that he execrated when
employed by others. The most fertile of law-givers himself, he could not
tolerate another. Pope of Popes in his little inner circle, he could
brook no rival. Machiavelli's Prince was no richer in intrigue than
Bakounin; yet he always fancied himself, with the greatest
self-compassion, as the naive victim of the endless and malicious
intrigues of others. However affectionate, generous, and open he seemed
to be with those who followed him worshipfully, even they were not
trusted with his secrets, and, if he was always cunning and crafty
toward his enemies, he never had a friend that he did not use to his
profit. Volatile in his fitful changes toward men and movements,
rudderless as he often seemed to be in the incoherence of his ideas and
of his policies, there nevertheless burned in his soul throughout life a
great flaming, and perhaps redeeming, hatred of tyranny. At times he
would lead his little bands into open warfare upon it, dreaming always
that the world once in motion would follow him to the end in his great
work of destruction. At other times he would go to it bearing gifts, in
the hope, as we must charitably think, of destroying it by stealth.

In general outline, this is the father of terrorism as I see him. How he
developed his views is not entirely clear, as very little is known of
his early life, and there are several broken threads at different
periods both early and late in his career. The little known of his youth
may be quickly told. He was born in Russia in 1814, of a family of good
position, belonging to the old nobility. He was well educated and began
his career in the army. Shortly after the Polish insurrection had been
crushed, militarism and despotism became abhorrent to him, and the
spectacle of that terrorized country made an everlasting impression upon
him. In 1834 he renounced his military career and returned to Moscow,
where he gave himself up entirely to the study of philosophy, and, as
was natural at the period, he saturated himself with Hegel. From Moscow
he went to St. Petersburg and later to Berlin, constantly pursuing his
studies, and in 1842 he published under the title, "_La reaction en
Allemagne, fragment, par un Francais_," an article ending with the now
famous line: "The desire for destruction is at the same time a creative
desire."[12] This article appeared in the _Deutsche Jahrbuecher_, in
which publication he soon became a collaborator. The authorities,
h