Bakunin in Naples: An Assessment Author(s): T. R. Ravindranathan Source: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Jun.

, 1981), pp. 189-212 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1877822 Accessed: 21/08/2010 06:22
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Bakunin in Naples: An Assessment

T. R. Ravindranathan
Simon Fraser University

of MikhailBakuninhave paid insufficientattentionto The biographers in his crucial role the development of early Italian socialism. E. H. Carr,for example, while acknowledgingthe importanceof the Italian interludein Bakunin's personalevolution, fails to examine the impact of these three and a half years on the thinking of the local radicals with whom Bakunin was in constant contact.' The seminal works of Max Nettlau and Nello Rosselli shed much light on the subject.2 However, since they wrote in the 1920s and were unawareof numerous archival and newspaper sources, many of their conclusions proved to be only tentative. Subsequently,Aldo Romanolabeled their conclusions as baseless and built on fantasy.3 However, Romano's account often is distorted; he portrays Bakunin as a person of little consequence and seems compelled to take sides with Marx against him on every issue between the two great antagonists. The ideas he spread in Italy, Romano claims, were devoid of originalityand were simply a rehash of those of Carlo Pisacane. Although still fashionable in certain quarters, this interpretationhas come under increasing criticism from Italianhistoriansin the past two decades. The purpose of this study is to focus on this debate and reevaluatethe influenceof Bakunin on the emergence of Italian socialism. Bakunin had avidly followed the last phase of the Risorgimento from his far-off exile in Irkutsk in 1860.4 Although soon after his
E. H. Carr, Michael Bakunin (London, 1937; reissued in 1975), pp. 300-323. Max Nettlau, Bakunin e l'Internazionale in Italia: dal 1864 al 1872 (Geneva, 1928); Nello Rosselli, Mazzini e Bakunin: dodici anni di movimento operaio in Italia (18602 1

1872) (Turin, 1967; the Einaudi edition).

3 Aldo Romano, Storia Del Movimento Socialista In Italia (cited hereafter as Storia), 3 vols. (vol. I, L'Unita Italiana E La Prima Internazionale 1861-1871; vol. II, L'Egemonia Borghese E La Rivolta Libertaria 1871-1882; vol. III, Testi E Documenti

1861-1882)(Bari, 1966-67). The first editionof this work appearedduring1954-55. My citations are from the later edition. 4 The expedition of Garibaldito Sicily and Naples had had a profound impact in Russia, not only amongthe educatedbut also amongthe lower classes. The peasantsof to assist them in Russian Poland expected the great liberator"Grzybolda"(Garibaldi) bettering their lot. When a delegation of Ukrainianpeasants went to Kiev with a request for further allotments of land and were told by an official in the ViceGovernor'soffice that neitherthe Emperornor the Governorcould satisfy their desires,
[Journal of Modern History 53 (June 1981): 189-212] ( 1981 by The University of Chicago. 0022-2801/81/5302-0002$00.00

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arrival in London the following year he had contacted several Italian republicans, including Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Aurelio Saffi, with the proposal to forge an Italo-Slav radical alliance against the various European autocracies,5 his primary reason for moving to Italy was not political but personal. Given his meager pecuniary resources, Bakunin found the cheapness of Italy attractive, especially in comparison to expensive London. After various postponements, when he finally moved to Italy in January 1864, Bakunin chose Florence as his place of residence. This choice was motivated by no other reason than the existence of a foreign colony of political emigres, consisting of Russians, Poles, Hungarians, and others. During his fifteen-month stay in Florence, Bakunin led a dilettantish life, occasionally dabbling in radical politics. He kept a regular salon at his house, tried to form a secret International Brotherhood, and made the acquaintance of various Risorgimento activists and foreign political exiles, including Giuseppe Mazzoni, Giuseppe Dolfi, Lodovico Frapolli, Alberto Mario, Antonio Martinati, Andrea Giannelli, Ludmilla Assing and Count Francis Pulszky. He also joined the Masonic Lodge II Progresso Sociale, with the intention of using its machinery for his own revolutionary purposes. However, the attempts to create a Brotherhood failed to bear fruit. The infiltration of the Masonic Lodges, a project which he also continued for a while in Naples, was finally abandoned as a useless endeavor.6 All in all, Bakunin achieved very little politically during his Florentine sojourn, although in his personal evolution this
they were supposed to have replied: "Very well then. Give us Garibaldi." See II Popolo d'Italia (Naples), July 28, 1862. 1 For Bakunin's relations with Italian radicals during 1862-63, see Pier Carlo Masini and Gianni Bosio, "Bakunin, Garibaldi e gli affari slavi 1862-1863", in Movimento operaio, Year IV, No. 1, Jan.-Feb. 1952, pp. 78-92; Mikhail Lemke, Ocherki osvoboditel'nogo dvizheniia shestidesiatikh godov, St. Petersburg, 1908, pp. 84-8; G. Quagliotti, Aurelio Saffi, contributo alla storia del mazzinianesimo, Roma, 1944, pp. 155-6; Edizione nazionale degli scritti di Giuseppe Mazzini: Scritti editi ed inediti, (Imola, 1906- ), vol. 73, p. 76 and vol. 76, p. 187; Elio Conti, "Lettere inedite di Giuseppe Mazzini a Giuseppe Dolfi," Rassegna storica del Risorgimento, Year 36, Nos. 3-4, July-Dec. 1949, p. 175; Iu. M. Steklov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin: ego zhizn' i deiatel'nost, 1814-1876, 4 vols. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1926-27), 2:8-9, 276-286. Cited hereafter as M. A. Bakunin. Also see Iu. M. Steklov, ed., "Pis'ma M. A. Bakunina k grafine E. V. Salias", in Letopisi Marksizma, No. 3, (Moscow, 1927), pp. 61-98, especially pp. 90-92. 6 On March 23, 1866, Bakunin explained his fleeting romance with Freemasonry to Herzen and Ogarev in the following manner: "I only pray to you, friends, not to think that I ever seriously occupied myself with Freemasonry. This can have its usefulness as a mask or as a passport-but to look for anything serious in Freemasonry is no better, if not worse, than to seek consolation in wine." See M. P. Dragomanov, ed., Pis'ma M. A. Bakunina k A. I. Gertsenu i N. P. Ogarevu (St. Petersburg, 1906), p. 271.

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particularphase was of some significance. Among other things, enveloped in the anticlericalenvironmentof Italian radicalism, for the first time at the age of fifty he fervently embraced atheism as one of his cardinal principles.7 When he arrived in the Naples area in June 1865, Bakunin found the environment there more congenial than that of Florence. Naples had several characteristics that rendered it suitable for his revolutionary aspirations. To their dismay, the southerners had discovered that Savoyard maladministration differed little from the earlier Bourbon misrule in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The southern republicansreferred to the rule of the new government as
"conquista regia," "dominazione piemontese," and so on. The popu-

lation at large defended itself by fiscal evasions, rural agitations, nonobservance of laws, and resistance to military conscription. Brigandage,that perennialproblem of the Mezzogiorno, reached new heights. While the Neapolitan republicans,like their colleagues elsewhere in the country, were passionately committed to the cause of a united fatherland(by this time reduced to bringingRome and Venice into the national fold), their hatred of the nothern governmentwent much deeper, as they held the Piedmontese responsible for the increasingly widespread poverty and injustice in the south. Despite Mazzini's high prestige, due to the Apostle's habit of relegatingsocial issues to a secondarylevel of significance,differencesof opinion were beginningto appearin varyingdegrees among his republicandisciples in the south. In the absence of a viable social program, it was also unclear to them how Mazzini proposed to arrest the prevailingchaos and bureaucratic oppression under his republic. The arrival of a
The main testimony concerning Bakunin's activities in Florence comes from a single source and that too given by a man manyyears after the events, who considered his association with the Russian one of the greatest follies of his youth. As he was mainlyinterestedin explainingaway this shamefuland embarrassing episode of his life, the author'swork is only of limited use. See Angiolo De Gubernatis, Fibra:pagine di ricordi(Rome, 1900),pp. 219-247. For other memoirliteratureon Bakuninin Florence, see Lev Mechnikov, "M. A. Bakuninv itaii v 1864godu," in IstoricheskiiVestnik, (March, 1897), 67:807-834; Nikolai Ge, "Vstrechi," in Severnyi Vestnik, (March, 1894), 3:233-240;V. Modestov, "Zagranichnyi vospominaniia,"in IstoricheskiiVestnik, part III (December, 1883), 12:103-124.For secondarytreatments,see Elio Conti,
Le origini del socialismo a Firenze (1860-1880) (Rome, 1950), pp. 69-83; Mikl6s Kun, "Bakunin and Hungary (1848-1865)," in Canadian-American Slavic Studies, (Winter,

