# Statism and Anarchy

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{{Short description|Book by Mikhail Bakunin}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Statism and Anarchy
| image         = Statism and Anarchy.jpg
| title_orig    = Gosudarstvennost' i anarkhiia
| translator    = [Marshall Shatz](/source/Marshall_Shatz)
| author        = [Mikhail Bakunin](/source/Mikhail_Bakunin)
| country       = Russia
| language      = English, translated from [Russian](/source/Russian_language)
| series        = 
| genre         = [Politics](/source/Politics) and [philosophy](/source/philosophy)
| publisher     = [Cambridge University Press](/source/Cambridge_University_Press)
| release_date  = 1873
| media_type    = Print (paperback)
| pages         = 243 (Cambridge University Press edition)
| isbn          = 0-521-36973-8
| isbn_note     = (Cambridge University Press edition)
| dewey         = 320.5/7 20
| congress      = HX833 .B317513 1990
| oclc          = 20826465
}}
'''''Statism and Anarchy''''' ({{langx|ru|Государственность и анархия}}, ''Gosudarstvennost' i anarkhiia'', literally "Statehood and Anarchy") was the last work by the [Russian](/source/Russians) [anarchist](/source/anarchist) [Mikhail Bakunin](/source/Mikhail_Bakunin). Written in the summer of 1873, the key themes of the work are the likely impact on Europe of the [Franco-Prussian War](/source/Franco-Prussian_War) and the rise of the [German Empire](/source/German_Empire), Bakunin's view of the weaknesses of the [Marxist](/source/Marxist) position and an affirmation of anarchism. ''Statism and Anarchy'' was the only one of Bakunin's major anarchist works to be written in Russian and was primarily aimed at a Russian audience, with an initial print run of 1,200 copies printed in [Switzerland](/source/Switzerland) and smuggled into Russia.{{r|Shatz intro}}

==Contents==
In the book, Bakunin posited that the [state](/source/state_(polity)) would always be an obstacle to the establishment of a [classless society](/source/classless_society), as those who constituted a state, no matter their ideological orientation, would inevitably constitute a [ruling class](/source/ruling_class). He remarked that: "the people will feel no better if the stick with which they are being beaten is labelled the 'peoples stick.'... No State ... not even the reddest republic—can ever give the people what they really want."<ref>{{cite book|last1=van der Walt|first1=Lucien|author-link1=Lucien van der Walt|last2=Schmidt|first2=Michael|year=2009|title-link=Black Flame (book)|title=Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism|publisher=[AK Press](/source/AK_Press)|isbn=978-1-904859-16-1|page=54}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[Marshall Shatz](/source/Marshall_Shatz) writes that ''Statism and Anarchy'' "helped to lay the foundations of a [Russian anarchist](/source/Anarchism_in_Russia) movement as a separate current within the [revolutionary stream](/source/Russian_history%2C_1855%E2%80%931892)".<ref name="Shatz intro">{{cite book|last=Shatz|first=Marshall S.|chapter=Introduction|title=Statism and anarchy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|publication-place=Cambridge|year=1990|isbn=978-0-521-36182-8|oclc=20826465|url=https://libcom.org/library/statism-anarchy-mikhail-bakunin}}</ref>

== Published editions ==
* {{cite book|editor-last=Harrison|editor-first=J. F.|translator-last=Plummer|translator-first=C. H.|title=Statism and Anarchy|publisher=Revisionist Press|year=1976|isbn=9780877002192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLYZAQAAIAAJ}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Shatz|editor-first=Marshall S.|translator-last=Shatz|translator-first=Marshall S.|title=Statism and Anarchy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|publication-place=Cambridge|year=1990|isbn=978-0-521-36182-8|oclc=20826465|url=https://libcom.org/library/statism-anarchy-mikhail-bakunin}}

== See also ==
* [List of books about anarchism](/source/List_of_books_about_anarchism)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1873 non-fiction books
Category:Anarchism in Russia
Category:Books by Mikhail Bakunin
Category:Books about anarchism
Category:Collectivist anarchism
Category:Statism

{{anarchism-book-stub}}

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