|
CATECHISM
OF A REVOLUTIONIST The
Duties of the Revolutionist to Himself The
Duties of the Revolutionist to Himself 1.
The revolutionist is a person doomed [obrechennyi,
also "consecrated"]. He has no personal interests, no business
affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property, and no name.
Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought and the
single passion for revolution. 2.
The revolutionist knows that in the very depths of his being, not only
in words but also in deeds, he has broken all the bonds which tie him
to the civil order [grazhdanskim
poriadkom] and the civilized
world with all its laws, moralities, and customs, and with all its
generally accepted conventions. He is their implacable enemy, and
if he continues to live with them it is only in order to destroy them
more speedily. 3.
The revolutionist despises all doctrines and refuses to accept the
mundane sciences, leaving them for future generations. He knows
only one science: the science of destruction. For this reason,
but only for this reason, he will study mechanics, physics, chemistry,
and perhaps medicine. But all day and all night he studies the
vital science of human beings, their characteristics and circumstances,
at every possible level of social existence. The object is
perpetually the same: the surest and quickest way of destroying the
whole filthy order. 4.
The revolutionist despises public opinion. He despises and hates
the existing social morality in all its manifestations. For him,
morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the
revolution. 5.
The revolutionist is a person [obrechennyi
see first line]. He is merciless toward the state and toward the whole
formal social structure of educated society [soslovno-obrazovannogo
obshchestva]; and he can
expect no mercy from them. Between him and them there exists,
declared or concealed, a relentless and irreconcilable war to the
death. He must accustom himself to torture. 6.
Tyrannical toward himself, he must be tyrannical toward others.
All the gentle and enervating sentiments of kinship, love, friendship,
gratitude, and even honor, must be suppressed in him and give place to
the cold and single-minded passion for revolution. For him, there
exists only one pleasure, one consolation, one reward, one satisfaction -- the success of the
revolution. Night and day he must have but one thought, one aim
-- merciless destruction. Striving cold-bloodedly and
indefatigably toward this end, he must be prepared to destroy himself
and to destroy with his own hands everything that stands in the path of
the revolution. 7.
The nature of the true revolutionist excludes all sentimentality,
romanticism, infatuation, and exaltation. All private hatred and
revenge must also be excluded. Revolutionary passion, practiced
at every moment of the day until it becomes a habit, is to be employed
with cold calculation. At all times, and in all places, the
revolutionist must obey not his personal impulses, but only those which
serve the cause of the revolution. The
Relations of the Revolutionist with his Revolutionary Comrades 8.
The revolutionist can have no friendship or attachment, except for
those who have proven by their actions that they, like him, are
dedicated to revolution. The degree of friendship, devotion and
obligation toward such a comrade is determined solely by the degree of
his usefulness to the cause of total revolutionary destruction. 9.
It is superfluous to speak of solidarity among revolutionists.
The whole strength of revolutionary work lies in this.
Comrade-revolutionists [tovarishchi-revoliutsionery]
who possess the same revolutionary passion and understanding should, as
much as possible, deliberate all important matters together and come to
unanimous conclusions. When the plan is finally decided upon,
then the revolutionist must rely solely on himself. In carrying
out acts of destruction, each one should act alone, never running to
another for advice and assistance, except when these are necessary for
the furtherance of the plan. 10.
All comrades should have under them second-- or third-degree
revolutionists -- i.e., comrades who are not completely initiated. These should be regarded as part of the common
revolutionary capital placed at his disposal. This capital
should, of course, be spent as economically as possible in order to
derive from it the greatest possible profit. The real
revolutionist should regard himself as capital consecrated to the
triumph of the revolution; however, he may not personally and alone
dispose of that capital without the unanimous consent of the fully
initiated comrades. 11.
When a comrade is in danger and the question arises whether he should
be saved or not saved, the decision must not be arrived at on the basis
of sentiment, but solely in the interests of the revolutionist
cause. Therefore, it is necessary to weigh carefully the
usefulness of the comrade against the expenditure of revolutionary
forces necessary to save him, and the decision must be made
accordingly. The
Relations of the Revolutionist within [his revolutionary] Society [k
obshchestvu] 12.
The new member, having given proof of his loyalty not by words but by
deeds, can be received into the society [tovarishchestvo]
only by the unanimous agreement of all the members. 13.
The revolutionist enters the world of the state, of the privileged
classes [soslovnyi...mir], of the so-called civilization, and
he lives in this world only for the purpose of bringing about its
speedy and total destruction. He is not a revolutionist if he has
any sympathy for this world. He should not hesitate to destroy
any position, any place, or any man in this world. He must hate
everyone and everything in it with an equal hatred. 14.