1976), 10:522-533;ArthurLehning, "Bakunin'sConceptionsof RevolutionaryOrganisations and Their Role: A Study of His 'Secret Societies,' " in Essays in Honour of E. H. Carr, ed. Chimen Abramsky (London, 1974), pp. 61-2; Carr, Bakunin, pp. 300-311; Steklov, M. A. Bakunin, 2:288-302; Romano, Storia, 1:153-163; Nettlau,
Bakunin e l'Internazionale, pp. 44-48 and passim; Rosselli, Mazzini e Bakunin, pp.

148-161.

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famous conspiratorand revolutionaryof the stature of Bakuninwas a great blessing for these Neapolitan radicals who, though dissatisfied with certain aspects of the Apostle's program,at the same time were unable on their own to produce any coherent alternativeto the Maestro. Furthermore, they lacked the courage and conviction to initiate a frontal assault on Mazzini, whom they still revered for his sacrifices and singleness of purpose. This setting gave Bakuninthe opportunity to use his very considerablepolemical powers to undermineMazzini's influence among the southern republicans.8 As soon as he arrivedin Naples (furnishedwith introductionsfrom Garibaldiand other Italian democrats), Bakunin established contacts with II Popolo d'Italia, the voice of southern republicandiscontent. He also received the hospitality of Princess Obolenskii, whose house was a meeting place for the assortmentof Italian and foreign radicals and revolutionarieswho had been let loose in the Neapolitan environment.9As a result, Bakunin came to know a number of southern radicals. The most prominent among them were Giorgio Asproni, Carlo Gambuzzi, Silvio Verratti, Attanasio Dramis, Saverio Friscia, Giuseppe Fanelli, the Calabrianbrothers Carlo and Raffaele Mileti, Concetto Procaccini,Alberto Tucci and Pier Vincenzo De Luca.i0 All were ardent republicansand active participantsin the prior struggle for unification. Already before Bakunin's arrival, Dramis, Fanelli, Gambuzzi,Raffaele Mileti, Tucci, and Friscia constituted a close-knit nucleus among the republicans in Naples. Bakunin's relative effectiveness in the Naples area can be explained by the fact that he was able to establish close personal ties with these radicals. Under the pseudonym of Un Francese (a Frenchman), Bakunin launchedhis Neapolitanpolitical activities with a series of five articles in II Popolo d'Italia, published during September and October, 1865.11The signaturewas reminiscent of his famous essay of 1842,
Reaction in Germany: from the Note-books of a Frenchman, which

had borne the name of the fictitious "Jules Elysard." The articles,
8 It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the southerndemocratictrditions before Bakunin'sarrivalin Naples. Detailed accounts of various aspects of these are available in several works. For an example, see Giuseppe Berti, I democratici e

l'iniziativa meridionale nel Risorgimento (Milan, 1962).

9 On PrincessObolenskii,see Steklov, M. A. Bakunin,2:316-17, 354; Carr,Bakunin, pp. 313-316, 320-321. 10For extensive biographicaland bibliographical informationon these individuals, see Romano, Storia, 1:165-169;my unpublisheddoctoral dissertation,BakuninAnd The Italians (Oxford University: Oxford, U.K., 1978), pp. 408-410. 11Il Popolo d'Italia, Sept. 22, 30; Oct. 4, 22, 26, 1865. Also collected in Pier Carlo

Masini, ed., Michele Bakunin: Scritti napoletani (1865-1867) (Bergamo, 1963), pp. 13-29; Romano, Storia, 3 (Testi e Documenti): 5-23.

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written in the form of letters to the editor, showed certain similarities to the Reaction, especially in their tirades against reactionaries,politalthough these were devoid of ical moderates, and parliamentarians, work.'2 In these articles the earlier of jargon and idiom the Hegelian the capitalists, deof attacked labor, virtues the Bakunin extolled a kind of vague and the state, propounded denounced fended atheism, on the attacks to devoted was of them A part large federalism. the With oneste people). (honest so-called genti of the hypocrisy Italian parliamentary Left and the Moderates in mind, Bakunin warnedall "true democrats"that if they were stupid enough to follow behind the coattails of the genti oneste, the new triumphantreaction would turn out to be more reactionary than ever. He also denounced the "immoralalliances," which had become all too common in Italian politics.'3 Such alliances would only corrupt and disorient the democraticgroups. Their task was to strive towards the complete political and social emancipation of the toiling masses, which presumed the abolition of all monopolies as well as aristocraticand other privileges. According to Bakunin, without the masses there was no such thing as an enlightened democracy, and several thousand men spread across Europe did not constitute the materialforce sufficient for any action.14 Having been betrayed time and again by political swindlers, the masses had indeed grown apathetic. However, despite their lack of education and analytical skills, on those rare historical occasions when they had been aroused the masses had proven themselves to be omnipotent. Consequentlyit was the job of the democrats to instill revolutionary ideas in the people through constant propaganda. While the most ardent and serious democrats could only come from the ranks of the people, there were honorable exceptions to this generalrule. Whereone was lucky to find dedicated aristocratic and bourgeois democrats, they had to be treated with utmost respect, as they could be of great assistance in the battle against unjust laws and oppression:
As rareas the democratsbelongingto the privilegedclasses are... ,they are most precious. Theirnumberis not at all the measureof their future strength. The religion of Christ, directed equally against the privilegedof his century, havingagain againstit all the powers and almost all the rich, did not count at its birththose twelve defenders, twelve apostles, and amongthe twelve there
12

For the complete text of "Reaction in Germany," see Iu. M. Steklov, ed.,

Sobranie sochinenii i pisem 1828-1876, (in 4 vols. It goes only as far as 1861),

(Moscow, 1934-36), 3:126-148. Popolo d'Italia, Oct. 4, 1865. n3II 14 Ibid., Oct. 22, 1865.

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was even a traitor, one might say a Mordini'5or a Crispi6, who yesterday were with you, today are againstyou. Well then, these twelve apostles were enough to conquer the world. They conqueredit, not at all because of that much boasted wisdom and practicalability, but because of the heroic madness, the absolute, indomitable, intractablecharacter of their faith in the omnipotence of their principleand because, disdainingfalsehood and trickery, they declared, without transactionsand concessions, open war on all the opposed religions . . . They conqueredbecause they had the courage to expel from their bosom all the Judases, all the uncertainones.17 Bakunin concluded the series with a veiled attack on the Partito d'azione, that loose amalgam of Italian republicans consisting of Mazzinians and Garibaldians, warning against its shameful politics and intrigues: Is this not, signor Direttore,the history of your "honest people" of Italy in 1848and 1849, before and after the expedition to Sicily and after the catastrophe of Aspromonte? Are they not the honest people of yesterday, those disguised rogues, who today are selling Italy to Napoleon III and the Pope in the name of libertyand who are renouncingRome and Venice in the name of patriotism?Do you not dread that those who call themselves "honest people" today, . . . the honest democrats of today, will sooner or later follow their example?18 In these articles in II Popolo d'Italia, Bakunin was aiming at a youthful Italian republican audience as well as the older members beginning to question the wisdom of the politics of the Partito d'azione. In using expressions such as "the militant church of democracy," the "twelve apostles," and so forth, he was employing a type of Mazzinian language dear to the hearts of the Neapolitan republicans. Maxims such as "the liberty of each necessarily assumes the liberty of all and the liberty of all cannot become possible without the liberty of each" and universal liberty must proceed not from the top to the bottom, nor
lS During 1848-49, Antonio Mordini(1819-1902)saw action in the Republicof Venice underManinand was later a memberof the Tuscan provisionalgovernmentunder Guerrazzi.In the followingyears, he was very close to Mazzini,but in 1859he abruptly changed course, supportingthe "Italy and Victor Emmanuel"program.In 1860, he succeeded Depretis as Garibaldi'sPro-Dictatorin Sicily and, after the unification, joined the Right in Parliament. 16 Francesco Crispiwas also an intransigent republican,a close follower of Mazzini and Garibaldi's adviserand secretaryin 1860. Later, in the 1880sand 1890s,he served as the PrimeMinisterof Italy. Justpriorto Bakunin'sarrivalin Naples, Crispi'sfamous open letter, dated March18, 1865,was publishedin variousItaliannewspapers,including II Popolo d'Italia, where, renouncingrepublicanism, he joined the monarchistside with the utterancethat "the Monarchyunites us, the Republicwould divide us." From this point onwards,for the revolutionaries, the name of Crispibecame the synonymfor opportunismand there was no love lost between the latter and his former friends. '7II Popolo d'Italia, Oct. 22, 1865. 18 Ibid., Oct. 26, 1865.

