THEORY OF RUSSIAN ANARCHISM IN WEST GERMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE LATE 1960S-1980S

The object of research of the article is the German studies of the late 1960s-1980s regarding the anarchic theories of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. The purposes of this article are to determine the causes of surge of interest in this subject among the specialists from West Germany, to show general trends of German studies and to define schools of West German historiography of Russian theoretical anarchism. The author of the article concludes that the most of German specialists are the authors of liberal type. Only few conservative researchers created a negative image of anarchism and identified it with violent acts and crime. Most of West German authors appreciated positively theories of Russian anarchism and paid special attention to the searching of humanistic and anti-totalitarian ideas in the works of anarchists. Besides they held the view point that the anarchistic ideas help society to organize itself and to oppose the bureaucracy.

anarchism, socialism, Narodniks, theory, German historiography, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin