distant and unattainable end. "Spain is a country so
backward industrially," he wrote, "that it cannot be a question there of
the immediate complete emancipation of the workers. Before arriving at
that stage, Spain will still have to pass through diverse phases of
development and struggle against a whole series of obstacles. The
republic furnished the means of passing through these phases most
rapidly and of removing these obstacles most quickly. But, to accomplish
that, the Spanish proletariat would have had to launch boldly into
active _politics_. The mass of the working people realized this, and
everywhere demanded that they should take part in what was happening,
that they should profit by the opportunities to act, instead of leaving,
as formerly, the field free to the action and intrigues of the
possessing classes. The government ordered elections for the Cortes
members. What position should the International take? The leaders of the
Bakouninists were in the greatest dilemma. A continued political
inactivity appeared more ridiculous and more impossible from day to day.
The workers wanted to 'see deeds.' On the other hand, the _alliancistes_
(Bakouninists) had preached for years that one ought not to take part in
any revolution that had not for its end the immediate and entire
emancipation of the workers, that participation in any political action
constituted an acceptance of the principle of the State, that source of
all evil, and that especially taking part in any election was a mortal
sin."[20]

The anarchists were of course very bitter over this attack on their
policies, and they concluded that the socialists had become
reactionaries who no longer sought the emancipation of the working
class. They were more than incensed at the reference Engels had made to
an act of the insurgents of Cartagena, who, in order to gain allies in
their struggle, had armed the convicts of a prison, "eighteen hundred
villains, the most dangerous robbers and murderers of Spain."[21]
According to Engels' information, this infamous act had been undertaken
upon the advice of Bakounin, but, whether or not that is true, it was a
fatal mistake that brought utter disaster to the insurgents.

Certainly of this fact there can be no question--the divisions among the
revolutionary forces in Spain, which Engels deplored, resulted, after
many months of fighting, in returning to power the most reactionary
elements in Spain. And this was foreseen, a