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from the center to the circumference,but from the bottom to the top and from the circumferenceto the center,"19introducedhere, subsequently became the most cherished slogans of the anarchist movement. In the articles, Bakunin also anticipated the leading tenets behind his later revolutionaryactivities in Italy and Russia: that with a faithfuland committedband of revolutionariesbelieving strongly in the libertarian ideal, they could reach out to the peasants in the countryside,providingthem with the needed impetus to revolt against the oppressive state apparatus. The main problem with the articles is that, because of the veiled language Bakunin uses, one is sometimes not clear as to who his enemies are. In many places, when Bakuninattacks his adversariesas false democrats or genti oneste, he gives the impression of including Mazzini and Garibaldiamong them. Yet nowhere does he denounce them personally as in the cases of Crispi and Mordini, although his attacks on privateproperty, the bourgeoisie, the state, and so on are definitely in this direction, especially since Mazzini and Garibaldidid not object to the existence of these elements in society. The reason for Bakunin's restraintis evident. As the prestige of the two Risorgimento heroes was still very high in 1865, he obviously wanted to postpone a frontal assault on them to a more propitious time in the future, given the fact that his recruits had to come from the ranks of their disciples.20 Although Bakunin's articles brought forth no response from any faction of the Neapolitan political world, the more sophisticated among his readers must have recognized the novel and advanced nature of his ideas within the Italian context.21 The next two important landmarksin his Neapolitan sojourn were his involvement with the publication of the importantpamphletLa Situazione Italiana in the fall of 1866 and the establishment of the newspaper Liberta e In publishingLa Situazione, BakuGiustizia the following summer.22
19 Ibid., Sept. 22, 1865.

For a more detailed analysisof the articles, see my BakuninAnd TheItalians, pp. 66-73. 21 For example, the editorial board of II Popolo d'Italia, one of the most radical newspapersin Italy at the time, expressed reservationsabout publishingthe articles. It justifiedthe publicationof Bakunin'swritingsonly in the name of free thoughtand the freedom of the press. See the issue of Sept. 2, 1865. 22 Duringthe first half of 1866, Bakunintried to reactivatehis Florentineexperiment at establishingan InternationalBrotherhood.Under the auspices of Bakunin, three
20

documents-Principles and Organization of the International Brotherhood, Societd dei Legionari della Rivoluzione Sociale Italiana, and an abbreviated version of the latter

without official or organizational title-were published clandestinely. It was perhaps these effortswhich promptedBakuninto claimin a letter to Herzen and Ogarevon July

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Rai'indranathan

nin chose the right psychological moment for an assault on Mazzini and Garibaldi. The recently concluded war between Austria and Italy had opened the eyes of many southern republicans to the futility of a politics based on patriotic passion and wild nationalism. Bakunin now stood vindicated in the eyes of such individuals, thus opening up new possibilities for him. Garibaldi had discredited himself through his "obbedisco" telegram to La Marmora23 at the time of the withdrawal of his volunteers from Austrian territory, while many Italian republicans realized that it was Louis Napoleon and Bismarck, not Mazzini or Garibaldi, who were responsible for the transfer of the Veneto to Italy. The pamphlet La Situazione Italiana was printed clandestinely and published in Naples in October 1866. In 1857 on the eve of Carlo Pisacane's Sapri expedition Mazzini had written a celebrated article under the same title and his disciple, Federico Campanella, had also recently published an article with a similar title.24 Hence, perhaps, the choice of this particular title by Bakunin and his friends. The document is of great significance in Italian socialist history. It has been discussed in detail elsewhere,25 but a brief examination of the pamphlet is necessary in order to deal later with certain controversies that have resulted from its publication.
19, 1866 that his activities were making rapid progress "against this detestable theory of bourgeois patriotism spread by Mazzini and Garibaldi" and that "the majority of Mazzinian organizations of southern Italy, the Falangia Sacra [sic], have passed over to us." The immediate practical effects of these International and Italian Brotherhoods are difficult to assess due to poor documentation. However, one cannot help the sneaking suspicion that Bakunin's claims to his friends were highly exaggerated. For the details on the above, see Dragomanov, Pis'ma M. A. Bakunina, pp. 277-279; Arthur Lehning, ed., Michael Bakunin: Selected Writings (New York, 1974), pp. 64-93; Masini, Scritti napoletani, pp. 85-98. For a detailed discussion of the Brotherhood phenomenon, see Steklov, M. A. Bakunin, 2:326-352. In Sicily, under the stewardship of Saverio Friscia, Bakunin did succeed briefly in establishing branches of the secret society, but, in the aftermath of the war which broke out between Austria and Italy in June, 1866, his Sicilian supporters deserted him. The Sicilians had been unable earlier to distinguish between the social revolution proposed by Bakunin and the national revolution as personified by Mazzini. Even Bakunin's disciples such as Raffaele Mileti, Gambuzzi, and Fanelli dashed off to join Garibaldi in the Tyrol, although after the disastrous Italian defeats they rejoined the Bakuninist fold. See Gino Cerrito, "Saverio Friscia nel primo periodo di attiviti dell' internazionale in Sicilia," extract from MoOimento Operaio, Year 5 (New Series), No. 3 (May-June 1953), 12 pp; the same author's Radicalismo e Socialismo in Sicilia 1860-1882 (Messina, 1958), pp. 94-102; Nettlau, Bakunin e l'Internazionale, pp. 70-74. 23 For details, see Jasper Ridley, Garibaldi (London, 1974), p. 570. 24I1 Dovere, Jan. 6, 1866; Romano, Storia, 1:224, note 29. 25 For the complete pamphlet, see Pier Carlo Masini, ed., Michele Bakunin: Ritratto dell'Italia borghese (1866-1871) (Bergamo, 1961), pp. 17-34; Nettlau, Bakunin e l'Internazionale, pp. 77-93. For critical analyses of the pamphlet, see Romano, Storia, 1:224232; Richard Hostetter, The Italian Socialist Moiement I: Origins (1860-1882), (Toronto, New York, and London, 1958), pp. 99-103.

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It is in La Situazione that the Left Republicans dared to attack Mazzini and Garibaldi for the first time in a vehement language. While acknowledging Mazzini's greatness and past contributions to the nation, Bakunin and his friends assailed his doctrines on religion, the special national mission of Italy, and the social question, concluding that Mazzini had "always wanted the people for Italy and not Italy for the people." They also questioned the common republican notion that the Maestro's disciples were the heirs to a new Italy, as Mazzini's gradualist approach to the social problem had only forced him into alliances with social conservatives, to the point of making pacts with the King of Italy. Mazzini's greatest desire, the unity of Italy and her historic greatness, had been partially achieved under the Savoyard monarchy and consequently the differences between his Republic and the present government were only in form and not in content, especially since the substitution of a president for the king would alter nothing. A Mazzinian government, because of its program of centralization and lack of genuine interest in liberty and justice, would preserve all the despised elements of tyranny in society, including the church, state, and class privileges. According to La Situazione, while Garibaldianism might continue as a source of patriotic legend for some time longer, it had now lost its influence among the Italian people: "Garibaldianism has fallen, and it must fall, because, being the sword of Mazzinianism, it separated itself from him; then without a proper concept it moved from one thing to the other, always going from bad to worse; after Mazzini it was gathered by Manin and Trivulzio; from them it fell into the hands of La Marmora and Cavour, who cast it in the arms of the Monarchy, which solicited and welcomed it like a mother . . . in order to kill and dishonour it. "26 The policies of the Partito d'azione had created confusion and ignorance among the common people, making them easy victims for the deceptions of the privileged classes: During and after every revolution the People have always done the same
thing: they have suffered and paid.

They have suffered and paid [for]: the Governmentand Justice, the Church and the Police, the Crown and Proprietor,the luxury of citizenship, the army and the navy. They have paid for everything they do. For going and coming, buying and selling drinking, eating, breathing, warming themselves in the sun, getting
born and dying. They have paid for permission to work.

What should, therefore, the Parthenopean Republic and the republics of Genoa and Venice mean to these people? Why should the Roman Republicof
26

Masini, Michele Bakunin: Ritratto, pp. 27-8.

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1849and the crusadeagainstthe foreigneras well as the wars of 1859and the self-styled plebiscite of 1860 interest them?27 La Situazione Italiana concluded with the words "we have faith only in the revolution made by the people for their positive and complete emancipation; [a] Revolution that will make Italy a free republic of free communes in the free Nation, freely united among themselves. " 28 The pamphlet La Situazione is significant on a number of counts. Apart from the bold attacks on Mazzini and Garibaldi, it introduced other new elements onto the Italian political and social scene. By the workers and pointing out that the interests of the masses-i.e., peasants-were always opposed to the rest of society under bourgeois governments, the theme of classes in conflict could no longer be avoided, thus making a formal break with the gradualist social views of the Maestro. Although the rush from the Mazzinian camp did not begin until the period of the Paris Commune, the ideas developed in La Situazione turned out to be the precursor of that fundamental break in Italian republicanism.29 The main controversy about La Situazione has to do with the authorship of the pamphlet and not with its great significance, a question on which all are agreed. The debate began soon after the publication of the first edition of Aldo Romano's three-volume history of the origins of modem Italian socialism. Romano claims that La Situazione is solely the work of Alberto Tucci, the Bakunin intimate of the 1860s and early 1870s. According to him, being outside "the general climate of Italian democracy," Bakunin could not have influenced the writing of the pamphlet.30 Since the national spirit, the love of the fatherland, and the ideals of the Risorgimento are neither abandoned nor denied by the author of La Situazione, it is impossible that Bakunin, always ready to mock bourgeois patriotism, could have inspired or approved these pages.31 Furthermore, the vibrant and impetuous prose as well as the nationalistic fervor of the pamphlet points to a person who has followed the events of Italian unification with a trembling heart. From here it logically follows that the author of La Situazione, who has taken a decisive political stand, is a
Ibid., pp. 29-30. Ibid., p. 34. effects of La Situazionein the Neapolitanenvironment,see the 29 For the immediate Prefect-Questorecorrespondencein Archivio di Stato di Napoli (cited hereafter as
27 28

A.S.N.),
30 31

Questura, Gabinetto, fascio 24.

Romano, Storia, 1:224. Ibid., p. 225.

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member of a clearly-defined political group and as such could be nothingbut a convinced and fervent Mazzinian,even if he is prepared to look critically at certain aspects of his Mazzinianism.32 There are a numberof discrepancies in the way in which Romano has used his sources. By Tucci's own testimony, the pamphlet was written by him only after consulting Bakunin, who also reviewed and approvedthe text. Tucci provided this informationto Max Nettlau in person duringthe latter's visit to Italy in 1899,when he was collecting materialfor Bakunin's biography. If Tucci is the sole author of La Situazione (as Romano insists, without providing a shred of evidence), one cannot see the rationalebehind the former's statement to Nettlau that Bakunin had helped in preparingit for publication. As Pier Carlo Masini has astutely observed, Romano, who makes sweeping generalizationsabout Tucci, knows practically nothing about the man, includinghis place of birth and death; nor is he in a position to provide new evidence on Tucci from a comparisonof his writings, as no one, including Romano, knows anything of his other writings.33 Romano asserts that the dominant themes of La Situazione are patriotic passion and the ideals of the Risorgimento. Yet in reality, these are completely in varianceto the spiritin which the pamphletis written. La Situazione is critical of bourgeois patriotism and many aspects of the Risorgimento. The process of evolution from left democracy to socialism is apparent everywhere in the pamphlet. Romano's interpretationof this scathing anti-Mazzinianpiece as the work of an ardent Mazzinian makes no sense whatsoever. It should be stressed that, after more than two years in Italy, Bakunin had become conversant with the political situation in the country; his consequent willingness to make allowances for local conditions where necessary and to modify some of his most extreme views explains the prevalence of "bourgeois-patriotic"notions in a few places in the pamphlet. Similar to Bakunin's later writings on Mazzini, such as
Risposta d'un Internazionale a Giuseppe Mazzini and La Theologie Politique de Mazzini et L'Internationale,34 La Situazione pays hom-

age to the moral qualities and past contributionsof the Maestro and attacks him only for the mystical and theological aspects of his doctrines as well as his backward social views. As Masini has noted, many of the themes developed in La Situazione resemble several of Bakunin'sfavorite ideas: the division of Italian society into classes of
Ibid., p. 226. Masini, Michele Bakunin: Ritratto, p. 10. 34 For these, see Arthur Lehning,ed., ArchivesBakounine,vol. I (MichelBakounine et l'Italie, 1871-72), part 1 (Leiden, 1961), pp. 21-77, 108-275, 283-292.
32 33

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nobility, upper and petty bourgeoisie, workers, peasants, patriotic and revolutionaryyouth, as well as the contrastingof social revolution to political revolution, the criticisms of imperial nostalgia, and the nationalists' dream of Italian greatness.35Add to these his views on atheism, federalism, and socialism, and one cannot but conclude that Bakunin was instrumentalin the writing of the pamphlet.36 Perhapsthe most plausibleexplanationis againthe one providedby Pier Carlo Masini:that La Situazione is the combined effort of Bakunin and his Neapolitan friends such as Fanelli, Gambuzzi, Friscia, Tucci, and others, with the Russian playing the dominantrole. Tucci must have then been assigned to translate the pamphlet into Italian. This also explains some of the stylistic excesses of the manuscript, which give it a shrill tone of oratoricalvehemence characteristicof Italian pamphleteers of the period.37 The next important aspect of Bakunin's stay in Naples was the foundingof the newspaperLiberta e Giustizia.38Aldo Romanois also responsible for this controversy. According to him, Bakunin had absolutely no influence in the founding of the Liberta e Giustizia
35Masini, Michele Bakunin: Ritratto, p. 11.

