by James Millar
Despite his revolutionary passion, Bakunin, as a contemporary Western philosophical encyclopedia puts it, “was learned, intelligent, and philosophically reflective.” By contrast, a Soviet-period philosophical dictionary describes Bakunin as a “revolutionary-adventurer [who] blindly believed in the socialist instincts of the masses and in the inexhaustibility of their spontaneous revolutionary feeling, especially as found among the peasantry and lumpen-proletariat.”
The “reign of freedom,” Bakunin insisted, could come for the masses and for everyone only after the liquidation of the status quo of traditional bourgeois society and the state. Bakunin soon fell out with the Marxists, with whom he had originally been tenuously allied in the First International in Geneva. He denounced the Marxist teaching of the necessity of a dictatorship of the proletariat in order to usher in the new order of socialism. He also disagreed with those Russian revolutionists who advocated terrorism and various forms of postrevolutionary authoritarianism and dictatorship, such as the Russian Jacobins. “Every act of official authority,” Bakunin once wrote, “necessarily awakens within the masses a rebellious feeling, a legitimate counterreaction.”
In a letter to the 1860s revolutionary terrorist Sergei Geradievich Nechayev, Bakunin once wrote: “You said that all men should follow your revolutionary catechism, that the abandonment of self and renunciation of personal needs and desires, all feelings, all attachments and links should become a normal state of affairs, the everyday condition of all humanity. Out of that cruel renunciation and extreme fanaticism you now wish to make this a general principle applicable to the whole community. You want crazy things, impossible things, the total negation of nature, man, and society!” Here Bakunin seemed to be renouncing his own, earlier brief leanings toward authoritarianism before adopting his anarchist philosophy. For Bakunin, government of any kind, like religion, is oppressive. The church, he said, is a “heavenly tavern in which people try to forget about their daily grind.” In order for people to gain freedom, religion and the state must be swept away along with all forms of “power over the people.” Their place will be taken by a “free federation” of agricultural and industrial cooperative associations in which science reigns.
Bakunin spent much of his life abroad. He emigrated from Russia in 1840 to live in central and western Europe. There he formed close ties with other famous Russian ?migr?s, such as Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogarev.
Bakunin’s relations with the First International and Karl Marx were stormy. Resenting Marx’s high-handedness and authoritarian political ideology, Bakunin was finally expelled from the communist world organization in 1870. Soon after this, his The State and Anarchy was published in several languages. In this work, in quasi-Hegelian terms, he describes the historical process by which mankind evolves from “bestiality” to freedom. See also: ANARCHISM; HERZEN, ALEXANDER IVANOVICH; NECHAYEV, SERGEI GERADIEVICH; POPULISM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Venturi, Franco. (1966). Roots of Revolution: A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in Nineteenth Century Russia, trans. Francis Haskell. New York: Gros-set amp; Dunlap. Weeks, Albert L. (1968). The First Bolshevik: A Political Biography of Peter Tkachev. New York: New York University Press.
ALBERT L. WEEKS
BALAKLAVA, BATTLE OF
On October 25, 1854, Prince A. S. Menshikov, commander of Russian ground forces in Crimea, launched an attack on the British supply base at Balaklava to divert an allied attack on Sevastopol. The battlefield overlooked the Crimean Uplands, which dropped steeply onto the Plain of Balaklava. The plain was divided into two valleys by the Causeway Heights, occupied by a series of Turkish-held redoubts.
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The British cavalry was camped at the foot of the escarpment. The Russians, led by Prince R. R. Liprandi, captured four redoubts at dawn on October 25. Although the British Commander, Lord Raglan, had a commanding view, he was short of infantry. Russian hussars advancing toward Bal-aklava were driven off by his only infantry regiment. Another large Russian cavalry force was driven off by the British Heavy Brigade, leaving the battle stalled. When the Russians began to remove captured guns from the redoubts, Raglan, still lacking infantry reinforcements, ordered the cavalry to stop them.
