I’m very interested in the role that individualism plays in securing the foundations of a revolutionary movement. Saunders identifies two broad movements within the revolutionary faction of Russian society: the Lavrovists and the Bakuninists. Lavrov argued that the development of the individual conscience was necessary for the revolutionizing of the peasantry, and that this shift would have to take place gradually and over time. Bakunin, however, claimed that at his time of writing, revolutionary conditions were already present, and that revolution could occur without individual enlightenment. Bakunin seemed more interested in the power of the community, rather than the individual. Furthermore, he argued that “‘in order to alter thought […] one must first of all change life.'” (Saunders, 320). Rather than ideology sowing the seeds of revolution, he saw the movement of the people itself as instilling revolutionary ideology.
Saunders argues that Bakunin was incorrect in his belief that revolution could occur without gradualism, and that if the revolutionaries made more of an effort to “put down roots” within the peasantry, they would have been more successful. But is there not a middle ground? While Lavrov raises the important point that an individual commitment to the movement is important for creating a strong revolutionary basis, Bakunin’s perspective seems equally valuable in that it emphasizes the power of communal action and social cohesion. Furthermore, as we saw with Lenin’s approach in “What Is To Be Done?”, it seems as though the concept of individual “conscience-raising” often strays into the territory of elitism, and works concentrates the power within a class of educated elites. My question, then, is how does a revolutionary movement secure a balance between social unity and individual agency? Given what we’ve read up to this point, I feel that in order for a revolution to be successful, there needs to be some sort of transfer of power from the revolutionaries to mass society, but how that is to be done seems more complicated…
