Editing Mikhail Bakunin (section)

=== Back in Europe ===

In London, Bakunin reunited with Herzen and Ogarev. Bakunin collaborated with them on [[Kolokol (newspaper)|their Russian-language newspaper]] but his revolutionary fervor exceeded their moderate reform agenda. Bakunin's 1862 pamphlet ''The People{{'}}s Cause: Romanov, Pugachev, or Pestel?'' criticized the Russian tsar for not using his position to facilitate a bloodless revolution and forgo another [[Pugachev's Rebellion]]. In early August 1862, he briefly travelled to Paris.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kawelin |first1=Konstantin |author1-link=Konstantin Kavelin |editor1-last=Dragomanow |editor1-first=Michail |editor1-link=Mykhailo Drahomanov |title=Konstantin Kawelins und Iwan Turgenjews sozial-politischer Briefwechsel mit Alexander Iw. Herzen: Mit Beilagen und Erläuterungen |series=Bibliothek russischer Denkwürdigkeiten; 4 Bd |date=1894 |publisher=Verlag der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung Nachfolger |location=Stuttgart |pages=64–66 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000975825 |language=German}}</ref> In Paris at this time, famous photographer [[Nadar]] took four famous photographs of him on August 7, 1862. After being photographed, he also signed Nadar's ''Livre d'Or'' (autograph albume), wrote that (leaf 161): "Watch out that liberty doesn't come to you from the north."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Begley |first1=Adam |title=Nadar's Livre d'or |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/07/05/nadars-livre-dor/ |website=[[The Paris Review]] |date=5 July 2017 |access-date=23 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Nadar autograph album |url=https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/UPENN_RBML_PUSP.MS.COLL.21 |access-date=23 November 2023}}</ref> In 1863, Bakunin joined in an unsuccessful effort to supply armed men for the Polish [[January Uprising]] against Russia. Bakunin, reunited with his wife, moved to Italy the next year, where they stayed for three years.{{sfn|Shatz|2003|p=38}}

Bakunin, in his early 50s, developed his core anarchist thoughts in Italy. He continued to refine these ideas in his remaining 12 years. Among this ideology was the first of many conspiratorial revolutionary societies, though none of these participated in revolutionary actions, chiefly the revolutionary toppling of the state, to be replaced by free federation between voluntarily associated economic producers.{{sfn|Shatz|2003|p=38}}

He moved to Switzerland in 1867, a more permissive environment for revolutionary literature. Bakunin's anarchist writings were fragmentary and prolific.{{sfn|Shatz|2003|p=38}} With France's collapse in the 1870 [[Franco-Prussian War]], Bakunin traveled to Lyon and participated in the fruitless [[Lyon Commune]] in which the citizens briefly occupied the city hall. Bakunin retreated to Switzerland.{{sfn|Shatz|2003|pp=38–39}}

In Switzerland, the Russian revolutionary [[Sergey Nechayev]] sought out Bakunin for a collaboration. Not knowing Nechayev's past betrayals, Bakunin warmed to Nechayev's revolutionary zeal and they together produced the 1869 ''Catechism of the Revolutionary'', a tract that endorsed an ascetic life for revolutionaries without societal or moral bonds. Bakunin's connection with Nechayev hurt the former's reputation. More recent scholarship, however, challenges the catechism's authorship, crediting Nechayev as the primary or sole author. Bakunin ultimately disavowed their connection.{{sfn|Shatz|2003|p=39}}