In error, the 661-strong Light Brigade under Lord Cardigan advanced down the valley toward the main Russian batteries. British troopers came under fire from fifty-four cannons to the front and on both flanks. Reaching the guns at a charge, the brigade drove off the Russian cavalry before retiring slowly back to their starting line, having suffered grievous losses: 118 killed, 127 wounded, and 45 taken prisoner. This astonishing display of cool courage demoralized the Russians. Total battle casualties included 540 Russians killed and wounded; 360 British, 38 French, and 260 Turks. It was little more than a skirmish in the much larger war. See also: CRIMEAN WAR
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adkin, Mark. (1996). The Charge. London: Leo Cooper. Anglesey, Marquis of. (1975). A History of the British Cavalry. London: Leo Cooper. Lambert, Andrew. (1990). The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia, 1853-1856. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Seaton, Albert. (1977). The Crimean War: A Russian Chronicle. New York: St. Martin’s.
ANDREW LAMBERT
The traditional balalaika’s popularity may have peaked in the last decades of the eighteenth century, when foreign travelers reported seeing one in every home, although as numerous references in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others attest, it remained in widespread if diminishing use during the nineteenth century. Most closely associated with the Russians, the instrument, likely a borrowing from the Tatars, was used to a lesser extent by Ukrainians, Gypsies, Belarussians, and other ethnic groups.
The modern balalaika originated from the work of Vasily Andreyev (1861-1918), who in the 1880s created a standardized, three-string chromatic triangular-bodied instrument with fixed metal frets and other innovations. Andreyev went on to develop the concept of the balalaika orchestra consisting of instruments of various sizes, for which he later reconstructed the long-forgotten domra, a favorite instrument of the skomorokhi, or minstrels.
The modern balalaika is a hybrid phenomenon incorporating elements of folk, popular, and art or classical music and is widely taught from music school through conservatory. In addition to its use in traditional-instrument orchestras and ensembles, the balalaika’s repertoire includes pieces with piano and other chamber works, a number of concertos with symphony orchestra, and occasional appearances in opera. A vanishing contemporary village folk tradition, while possibly preserving some pre-Andreyev elements, utilizes mass-produced balalaikas played with a pick. Throughout much of its history the instrument has been used as a symbol of Russian traditional culture. See also: FOLK MUSIC; MUSIC
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kiszko, Martin. (1995). “The Balalaika: A Reappraisal.” Galpin Society Journal 48:130-155.
SERGE ROGOSIN
BALALAIKA
The balalaika is one of a family of Eurasian musical instruments with long necks, few strings, and a playing technique based on rapid strumming with the index finger. First mentioned in written records in 1688 in Moscow, the balalaika existed in various forms with triangular and oval bodies, differing numbers of strings, and movable tied-on string frets, and was mainly used for playing dance tunes.
BALKAN WARS
Following the Bosnian crisis of 1908 to 1909 and the formal annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, Russia abandoned its policy of reaching a modus vivendi with Vienna on the Balkans. Weakened by the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905 and the Revolution of 1905, it now sought a
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Residents of Gumurdjina, Macedonia, drive away invading Bulgarians, c. 1913. © MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY defensive alliance with Serbia and Bulgaria as a way to regain influence in the region. Although the diplomatic discussions that ensued were not intended to further the already fractious natur
e of Balkan rivalries, events soon ran counter to Russia’s intentions.
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had sought to revitalize the Ottoman Empire but instead hastened its dismemberment. In 1911 the Italian annexation of Tripoli laid bare the weakness of the Turks, and the remaining Ottoman holdings in Europe suddenly became inviting targets for the states in the region. With Russian encouragement, Serbia and Bulgaria joined in a pact in March 1912, the genesis of a new Balkan League. Two months later Albania revolted and called upon Europe for support. That same month, May 1912, Bulgaria and Greece entered into an alliance, and in October, Montenegro joined the partnership.
What Russian foreign minister Sergei Sazonov saw as an alliance to counter Austro-Hungarian influence in the Balkans was now a league bent upon war. The March pact between Serbia and Bulgaria had already presaged the conflict by calling for the partition of Macedonia. Reports of impending war in the Balkans during the summer and fall of 1912, and also of a belief that Russia would come to the aid of its Slavic brethren, led Sazonov to inform Sofia and Belgrade that theirs was a defensive alliance. Nonetheless, by autumn public sentiment in southeastern Europe left the Balkan allies little choice.