RichardHostetter, perhaps influencedby Romano, has stated that "in one vital respect, however, the content of La Situazione denies the Russian's authorship:the social revolutionismof the piece is imbeddedin the general context of a fervent and unrelentingconcern for nationalunity as envisaged by Carlo Pisacane." (The Italian
36

Socialist Movement, p. 99). While discussing the newspaper Liberta e Giustizia, based

on important recent Italianscholarship,the authorshall attemptto show that there was hardly any Pisacanianinfluence in Italy duringthe period under examination. 3 Masini,MicheleBakunin: Ritratto, p. 12. In a letter to Herzen dated May 7, 1867, Bakunin mentionedthat a second nu-mber of La Situazione had been preparedand asked Herzen's permissionto use his press in Geneva to print it (the second number did appearduringOctober-November,1868). Bakuninalso informedhis friendthat the pamphlet "is a complete refutationof the politics of Mazzini and Garibaldiin still
clearer and more violent terms than those used by me in the first number [italics mine],

but with all the discretionand esteem due to these two illustriousItalians, who today have become really fatal to their country." In a subsequentletter of May 23, Bakunin refused Herzen's request "to spare the two Giuseppes" and said that Mazzini and Garibaldi deservedto be attacked,not as somejuvenile insolence, but for their negative influence on Italy's present and future. While the nature of this evidence is only testimonial,and not documentary,there is no reason to suspect Bakuninof havinglied to Herzen, since he could scarcely have foreseen the controversies that were to surroundLa Situazione in the twentieth century. See Dragomanov,Pis'ma M. A.
Bakunina, pp. 302, 312.
38 For the backgroundto the founding of the newspaper, see Romano, Storia, 1:237-247.This newspaper,crucialto any study of early Italiansocialism, is difficultto find. An incomplete collection (photocopies only) is preserved at the Istituto Giangiacomo Feltrinelliin Milan. The entire collection is availablebetween the Biblioteca Provincialedi Avellino and the privatelibraryof Lelio Basso in Rome. StartingAugust 17, sixteen issues of the newspapercame out and it ceased publicationwith the last issue of December 24, 1867.

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Association39 and its newspaper, since "when this nucleus was constituted, Bakunin was not in Naples, but . . . on the island of Ischia and when it had its most important manifestations and published its newspaper, he had already left Italy or was preparing to leave."40 The first contention is absurd, as Ischia is only a stone's throw from Naples.41 As to the second, while it is true that in late August or early September Bakunin did leave Italy to attend the Congress of Peace and Liberty in Geneva (he was never to return, except on a single occasion to Florence immediately after the outbreak of the Paris Commune in 1871), five of his articles-the first series entitled La questione slava 42 and the second entitled Essenza della religion e43appeared in various issues of the newspaper. As these articles must have been prepared before his depature from Italy, it is not unreasonable to argue that the editors of Liberta e Giustizia could have arranged many other articles ahead of time as well, in which they could also have sought Bakunin's advice. We have the testimony of individuals like the positivist Vyrubov and the documentary evidence in the Neapolitan Police Archives to support the contention that there was a constant traffic between Naples and Ischia and that Bakunin's friends frequently came over to the island to consult him on issues concerning the paper.44 Moreover, several unsigned articles which appeared in Liberta e Giustizia have the stamp of Bakunin's collaboration. In the very first issue, in an article entitled "Le associazione
39 The decision to found the Association, which preceded the newspaper, was taken in early 1867 and its members published a signed manifesto two months later. See II Popolo d'Italia, Mar. 5, 1867. 40 Romano, Storia, 1:235-6. 41 When Hostetter, who is in general agreement with Romano in denying Bakunin's influence in Liberta e Giustizia, raised the same objection along with several others, Romano, in the second edition of his book, brushed him aside with the declaration that "Ischia, like Procida and Capri, is an island, and in those times one could not go there by helicopter," leaving the unsuspecting reader with the impression that Hostetter's observations were sheer banalities, thus avoiding a thoughtful rebuttal of the American historian's serious criticisms. See Hostetter, The Italian Socialist Movement, pp. 106-7; Romano, Storia, 1:236, note 35. 42 Liberta e Giustizia, Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, 1867. It was Bakunin's first signed article to appear in the Italian press and it was also the first occasion on which he proclaimed his political position as ''anarchist." The series was part of a continuing discussion with Herzen on the slav question. 43 Liberta e Giustizia, Nov. 3, 24; Dec. 1, 1867. This was a stridently anti-religious series in which Bakunin anticipated some of the ideas of his famous incomplete work Federalism, socialism and anti-theologism. 44 See Vyrubov's article in Vestnik Evropy, February, 1913; An unsigned letter, Naples, July 6, 1867, in A.S.N., Questura, fascio 27. Although Vyrubov's article is written in a lighthearted vein, his description of the visits of "strange, [and] mysterious personages" to Bakunin's residence is sufficient proof that the Russian was not living in isolation in Ischia.

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operaie," Libertd e Giustizia warned the workers against parasitic

capitalists, bankers, and landlords,and urged them to cast away their shackles by emulating the June insurrectionists of Paris. The sole purpose of the Italiangovernment,it said, was to conscript them into the army and burden them with taxes.45 In subsequent issues, the editors of the newspaper devoted a considerableamount of space to socialist and workers' themes.46 In an excellent series entitled "II Contadino,"47 attemptswere madeto analyze the role of the peasantry in Italian history and to ascertain its contemporaryrelevance. After describing the tragic vicissitudes of the peasants during the past centuries, the articles reasserted the point raised in La Situazione Italiana that the peasantry had always been extraneous to Italian political and social life. Hungry, ignorant,and reduced to the level of animals, the peasants had never been able to participatein the important events of the nation. Although every revolution in Italy had its origins in social issues, until recently the peasantry had lacked a political or a theoreticalframeworkwith which to fight its oppressors. Now, with the advancementof socialist ideas, it had the weapons to combat its adversaries.The peasants were slowly coming to recognize the grievous injuries inflicted on them by society and to realize that their interests were in total opposition to those of the bourgeoisie. The articles, while written specificallyfor an Italian readership,show a great deal of similarityto ideas expressed by Bakuninin his Appeal
to the Slavs, especially its preliminary drafts.48 In another article

entitledBadiamo alle masse, the peasants were exhorted to throw off their shackles and the banner of il vero popolo italiano, raised first in La Situazione, was again hoisted: "Arise, all of you who hate traitors and tyranny, priests, rogues and vampires of society. Come
on now, those of you who do have a heart . . . Only a Hercules can

rid us from the weight of tyranny and society from its age-old filth-it [Hercules]is the people, the plebes."49Duringthe course of a series on the Romanquestion, the editors of Libertde Giustizia made their break with Mazzini final and official. The substance of the arguments was essentially the same as those developed in La Situazione and the style, tone, and spirit of certain sections of the

Liberti e Giustizia, Aug. 17, 1867. Ibid., Aug. 31, Oct. 27, 1867. 47 Ibid., Sept. 21, Oct. 27, Nov. 24, 1867. 48 (Prague, 1932), pp. See Steklov, Sobranie, 3:345-366;J. Pfitzner,Bakuninstudien 78-106. 49 Liberta e Giustizia, Nov. 3, 1867.
45
46

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series corresponded very closely to Bakunin's later writings on Mazzini: The equivocation of the program, the emptiness and abstractness of [the Mazzinian] republic, the continual political transactions of Mazzini, have always generated among his followers an unawareness of principles, uncertainty in action, pusillanimousattempts, sterile efforts and incessant and blameworthydesertions. Withouta firmconcept in mind, their hearts closed to the popularspirit ... the Mazziniansdid not form and thereforeshall never form a serious and powerful party, loving best to lend their strength to the inane mysteries of conspiracy rather than to the omnipotent arm of the people. The immortalvictims which this party has given are to be counted in the tens, the perured and the traitorousin the hundreds.50 Richard Hostetter's contention, that "In my opinion the scarce influence of Bakunin on the thinking of the Liberty and Justice group finds its proof in the patriotic spirit of its program, not in whether the Russian was living in Naples or Ischia,"5' is not borne out by a careful reading of the newspaper. Hostetter seems not to have consulted the paper and this is part of the problem, since he has depended heavily on Romano for his raw material. Nowhere in the newspaper does one find the type of patriotic passion implied by Hostetter. Instead, even while supporting the Garibaldian efforts to capture Rome in the hope that it would lead to a revolutionary transformation of Italian society the editors of Liberta e Giustizia continued their attacks on the old style Partito d'azione democrats, claiming that the masses were indifferent to the Roman question, since their primary concern was relief from starvation and the attainment of a free and just society.2 After the Mentana fiasco of early November, the newspaper violently denounced both Mazzini and
50 Ibid., Aug. 24, 1867.Marxwas delightedwith this critiqueof Mazzini. He wrote to Engels on Sept. 4, 1867: "I have received from Naples the first two issues of a newspaper,Libertdi e Giustizia.In the first issue they have declaredthemselves as our organ . . . I will send you the second issue, which contains a very fine attack against Mazzini. I presume that it is the work of Bakunin." (See Carteggio Marx-Engels,6 vols., (Rome, 1950-53), 5:62. The Libertd e Giustizia nucleus was the first political group in Italy to openly adhere to the aims of the First International.See Libertdi e Giustizia, Aug. 17, 1867. Marx's name would become known in Italy only after the Commune period,and slowly even then, because of the predominance of Bakuninistsin the Italiansections of the International duringthe first decade of socialismin Italy. On Marxand early Italiansocialism, see GianniBosio, "La famadi Marxin Italiadal 1871 al 1883," MovimentoOperaio, Year 3, Nos. 15-16, March-April-May 1951, pp. 517525; Volker Hunecke, "La diffusione dell' indirizzoinauguralee degli statui dell'Associazione Internazionale dei Lavoratoriin Italiaprimadel 1871,"MovimentoOperaio

e Socialista, Year 17, Nos. 2-3, April-September 1971, pp. 115-130. 51 Hostetter, The Italian Socialist Movement, p. 107. 52 Libertdi e Giustizia, October 5, 13, 1867.

