The ''Catechism of a Revolutionary'' refers to a

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

written by Russian revolutionary

Sergey Nechayev Sergey Gennadiyevich Nechayev (russian: Серге́й Генна́диевич Неча́ев) ( – ) was a Russian communist revolutionary and prominent figure of the Russian nihilist movement, known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution ...

between April and August 1869.

Background

The manifesto is a manual for the formation of secret societies. It is debated how much input

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary s ...

had or if it is solely the work of Nechayev. The work called for total devotion to a revolutionary lifestyle. Its publication in the ''Government Herald'' in July 1871 as the manifesto of the Narodnaya Rasprava secret society ("Общество народной расправы") was one of the most dramatic events of Nechayev's revolutionary life, through its words and the actions it inspired establishing Nechayev's importance for the

Nihilist movement The Russian nihilist movementOccasionally, ''nihilism'' will be capitalized when referring to the Russian movement though this is not ubiquitous nor does it correspond with Russian usage. was a philosophical, cultural, and revolutionary mov ...

Content

The ''Catechism'' is divided into two sections; General Rules of the Organisation and Rules of Conduct of Revolutionaries, 22 and 26 paragraphs long respectively; abridged versions were published as excerpts in the

anarchist periodicals The following is a chronological list of noteworthy anarchist and proto-anarchist periodicals. Footnotes Further reading * * * * External linksCold Off The Pressescontains full text copies of anarchist periodicals from the Anarchy ...

Freiheit ' is the German word for both liberty and political freedom. Freiheit may also refer to: Political parties * Freie Demokratische Partei, a liberal party in Germany * South Tyrolean Freedom (', STF), a nationalist political party active in South ...

'' and ''

The Alarm The Alarm are a Welsh rock band that formed in Rhyl, Wales, in 1981. Initially formed as a punk band, the Toilets, in 1977, under lead vocalist Mike Peters, the band soon embraced arena rock and included marked influences from Welsh languag ...

''. The most radical document of its age, the ''Catechism'' outlined the authors' revolutionary

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = P ...

program of organisation and discipline, a program that became the backbone of the radical movement in Russia. The

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

is portrayed in the ''Catechism'' as an amoral avenging angel, an expendable resource in the service of the revolution, committed to any crime or treachery necessary to effect the downfall of the prevailing order.Avrich p.38

Reception

Critics of

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

argue that the ''Catechism'' reflects the innately violent and

nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Iva ...

nature of the philosophy. Scholar

Michael Allen Gillespie Michael Allen Gillespie is an American philosopher and Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Duke University. His areas of interest are political philosophy, continental philosophy, history of philosophy, and the origins of modernit ...

has hailed the ''Catechism'' as "a pre-eminent expression of the doctrine of freedom and negation" that arose in the Fichtean notion of the "Absolute I" that had been concealed in Left Hegelianism. Prominent

Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been ...

of the 20th century

Eldridge Cleaver Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Cleaver wrote '' Soul on Ice'', a collection of essays that, at the time of i ...

adopted the ''Catechism'' as a "revolutionary bible", incorporating it into his daily life to the extent that he employed, in his words, "tactics of ruthlessness in my dealings with everyone with whom I came into contact". The ideas and sentiments in the work had been in part previously aired by and

Nikolai Ishutin Nikolai Andreyevich Ishutin (russian: Николай Андреевич Ишутин; 3 (15) April 1840 – 5 (17) January 1879) was one of the first Russian utopian socialists, who combined socialist propaganda with conspiratorial and terro ...

in Russia, and by

Carbonari The Carbonari () was an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay and Ru ...

and

Young Italy Young Italy ( it, La Giovine Italia) was an Italian political movement founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. After a few months of leaving Italy, in June 1831, Mazzini wrote a letter to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, in which he asked him to uni ...

in the West. The journal ''Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique'' published a letter from Bakunin to Nechayev, in which Bakunin wrote, "You remember how you were angry with me, when I called you

abrek The word abrek (; ; ; ; ) is a North Caucasian term used for a lone Caucasian warrior living a partisan lifestyle outside power and law and fighting for a just cause. Abreks were irregular soldiers who abandoned all material life, including their ...

and called your Catechism the Catechism of abreks?"Michaël Confin
Bakunin et Nečaev
''Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique'' Année 1966 Volume 7 Numéro 7-4 pp. 581–699

Footnotes

References

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External links