On October 8, 1912, Montenegro attacked Turkey. On October 17 Serbia and Bulgaria joined the conflict, followed two days later by Greece. The Balkan armies quickly defeated the Turks. Bulgarian forces reached the outskirts of Istanbul, and in May 1913 the Treaty of London brought the First Balkan War to a close. The peace did not last long, however, as the creation of a new Albanian state and quarrels among the victors over the spoils in Macedonia led to embitterment, especially on the part of Sofia, which felt cheated out of its Macedonian claims.
On the night of June 29-30, 1913, one month following the peace treaty, Bulgarian troops moved into the north-central part of Macedonia. The other members of the coalition, joined by Romania and, ironically, the Turks, joined in the counterattack. Bulgaria was quickly defeated and, by the Treaty of Bucharest, August 10, 1913, was forced to cede most of what it had gained in Macedonia during the First Balkan War. In addition, the Ottoman Empire regained much of eastern Thrace, which it had lost only months earlier. Romania’s share of the spoils was the southern Dobrudja.
Serbia was the principal victor in the Balkan Wars, gaining the lion’s share of Macedonia as well as Kosovo. Bulgaria was the loser. In many respects, Russia lost as well because the continuing instability in the Balkans undermined its need for peace in the region, a situation clearly demonstrated by the events of the summer of 1914. See also: ALBANIANS, CAUCASIAN; BUCHAREST, TREATY OF; BULGARIA, RELATIONS WITH; GREECE, RELATIONS WITH; MONTENEGRO, RELATIONS WITH; SERBIA, RELATIONS WITH; TURKEY, RELATIONS WITH; YUGOSLAVIA, RELATIONS WITH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jelavich, Barbara. (1964). A Century of Russian Foreign Policy, 1814-1914. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
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Rossos, Andrew. (1981). Russia and the Balkans: Inter-Balkan Rivalry and Russian Foreign Policy, 1908-1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
RICHARD FRUCHT
1950s, but only after experiencing a significant diminution of their population. The alienation of exile has been compounded by the ongoing difficulty of returning to territory that had, in the meantime, been occupied by outsiders. Post-Soviet ethnic conflict has followed along these contours.
BALKARS
The Balkars are a small ethnic group in the northwest Caucasus. They are one of the titular nationalities of the autonomous Karbardino-Balkar Republic in the Russian Federation. In the 1989 Soviet Census, they numbered 85,126. Of that number, 93 percent considered Balkar to be their native language, while 78 percent considered themselves fluent in Russian as a second language. This means that nearly all adults spoke Russian to some extent.
The Balkar language is essentially identical to the Karachay language, spoken in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. This split is an example of the way in which some languages were fractured into smaller groups for the sake of creating smaller ethnic identities. The Karachay-Balkar language itself is a member of the Ponto-Caspian group of western Turkic languages. Other languages closely related are Kumyk in Dagestan, Karaim in Lithuania, and the Judeo-Crimean Tatar language of Uzbekistan.
Following the general pattern of alphabet politics in the Soviet Union, Balkar was written with an Arabic script until 1924, from 1924 to 1937 with a Latin alphabet, and finally from 1937 to the present in a modified Cyrillic. A modest number of books were published in Balkar during the Soviet period. From 1984 to 1985, for example, fifty-eight titles were published. This is a reasonable number in the Soviet context for the size of their group and for sharing an ethnic jurisdiction. This number is higher than some of the Dagestani peoples who had larger populations, but no jurisdiction of their own.
