Placed in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersberg, Russia, in 1851,[3] Bakunin wrote his Confession at the direction of Russian Emperor Nicholas I.
[4] The Confession accounts for Bakunin's political activities throughout the 1840s, from his original departure from Russia to Berlin in 1840 through his arrest in 1849.
[4] Nicholas I read the Confession carefully, marking the text with marginalia and sharing it with his son, the tsarevitch, Alexander II as "very interesting and instructive".
[4] Its full publication in 1921 was controversial, as some read Bakunin as genuflecting for clemency while others defended his criticism of Russian bureaucracy and silence about co-conspirators.
Avrich said the Confession is among Bakunin's most interesting writings[4] highlighting both his personality and an insider's account of the revolutionary 1840s.