Untitled

26 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
the publication of a Russian journal, the Commune,
where he bitterly attacked Bakounin and his views. Early
in the seventies, he was arrested and taken back to Russia,
where he and over eighty others, mostly young men
and women students, were tried for belonging to secret
societies. For the first time in Russian history the court
Most
proceeding took place before a jury and in public.
of those arrested were condemned for long periods to
the mines of Siberia at forced labor, while Nechayeff
was kept in solitary imprisonment until his death, some
years later.
Bakounin, on the other hand, remained in Switzerland
and became the very soul of that element in Italy,
Spain,
and Switzerland which fought the policies of Marx in the
International. At the same time he was training a group
of youngsters to carry
out in Western
Europe the principles
of revolution as laid down in his Russian publications.
Over young middle-class youths, especially, Bakounin's
magnetic power was extraordinary,
lowers were the faithful of the faithful.
picture of Bakounin's hypnotic
and his
A fol-
very striking
influence over this circle
is to be found in the memoirs of Madame A. Bauler.
She tells us of some Sundays she spent with Bakounin
and his friends.
"At the beginning," she says, "being unfamiliar with
the Italian language, I did not even understand the general
drift of the conversation, but, observing the faces
of those present, I had the impression that something extraordinarily
grave and solemn was taking place. The
atmosphere of these conferences imbued me; it
created
in me a state of mind which I shall call, for want of a
better term, an 'etat de grace.' Faith increased ;
doubts
vanished. The value of Bakounin became clear to me.
His personality enlarged. I saw that his strength was