SOURCE: "Bakunin and Anarchism," in Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism, Henry Holt and Company, 1919, pp. 32-55.

In the excerpt below, Russell praises Bakunin's achievements as an activist, although he finds the anarchist's writings lacking in coherence and thoroughness.

In the same sense in which Marx may be regarded as the founder of modern Socialism, Bakunin may be regarded as the founder of Anarchist Communism. But Bakunin did not produce, like Marx, a finished and systematic body of doctrine. The nearest approach to this will be found in the writings of his follower, [Peter] Kropotkin. In order to explain modern Anarchism we shall begin with the life of Bakunin and the history of his conflicts with Marx, and shall then give a brief account of Anarchist theory as set forth partly in his writings, but more in those of Kropotkin.

Michel Bakunin was born in 1814 of...