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Garibaldi."3 In other words, one is left with the distinct impression that the men behind Libertd e Giustizia, if not already socialists, were well on their way to socialism and, to a substantial degree, had accepted Bakunin's political and social program as it stood then. Romano cites the paucity of archival material concerning Bakunin as further evidence of his lack of influence within the Liberta e Giustizia circle. He says that there is not the slightest trace in the Neapolitan Police Archives of any reference to Bakunin or his conspiratorial activity. He claims that only in 1869, when Bakunin had already left and the organization had disappeared, did the police speak of his participation in the Libertd e Giustizia group.54 The recent publication of two significant documents from the Naples State Archives by Alfonso Scirocco has demolished Romano's argument. On July 24, 1867, the Questore wrote to the Prefect: The idea which informsthe association entitledLiberta e Giustizia in Naples had been inspiredby the Russian Bakunin. He first advised that this association must groupitself aroundall those who truly intendedto raise the Popular Majesty, which neither the doctrine of Mazzini nor that of Garibaldiwere capable of producing, since the quasi-theologicalDio e Popolo theory of Mazzinihad alreadyconsiderablyarrestedthe popularprogress. Accordingto him, it is necessary for the people to understandthat revolutionsare made by the people for the people: the wars that are fought by the King are always disadvantageousto it, whether in defeat or in victory. Ultimately, the culminating idea of Bakunin and his apostolate is for pure socialism. This association of Liberta e Giustizia had begun with such ideas at the beginning of April, but Bakunin, knowing himself to be under surveillance, wished to remain hidden; therefore it was inauguratedunder the presidency of the political friends of Bakunin-Friscia, Fanelli, De Luca and Gambuzzi.55 This document clearly shows that Bakunin was under surveillance and that the police squarely placed him at the head of the Liberta e Giustizia circle. Another police document reports: In April 1867 a new political association emerged:Liberta e Giustizia. The founder of this Association, whose objective is the Social Republic, was the Russianexile MichaelBakunin.The membersof the association [consistedof] shopkeepers, landowners,doctors, lawyers, businessmen, clerks, parliamentary deputies, workers, students, artists, private teachers, Garibaldian officials. . . This associationhad a namesakeweekly newspaperfor defending socialist ideas; the newspaper was edited almost exclusively by Prof. Pier Vincenzo De Luca and [it] lived [only] a few months due to the insufficiency
53 54

Ibid., November 24, Dec. 15, 1867. Romano, Storia, 1:236-237.

55 Alfonso Scirocco, Democrazia e Socialismo a Napoli dopo l'Unita (1860-1878)

(Naples, 1973), Document No. 10, pp. 336-38.

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of pecuniarymeans. The most influential of the association, Gambuzzi,Fanelli and Dramis, were at one time angry Mazzinians.56

The two documents provide incontestable evidence that Bakunin's influence in the formation of this early socialist group in Naples was considerable.57 Finally, Romano attributesthe ideas expressed in Liberta e Giustizia to the thought of Carlo Pisacane58and we shall now devote the next few pages to an examination of this thesis as well as several other of Romano's assertions concerning Pisacane. As Scirocco has observed, in the sixteen issues of Liberta e Giustizia, the editors, while publishingfive articles by Bakunin and finding space to introduce the writingsof Marx and Proudhon,never printeda single line of Carlo Pisacane.59Nor was he ever cited, save the single occasion when he was selected as one of the unfortunatevictims of Mazzini's misguided enterprises.60
Ibid., Document No. 12, pp. 339-43. Thereare contemporary testimoniesby both partisansand adversaries,acclaiming Bakuninas the drivingforce behindearly Italiansocialism. And these sources also give him credit as the brainbehindthe foundingof the Libertae GiustiziaAssociation. For details, see the Filopanti-Gambuzzi polemics in Resto del Carlino, May 1, 1892, and Gazzetta di Napoli, May 15, 29, 1892; CarmeloPalladinoto Andrea Costa, Oct. 1,
5
56

1876, in Franco Della Peruta, Democrazia e Socialismo nel Risorgimento (Rome,

1973), pp. 406-407 (appendix III); Enrico Malatesta, "I mio primo incontro con Bakunin,"Pensiero e Volonta', July 1, 1926,pp. 244-245;Benoit Malon'sseries entitled II PartitoSocialista in Italia," in La Plebe (Lodi-Milan),Jan. 22, 29; Feb. 5, 12, 18,
26, 1878. For further testimonies, also see Masini, Michele Bakunin: Scritti napoletani,

pp. 101-106. 58 Romano, Storia, 1:252-258,264-265, note 99. 59 Scirocco, Democrazia e Socialismo, p. 207. 60 Liberti e Giustizia,Aug. 24, 1867.A detailedexaminationof the ideas of Pisacane is beyondthe scope of this article.Briefly, influencedby the writingsof CarloCattaneo and GiuseppeFerrari,Pisacanecame to the novel conclusion that the developmentof national unity and liberty in Italy was impossible without two simultaneous revolutions-the democraticnationalrevolutionand the social revolution.Like Bakunin, he was also influencedby the writingsof Proudhonand to that extent there were some similaritiesin their thinking. For example, Pisacane, like the Russian, was a federalist, detested private property, and believed in the spontaneityof the masses, which were reflected in his supportof the so-called "materialrevolution" as exemplified by conspiracies, plots and insurrections.However, certain historical and economic views of Pisacane also show a resemblanceto Marx, although, as far as our records go, the Neapolitanknew of neither Marxnor his writings. For Pisacane's own writings,see the followingvolumes edited by Aldo Romano:Epistolario(Rome, 1937);
Carlo Pisacane: Saggi storici-politici-militari sull'Italia, 4 vols. (Milan and Rome, 1957); Carlo Pisacane: Scritti vari, inediti o rari, 3 vols. (Milan, 1964). For biographies

of Pisacane,among several others, see Nello Rosselli, CarloPisacane nel risorgimento italiano, (Milan:C. M. Lerici editore, 1958);Oreste Mosca, Vita di Pisacane: L'Uomo
e L'Impresa, Rome, 1953. Also see the relevant sections of Berti's I democratici e l'iniziativa meridionale and Franco Della Peruta's brilliant study I democratici e la

rivoluzioneitaliana (Milan:Feltrinelli [paperbacked.]), 1974.

