Why did Mikhail Bakunin believe a violent revolution was necessary?

Mikhail Bakunin believed that a violent revolution was a necessary prelude to creating a free and peaceful society because he rejected the idea that existing institutions could be reformed or replaced gradually.1

Unlike his contemporary Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who advocated for creating mutualist associations within current society, Bakunin argued that such a piecemeal approach was insufficient. He famously asserted that "the passion for destruction is also a creative passion," viewing the total destruction of all existing institutions as the only way to clear the path for a new social order.12

For Bakunin, the primary objective of a revolutionary movement was the immediate abolition of the state, which he viewed as a source of oppression. He believed that the state and its centralized authority were inherently incompatible with human freedom, and therefore, only a sweeping, violent upheaval—driven by the spontaneous insurgence of the working class and the peasantry—could effectively dismantle these structures and prevent the rise of bureaucratic tyranny.21