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THE SPIRIT OF RUSSIA

§ 87.

BAKUNIN'S translation of Hegel's Gymnasial Lectures appeared in 1838, being published in "Nabljudatel" (The Observer), a periodical edited by Bělinskii.

In his introduction to this work Bakunin anticipated Bělinskii's explanation of the Hegelian proposition, "All that is real is rational."

    Vocation of the Scholar. Having become a Hegelian in 1838, he translated Hegel's Gymnasial Lectures, and wrote an Introduction to the work. His ardent Hegelian propaganda led BěIinskii at a later date to give him the title of "spiritual father." Herzen, returning from exile in 1839, endeavoured to make clear to him the intrinsic meaning of the Hegelian philosophy, but for the moment with small success. Bakunin's sisters likewise had close relationships with their brother's Moscow friends. Ljubov was betrothed to Stankevič, but died before Stankevič, in 1838. Tatjana was an intimate friend of Bělinskii, whilst the latter was for a considerable period in love with Aleksandra. Aleksandra was attached to Botkin, but the parents forbade the marriage. 1840 Bakunin went to Europe. At Berlin university he attended lectures given by members of the Hegelian school, and came into contact with Young Germany (Ruge and others), deriving from this last source an intimate knowledge of the philosophy of Feuerbach. In 1842 Bakunin published in "Deutsche Jahrbücher" his Essay Concerning the Reaction in Germany, and wrote an impassioned pamphlet against Schelling in defence of Hegel. Before this he had attended Schelling's lectures, and had written, Schelling and Revelation, a Critique of the Latest Reaction against Philosophy. In Switzerland he made the acquaintance of Vogt. Owing to his relationships with communist societies, the Russian government ordered him to return to Russia. Disregarding the summons, Bakunin went to Paris, where he became a friend of Proudhon and initiated the Frenchman into the mysteries of Hegel. In Paris he also made the acquaintance of George Sand and of Marx. Paris was at this time the rendezvous of the refugees. Especially intimate were Bakunin's relations with the exiled Polish revolutionaries, and he was henceforward an ardent advocate of Polish independence. During 1847 Bakunin encountered in Paris his old friends Herzen and Ogarev, and also met Bělinskii there. Expelled from Paris for his speech at the commemorative festival of the Polish insurrection of 1830, he went to Brussels, where Marx, too, was staying, but in 1848 hastened back to Paris to take an energetic part in the organisation of the workers. Alter the February revolution he left Paris for Prague to attend the Slav congress and was leader of the Prague rising. In 1849, having played an active part in the Dresden rising (in which Richard Wagner was also concerned), he was arrested and sentenced to death, the sentence being subsequently commuted to one of perpetual imprisonment in a fortress. In 1850 he was extradicted to Austria, to experience there the same fate of death sentence, reprieve, and subsequent extradiction to Russia, considerations of economy being doubtless the determining cause of the extradiction. From 1851 to 1854 he was imprisoned in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. He was then sent to the Schlüsselburg, and there, suffering severely from scurvy, he lost all his teeth, and his digestion was permanently impaired. In 1857 he was exiled to Siberia. where he came into close relationship with his cousin Murav'ev Amurskii, governor-general of Eastern Siberia, and in 1858 married a Polish woman. Escaping from Siberia, he returned to Europe by way of Japan and