Newcastle Lyon Sonvillier Dresden Berlin Petersburg Chita Moscow Helsinki Amsterdam Newcastle

In progress.

Wednesday 30 December 2009

What Happened Where - Overview

Bit by bit I'll add the notable record next to the location. This will guide me when I come to write the actual notebooks.

London - Exiles settle.

Paris - Exiles meet, including Bakunin with Proudhon & Marx 1844; Commune 1871;

Lyon - 1870 Bakunin leads failed insurrection on principles of later Paris Commune

Switzerland - Gatherings & conferences (Geneva/Bern). Exiles, printing presses, smuggling and snatches by secret police. Bakunin retires (Lugano/Bern).
Neuchatel - Jura federation works out anarchist programme that Kropotkin takes up 1872.

Baden 1848 - Bakunin joins abortive attempt at insurrection.

Dresden 1849 - Bakunin organising barricades during insurrection.

Chemnitz 1849 - Bakunin captured for Russians.

Wroclaw - Marx circulates allegation that Bakunin's a state asset.

St.Petersburg -
Peter & Paul fortress - Kropotkin's notorious escape 1876. The rescue of the red balloon fails, but the rescue of the wild fiddler succeeds. His descriptions in the comments
Apraxin Dvor - fire story

Lake Baikal - 1866 Polish exiles revolt, and die. Kropotkin's account.

Irkutsk, administrative centre of Siberia & its exiles. 1857 plans for United States of Siberia. Bakunin escapes 1861.

Chita, Kropotkin's work-base 1862+. Watchtower parable.

The Amur River - 1863 Kropotkin's explorations and boat journeys.

Manchurian explorations - 1863 Kropotkin stories vs Chinese.

Ghirin - encounter with Chinese culture.

1865 Kropotkin exploring western Sayans etc..

Tom River crossing on ice, Kropotkin story 1863?

Finland - Kropotkin passes through in a northern loop.

Stockholm - Bakunin meets up with his wife.

Christiania - Kropotkin docks on his escape from Russia.

The Hague 1872 - Bakunin expelled by Marx from the IWMA

Kropotkin talks about the Amur river

"After I had delivered my barges, I made about a thousand miles down the Amúr in one of the post boats which are used on the river. The stern of the boat was covered in, and in the bow was a box filled with earth upon which a fire was kept to cook the food. My crew consisted of three men. We had to make haste, and therefore used to row in turns all day long, while at night the boat was left to float with the current, and I kept the watch for three or four hours to maintain the boat in the middle of the river, and to prevent it from being drawn into some side channel. These watches - the full moon shining above and the dark hills reflectcd in the river - were beautiful beyond description.

My rowers were taken from the aforementioned sons; they were three tramps, who had the reputation of being incorrigible thieves and robbers, - and I carried with me a heavy sack full of banknotes, silver, and copper. In Western Europe such a journey, on a lonely river, would have been considered risky; not so in East Siberia. I made it without even having so much as an old pistol, and I found my three tramps excellent company. Only, as we approached Blagovéschensk, they became restless. "Khánshina" (the Chinese brandy) "is cheap there," they reasoned, with deep sighs. "We are sure to get into trouble! It's cheap, and it knocks you over in no time, from want of being used to it!" I offered to leave the money which was due to them with a friend who would see them off with the first steamer. "That would not help us," they replied mournfully. "Somebody will offer a glass, - it's cheap, and a glass knocks you over!" they persisted in saying. They were really perplexed, and when, a few months later, I returned through the town, I learned that one of "my sons," as people called them in town, had really got into trouble. When he had sold the last pair of boots to get the poisonous drink, he had committed some theft and had been locked up. My friend finally obtained his release and shipped him back."

& another time ...

"A few days later, a steamer slowly creeping up the river overtook me, and when I boarded her, the passengers told me that the captain had drunk himself into a delirium and jumped overboard. He was saved, however, and was now lying ill in his cabin. They asked me to take command of the steamer, and I had to consent; but soon I found to my great astonishment that everything went on by itself in such an excellent routine way that, though I paraded all day on the bridge, I had almost nothing to do. Apart from a few minutes of real responsibility, when the steamer had to be brought to the landing-places, where we took wood for fuel, and saying a word or two now and then to encourage the stokers to start as soon as the dawn permitted us faintly to distinguish the outlines of the shores, matters took care of themselves. "

In conclusion, about Siberia ...

"Having been brought up in a serf-owner's family, I entered active life, like all young men of my time, with a great deal of confidence in the necessity of commanding, ordering, scolding, punishing, and the like. But when, at an early stage, I had to manage serious enterprises and to deal with men, and when each mistake would lead at once to heavy consequences, I began to appreciate the difference between acting on the principle of command and discipline and acting on the principle of common understanding. The former works admirably in a military parade, but it is worth nothing where real life is concerned, and the aim can be achieved only through the severe effort of many converging wills. Although I did not then formulate my observations in terms borrowed from party struggles, I may say now that I lost in Siberia whatever faith in state discipline I had cherished before. I was prepared to become an anarchist. "

No.2 - Itinerary

Dates & train times to be added, beds to be arranged, plans to be changed on a regular basis. But my thoughts to begin with, before I trim them down:

UK
Newcastle (Clousden Hill K 1896; Durham Miners' Gala K 1882)
TRAIN NO.1. NEWCASTLE TO LONDON *
London (K 1881 visit; K 1886-1914 lived in Harrow, Ealing & Bromley; Autonomy Club; Freedom Bookshop)
[Brighton] (1890s/1900s? lived) [SEPARATE TRIP?]

