To observe the 210th birthday of the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, we present a photoessay and virtual tour of his birthplace and family home, Priamukhino, including the museum documenting his life and the lives of his relatives and friends. Owing to the unfortunate conditions prevailing in Russia today, it is not easy for many of us—including many Russians—to visit. This is a misfortune, because Priamukhino has served as a gathering place for anarchists since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Bakunin’s revolutionary ideas did not spring forth fully-formed like Athena from the skull of Zeus. They emerged from an environment of participatory dialogue and collective education. His sisters were among his earliest and most passionate interlocutors; later, Russian writers including Vissarion Belinsky, Ivan Turgenev, and Leo Tolstoy spent time at Priamukhino with his siblings. This makes it an important focus of study for researchers in a variety of historical, philosophical, and literary fields. We hope that this photoessay will be of use to those who cannot themselves visit—and that the political situation in Russia will change soon.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, anarchists began gathering at Priamukhino—some to participate in the Priamukhino Free Artel,1 tending to the land and buildings, others for annual conferences. Some came from as far away as Italy, the United States, and Brazil.
For those who wish to learn the history of the Bakunin family, John Randolph’s The House in the Garden: The Bakunin Family and the Romance of Russian Idealism offers a good starting place. To provide more context for this photoessay, we present a short preface by the photographer.
Weekend at Priamukhino
Finally, I got to see the legendary Priamukhino!
I have been hearing about the “Priamukhino readings” for many years since I became an anarchist. Anarchists have been coming here since the moment that the Soviet Union loosened its grip on political dissent. People used to come to Priamukhino for a few days every year to live collectively, working together to renovate what remains of the Bakunin family mansion and forest, and also to read and discuss anarchist texts outside the distractions of urban life. The Priamukhino readings had been interconnected with the artel work since the 1990s, but they ceased in 2018 due to differences within the Priamukhino Free Artel.
The work of the artel continues, however. The forest around the village beside the Bakunin family mansion needs regular maintenance, and the mansion itself needs renovating.
No active anarchists live in Priamukhino itself, but at least one used to live close by. In addition, there are people in Priamukhino who sympathize with anarchists; since the 1990s, they have undertaken a tremendous effort to preserve the village’s historical heritage and affirm the anarchists’ agenda. Relations with the other villagers are generally good, as well. The only strained relation in the village is with the priest, who openly denounces anarchists. Many villagers prefer to attend church services elsewhere.
What I found in Priamukhino this year was quite different from what I expected. Likely owing to the situation in Russia, only a few people came to join artel work, none of whom I knew from before. Nonetheless, I received a very warm welcome.
We spent the next two days cutting fallen trees, carrying wood, washing monuments, taking out trash, and digging out hogweed, which was invading the whole forest. We also cut the grass to clear paths in the forest around the mansion and the Decembrists’ Oak—an oak that two Decembrists, the brothers Muravyov, planted there in 1816, which was destroyed by lightning in the 1970s. Another oak has been planted there in its place, and nearby, there is another small oak tree planted by anarchists. We worked up to four hours each day and spent the rest cooking food, talking, watching movies (among them, W. Allen’s Love and Death), swimming in Osuga river, and taking walks around Priamukhino’s beautiful scenery of forests, village roads, and river banks. We also took a trip to Kuvshinovo, a nearby town named after the capitalist Julia Kuvshinova, to see its architectural features.
It was interesting to walk the little roads and paths through the forest, to touch the mighty old trees that witnessed the childhoods of all eleven of the Bakunin siblings in the 19th century, to imagine young Mikhail walking here as well, conversing with his sisters and friends. It makes one reflect on how environments and circumstances can influence our lives. Who would imagine that the son of a family that lived in a mansion maintained by more than a hundred serfs could become a world-famous revolutionary, hated and feared by those who own mansions? The mosaic of life’s circumstances can give rise to the most surprising results.
I am honored to visit a place that holds a part of this legacy, where so much love and work has been put into it, connecting anarchist history to one more place on Earth.
We attended the Bakunin family museum located on the edge of Priamukhino. The museum is run by a kind old woman who gave us a tour. It documents the history of the family, focusing on each Bakunin starting with Mikhail Bakunin’s father. A significant part of the museum is given over to Mikhail Bakunin himself, exploring his involvement in revolutionary history.
I also encountered some publications about Bakunin that I hadn’t seen before: N. Pirumova’s Bakunin, published in 1970; M.P. Dragomanova’s Critical-Biographical Note on Bakunin, published in 1906, a copy of which was given to the museum by a descendant of the Bakunins; Memories of Bakunin by M.P. Sazhin (Arman Ross), published in 1926 by the publishing house of the All-Union Society of Political Convicts and Exiles, section Library of Exile and Hard Labor. I took the opportunity of being alone in the museum to take some of them out from under the glass and take pictures of them.
I also looked through the samizdat publications of “Priamukhino Harmony,” a zine that anarchists have been producing during the Priamukhino Free Artel and Priamukhino readings. Apparently, in all the years since it first began to appear in the 1990s, this paper has not been photocopied or digitalized, and the only originals were kept in the village. That worries me, because at any time something could happen to them and they would be lost to anarchist history. I hurriedly photographed all of them.
In addition, I recorded a sort of virtual tour of the museum.
The Frogs of Priamukhino
I took this picture of a frog near the Bakunin family house. The frogs at Priamukhino have been part of the legend of the place since at least 1995, when anarchists renovated the ponds that they inhabit. Subsequently, in place of a red star, anarchists put a red frog on a black banner, which has become a symbol of the anarchist project in Priamukhino.
Museum
One part of the museum documents the friendship of Mikhail’s brother, Alexander Bakunin, and Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace.
Kutuzov Hill
The former Beautiful Hill, now Kutuzov Hill, is named after the Russian military leader who defeated Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century. The legend goes that Aleksandr Bakunin, Mikhail Bakunin’s father, was friends with Mikhail Kutuzov and the latter stopped at Priamukhino for a day. There is no official evidence confirming this besides the fact that Kutuzov’s regiment once stayed very close to Priamukhino for a day or two for no apparent reason. Aleksandr Bakunin renamed the hill after the defeat of Napoleon.
This stone is a memorial stone for Kutuzov. During the Second World War, if I’m not mistaken, there was a military hospital in Priamukhino. The story goes that while Soviet soldiers were making a campfire under the stone, the stone cracked and part of it rolled down the hill and either stayed there or was taken elsewhere. What remains of the stone is still on the hill, as you can see.
The South Wing of the Bakunin House, the Barn, and the Forest
These photos include the Decembrists’ Oak and the ruins of one of the wings of the original Bakunin house.
19th-Century Church
When you enter Priamukhino via the bridge over the river Osuga river, one of the first things you encounter is the old Bakunin church, where you can also find the Bakunin family memorial.
Cascade of Ponds
This cascade of ponds was made in the 19th century. By the 1990s, it was in a horrible state, until anarchists renovated it.
Priamukhino Village and Administration
The Environs of Priamukhino and Lopatino
Walking in the village of Priamukhino and its surroundings.