ABSTRACT
Major elements of the mature thought of Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin had their genesis in the ideas of Russian 'populism' which developed during the 1830s and to which they later contributed. From 1847 onwards, Herzen had lived in the 'West' but he harbored memories of the Russian obshchina, even if initially it had been left behind him in his quest for a revolutionary vision for the future. Both Herzen and Bakunin knew that they were in a social position to do something about trying to improve the social and political conditions of Russia. Bakunin extended his vision of federalism into more practical terms by asserting that 'the land belongs to those who have cultivated it with their own hands—to the rural communes. The socio-economic matters about which he most obviously wrote were federalism in a future society, the peasant commune, the right to inheritance, equality and the family, work, and education.
