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BATTLE BETWEEN MARX AND BAKOUNIN 157
diately there flared forth the old animosity. When Bakounin
left Russia in ne met Proudhon and Marx
1843,
in Paris. At that period the doctrines of all three were
germinating. Bakounin had already written, "The desire
for destruction is at the same time a creative desire."
(1) Proudhon had begun to formulate the principles
of anarchism, and Marx the principles of socialism.
"He was much more advanced than I was," wrote Bakounin
of Marx at this period. "I knew nothing
then of political economy, I was not yet freed from
metaphysical abstraction, and my socialism was only instinctive.
... It was precisely at this epoch that
he elaborated the first fundamentals of his present system.
We saw each other rather often, for I respected
him deeply for his science and for his passionate and
serious devotion, although always mingled with personal
vanity, to the cause of the proletariat, and I sought with
eagerness his conversation, which was always instructive
and witty
— when it was not inspired with mean hatred,
which, too often, alas, was the case. Never, however,
was there frank intimacy between us. Our temperaments
did not allow that. He called me a sentimental
idealist, and he was right; I called him a vain man, perfidious
and artful, and I was right also." (2) This mutual
dislike and even distrust subsisted to the end.
Certain events in 1848 widened the gulf between them.
At the news of the outbreak of the revolution in Paris,
hundreds of the restless spirits hurried there to take a
hand in the situation. And after the proclamation of the
Republic they began to consider various projects of carrying
the revolution into their own countries. Plans were
being discussed for organizing legions to invade foreign
countries, and a number of the German communists entered
heartily into the plan of Herwegh, the erratic Ger-