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278 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMEM 1
in the nature of laws, but even these were seldom allowed
to stand in the way of those who coveted, and
were strong enough to take, the land, the money, or the
produce of others. Indeed, the feudal duke or prince
was all that NechayefT claimed for the modern robber.
He was a glorified anarchist, "without phrase, without
rhetoric." He could scour Europe for mercenaries, and,
became a law unto himself.
when he possessed himself of an army of marauders, he
The most ancient and honorable
anarchy is despotism, and its most effective and
available means of domination have always been the employment
of its own personal military forces.
It will be remembered that Bakounin developed a
kind of robber worship. The bandit leaders Stenka
Razin and PougatchofF appeared to him as national
heroes, popular avengers, and irreconcilable enemies of
the .State. He conceived of the brigands scattered
throughout Russia and confined in the prisons of the
Empire as "a unique and indivisible world, strongly
bound together
— the world of the Russian revolution."
The robber was "the wrestler in life and in death against
all this civilization of officials, of nobles, of priests, and
of the crown."
Of course, Bakounin says here much that
is historically true. Thieves, marauders, highwaymen,
bandits, brigands, villains, mendicants, and all those other
elements of mediaeval life for whom society provided
neither land nor occupation, often organized themselves
into guerilla bands in order to war upon
all social and
civil order. But Bakounin neglects to mention that it
was these very elements that eagerly became the mercenaries
of any prince who could feed them. They were
lawless, "without phrase, without rhetoric," and, if anyone
were willing to pay them, they would gladly pillage,
burn, and murder in his interest. They would have