owever, were hostile to the paper, and he went into Switzerland in
1843, only to be driven later to Paris. There he made the acquaintance
of Proudhon, "the father of anarchism," and spent days and nights with
him discussing the problems of government, of society, and of religion.
He also met Marx, "the father of socialism," and, although they were
never sympathetic, yet they came frequently in friendly and unfriendly
contact with each other. George Sand, George Herwegh, Arnold Ruge,
Frederick Engels, William Weitling, Alexander Herzen, Richard Wagner,
Adolf Reichel, and many other brilliant revolutionary spirits of the
time, Bakounin knew intimately, and for him, as for many others, the
period of the forties was one of great intellectual development.

In the insurrectionary period that began in 1848 he became active, but
he appears to have done little noteworthy before January, 1849, when he
went secretly to Leipsic in the hope of aiding a group of young Czechs
to launch an uprising in Bohemia. Shortly afterward an insurrection
broke out in Dresden, and he rushed there to become one of the most
active leaders of the revolt. It is said that he was "the veritable soul
of the revolution," and that he advised the insurrectionists, in order
to prevent the Prussians from firing upon the barricades, to place in
front of them the masterpieces from the art museum.[13] When that
insurrection was suppressed, he, Richard Wagner, and some others hurried
to Chemnitz, where Bakounin was captured and condemned to death.
Austria, however, demanded his extradition, and there, for the second
time, he was condemned to be hanged. Eventually he was handed over to
Russia, where he again escaped paying the death penalty by the pardon of
the Czar, and, after six years in prison, he was banished to Siberia.
Great efforts were made to secure a pardon for him, but without success.
However, through his influential relatives, he was allowed such freedom
of movement that in the end he succeeded in escaping, and, returning to
Europe through Japan and America, he arrived in England in 1861.

The next year is notable for the appearance of two of his brochures,
"_Aux amis russes, polonais, et a tous les amis slaves_," and "_La Cause
du Peuple, Romanoff, Pougatchoff, ou Pestel?_" One would have thought
that twelve years in prison and in Siberia would have made him more
bitter than ever against the State and the Czar; but, curiously, these
writings mark a