Anarchist bomb throwing was a big deal in the early 20th century, perhaps equivalent to today's Islamist terrorism. Yet from what I see, they just sort of stopped by the mid 20th century. Why and how did this come about?
My theory is that the Russian Civil War played a big role. Lenin may have established a sort of orthodoxy amongst the far left by creating the revolutionary vanguard. In turn, the Comintern may have been the focal point of far left politics and thus non Marxist-Leninists sort of dissipated, especially with the defeat of various anarchist groups in the civil war. This would have affected international far left movements. That's my theory but I have no clue.
Anarchist bomb throwing was a tactical phase if the anarchist movement, most closely associated with the late 1870s-1880s. During this period "propaganda of the deed" was the catchphrase for those who advocated targeted assassinations and bombings to advance their cause.
However, already by the second half if the 1880s this strategy was losing favour. In 1886 a bomb was thrown at police on Haymarket street in Chicago during a protest. Police then fired into the crowd.
By the time of the First World War Western governments largley dismantled the organized left, passing laws against industrial sabotage, seditious speech, public assemblies ect. By the time of the Wilsonian "Red Scare", the anarchist bomb thrower was more a press boogeyman than a reality.
As an aside: the 1870s-80s are an incredibly interesting time on the left, because there was no clear dominant strategy. After 1871 and the fall of Paris, it became clear that the call of "to the barricades" was now defunct as a strategy for revolutionary change. It's not until the tail end of this period, as the anarchist left follows the advice of Kropotikin and others and commits itself to the revolutionary labour movement, that a new dominant strategy develops. This period, in turn, ends with the failure if general strikes in Seattle, Winnipeg et al, that the single Communist Party emerges as the new vehicle for revolutionary activism.
Hi, could you edit your comment to remove the "bonus" question? This subreddit has a 20-year rule against discussing current affairs, and further, does not permit speculation. Thanks!
Anarchism's classic bomb-throwing and shooting phase was more a phenomenon of the 1890s and the very first years of the new century: its eclipse long predated the Bolshevik Revolution. It seems far more likely that the rising socialist movement of the decades to 1914 drew to itself much of its estranged cousin's revolutionary fervour and support base. In the 1880s socialism didn't look much like it was going to change the world, but by 1905 it was beginning to seem a viable candidate, offering strength in numbers and political clout rather than the individual deeds of anarchism's wilder adherents. That isn't to say that anarchism was subsumed: it survived in mass agitation and workers' organisation into the 1930s, notably in southern Europe and parts of the Americas, and to this day in less organised forms.