striking departure from his previous views. For almost
the only time in his life he expressed a desire to see Russia develop
into a magnificent "State," and he urged the Russians to drive the
Tartars back to Asia, the Germans back to Germany, and to become a free
people, exclusively Russian. By cooeperative effort between the military
powers of the Russian Government and the insurrectionary activities of
the Slavs subjected to foreign governments, the Russian peoples could
wage a war, he argued, that would create a great united empire. The
second of the above-mentioned volumes was addressed particularly to
Alexander II. In this Bakounin prophesies that Russia must soon undergo
a revolution. It may come through terrible and bloody uprisings on the
part of the masses, led by some fierce and sanguinary popular idol, or
it will come through the Czar himself, if he should be wise enough to
assume in person the leadership of the peasants. He declared that
"Alexander II. could so easily become the popular idol, the first Czar
of the peasants.... By leaning upon the people he could become the
savior and master of the entire Slavic world."[14] He then pictures in
glowing terms a united Russia, in which the Czar and the people will
work harmoniously together to build up a great democratic State. But he
threatens that, if the Czar does not become the "savior of the Slavic
world," an avenger will arise to lead an outraged and avenging people.
He again declares, "We prefer to follow Romanoff (the family name of the
Czar), if Romanoff could and would transform himself from the
_Petersbourgeois_ emperor into the Czar of the peasants."[15] Despite
much flattery and ill-merited praise, the Czar refused to be converted,
and Bakounin rushed off the next year to Stockholm, in the hope of
organizing a band of Russians to enter Poland to assist in the
insurrection which had broken out there.

The next few years were spent mostly in Italy, and it was here that he
conceived his plan of a secret international organization of
revolutionists. Little is known of how extensive this secret
organization actually became, but Bakounin said in 1864 that it included
a number of Italian, French, Scandinavian, and Slavic revolutionists. As
a scheme this secret organization is remarkable. It included three
orders: I. The International Brothers; II. The National Brothers; III.
The semi-secret, semi-public organization of the International Alliance
of Social