Aiming at implacable revolution, the revolutionist may and frequently
must live within society while pretending to be completely different
from what he really is, for he must penetrate everywhere, into all the
higher and middle-level social formations [sosloviia],
into the merchant's commercial establishment, into the church, the
gentry estate, and the world of the bureaucrat [mir
biurokratskii] and military,
into literature, and also into the Third Section and even the Winter
Palace of the tsar. 15.
This filthy social order can be split up into several categories.
The first category comprises those who must be condemned to death
without delay. Comrades should compile a list of those to be
condemned according to the relative gravity of their crimes; and the
executions should be carried out according to the prepared order. 16.
When a list of those who are condemned is made, and the order of
execution is prepared, no private sense of outrage should be
considered, nor is it necessary to pay attention to the hatred provoked
by these people among the comrades or the people. Hatred
and the sense of outrage may be partially and temporarily useful
insofar as they incite the masses to revolt. It is necessary to
be guided only by the relative usefulness of these executions for the
sake of revolution. Above all, those who are especially inimical
to the revolutionary organization must be destroyed; their violent and
sudden deaths will produce the utmost panic in the government,
depriving it of its will to action by removing the cleverest and most
energetic supporters. 17.
The second group comprises those who will be spared for the time being
in order that, by a series of monstrous acts, they may drive the people
into inevitable revolt. 18.
The third category consists of a great many brutes in high positions,
distinguished neither by their cleverness nor their energy, while
enjoying riches, influence, power, and high positions by virtue of
their rank. These must be exploited in every possible way; they
must be implicated and embroiled in our affairs, their dirty secrets
must be ferreted out, and they must be transformed into slaves.
Their power, influence, and connections, their wealth and their energy,
will form an inexhaustible treasure and a precious help in all our
undertakings. 19.
The fourth category comprises ambitious office-holders and liberals of
various shades of opinion. The revolutionist must pretend to
collaborate with them, blindly following them, while at the same time,
prying out their secrets until they are completely in his power.
They must be so compromised that there is no way out for them, and then
they can be used to create disorder in the State. 20.
The fifth category consists of those doctrinaires, conspirators, and
revolutionists who cut a great figure on paper or in their circles [kruzhki]. 21.
The sixth category is especially important: women. They can be
divided into three main groups. First,
those frivolous, thoughtless, and vapid women, whom we shall use as we
use the third and fourth category of men. Second,
women who are ardent, capable, and devoted, but who do not belong to us
because they have not yet achieved a passionless and austere
revolutionary understanding; these must be used like the men of the
fifth category. Finally,
there are the women who are completely on our side -- i.e., those who
are wholly dedicated and who have accepted our program in its
entirety. We should regard these women as the most valuable or
our treasures; without their help, we would never succeed. The
Attitude of the Society toward the People [narodu] 22.
The Society has no aim other than the complete liberation and happiness
of the narod -- i.e., of the
people who live by manual labor. Convinced that their
emancipation and the achievement of this happiness can only come about
as a result of an all-destroying popular revolt, the Society will use
all its resources and energy toward increasing and intensifying the
evils and miseries of the people until at last their patience is
exhausted and they are driven to a general uprising. 23.
By a revolution, the society [tovarishchestvo]
does not mean an orderly revolt according to the classic western model
-- a revolt which always stops short of attacking the rights of
property and the traditional social systems of so-called civilization
and morality. Until now, such a revolution has always limited
itself to the overthrow of one political form in order to replace it by
another, thereby attempting to bring about a so-called revolutionary
state. The only form of revolution beneficial to the people is
one which destroys the entire State to the roots and exterminates all
the state traditions, institutions, and classes [klassy] in
Russia. 24.
With this end in view, the Society therefore refuses to impose any new
organization from above. Any future organization will doubtless
work its way through the movement and life of the people; but this is a
matter for future generations to decide. Our task is terrible,
total, universal, and merciless destruction. 25.
Therefore, in drawing closer to the people, we must above all make
common cause with those elements of the masses which, since the
foundation of the state of Muscovy, have never ceased to protest, not
only in words but in deeds, against everything directly or indirectly
connected with the state: against nobility, against bureaucracy [chinovnichestva], against priests,
against the merchant gild, and against the parasitic kulak
[rich peasant]. We must unite with the world of adventurous
robber bands, the only genuine revolutionists in Russia. 26.
To weld this world into one single unconquerable and all-destructive
force -- this is our organization [organizatsiia],
our conspiracy, our task. |