FRANCE
TRAIN NO.2 LONDON TO PARIS *
Paris (B 1844 meets Proudhon & Marx, likes one hates the other; K 1877 helps start socialist movement)
TRAIN NO.3 PARIS TO LYONS *
Lyons (B 1870 uprising; K 1882 sentenced to imprisonment)
TRAIN NO.4 LYONS TO LAKE GENEVA *, PLUS SMALL JOURNEYS
Thonon (K 1881 & 1882 where arrested) [LAKE GENEVA]

SWITZERLAND
Geneva (B 1843?; B 1867 conference; B 1868 First International; K 1872 International Workingmen's Association) [LAKE GENEVA]
[Vevey] (B 1863 passing through) [LAKE GENEVA]
TRAIN NO.5 GENEVA TO NEUCHATEL/BERNE = SMALL JOURNEYS
Neuchatel (K 1872 joined Jura federation, adopted anarchism; K 1873 again after escape; K 1878 editing 'La Revolte') [NEAR BERNE]
La Chaux de Fonds? K meets Malatesta etc..
Berne (B 1868 conference spit; B 1876 died)
TRAIN NO.6 BERNE TO BADEN/VIENNA VIA ZURICH (=optional. Alternative is direct to Dresden))
Zurich (B 1840?)

[Lugano] (B 1873 retirement) [NEAR ITALY]
[ITALY] (B 1864 developed anarchist ideas)

AUSTRIA
Baden (B 1848 attempted insurrection)
TRAIN NO.7 BADEN/VIENNA TO DRESDEN VIA PRAGUE (= optional, droppable)

(Prague) (B 1848 first pan slav congress)

GERMANY
Dresden (B 1840 study-awakening; B 1849 insurrection)
[Chemnitz] (B 1849 captured)
[Leipzig] (B passed through 1848)

TRAIN NO.8 DRESDEN TO WROCLAW (non-stop train)
POLAND
Breslau = Wroclau (B 1848 passed through; 1848or9? accused by Marx of being a state agent)
TRAIN NO.9 (change trains, don't stay over) WROCLAW VIA WARSAW TO MOSCOW OR ST.PETERSBURG

(Minsk)(Gardinas) (B 1834 military service)

RUSSIA
[Moscow] (B born 1814; K born; K 1921 died Dmitrov, buried Novodevichy cemetery)
[IF DO MOSCOW TO ST.PETERSBURG TRAIN, TSAR'S FINGER STORY & EXPLO LINKS, OR COULD START TRANS-SIBERIAN DIRECT FROM MOSCOW]
St.Petersburg (B study until 1834; B 1851-4 in Peter-Paul fortress; B 1854-1856 Shlisselburg; K 1857 joins corps of pages then army; K 1867 study after quit army; K 1871 joined revolutionary party; K 1873 in Peter-Paul fortress, escaped 1876)
Kronstadt
TRAIN NO.10 ST.PETERSBURG TO TOMSK
Tomsk (exile B 1857)
TRAIN NO.11 TOMSK TO IRKUTSK
Irkutsk (exile B 1857?-1861; K 1862? attache for cossack affairs)
TRAIN NO.12 IRKUTSK TO CHITA
Chita (K 1862 aide to governor)

[Nikolaevsk] (B 1861 trip he never made cos he escaped) [THE ONE IN VOLGOGRAD?]

TRAIN NO.13 TO VLADIVOSTOCK
Manchuria (K explorations 1864+)
[Vladivostock/sea of okhotsk]
TRAIN NO.14 VLADIVOSTOCK TO ST.PETERSBURG? [OR GO WHOLE WAY AND SPLIT THE RETURN]
FINLAND
tbc (K 1871 explorations; K 1876 escape route)
TRAIN NO.15 ST.PETERSBURG THROUGH FINLAND via HELSINKI, KEMI?, THIS , KROPOTKIN'S ROUTE, IS LONGWAY ROUND
SWEDEN
Stockholm (B joined wife 1863)
tbc (K 1871 explorations)

DENMARK
Christiana (K 1876 escape route)
TRAIN NO.16 STOCKHOLM? TO COPENHAGEN
Copenhagen (B 1863 attempt to join Polish insurrection)
FERRY OPTION ESBJERG TO HARWICH

TRAIN NO.17 OPTION COPENHAGEN TO THE HAGUE VIA BERLIN
GERMANY
Berlin (B 1840 study, 1848)
In 1848 Bakunin also passed through Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig

NETHERLANDS
Hague (B 1872 expelled from International by Marx)
FERRY OPTION AMSTERDAM TO NEWCASTLE

BELGIUM
Brussels (B 1843 to meet Polish nationalists; 1844+? voluntary exile; 1863 passing through)
TRAIN NO. 18 BRUSSELS (or Paris) TO LONDON [may be cheaper to go Brussels to Paris & then use Eurostar return]
UK
London (B 1863; Anarchist Bookfair)
TRAIN NO. 19 HOME TO BED.
Newcastle

No.1 - The General Idea

Hello

I live in Newcastle upon Tyne.
I am interested in anarchism, and in the anarchist heritage that has come down to us.
I want to go on holiday.

