Catechism of a Revolutionary

The revolutionary is portrayed in the Catechism as an amoral avenging angel, an expendable resource in the service of the revolution,[6] committed to any crime or treachery necessary to effect the downfall of the prevailing order.

He is its merciless enemy and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose - to destroy it.Critics of anarcho-communism argue that the Catechism reflects the innately violent and nihilistic nature of the philosophy.

[9] Scholar Michael Allen Gillespie has hailed the Catechism as "a pre-eminent expression of the doctrine of freedom and negation" that arose in the Fichtean notion of the "Absolute I" that had been concealed in Left Hegelianism.

[6] Prominent Black Panther of the 20th century Eldridge Cleaver adopted the Catechism as a "revolutionary bible", incorporating it into his daily life to the extent that he employed, in his words, "tactics of ruthlessness in my dealings with everyone with whom I came into contact".

[10] The ideas and sentiments in the work had been in part previously aired by Pyotr Zaichnevsky [it] and Nikolai Ishutin in Russia, and by Carbonari and Young Italy in the West.