On September 16, 2000, the Institute presented Mikhail Bakunin's Oeuvres complètes on a CD-ROM containing all known texts written by the Russian anarchist in both the original version and, whenever applicable, a French translation.
Born in Priamukhino in 1814, Bakunin died in Berne, Switzerland in 1876. After philosophical studies in Moscow and Berlin he was involved in revolutionary activity in Paris, Prague and Dresden in 1848-1849. Arrested, imprisoned, then exiled to Siberia he escaped via the USA to London in 1861 and became involved in revolutionary activity in Slav emigré circles. After supporting the Polish insurrection of 1863 he organized secret societies in Italy and Switzerland from 1864 on. He became a member of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA) in 1868, from which he was expelled in 1872 due to his opposition to the General Council and Karl Marx. He organized revolutionary movements in Russia, Spain and Italy 1868-1874, attempted an insurrection in Lyon in 1870 and in Bologna in 1874. He is considered to be one of the founders of anarchism.
The IISH holds a considerable collection of Bakunin's papers, part of which were published in the series Archives Bakounine, edited by Arthur Lehning (1961-81). Yet more than 40 other archival institutions possess from one to many thousands of pages of his manuscripts. All of them have now been brought together on the CD-ROM. Whenever possible, the originals have been reproduced together with the transcripts.
This publication completes a long-time project funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The CD-ROM has been developed by the Netherlands Institute of Scientific Information Services.
The CD-ROM is no longer available.