God and the State

One of the founders of modern Anarchism, Michael Bakunin renounced his noble birth to protest the Czar's autocratic rule. As a result, he was imprisoned for eight years, then exiled to Siberia, whence he escaped and made his way - via America - to Western Europe, gradually perfecting his theory of anarchist society.

God and the State is the concise distillation of Bakunin's ideas. It sees religion as a weapon of repressive government, which by its insistence of submission to the "Big Boss" in heaven, sets a precedent for submission to a host of earthly rulers (many of whom claim to be divinely appointed). Bakunin also rails against idealism, which he argues leads always to brutality, while those who deal with the brutal realities of the world serve to raise mankind towards the ideal. A true materialist, he sees no place for God in society, famously reversing Voltaire's dictum by declaring that, for the emancipation of humanity, "If God did exist, it would be necessary to abolish Him".

As a manifesto and introduction to anarchist thought, God and the State is a tour de force of logical arguments that remains a mind-expanding experience, even for those whose beliefs oppose Bakunin's deicidal tendencies.

Mikhail A. Bakunin was a famous 19th century Russian anarchist, often known as the father of anarchist theory. In Russia among the students, in Germany among the insurgents of Dresden, in Siberia among his brothers in exile, in America, in England, in France, in Switzerland, in Italy, among all earnest men, his direct influence has been considerable. The originality of his ideas, the imagery and vehemence of his eloquence, his untiring zeal in propagandism, helped too by the natural majesty of his person and by a powerful vitality, gave Bakunin access to all the revolutionary groups, and his efforts left deep traces everywhere, even upon those who, after having welcomed him, thrust him out because of a difference of object or method. His correspondence was most extensive; he passed entire nights in preparing long letters to his friends in the revolutionary world, and some of these letters, written to strengthen the timid, arouse the sluggish, and outline plans of propagandism or revolt, took on the proportions of veritable volumes. These letters more than anything else explain the prodigious work of Bakunin in the revolutionary movement of the century. The pamphlets published by him, in Russian, French, and Italian, however important they may be, and however useful they may have been in spreading the new ideas, are the smallest part of Bakunin’s work.