Marx responds to Bakunin's criticisms of Marx and Marxism. Marx's comments were written at the end of 1874 as he read Bakunin's book as part of his efforts to learn Russian and to study Russian society.
Marx's late writings on the Russian 'mir' (peasant commune) were influenced by Bakunin's description and analysis of communal peasant society in 'Statehood and Anarchy'.
From Volume 24 of 'Marx & Engels - Collected Works'; Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1989.
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IMG Statehood & Anarchy - Marx.pdf
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Are there any properly
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Marx's late writings on the…
Do you mind if I ask in what ways Marx's writings on Russia were influenced by Bakunin's Statism and Anarchy? As far as I'm aware (I could of course be wrong), both Marx and Engels criticized Herzen, Bakunin, Tkachev and others for having discovered the communal nature of the Russian peasantry in the works of Haxthausen, as well as for portraying this common property as something uniquely Russian. Engels for instance writes in his pamphlet On Social Relations in Russia:
It's also a shame that Marx doesn't seem to have actually written anything about Bakunin's Appendix to Statism and Anarchy, in which he actually discusses the Russian peasantry at length and calls on Russian radicals to "go to the people" (which directly influenced the "Going to the People Movement," as the translator/editor Marshall Shatz describes in the introduction to Statism and Anarchy). It seems Marx, under the section "Appendix" at the very end of his Notes on Bakunin's Book (p. 526), only quotes some passages from this part of Bakunin's work.
I've come across this…
I've come across this passage in Teodor Shanin's (quite informative) book on Marx's Russian writings (p. 55),
If I'm not mistaken, it seems that Shanin is basing his claim that Marx was "impressed" by Bakunin's criticisms of aspects of the Russian mir on the fact that Marx simply quoted these passages in his Notes on Bakunin's Book. I'm not really convinced that simply quoting someone in your notes is the same as being "impressed" by them, especially when Marx is mostly criticizing Bakunin and his attacks on him throughout his notes. Some of what Bakunin writes about Russian peasants also seems like common knowledge, such as peasants' admiration for the tsar, and hardly something that Bakunin had "discovered" or "brought to Marx's or Engels' attention." Nonetheless, I suppose it is possible that Marx was influenced to some extent by Bakunin's Appendix, though one should really substantiate such claims by showing how.
Having submitted this in…
Having submitted this in 2007 I don't remember what I based that statement on. But the Shanin quote is probably the most likely source. (I have a vague memory that it's been said elsewhere too.) That Marx copied parts of Bakunin's Appendix suggests those facts and analysis interested and informed him and so influenced his wider understanding of the issue; but I don't know if there's direct evidence of that in his other writings on the mir.
As far as I'm aware (I could…
According to Paul Thomas;