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Romano also claims that during his stay in Naples, Bakunin experienced the great turning point in his life, absorbing the vital blood of Mazzinianism, which convinced him that revolution was the most effective method of resolving social problems.61 It matured further through his assimilation of the ideas of Pisacane, passed on to him by his new democratic friends in the Popolo d'Italia nucleus. Both these views are fallacious. When Bakunin arrived in Naples, he was not an old-style nationalist as Romano contends. As noted earlier, Bakunin's Appeal to the Slavs, together with its preparatory drafts, forms a comprehensive statement of his views as they emerged from the disappointments of the 1848 revolution.62 In the Appeal he clearly portrayed the bourgeoisie as a counterrevolutionary force and declared that the future hopes of revolution lay with the proletariat. Bakunin also believed that the peasantry would prove a decisive force in all future revolutions and that their success would depend on the extent of peasant participation. The social question was also given its rightful place in the Appeal. As Boris Nicolaevsky has aptly pointed out, the key to understanding Bakunin's activities during 1864-1876 lies in the period 1848-49.63 Romano's misinterpretation of Bakunin's ideological evolution has primarily grown out of his lack of understanding of nineteenth-century Russia, which has prompted him to compare the revolutionary pan-Slavism of Bakunin with the nationalistic slavophilism of Aksakov and Khomyakov.64 As Venturi has said, "[Bakunin's] policy . . . has its Machiavellian element in the desire to use, without much belief in its value, the banner of nationalism for revolutionary ends. The expression 'Revolutionary Panslavism' [of the years 1848-49] can be accepted as a description of his policy, only if it is remembered that Bakunin himself put the emphasis on the adjective and not on the noun. "65 Between January and May, 1849, Bakunin collaborated with the radical newspaper Dresdner Zeitung66 and many of his ideas (which Romano attributes to a later period) were developed in the columns of that paper. The transformation which occurred in Bakunin's outlook in 1848-49 was one from political to social revolution and during that period he stood at the extreme left wing of European democracy. In other words,
Romano, Storia, 1:192. Carr, Bakunin, p. 170. 63 Boris Nicolaevsky, M.A. Bakunin in der 'Dresdner Zeitung,' " International Review of Social History [Leiden], (1936), 1:121-216. This important article was translated for the author from the German by Raymond Cronrath of Essen, West Germany. 64 Romano, Storia, 1:122-3. 65 Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution (New York, 1966), pp. 54-5. 66 Steklov, Sobranie, 3:399-426.
61 62

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Bakunin's thought had developed parallel to his revolutionary activities during his first emigration. He was intellectually indebted to Hegel, Proudhon, and perhaps, to some extent, to Karl Marx. Carlo Pisacane had nothing to do with this development. There is, moreover, no evidence to indicate the influence of Pisacanian ideas in Naples during the time in question.67Fanelli, Dramis, and others who knew Pisacane well and revered his memory never spoke of his writings, let alone his socialist ideas. Hence, one can only conclude that priorto Bakunin's arrivalin Naples these individuals had really no understanding of Pisacane's writings or ideas. It is not surprisingsince Fanelli, Dramis, Friscia, Gambuzzi, and others still largely thought in traditional republican terms. The view of Pisacane held by such republicans was succinctly expressed in the Partito d'azione debate of 1864. Hoping to put an end to the Sapri polemics, its authoritative representatives declared that "Sapri foreshadowed Marsala.The sacrifice has opened the way to triumph. The twenty became [the] thousand and then legions. The sun of Marsala,of Calatafimi,of Palermo, of Milazzo, of Naples, rose in the dawn of Sapri."68 The southern democrats, including our protagonists, largely accepted this interpretationof Pisacane's historical role. It is true, as Romano says, that many individualsconnected with In Popolo d'Italia were friends and acquaintances of Pisacane. However, duringthe newspaper's early years, the most importantfigures on the editorial board were Aurelio Saffi and Filippo De Boni, both staunch Mazzinians. Between 1860 and the end of 1865, an equally important director of II Popolo d'Italia was Giovanni Nicotera, a future Italian minister of the interior and the scourge of socialists duringthe 1870s. Nicotera held a powerful position within II Popolo d'Italia as well as the NeapolitanPartito d'azione and was Mazzini's alter ego in the Parthenopeancity. As Pisacane's lieutenant in the Sapri expedition, he manipulatedthe Sapri myth for his own political ends and, while still a pure Mazzinian, had strong inclinations to compromise with the moderates.69Nicotera was no democrat in any true sense and his lack of concern for social issues was reflectedin his newspaper. In 1860 Pisacane's Saggi was published in Genoa and Romano
67 The following discussion is based on the alreadycited work of Scirocco and the excellent article of Alfredo Capone, "Carlo Pisacane e il Mezzogiomo", in II Veltro, (August-December,1973), 17:707-722. 68 Capone, "Carlo Pisacane e il Mezzogiorno," p. 709.
69

Ibid., pp. 708-9.

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speculates that it must have been read attentively by the editors of II Popolo d'Italia, especially because of their earlierpolitical collaboration with him.70He finds furtherproof in the fact that from the second issue of II Popolo d'Italia71 until the end of the year the administration of the paper advertisedthe Saggi, statingthat it was in charge of sales. But Romano provides no documentaryevidence. In fact, one finds no such preoccupation with Pisacane's thoughts in II Popolo d'Italia in 1860. He was almost never cited and the one complete article devoted to him, published as a commemorationof Sapri, depicted Pisacane as a martyrin the Mazziniantradition and not as a thinker.72 In this articleII Popolo d'Italia showed no understanding of Pisacane's social views and it dealt with him as a patrioticunitarian,a precursorof Garibaldi,strippedof his radicaland social revolutionary views.73Furthermore,as Scirocco has observed, the sale of the Saggi by the administrationproves nothing. Along with the Saggi, it also advertised for sale Mazzinian and bourgeois works and Romano's notion that the advertisementfor sale, or the actual sale, of the book was identical to the acceptance of its ideas is unsustainable.It should also be noted that after 1860 the Saggi disappearedfrom view in the advertisement sections of II Popolo d'Italia and Nettlau attributed this rapid disappearanceto the "perfidious machinationsof authoritarian patriots and anti-socialists" or to the sinister maneuvers of Nicotera. Perhaps the answer once again, as Scirocco has acutely observed, is more simple. The Saggi was publishedbetween 1858and 1860, the years in which Italian unity was achieved, in a manner completely differentfrom the way in which Pisacane outlined it, thus giving it the appearanceof a dated and old-fashioned work. In the immediate aftermath of unity in 1860, the Mazzinians became the guiding spirits behind Neapolitan democracy and, until Aspromonte, they showed great reluctance in fomenting new uprisings. Consequently, it would be safe to assume that the few copies of the Saggi dispatched to Naples stayed unsold or languished in some forgotten back room.74 In a number of commemorative articles published on Pisacane duringthe next few years, II Popolo d'Italia continued to portrayhim as a martyrand Garibaldi'sprecursor,with still no attemptto analyze his role as a thinker.75 In all these articles, the unfortunateepisode of
70
71 72

Romano, Storia, 1:41.

n Popolo d'Italia, Oct. 19, 1860.

Ibid., Oct. 26, 1860. Capone, "Carlo Pisacane e il Mezzogiomo," p. 710. Scirocco, Democrazia e Socialismo, pp. 180-2. See the issues of July 2, 1861; July 2, 1862; and July 3, 1864.

73 74

75

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Sapri continued to be depicted as the culmination of Pisacane's thought and action, the essence of his life. It was a splendid and heroic enterprisein the traditionsof 1820, 1848, and 1860 and, since the "victory" of Sanza gave birth to the victory of Calatafimi,the efforts of the Neapolitan were not in vain.76Romano's thesis of the Pisacanian influence in the south could have been given some credence if there had been even minimaldiscussion of Pisacane's social ideas in the columns of II Popolo d'Italia following these articles. In fact, quite the opposite occurred. In 1866, after Custoza, the anniversary of the Pisacanian effort was forgotten and, even during the successive years of 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870, and 1872, when anarchist and Marxist ideas had found an audience in the Naples area, there was no discussion of Pisacane in II Popolo d'Italia.77 When the odd referencewas made to him after 1865, he continuedto be presented as a Mazzinian and the man who anticipated Garibaldi. Of course, there was an independenterosion of Mazzinianideology in the Mezzogiorno. This trend had begun before the arrivalof Bakunin in the Naples area, but there was no such thing as a concerted and coherent left critique-still less one of the Pisacanianvariety-of the existing social order. The general disenchantment (which was not simply confined to the Mazzinians) sprang from the gravity of the social and economic conditions prevailing in the south. The disillusioned consisted of a varied mixture: Mazzinians, Neapolitan autonomists, Camorristi, landowners, Bourbon restorationists, and Muratists. There was one common factor which bound them together-their hatred of the liberal Italian state. Hence the relative success of Bakuninin Naples could be partiallyexplainedby the fact that his thinkingpresented some of the discontentedelements with an alternative to these contrasting positions and motivations.78 By ascribinga pivotal significanceto Bakunin's Neapolitan phase, Nettlau and Rosselli have not erred. While the evidence they produce is of a speculative nature (since neither had access to many important
sources, including II Popolo d'Italia and Liberta e Giustizia), in the

final analysis the intuitions of Nettlau and Rosselli have proven to be more accurate than Romano's theses. Without the external factor of Bakunin's intrusion, it is not possible to give a logical explanation of the transformationswhich occurred within left republicanismin
Capone, "Carlo Pisacane e il Mezzogiomo", pp. 710-12. Scirocco, Democrazia e Socialismo, p. 181. In 1871, from May to November II Popolo d'Italia temporarilysuspendedpublicationand it ceased publicationaltogether in 1873. 78 Capone, "Carlo Pisacane e il Mezzogiorno," p. 718.
76 77

