Alexander Bakunin

In March 1790, at his parents' insistence, Bakunin returned to Russia.[4] On 14 July 1790, he resigned from the service, and on 31 March 1791, he retired with the rank of court councilor. For some time after his resignation, he lived in St. Petersburg, where he was an active member of the literary circle of his longtime acquaintance (and by that time a relative) Nikolai Lvov. One of the members of this circle, the poet Gavrila Derzhavin, noted that one of Bakunin's poems was an idyll.[lower-alpha 6]

In 1791, he settled in the family estate of Pryamukhino in the Novotorzhsky district of the Tver province. Here he became personally involved in the neglected economy of the estate.[lower-alpha 7]

In January 1797, after the accession to the throne of Emperor Paul I, Bakunin was summoned to St. Petersburg. He was awarded the rank of Collegiate Councillor, and was appointed[lower-alpha 8] to serve as an advisor to the Gatchina city government organized by Paul I. Here he supervised the construction of a cascade of ponds in the Sylvia Park on the Kolpanka River, which was designed by Nikolai Lvov. However, on 14 November 1797, at the insistence of his mother, he again resigned in order to return and finally settle in Pryamukhino.[lower-alpha 9] There he became actively engaged in the restoration of the local economy.[lower-alpha 10] At the start of his economic reforms, he drew up a draft agreement with the peasants, which, according to his plan, was to be the basis for the reforms carried out in the economy. This project, along with most of his economic innovations, remained unfulfilled. However, by 1804, the debt of his family was reduced by twenty thousand rubles,[lower-alpha 11] although his further marriage and the birth of his children[lower-alpha 12] meant he had to borrow again.

In a preface to a philosophical treatise, Bakunin argued that times of glory and power for Russia were always associated with the freedom of its people, and that the "slavery" of its peasants,[lower-alpha 13] which at that time seemed natural and traditional to many, was a consequence of the greed of the grandees, unrestrained by the law.

Bakunin was also actively involved in the construction of a new residential building in his estate. By 1810, two separate outbuildings were built, which were later combined into a single structure. In 1808, construction began on a new stone church, which was mostly completed by 1826. He was also involved in park construction in his estate, which the Bakunins inherited from the former owners of the Shishkovs. He arranged picturesque cascades of ponds in the park, converted the old Riga into a Turkish bath, and arranged serverla baths on the left bank of the Osuga River.

In 1806, he was elected the Novotorzhsky district and Tver provincial leader of the nobility. After his marriage in 1810, he settled for a while in Tver, where Alexander Mikhailovich was a member of the salon of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna. In this salon, he communicated with many famous people of his time, such as the historian, historiographer and writer Nikolay Karamzin.

During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, Mikhailovich and his wife decided not to leave Pryamukhino. But the main concern of Bakunin and his wife was the upbringing of children.[lower-alpha 14] He taught them foreign languages, mathematics and other natural sciences, and Varvara Alexandrovna taught them music.[7] In the house of Pravukhinsky there was a library, collected by Alexander Mikhailovich, so that his children had the opportunity to get acquainted with the works of the best representatives of world literature of that time. One of the main principles in the upbringing of children, Alexander Mikhailovich considered communication with nature, for which he arranged walks in the park and picturesque surroundings. In November 1834, the Bakunin family for the first time in full force left for the winter to live in Tver.

Presumably, he played an important role (with his advice to Mikhail Muravyov[lower-alpha 15]) when the Union of Salvation was reorganized into the Union of Prosperity in 1818.[8][9] He also became a member of the Secret Society of the North,[10] wishing to institute a constitutional monarchy.[11] After the failed Decembrist revolt of 1825 he gave up on emancipating the serfs and devoted himself entirely to the management of his estate and the education of his children,[12] according to the precepts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[13]

During the 1830s and 40s, at the invitation of Alexander Mikhailovich, Pryamukhino was visited by many prominent representatives of Russian society of that time - young philosophers, writers and scientists. For example, the famous Russian writer Ivan Lazhechnikov, director of the men's gymnasium in Tver, where the sons of the Bakunins studied, after visiting the Pryamukhin, wrote about the Bakunins' estate in the best of terms. From the beginning of the 1830s, Alexander Mikhailovich Bakunin was the trustee of the Tver gymnasium.

From the mid-1830s, Alexander Mikhailovich Bakunin began to go blind and by 1845 he was completely blind. Due to illness, he could no longer do household chores. In 1842, his son Nikolai came to the estate after retirement, and he took over all the household chores. At the end of March 1852, Alexander Mikhailovich fell seriously ill, and on 6 December 1854, he died. He was buried in the family tomb under the altar of the church in Pryamukhino.[14]