Bakounine jeune hégélien

In October 1842, the young Russian émigré Mikhail Bakunin published "Reaction In Germany" in Arnold Ruge's German Annals. This brilliant and brash contribution to the debates of the Hegelian Left uses Hegel's Logic as a logic of conflict which excludes all forms of external mediation between the opposing parties of Raaeaction and Revolution. Several months later, the article "Communism" marked Bakunin's complete break with the philosophy. Written as last-ditch philosophical attempts to formulate a departure from the philosophy which now came across as an abandonment of theory for practice, his two letters to Arnold Ruge in 1843 explained what distanced Bakunin from German philosophy, including the Hegelian Left of which he had recently been a member.

These texts are published in their entirety for the first time and in a translation which justifies their inclusion in the Young Hegelian tradition. With their accompanying commentary, they shed new light on the Young Hegelian School. Additionally, they offer a radical vision of conflictuality and the philosophical basis for a revolutionary stance. Finally, they provide a valuable record of the early intellectual and political journey of a revolutionary who was to shape his century.