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Naples during the 1865-67 period: the manner of its attacks in the radical press of bourgeois society, the church, the centralized state and its institutions, as well as the preoccupation with federalism and the cause of the oppressed workers and peasants. It is also undeniable that Bakunin played a crucial role in undermining Mazzini's undisputed position as the leader of the Neapolitan republicans and the reduction of Garibaldi to human proportions, whereby he ceased to be considered as the permanent flame in an otherwise dark Italian horizon. In the process the patriotic ideals of the two Risorgimento heroes were unmasked as bourgeois prejudices. Without the clique of agitators he recruited in Naples and the subsequent diffusion of his libertarian ideas among Italian radicals, it would not have been possible for Bakunin, in the aftermath of the Paris Commune, to exploit the declining fortunes of Mazzini, when the Maestro's former disciples were persuaded to leave him in droves to join the Bakuninist camp. In other words, if Bakunin's Neapolitan sojourn is of no consequence in the development of early Italian socialism, the events of the 1870s can only be seen as a series of accidents, an interpretation which is diametrically opposed to Romano's stated historical approach. Rather than being a random series of accidents, the events of the 1870s were significantly influenced by Bakunin's thought and earlier activities. Through his articles and journalistic collaboration with Italian republicans, Bakunin succeeded in introducing his anti-state, atheist, and federalist notions to the Neapolitan political scene. The Russian's ideas were a far cry from the passionately patriotic and republican political line adopted by the Partito d'azione, which was dominated by the followers of Mazzini and Garibaldi. In preaching his doctrine of republicanism, Mazzini had always held on steadfastly to the view that social justice and a republic were one and the same thing. Due to Bakunin's exertions, the soundness of this thesis began to come under closer scrutiny within the republican rank itself. While it was to take a few more years after his departure from Naples before the effects of his efforts became apparent, by the time the Paris Commune erupted in 1871 Bakunin already had a sufficiently appreciative audience-not only in Naples, but elsewhere in the country as well-who were prepared to welcome him as the latest oracle on Italian problems. When Mazzini condemned the Commune in a series of articles and pamphlets, Bakunin denounced the Maestro and the ultimate result of the year-long struggle was the demise of Italian republicanism as envisaged by the Apostle. Such an outcome was possible because, during the intervening years of 1867-71, many Italian left republicans were to be exposed to the libertarian ideas of the

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Russian. Bakunin's friends from his Naples days-Fanelli, Friscia, Gambuzzi, and others-played a significantrole in the diffusion of these ideas. Bakunin's activities in the South are significanton other counts as well. During his sojourn in the Naples area, he was mainly responsible for bringingthe Italiansinto the internationalarena, thus exposing them to a wider cosmopolitan world, as opposed to the narrow provincial confines of Naples. Through Bakunin's influence, Gambuzzi, Fanelli, Tucci, and Friscia participated in the proceedings of the First and Second Congresses of the League for Peace and Liberty in 1867 and 1868 respectively. Partly due to this exposure to the internationalarena and partly due to Bakunin's blandishments, Gambuzziwas persuaded to establish the first official Italian section of the I.W.A. in Naples in early 1869. This section, despite constant police repressions and other misfortunes, continued to exist until 1877, when it was finally destroyed in the aftermathof the aborted uprising on the Matese mountains. It was also through Bakunin's influence that Saverio Friscia began his unceasing efforts to form sections of the International in Sicily. While his attempts during 1868-69 met with only minimalsuccess, Friscia did manageto spread socialist ideas (of the Bakuninist variety) to various centers on the island, including Catania, Sciacca, Girgenti, and Palermo. Similarly, Giuseppe Fanelli, who was dispatched to Spain at the initiative of Bakunin,was largely responsiblefor the formationof the first sections of the I.W.A. in the Iberianpeninsula. The efforts of Friscia in Sicily and Fanelli in Spain were directly linked to Bakunin. Without the Russian's close friendshipand collaborationwith them duringhis stay in Naples it is difficultto see how these convinced Mazzinians could have been converted to the cause of socialism in so short a period. Malatesta has testified that the members of Bakunin's Neapolitan nucleus-Gambuzzi, Fanelli, Friscia, Tucci, and others-were the first socialists, the first internationalists,and the first anarchists, not only of Naples but also of Italy.79 Finally the impact of Bakunin on the thought of the Italian left regardingthe problemof brigandageremainsto be assessed. This is a complicated question which cannot be dealt with fully here, but its importancecan be established. Long before his arrivalin Italy Bakunin was an admirerof the brigands,but in the aftermathof his sojourn in the country he came to place increasingemphasis on the brigand79Errico Malatesta, "II mio primo incontro con Bakunin," in Pensiero e Volonta, (July 1, 1926), pp. 244-247.

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Ravindranathan

age theme. One of the persistent themes in his appeals and declarations of the late 1860s and early 1870s was that of the brigand as a revolutionary agent and the great significance for the revolutionary cause of the union of the brigand's revolt with that of the peasant. Such declarations usually referred to the Russian situation, but the Italian internationalistslater tried to translate Bakunin's analysis of Russian banditry as a revolutionary force into the context of the Mezzogiorno. Before the Russian's arrival in Naples, the Italian republicans, without exception, had looked upon southern brigandage as an evil to be rooted out speedily. In the immediate post-unity years, many republicans,including Fanelli and Dramis, had actively participatedin the Savoyard government's fight against brigandage. However, before his departurefrom Naples, Bakuninseemed to have succeeded in converting his closest collaborators to identifying brigandagewith social revolution. The testimony of the Matese insurrectionists of 1877, both before and after the collapse of the undertaking, make it abundantlyclear that their plan of action was conceived purely in Bakuninistterms. The general consensus among the Italian anarchists tended to be that it was unnecessary to create socialist sentiment among the masses before embarkingon the revolutionary road. Instead, it was felt that insurrectionaryshock waves would be more effective in achieving the desired result. They set out on the Matese adventurefully aware that the enterprise had little chance of success and this was also consistent with the teachings of the master. Bakuninhad often said that "we must ceaselessly make revolutionary attempts, even if we were to be defeated and routed completely, one, two, ten, even twenty times: but, if on the twenty-first time, the people support us and take part in our initiative, we shall have been '80 While the Matese insurrepaid for all the sacrificeswe supported.' rection occurred ten years after Bakunin had left Naples, internal evidence suggests that it was duringhis sojourn in the Parthenopean city that the Russian became an absolute believer in the revolutionary potential of brigandage. Withoutthe base he built duringhis Neapolitan years, small though it was, it would not have been possible for Bakuninto emerge in the 1870s as the unofficial leader and spiritual godfather of the Italian socialist movement. Because of Bakunin'sphysical presence and actions in Italy at a crucial stage in that nation's social and political development, the history of the first fifteen years of modern Italian socialism largely constitutes the history of the Bakuninistmovement.
80

Romano, Storia, 2:578.