CASE STUDY OF REACTIVE NIHILISM:
SERGEI NECAEV
Catechism of a revolutionary (1869)
By Sergei Necaev (in collaboration with Bakunin = b)
1. The revolutionary is a consecrated man. He has no interests on his own, no affairs, no feelings, no attachments, no belongings, not even a name. Everything in him is absorbed by a single exclusive intention, a single thought, a single passion – the revolution.
2. In the very depths of his being, not only in words but also in deeds, he has broken every tie with the civil order and the entire educated world, with all its laws, proprieties, social conventions and its ethical rules. He is an implacable enemy of this world, and if he continues to live in it, it is only to destroy it more effectively.
3. The revolutionary despises all doctrinairism and has rejected the peaceful sciences, leaving them to future generations. He knows only one science, the science of destruction. To this end, and to this end alone, he will study mechanics, physics, chemistry and perhaps medicine. To this end he will study day and night the living science of people, characters, situations and all the features of the present social order at all possible levels. His only goal is the swiftest and most certain destruction of this vile order. [b]
4. He despises public opinion. He despises and abhors the existing social ethic in all its manifestations and expressions. For him, everything is moral which assists the triumph of the revolution.
5. The revolutionary is a consecrated man. Merciless towards the state and towards the whole of the educated and privileged society, he must expect no mercy from them either. Between him and them there exists, secretly or openly, an unceasing and irreconcilable war of life and death. Every single day, he must be prepared to die. He must condition himself to endure torture.
6. Severe with himself, he must be severe with others. All tender and effeminate emotions of kinship, friendship, love, gratitude and even honor itself must be crushed in him by a single cold passion of the revolutionary cause. There exists for him only one delight, one consolation, one reward and one gratification –the success of the revolution. Night and day he must have only one thought, one aim –merciless destruction. Cold bloodedly and tirelessly pursuing this aim, he must always be prepared to die and to destroy with his own hands everything that hinders its achievement.
7. The nature of the true revolutionary excludes all romanticism, all sentimentality, rapture and enthusiasm. It even excludes personal hatred and vengeance. The revolutionary passion, which becomes his normal, constant state, must be combined with cold calculation. Always and everywhere he must not be what his personal inclinations prompt him to be, but what the general interest of the revolution prescribes.
8. The revolutionary considers one a friend and holds dear only a person who has shown himself in practice to be as much a revolutionary as he is. The extent of his friendship, devotion and other obligations towards his comrade is determined only by his degree of usefulness in the practical work of the all-destructive revolution.
9. The need for solidarity among revolutionaries is self-evident. In it lies the whole strength of revolutionary work. Revolutionary comrades of the same level of revolutionary understanding and passion must, as far as possible, discuss all important matters together and decide together unanimously. But by implementing a plan decided upon in this manner, each man must act for himself and have recourse to the advice and help of his comrades only when this is necessary for success. [b: questionable]
10. Each comrade would have under him several revolutionaries of the second and third categories, that is, comrades who are not completely initiated. He should regard them as portions of a common fund of revolutionary capital, placed at his disposal. He should expend his portion of the capital economically, always attempting to derive the utmost possible benefit from it. He should regard himself as capital consecrated for use in the triumph of the revolutionary cause, but as capital which he may not dispose of independently without the consent of the entire company of the fully initiated comrades.
11. When a comrade gets into trouble, the revolutionary, in deciding the question to rescue him or not, must not think in terms of his personal feelings but only of the good of the revolutionary cause. Therefore he must weigh, on the one hand, the usefulness of the comrade and on the other, the expenditure of revolutionary energy required for his deliverance, and must decide for the weightier side.
12. The admission into the society of a new member, who has proven himself, not by words but by deeds, may be decided upon only by unanimous agreement. [b]
13. The revolutionary enters the world of the state, of class and of so-called education and lives in it only because he has faith in its total and near destruction. He is not a revolutionary if he feels pity for anything in this world, if he hesitates before the destruction of a situation, of a relationship, or of some individual belonging to this world in which everyone and everything must be equally odious to him.