The Balkar people, as Turks, find themselves surrounded by Circassians and their close neighbors in the northwest Caucasus. They are linguistically a remnant of Turkish groups who migrated along the Eurasian steppe. Historically, in addition to the disruptions of the nineteenth-century Russian conquest of the Caucasus, the Balkars were one of the peoples who suffered deportation at the end of World War II for their alleged collaboration with the Nazis. They were allowed to return in the See also: CAUCASUS; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, SOVIET; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, TSARIST
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ethnologue «www.ethnologue.com». Hill, Fiona. (1995). Russia’s Tinderbox: Conflict in the North Caucasus and Its Implication for the Future of the Russian Federation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Karny, Yo’av. (2000). Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
PAUL CREGO
BALLET
The origins of the Russian ballet, like those of most other Western art forms, can be traced to eighteenth-century St. Petersburg, where Empress Anna Ivanovna established the first dancing school in Russia in 1738. This school, whose descendant is the present-day Academy of Russian Ballet, was headed by a series of European dancing masters, the first of whom was Jean-Baptiste Land?.
By the 1740s, Empress Elizabeth employed three balletmasters. The continued presence of ballet in Russia was assured by Catherine II, who established a Directorate of Imperial Theaters in 1766, saw to the construction of St. Petersburg’s Bolshoi Theater in 1783, and incorporated Land?’s school into the Imperial Theater School she founded in 1779.
The tenure of French balletmaster Charles-Louis Didelot (1767-1837) in St. Petersburg (1801-1831) marked the first flowering of the national ballet. The syllabus of the imperial school began to assume its present-day form under Didelot, and his use of stage machinery anticipated the exploitation of stage effects to create atmosphere and build audiences for the ballet across Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century. After Didelot’s departure, Jules Perrot led the Petersburg ballet from 1848 to 1859. Arthur Saint-L?on succeeded Perrot and choreographed in St. Petersburg until 1869.
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Dancers from the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg perform on stage in the 1990s. © BOB KRIST/CORBIS
Russian ballet began to assume its familiar form during the decades of Marius Petipa’s (1818-1910) work in the Imperial Theaters. Petipa came to Petersburg as a dancer in 1847, and became balletmaster in 1862. The ballets Petipa choreographed in Russia functioned as a choreographic response to nineteenth-century grand opera; they featured as many as five acts with numerous scene changes. If Perrot is identified primarily with the development of narrative in Russian ballet, and Saint-L?on could be accused of overemphasizing the ballet’s divertissement at the expense of the story line, Petipa combined the two trends to make a dance spectacle with plots as complex as their choreography. The ballets Petipa staged in St. Petersburg still serve as cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory: Sleeping Beauty (1890), Swan Lake (1895) (with Lev Ivanov), Ray-monda (1898), Le Corsaire (1869), Don Quixote (1869), and La Bayad?re (1877). The distinctive features of nineteenth
-century dance represent developments of the Russian school of dancing under Petipa’s leadership. The new focus on the female dancer was the result of recent developments in point technique, which allowed the ballerina not only to rise up on the tips of her toes, but to remain posed there, and eventually to dance on them. Petipa’s choreography emphasizes two nearly opposite facets of the new technique that these technical advances afforded: first, the long supported adagio, in which the woman is supported and turned on point by her partner; second, the brilliant allegro variations (solos) Petipa created for his ballerinas, to exploit the steel toes of this new breed of female dancer.
The work of two ballet reformers characterize the late- and post-Petipa era. Alexander Gorsky became the chief choreographer of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in 1899 and attempted to imbue the ballet with greater realism along the lines of the dramas of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theater. Gorsky’s ballets featured greater cohesion of design elements (sets and costumes) and an unprecedented attention to detail. In Petersburg, Michel Fokine fell under the spell of dancer Isadora Duncan and theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Influenced by the free dance of the former, and by the latter’s experiments in stylized symbolist theater, Fokine pioneered a new type of ballet: typically a one-act work without the perceived expressive confines of nineteenth-century mime and standard ballet steps.
Fokine and his famed collaborators, Vaslav Ni-jinsky and Anna Pavlova, achieved their greatest fame in Europe as charter members of Sergei Di-agilev’s Ballets Russes, which debuted in Paris in 1909. Fokine’s ballets (Les Sylphides, Petrushka, Spectre de la Rose) were the sensations of the early Diagilev season. The Diagilev ballet not only announced the Russian ballet’s arrival to the European avant-garde, but also the beginning of a rift that would widen during the Soviet period: the rise of a Russian ?migr? ballet community that included many important choreographers, dancers, composers, and visual artists, working outside Russia.