содержание которого, не говоря уже о его воровстве, неизбежно давит народ.

Такою она была до крестьянской реформы, такою осталась теперь и будет всегда.

+21 anton_t_LiveLib

Всякий сколько-нибудь мыслящий и добросовестный русский должен понимать, что наша империя не может переменить своего отношения к народу.

Всем своим существованием она обречена быть губительницею его, его кровопийцею. Народ инстинктивно ее ненавидит, а она неизбежно его гнетет, так как на народной беде построено все ее существование и сила. Для поддержания внутреннего порядка, для сохранения насильственного единства и для поддержания внешней даже не завоевательной, а только самоохраняющей силы ей нужно огромное войско, а вместе с войском нужна полиция, нужна бесчисленная бюрократия, казенное духовенство. Одним словом, огромнейший официальный мир, содержание которого, не говоря уже о его воровстве, неизбежно давит народ.

Такою она была до крестьянской реформы, такою осталась теперь и будет всегда.

Казенное повсеместное воровство, казнокрадство и народообирание есть самое верное выражение русской государственной цивилизации

+14 anton_t_LiveLib

Казенное повсеместное воровство, казнокрадство и народообирание есть самое верное выражение русской государственной цивилизации

„The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been externally imposed upon him by any extrinsic will whatever, divine or human, collective or individual.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„If there is a State, there must be domination of one class by another and, as a result, slavery; the State without slavery is unthinkable – and this is why we are the enemies of the State.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга Statism and Anarchy

"Statism and Anarchy" (1873)

„No, I mean the only kind of liberty that is worthy of the name, liberty that consists in the full development of all the material, intellectual and moral powers that are latent in each person; liberty that recognizes no restrictions other than those determined by the laws of our own individual nature, which cannot properly be regarded as restrictions since these laws are not imposed by any outside legislator beside or above us, but are immanent and inherent, forming the very basis of our material, intellectual and moral being — they do not limit us but are the real and immediate conditions of our freedom.“

„In a word, we reject all legislation, all authority, and all privileged, licensed, official, and legal influence, even though arising from universal suffrage, convinced that it can turn only to the advantage of a dominant minority of exploiters against the interest of the immense majority in subjection to them. This is the sense in which we are really Anarchists.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„Nothing, in fact, is as universal or as ancient as the iniquitous and absurd; truth and justice, on the contrary, are the least universal, the youngest features in the development of human society.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

„All religions are cruel, all founded on blood; for all rest principally on the idea of sacrifice — that is, on the perpetual immolation of humanity to the insatiable vengeance of divinity.“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)

Следующая цитата

„No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker.“

As quoted in Michael Bakunin (1937) by E.H. Carr, p. 175

„All exercise of authority perverts, and submission to authority humiliates.“

As quoted in Michael Bakunin (1937), E.H. Carr, p. 453

„We wish, in a word, equality — equality in fact as a corollary, or rather, as primordial condition of liberty. From each according to his faculties, to each according to his needs; that is what we wish sincerely and energetically.“

As quoted in The Old Order and the New (1890) by J. Morris Davidson

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга Statism and Anarchy

Statism and Anarchy (1873)

„Oh, the air is sultry and pregnant with lightning.
And therefore we call to our deluded brothers: Repent, repent, the Kingdom of the Lord is at hand!“

"The Reaction in Germany" (1842)
Контексте: Everywhere, especially in France and England, social and religious societies are being formed which are wholly alien to the world of present-day politics, societies that derive their life from new sources quite unknown to us and that grow and diffuse themselves without fanfare. The people, the poor class, which without doubt constitutes the greatest part of humanity; the class whose rights have already been recognized in theory but which is nevertheless still despised for its birth, for its ties with poverty and ignorance, as well as indeed with actual slavery – this class, which constitutes the true people, is everywhere assuming a threatening attitude and is beginning to count the ranks of its enemy, far weaker in numbers than itself, and to demand the actualization of the right already conceded to it by everyone. All people and all men are filled with a kind of premonition, and everyone whose vital organs are not paralyzed faces with shuddering expectation the approaching future which will utter the redeeming word. Even in Russia, the boundless snow-covered kingdom so little known, and which perhaps also has a great future in store, even in Russia dark clouds are gathering, heralding storm. Oh, the air is sultry and pregnant with lightning.
And therefore we call to our deluded brothers: Repent, repent, the Kingdom of the Lord is at hand!

„By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible.“

Attributed to Bakunin in The Explorers (1996) by Paolo Novaresio
Контексте: By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.

„Revolution requires extensive and widespread destruction, a fecund and renovating destruction, since in this way and only this way are new worlds born“

— Mikhail Bakunin, книга Statism and Anarchy

"Statism and Anarchy" (1873)

„Freedom is the absolute right of every human being to seek no other sanction for his actions but his own conscience, to determine these actions solely by his own will, and consequently to owe his first responsibility to himself alone.“

As quoted in Anarchism: From Theory to Practice, Daniel Guérin, New York: NY, Monthly Review Press (1970) p. 31

„In order to touch the heart and gain the confidence, the assent, the adhesion, and the co-operation of the illiterate legions of the proletariat — and the vast majority of proletarians unfortunately still belong in this category — it is necessary to begin to speak to those workers not of the general sufferings of the international proletariat as a whole but of their particular, daily, altogether private misfortunes. It is necessary to speak to them of their own trade and the conditions of their work in the specific locality where they live; of the harsh conditions and long hours of their daily work, of the small pay, the meanness of their employer, the high cost of living, and how impossible it is for them properly to support and bring up a family.“

Program and Object of the Secret Revolutionary Organisation of the International Brotherhood (1868)

„As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.“

Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)
Контексте: The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

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