page_title: Anarchism and nationalism
section_title: Bakunin and nationalism
hierarchical_section_title: Anarchism and nationalism / Bakunin and nationalism
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Mikhail Bakunin
context_page_description: Anarchism and nationalism both emerged in Europe following the French Revolution of 1789, and have a long and durable relationship going back at least to Mikhail Bakunin and his involvement with the Pan-Slavic movement prior to his conversion to anarchism. There has been a long history of anarchist involvement with nationalism all over the world, as well as with internationalism.
  Nevertheless, anarchism as a political movement was very supportive during the early 20th century of anationalism as well as of the Esperanto language. After the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, Francoist Spain persecuted anarchists and Catalan nationalists, among whom the use of Esperanto was extensive.
context_section_description: Prior to his involvement with the anarchist movement, Mikhail Bakunin had a long history of involvement in nationalist movements of various kinds. In his Appeal to the Slavs (1848), Bakunin called for cooperation between nationalist revolutionary movements across Europe (both Slavic and non-Slavic) to overthrow empires and dissolve imperialism, in an uprising of "all oppressed nationalities" which would lead to a "Universal Federation of European Republics". He also agitated for a United States of Europe (a contemporary nationalist vision originated by Mazzini). Later, exiled to eastern Siberia, he became involved with a circle of Siberian nationalists who planned to separate from Russia. They were connected with his cousin and patron, Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky, the Governor General of Eastern Siberia, whom Bakunin defended in Herzen's journal The Bell. It was not until a full four years after leaving Siberia, however, that Bakunin proclaimed himself an anarchist.
  Max Nettlau remarked of this period in his life that: "This may be explained by Bakunin's increasing nationalist psychosis, induced and nourished by the expansionist ideas of the officials and exploiters who surrounded him in Siberia, causing him to overlook the plight of their victims."
caption: Anarchist theorist Mikhail Bakunin, before proclaiming himself an anarchist, embraced nationalist causes such as pan-Slavism and Siberian separatism.
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