Jan Wacław Machajski (27.12.1866–19 02.1926)

Jan Wacław Machajski was characterized by a great changeability of moods and ability for going from one extreme to another – opposite to the previous one – from youthful years. Moreover, his attitude was very emotional and he was not deceived by any explanation or polemic. Originally he got involved in illegal activity in Polish national movement. However, having been arrested by Russians and sentenced to three years in prison and five years exile to the Eastern Siberia, he had radically changed his views and was fascinated by the extreme revolutionary idea embed in peculiar realities of the Russian Empire. Criticizing ideas preferred by Marxist and social democrats, he demanded anarchistic and freedom patterns. He created his own, original revolutionary doctrine, whose the central axis was proletariat, which was to cause revolution giving freedom for all the people enslaved in the country of tsars. After the return from the exile, he lived abroad in Switzerland, but his eccentric ideas found many adherents in Russia in the first two decades of the twentieth century. They had stimulated their own activity within the framework of so-called working conspiracy in times of Revolution in 1905 and other anarchistic and radical groups existing in the area of the Russian Empire.