14. Aiming at merciless destruction, the revolutionary can and often even must live in society while pretending to be something quite other than what he is. The revolutionary must penetrate everywhere; all classes, the highest and middle classes, the merchants’ stores, the church, the homes of the nobility, the world of bureaucracy, the military, the literary world, the Third section and even the Winter Palace.
15. All of this foul society must be split up into several categories. The first category is condemned immediately to death. The society will compile a list of these condemned persons in order of the relative harm they may do to the success of the revolutionary cause, so that the first numbers are removed before the later ones.
16. In compiling these lists and deciding the order referred to above, the guiding principle must not be the individual’s personal acts of villainy, nor even the hatred he provokes among the society or the people. This villainy and hatred may sometime even be useful to a certain extent since they help to incite popular rebellion. The guiding principle must be the measure of benefit which must result from the person’s death for the revolutionary cause. Therefore, in the first instance, must be annihilated all those who are especially harmful to the revolutionary organization, and whose sudden and violent death will inspire the greatest fear in the government and, by depriving it of its cleverest and most energetic figures, will shatter its strength.
17. The second category must consist of those who are allowed to live temporarily so that through a series of their bestial crimes they may drive the people to inevitable revolt.
18. To the third category belongs a multitude of highest ranking cattle or persons distinguished neither for their particular intelligence nor for their energy, but who, because of their position, enjoy wealth, connections, influences, and power. They must be entangled and confused, and, when we have learned enough about their dirty secrets, we must make them our slaves. Their power, influence, connections, wealth and strengths thus become an inexhaustible treasurehouse and a powerful aid to various revolutionary undertakings.
19. The fourth category consists of politically ambitious persons and liberals of various shades. With them we can conspire according to their own programs, pretending that we are blindly following them while in fact we are taking control of them, and, having mastered all their secrets, compromising them to the utmost, so that it is impossible for them to turn back and they will cause disorder in the state.
20. The fifth category consists of doctrinaires, conspirators, revolutionaries in idly babbling circles or on paper. We must continually incite and force them into making violent declarations of practical intent, the result of which will be the destruction of the majority without a trace and the real revolutionary development of a few.
21. The sixth, and an important category is that of women, which must be divided into three main types. First, those empty-headed, thoughtless, vapid women whom we may use as we use the third and fourth categories of men. Second, women who are ardent, gifted and devoted but who are not ours because they have not yet achieved the phase of factual revolutionary understanding. We must use them like the men of the fifth category. Finally, the women who are ours completely, that is, who have been fully initiated and have accepted our program in its entirety. They are our comrades. We should regard these women as the most valuable of our treasures, whose assistance we cannot do without.
22. [lost; to find]
23. By popular revolution our brotherhood does not mean a regulated movement on the classical Western model –a movement which has always been stopped short by respect for property and for the traditions of social customs of so-called civilization and morality, which has until now always confined itself to the overthrow of one political structure merely to substitute it with another, and has striven thus to create the so-called revolutionary state. The only revolution that can save the people is one that eradicates all statism and exterminates all state traditions, customs, and classes in Russia. [b]
24. Therefore our society does not intend to impose on the people any organization from above. Any future organization will undoubtedly take shape through the movement and life of our people, but that is a task for future generations. Our task is terrible, total, universal, merciless destruction. [b]
25. Therefore, in drawing closer to the people, we must unite above all with those elements of the popular life, which, ever since the foundation of the state power of Muscovy, have never ceased to protest, not only in words, but in deeds, against everything directly or indirectly connected with the state: against the nobility, against the bureaucracy, against the priests, against the world of the [merchant] guilds, and against the kulak exploiters. But we shall unite with the valiant world of brigands, who are the only true revolutionaries in Russia, [b]
26. To unite this world into a single invincible, all-destroying force –this is our entire organization, conspiracy and task.
