From: La Correspondance de Michel Bakounine, "Lettres A Herzen et A Ogareff, Paris: Librairie Academique Didier, 1896.

Project Declaration to the Polish People

Polish brethren,

You have often revolted in order to reclaim your freedom and your blessed homeland, provoked into such an unequal struggle by the worst of governments; that of Saint-Petersbourg. We, the Russian people, have always held the firm conviction that the independence of Poland and the liberty of her children is inseparable from our own Russian cause and the emancipation of our country. We loathe as much as you, no, more than you, this German imperialist petersbourgeoisie that kills Russia and Poland in delivering them to the Prussians and the Germans; we are indignant at the extremities and the hardships to which our miserable soldiers are subjected in Poland, being blinded in their intoxication and always under the command of these same Germans, their chiefs. We come to you to share your plight; to fight with you in the name of our and your saintly freedom, or die with you in trying. And if necessary, we will gladly give our lives, because in dyeing, we would be aware that the idea of liberty could never die with us and that soon an emancipated Poland will fraternally extend its liberating hand to Russia.