
THE REVOLUTIONARY CATECHISM

by Nechayev

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              The Duties of the Revolutionary toward Himself

1.  The revolutionary is a doomed man.  He has no personal interests, no
    business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property, and no
    name.  Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought
    and the single passion for revolution. 

2.  The revolutionary knows that in the very depths of his being, not
    only in words but also in deeds, he has broken all the bonds which
    tie him to the social order and the civilized world with all its
    laws, moralities, and customs, and with all its generally accepted
    conventions.  He is their implacable enemy, and if he continues to
    live with them it is only in order to destroy them more speedily. 

3.  The revolutionary despises all doctrines and refuses to accept the
    mundane sciences, leaving them for future generations.  He knows
    only one science: the science of destruction.  For this reason, but
    only for this reason, he will study mechanics, physics, chemistry,
    and perhaps medicine.  But all day and all night he studies the
    vital science of human beings, their characteristics and
    circumstances, and all the phenomena of the present social order. 
    The object is perpetually the same: the surest and quickest way of
    destroying the whole filthy order. 

4.  The revolutionary despises public opinion.  He despises and hates
    the existing social morality in all its manifestations.  For him,
    morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the
    revolution.  Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its
    way. 

5.  The revolutionary is a dedicated man, merciless toward the State and
    toward the educated classes; and he can expect no mercy from them. 
    Between him and them there exists, declared or concealed, a
    relentless and irreconcilable war to the death.  He must accustom
    himself to torture. 

6.  Tyrannical toward himself, he must be tyrannical toward others.  All
    the gentle and enervating sentiments of kinship, love, friendship,
    gratitude, and even honor, must be suppressed in him and give place
    to the cold and singleminded passion for revolution.  For him, there
    exists only one pleasure, on consolation, one reward, one
    satisfaction -- the success of the revolution.  Night and day he
    must have but one thought, one aim -- merciless destruction. 
    Striving cold-bloodedly and indefatigably toward this end, he must
    be prepared to destroy himself and to destroy with his own hands
    everything that stands in the path of the revolution. 

7.  The nature of the true revolutionary excludes all sentimentality,
    romanticism, infatuation, and exaltation.  All private hatred and
    revenge must also be excluded.  Revolutionary passion, practiced at
    every moment of the day until it becomes a habit, is to be employed
    with cold calculation.  At all times, and in all places, the
    revolutionary must obey not his personal impulses, but only those
    which serve the cause of the revolution. 

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         The Relations of the Revolutionary toward his Comrades

8.  The revolutionary can have no friendship or attachment, except for
    those who have proved by their actions that they, like him, are
    dedicated to revolution.  The degree of friendship, devotion and
    obligation toward such a comrade is determined solely by the degree
    of his usefulness to the cause of total revolutioary destruction. 

9.  It is superfluous to speak of solidarity among revolutionaries.  The
    whole strength of revolutionary work lies in this.  Comrades who
    possess the same revolutionary passion and understanding should, as
    much as possible, deliberate all important matters together and come
    to unanimous conclusions.  When the plan is finally decided upon,
    then the revolutionary must rely solely on himself.  In carrying out
    acts of destruction, each one should act alone, never running to
    another for advice and assistance, except when these are necessary
    for the furtherance of the plan. 

10.  All revolutionaries should have under them second- or third-degree
     revolutionaries -- i.e., comrades who are not completely initiated. 
     these should be regarded as part of the common revolutionary
     capital placed at his disposal.  This capital should, of course, be
     spent as economically as possible in order to derive from it the
     greatest possible profit.  The real revolutionary should regard
     himself as capital consecrated to the triumph of the revolution;
     however, he may not personally and alone dispose of that capital
     without the unanimous consent of the fully initiated comrades. 

11.  When a comrade is in danger and the question arises whether he
     should be saved or not saved, the decision must not be arrived at
     on the basis of sentiment, but solely in the interests of the
     revolutionary cause.  Therefore, it is necessary to weigh carefully
     the usefulness of the comrade against the expenditure of
     revolutionary forces necessary to save him, and the decision must
     be made accordingly. 

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             The Relations of the Revolutionary toward Society

12.  The new member, having given proof of his loyalty not by words but
     by deeds, can be received into the society only by the unanimous
     agreement of all the members. 

13.  The revolutionary enters the world of the State, of the privileged
     classes, of the so-called civilization, and he lives in this world
     only for the purpose of bringing about its speedy and total
     destruction.  He is not a revolutionary if he has any sympathy for
     this world.  _He_should_not_hesitate_to_destroy_any_position_,
     _any_place_, _or_any_man_in_this_world_.  He must hate everyone and
     everything in it with an equal hatred.  All the worse for him if he
     has any relations with parents, friends, or lovers; _he_is_no_
     _longer_a_revolutionary_if_he_is_swayed_by_these_relationships_. 