Catechism of a revolutionary (1869)
By Sergei Necaev (in collaboration with Bakunin = b)
1. The revolutionary is a consecrated man. He has no interests on his own, no affairs, no feelings, no attachments, no belongings, not even a name. Everything in him is absorbed by a single exclusive intention, a single thought, a single passion – the revolution.
2. In the very depths of his being, not only in words but also in deeds, he has broken every tie with the civil order and the entire educated world, with all its laws, proprieties, social conventions and its ethical rules. He is an implacable enemy of this world, and if he continues to live in it, it is only to destroy it more effectively.
3. The revolutionary despises all doctrinairism and has rejected the peaceful sciences, leaving them to future generations. He knows only one science, the science of destruction. To this end, and to this end alone, he will study mechanics, physics, chemistry and perhaps medicine. To this end he will study day and night the living science of people, characters, situations and all the features of the present social order at all possible levels. His only goal is the swiftest and most certain destruction of this vile order. [b]
4. He despises public opinion. He despises and abhors the existing social ethic in all its manifestations and expressions. For him, everything is moral which assists the triumph of the revolution.
5. The revolutionary is a consecrated man. Merciless towards the state and towards the whole of the educated and privileged society, he must expect no mercy from them either. Between him and them there exists, secretly or openly, an unceasing and irreconcilable war of life and death. Every single day, he must be prepared to die. He must condition himself to endure torture.
6. Severe with himself, he must be severe with others. All tender and effeminate emotions of kinship, friendship, love, gratitude and even honor itself must be crushed in him by a single cold passion of the revolutionary cause. There exists for him only one delight, one consolation, one reward and one gratification –the success of the revolution. Night and day he must have only one thought, one aim –merciless destruction. Cold bloodedly and tirelessly pursuing this aim, he must always be prepared to die and to destroy with his own hands everything that hinders its achievement.
7. The nature of the true revolutionary excludes all romanticism, all sentimentality, rapture and enthusiasm. It even excludes personal hatred and vengeance. The revolutionary passion, which becomes his normal, constant state, must be combined with cold calculation. Always and everywhere he must not be what his personal inclinations prompt him to be, but what the general interest of the revolution prescribes.
8. The revolutionary considers one a friend and holds dear only a person who has shown himself in practice to be as much a revolutionary as he is. The extent of his friendship, devotion and other obligations towards his comrade is determined only by his degree of usefulness in the practical work of the all-destructive revolution.
9. The need for solidarity among revolutionaries is self-evident. In it lies the whole strength of revolutionary work. Revolutionary comrades of the same level of revolutionary understanding and passion must, as far as possible, discuss all important matters together and decide together unanimously. But by implementing a plan decided upon in this manner, each man must act for himself and have recourse to the advice and help of his comrades only when this is necessary for success. [b: questionable]
10. Each comrade would have under him several revolutionaries of the second and third categories, that is, comrades who are not completely initiated. He should regard them as portions of a common fund of revolutionary capital, placed at his disposal. He should expend his portion of the capital economically, always attempting to derive the utmost possible benefit from it. He should regard himself as capital consecrated for use in the triumph of the revolutionary cause, but as capital which he may not dispose of independently without the consent of the entire company of the fully initiated comrades.
11. When a comrade gets into trouble, the revolutionary, in deciding the question to rescue him or not, must not think in terms of his personal feelings but only of the good of the revolutionary cause. Therefore he must weigh, on the one hand, the usefulness of the comrade and on the other, the expenditure of revolutionary energy required for his deliverance, and must decide for the weightier side.
12. The admission into the society of a new member, who has proven himself, not by words but by deeds, may be decided upon only by unanimous agreement. [b]
13. The revolutionary enters the world of the state, of class and of so-called education and lives in it only because he has faith in its total and near destruction. He is not a revolutionary if he feels pity for anything in this world, if he hesitates before the destruction of a situation, of a relationship, or of some individual belonging to this world in which everyone and everything must be equally odious to him.