In this blog I will be piecing together plans for a tour, a kind of atheist's pilgrimage, to visit the places where two particularly famous anarchist characters lived, escaped from, erected barricades and discovered new geographies.

I have chosen the two most famous early anarchist theorists and propagandists, both Russians, both imprisoned in the same place (at slightly different times), and both with impressive beards. Both of them spent time in Switzerland, Paris & London, talking & thinking through the ideas that became, for each of them, a clear and distinct doctrine of anarchism. Both still have books available on the shelves of Newcastle University Library.

The biographies of these two men, exciting as they are in their own right, are given particular prominence in the anarchist tradition because they intersect with some of the most formative and influential history of the western revolutionary tradition.

One led the split with Marx in the International Working Men's Association, developing what are now the core and standard anarchist arguments against centralism and authority. He formed international networks and conspiracies of anarchists to work against the states and empires of Europe, members of which ended up starting Britain's own history of anarchist organisation. (He also fought on the barricades with Wagner, lost his teeth in prison and pissed off uncountable people, from both sides of the revolutionary struggle.)

The other arrived in Irkutsk, Siberia, the year after the first had escaped (by ship, down the river to Japan). He developed his ideas amongst a new climate of repression and ended up having to escape in the other direction (North through Finland and down though Sweden). He toured the world, speaking in Newcastle on numerous occasions and writing works that inspired projects like the local Clousden Hill Anarchist Commune. When he died, the funeral procession though the streets of St.Petersburg became the last massive demonstration of anti-Bolshevik, anti-authoritarian revolution. After that, repression was pretty complete.

One's name was Mikhail Bakunin and the other's was Peter Kropotkin.

By retracing some of their journeys, and ruminating on some of their ideas and experiences and works as I go, I hope to connect (on at least a personal level), with the anarchism that they absorbed, worked with & developed. I will sketch some things I see, doodle and write in various notepads, take the odd photo and meet the odd person. I hope to persuade friends to come with me some of the way, and come out to meet me on the way back.

So I am not trying to recreate their lives. I am not a daring agitator. When the police demand a bribe to stop them chucking me off the train, I will probably pay up. I want a quiet life and - sad as it is to admit - I think I lack the great optimism and backbone of a great historical figure. I am a zine-maker and my mum says I can draw quite well, so that is what I will aim to do.

I have yet to figure out what exact route I will take. There are no boats from or to the ports that Bakunin used. Even the ferries to Scandinavia have been replaced now by planes. One thing I will certainly not be doing is using an aeroplane. I do know roughly when I will set off, because I finish work in mid July, and I am holding on to this dream as my way of getting through six months of what I consider quite soul-destroying work. The purpose of my wages will be to buy train tickets and pay for beds in far off towns. The light at the end of the tunnel will be the sun rising over Siberia!

I will try and work out my itinerary in blog post no.2, changing it each time something crops up. In post no.3 I'll stick in some words that might turn into the first page. As you read this blog, however, do remember that this internetty wotnot is purely preparatory. It's a place to make notes and jot down plans before I get started. The actual product of this journey will be hand-drawn and stuck together with pritt stick, as a proper zine should be. My other zine projects can be seen at http://zine-it-yourself.blogspot.com and I'm also on the networking site http://wemakezines.ning.com/

The final thing to say, though, is that I do hope this big holiday-research project-zine thing will not be solely about me and my navel. Issues of state repression, of border controls, of alliances amongst the powerful to screw up the rules in their own favour, keep the poor disunited, make profit from death and injustice. These things are as horrible in 2010 as they were in 1910. And are the wild mountains and flocks of geese still there, that Kropotkin recorded in the desolate forests of Siberia? Are the communal societies and moments of tragedy when the people rally round still as true? What ever happened to the alternative future which these two thinkers glimpsed? Does mutual aid still count in Putin's Russia? Where do the lies of power show themselves most plain, and where might hope be found. I don't know.

Anarchism is a theory of liberation against oppression, and if there's one thing that I think these two great bearded fellows have got right it's that the forms of both - of freedom and of unfreedom - are changing all the time. Domestic violence, internet technology, fear, friendship, we all have both sides of the struggle inside of us and the world at large has even more. The struggle never ends. Neither Bakunin nor Kropotkin had all the answers - & I'm neither a Kropotkinian nor a Bakuninite - but then they never claimed that their version of anarchism was complete and for all time. They were just two people, two of us, and in their own time, to their own ability, they tried to change the world, to increase our possibilities of freedom, and declare that the worst cases of injustice could indeed be stopped. I think that, looking back, they can give us some insights and inspirations that can help us in our own journeys.