14.  Aiming at implacable revolution, the revolutionary may and
     frequently must live within society will pretending to be
     completely different from what he really is, for he must penetrate
     everywhere, into all the higher and middle-classes, into the houses
     of commerce, the churches, and the palaces of the aristocracy, and
     into the worlds of the bureaucracy and literature and the military,
     and also into the Third Division and the Winter Palace of the Czar.

15.  This filthy social order can be split up into several categories. 
     The first category comprises those who must be condemned to death
     without delay.  Comrades should compile a list of those to be
     condemned according to the relative gravity of their crimes; and
     the executions should be carried out according to the prepared
     order. 

16.  When a list of those who are condemned is made, and the order of
     execution is prepared, no private sense of outrage should be
     considered, nor is it necessary to pay attention to the hatred
     provoked by these people among the comrades or the people.  Hatred
     and the sense of outrage may even be useful insofar as they incite
     the masses to revolt.  It is necessary to be guided only by the
     relative usefulness of these executions for the sake of revolution. 
     Above all, those who are especially inimical to the revolutionary
     organization must be destroyed; their violent and sudden deaths
     will produce the utmost panic in the government, depriving it of
     its will to action by removing the cleverest and most energetic
     supporters. 

17.  The second group comprises those who will be spared for the time
     being in order that, by a series of monstrous acts, they may drive
     the people into inevitable revolt. 

18.  The third category consists of a great many brutes in high
     positions, distinguished neither by their cleverness nor their
     energy, while enjoying riches, influence, power, and high positions
     by virute of their rank.  These must be exploited in every possible
     way; they must be implicated and embroiled in our affairs, their
     dirty secrets must be ferreted out, and they must be transformed
     into slaves.  Their power, influence, and connections, their wealth
     and their energy, will form an inexhaustable treasure and a precious
     help in all our undertakings. 

19.  The fourth categoy comprises ambitious office-holders and liberals
     of various shades of opinion.  The revolutionary must pretend to
     collaborate with them, blindly following them, while at the same
     time, prying out their secrets until they are completely in his
     power.  They must be so compromised that there is no way out for
     them, and then they can be used to create disorder in the State. 

20.  The fifth category consists of those doctrinaires, conspirators,
     and revolutionists who cut a great figure on paper or in their
     cliques.  They must be constantly driven on to make compromising
     declarations: as a result, the majority of them will be destroyed,
     while a minority will become genuine revolutionaries. 

21.  The sixth category is especially important: women.  They can be
     divided into three main groups.  First, those frivilous,
     thoughtless, and vapid women, whom we shall use as we use the third
     and fourth category of men.  Second, women who are ardent, capable,
     and devoted, but whom do not belong to us because they have not yet
     achieved a passionless and austere revolutionary understanding;
     these must be used like the men of the fifth category.  Finally,
     there are the women who are completely on our side -- i.e., those
     who are wholly dedicated and who have accepted our program in its
     entirety.  We should regard these women as the most valuable or our
     treasures; without their help, we would never succeed. 

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               The Attitude of the Society toward the People

22.  The Society has no aim other than the complete liberation and
     happiness of the masses -- i.e., of the people who live by manual
     labor.  Convinced that their emancipation and the achievement of
     this happiness can only come about as a result of an all-destroying
     popular revolt, the Society will use all its resources and energy
     toward increasing and intensfying the evils and miseries of the
     people until at last their patience is exhausted and they are
     driven to a general uprising. 

23.  By a revolution, the Society does not mean an orderly revolt
     according to the classic western model -- a revolt which always
     stops short of attacking the rights of property and the traditional
     social systems of so-called civilization and morality.  Until now,
     such a revolution has always limited itself to the overthrow of one
     political form in order to replace it by another, thereby
     attempting to bring about a so-called revolutionary state.  The
     only form of revolution beneficial to the people is one which
     destroys the entire State to the roots and exterminated all the
     state traditions, institutions, and classes in Russia. 

24.  With this end in view, the Society therefore refuses to impose any
     new organization from above.  Any future organization will
     doubtless work its way through the movement and life of the people;
     but this is a matter for future generations to decide.  Our task is
     terrible, total, universal, and merciless destruction. 

25.  Therefore, in drawing closer to the people, we must above all make
     common cause with those elements of the masses which, since the
     foundation of the state of Muscovy, have never ceased to protest,
     not only in words but in deeds, against everything directly or
     indirectly connected with the state: against the nobility, the
     bureaucracy, the clergy, the traders, and the parasitic kulaks.  We
     must unite with the adventurous tribes of brigands, who are the
     only genuine revolutionaries in Russia. 

26.  To weld the people into one single unconquerable and
     all-destructive force -- this is our aim, our conspiracy, and our
     task. 

