Kammala jumla mai zuwa: Bakunin ya girma a Pryamukhino, wani gidan iyali a Tver Governorate. Daga 1840, ya yi karatu a Moscow, sannan a Berlin yana fatan shiga jami'a. Daga baya a Paris, ya sadu da Karl Marx da Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, waɗanda suka yi tasiri sosai a kansa. Bakunin ta ƙara radicalism kawo karshen fatan wani farfesa aiki. An kore shi daga Faransa saboda adawa da mamayar Rasha a Poland. A shekara ta 1849, an kama shi a Dresden saboda sa hannu a cikin tawayen Czech na 1848 kuma an tura shi zuwa Rasha, inda aka daure shi da farko a Saint Petersburg, sannan a sansanin soja na Shlisselburg daga 1854 kuma a karshe aka tura shi zuwa Siberia a 1857. Ya tsere ta hanyar Japan zuwa Amurka sannan zuwa London, inda ya yi aiki tare da Alexander Herzen a kan mujallar "Kolokol" ("The Bell"). A shekara ta 1863, Bakunin ya bar don shiga cikin
a Poland, amma ya kasa kai shi kuma a maimakon haka ya shafe lokaci a Switzerland da Italiya.