The world that never was: a true story of dreamers, schemers, anarchists and secret agents

710 Pages·2010·4.71 MB·English

by  Alex Butterworth

Also by Alex Butterworth
Pompeii: The Living City

FOR MATILDA AND THOMAS
Contents
Dramatis Personae
Timeline
Introduction
Prologue: This Thing of Darkness
1 A Distant Horizon
2 Communards
3 From Prince to Anarchist
4 Around the World in 280 Days
5 To the People
6 Forward!
7 Propaganda by Deed
8 Spies and Tsaricides
9 Inconvenient Guests
10 Voices in the Fog
11 The Holy Brotherhood
12 A Great New Tide
13 The Making of the Martyrs
14 Decadence and Degeneration
15 The Revolution is Postponed
16 Deep Cover
17 The Russian Memorandum
18 Dynamite in the City of Light
19 Wicked Laws
20 The Mysteries of Bourdin and the Baron
21 A Time of Harmony
21 A Time of Harmony
22 Conspiracy Theories
23 Agents Unmasked
24 War and Revolution
25 Coda
Photo Inserts
List of Illustrations
Notes on Sources
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements

Dramatis Personae
Anderson, Sir Robert. Born 1841 in Dublin, son of Crown
Solicitor, became leading anti-Fenian in Ireland then at Scotland
Yard, before being displaced to Home O(cid:39)ce. Recalled as assistant
commissioner. Published apocalyptic interpretations of Bible.
Died 1918.
Andrieux, Louis. Born 1840. Republican lawyer involved in
suppression of Lyons commune, then Opportunist deputy.
Appointed prefect of police in 1880, he served less than two
years, later (cid:46)irting with Boulangism. Senator from 1903, died
1931. Louis Aragon, Dadaist, communist and founding exponent
of surrealism, was his illegitimate son.
Aveling, Eleanor Marx, known as ‘Tussy’. Born 1855. Youngest
daughter of Karl Marx, secretary to father, and socialist activist in
her own right. With SDF, Socialist League and Independent
Labour Party, she galvanised support for the Haymarket Martyrs.
Died by suicide 1898, using Prussic acid supplied by partner
Edward Aveling.
Azef, Evno. Born 1869. Recruited by Okhrana while an
impoverished student in 1893, made a career as agent and double
agent, rising in Socialist Revolutionary Party to e(cid:59)ective
leadership of its Fighting Organisation, with role in provoking
assassinations. Exposed by Burtsev in 1908. Died Berlin, 1918.
Bakunin, Michael. Born 1814. Russian revolutionary. Involved in
1848 uprising in Paris and 1849 insurrection in Dresden. Escaped
from Siberian exile in 1861, established commune in Lyons in
1870, challenged Marx’s dominance of the International,
becoming an inspiration to a younger generation of anarchists
until his death in 1876.
Berkman, Alexander. Born 1870 in Lithuania, emigrated to US in
1888 where worked as typesetter for Most and became lover of
Emma Goldman, before fourteen years’ imprisonment for
attempted assassination of industrialist Frick. Deported to Russia
in 1917, left for Germany in 1921, then France, where he died in
1936.
Bint, Henri. Ex-o(cid:39)cer of the Sûreté hired as a French agent of the
Holy Brotherhood in 1882, then employed by the Paris Okhrana
o(cid:39)ce throughout Rachkovsky’s tenure as its director. A
participant in the celebrated raid on the People’s Will Swiss
printing works, Charlotte Bullier, honeypot bait, may have been
cousin. Would later claim to have hired Golovinsky to forge
Protocols. After Bolshevik Revolution, worked for Cheka.
Bourdin, Martial. Born 1868. French anarchist, lived in America
before London Charlotte Street colony, where his sister had
married incendiary English anarchist H. B. Samuels. Close to
Emile Henry, he died from wounds in Greenwich Park on 15
February 1894, when a bomb he was carrying accidentally
exploded.
Brocher, Gustave. Born 1850. Raised as Fourierist, became priest
but after Commune went to teach in Russia. In London from 1875
involved with Lavrov’s Forward! and Most’s Freiheit, he organised
the 1881 anarchist London Congress, joined Socialist League as
anarchist and adopted five orphans of the Commune. Died 1930.
Burtsev, Vladimir. Born 1862. Joined People’s Will following
tsar’s assassination, imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress, then
active abroad as increasingly prominent militant anti-tsarist and
in counter-intelligence. After imprisonment in Britain, exposed
leading Okhrana agents, but opposed Bolsheviks after 1917
revolution. Died 1942.
Ca(cid:70)ero, Carlo. Born 1846 into aristocratic Italian family and
known as ‘Count’, recruited by Marx to convert Italy to the cause
known as ‘Count’, recruited by Marx to convert Italy to the cause
but was won over to Bakunin’s vision of anarchistic socialism.
Funded Bakunin’s folly of the villa La Baronata as a revolutionary
base. Mentally ill from 1882, he lived until 1892 in and out of
lunatic asylums.
Carpenter, Edward. Born 1844. Studied theology at Cambridge,
discovered his homosexuality, gave up the cloth, taught in
working communities, settling on smallholding at Millthorpe near
She(cid:39)eld. Leading socialist (cid:70)gure and campaigner against
discrimination for sexual orientation. Died 1929.
Caserio, Sante Geronimo. Born 1873 in Italy, lived southern
France. Executed 1894 for assassination of President Sadi Carnot.
Chaikovksy, Nicholas. Born 1851. Studied as a mathematician in
St Petersburg, where he galvanised circle of radical propagandists
in early 1870s. After crisis of faith, returned to England from
America to continue propaganda campaign. Involved in
gunrunning to Russia but later opposed Bolsheviks. Died 1926.
Charles, Fred. Born Fred Charles Slaughter. Member of Socialist
League, travelled to Zurich in attempt to secure Neve’s release,
attended 1889 Paris Congress, then resident in She(cid:39)eld and
Walsall, where involved in bomb plot. Sentenced to ten years in
prison. Later worked at Ruskin College, Oxford, and joined
Whiteway Colony in Cotswolds.
Clemenceau, Georges. Born 1841. Moderate mayor of Montmartre
in 1871. Held ministerial posts in 1880s, was compromised in the
Panama scandal but pro-Dreyfus as newspaper editor. As minister
of interior and president of the Council in 1906 repressed strikes;
returned to latter position in 1917 after eight years out of
government. Died 1929.
Coulon, Auguste. Member of Dublin Socialist League in 1886,
moved to London where recruited as informant for Special
Branch and possibly other police services. Involved in provoking