14. Aiming at merciless destruction, the revolutionary can and often even must live in society while pretending to be something quite other than what he is. The revolutionary must penetrate everywhere; all classes, the highest and middle classes, the merchants’ stores, the church, the homes of the nobility, the world of bureaucracy, the military, the literary world, the Third section and even the Winter Palace.
15. All of this foul society must be split up into several categories. The first category is condemned immediately to death. The society will compile a list of these condemned persons in order of the relative harm they may do to the success of the revolutionary cause, so that the first numbers are removed before the later ones.
16. In compiling these lists and deciding the order referred to above, the guiding principle must not be the individual’s personal acts of villainy, nor even the hatred he provokes among the society or the people. This villainy and hatred may sometime even be useful to a certain extent since they help to incite popular rebellion. The guiding principle must be the measure of benefit which must result from the person’s death for the revolutionary cause. Therefore, in the first instance, must be annihilated all those who are especially harmful to the revolutionary organization, and whose sudden and violent death will inspire the greatest fear in the government and, by depriving it of its cleverest and most energetic figures, will shatter its strength.
17. The second category must consist of those who are allowed to live temporarily so that through a series of their bestial crimes they may drive the people to inevitable revolt.
18. To the third category belongs a multitude of highest ranking cattle or persons distinguished neither for their particular intelligence nor for their energy, but who, because of their position, enjoy wealth, connections, influences, and power. They must be entangled and confused, and, when we have learned enough about their dirty secrets, we must make them our slaves. Their power, influence, connections, wealth and strengths thus become an inexhaustible treasurehouse and a powerful aid to various revolutionary undertakings.
19. The fourth category consists of politically ambitious persons and liberals of various shades. With them we can conspire according to their own programs, pretending that we are blindly following them while in fact we are taking control of them, and, having mastered all their secrets, compromising them to the utmost, so that it is impossible for them to turn back and they will cause disorder in the state.
20. The fifth category consists of doctrinaires, conspirators, revolutionaries in idly babbling circles or on paper. We must continually incite and force them into making violent declarations of practical intent, the result of which will be the destruction of the majority without a trace and the real revolutionary development of a few.
21. The sixth, and an important category is that of women, which must be divided into three main types. First, those empty-headed, thoughtless, vapid women whom we may use as we use the third and fourth categories of men. Second, women who are ardent, gifted and devoted but who are not ours because they have not yet achieved the phase of factual revolutionary understanding. We must use them like the men of the fifth category. Finally, the women who are ours completely, that is, who have been fully initiated and have accepted our program in its entirety. They are our comrades. We should regard these women as the most valuable of our treasures, whose assistance we cannot do without.
22. [lost; to find]
23. By popular revolution our brotherhood does not mean a regulated movement on the classical Western model –a movement which has always been stopped short by respect for property and for the traditions of social customs of so-called civilization and morality, which has until now always confined itself to the overthrow of one political structure merely to substitute it with another, and has striven thus to create the so-called revolutionary state. The only revolution that can save the people is one that eradicates all statism and exterminates all state traditions, customs, and classes in Russia. [b]
24. Therefore our society does not intend to impose on the people any organization from above. Any future organization will undoubtedly take shape through the movement and life of our people, but that is a task for future generations. Our task is terrible, total, universal, merciless destruction. [b]
25. Therefore, in drawing closer to the people, we must unite above all with those elements of the popular life, which, ever since the foundation of the state power of Muscovy, have never ceased to protest, not only in words, but in deeds, against everything directly or indirectly connected with the state: against the nobility, against the bureaucracy, against the priests, against the world of the [merchant] guilds, and against the kulak exploiters. But we shall unite with the valiant world of brigands, who are the only true revolutionaries in Russia, [b]
26. To unite this world into a single invincible, all-destroying force –this is our entire organization, conspiracy and task.
posted by nihilist at 9:27 PM
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