Editing Mikhail Bakunin (section)

=== Revolutionary societies ===

Towards the end of his life, beginning in 1864 in Italy with the International Brotherhood, Bakunin attempted to unite his international network under secret revolutionary societies, a concept at odds with his professed caution against the autocratic tendencies of the revolutionary elite.{{sfnm|1a1=Shatz|1y=2003|1p=38|2a1=Eckhardt|2y=2022|2p=323}} Composed of Bakunin's circle, these informal groups existed mainly on paper and thus did not participate in revolutionary action or bridge revolutionary theory to practice like Bakunin intended.{{sfnm|1a1=Eckhardt|1y=2022|1pp=317, 323–324|2a1=Shatz|2y=2003|2p=38}} The groups operated with significant autonomy, having diverged from Bakunin on multiple controversial issues. Despite being cast at the Hague Congress as under Bakunin's stern authority, they were organized by personal relationships rather than the vertical hierarchies and membership ranks found in Bakunin's notes.{{sfn|Eckhardt|2022|pp=317, 324}}<!-- also see Eckhardt's First Socialist Schism, p. 319 --> His written programs played a larger role in his politics than these draft secret societies.{{sfn|Eckhardt|2022|p=317}}<!--Geneva Alliance {{sfn|Eckhardt|2022|p=313}}-->

The idea of the "invisible dictatorship" was central to Bakunin's politics. In combination with Bakunin's opposition to parliamentary politics, historian [[Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|Peter Marshall]] wrote that such a secret party—its existence unknown and its policies beholden to none—had the potential for greater tyranny than a Blanquist or Marxist party and was hard to envision as presaging an open, democratic society.{{sfn|Marshall|1992|p=287}}