Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 15

Peter Kropotkin

Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (/kroʊˈpɒtkɪn/;[10] Russian: Пётр


Peter Kropotkin
Алексе́евич Кропо́ ткин; December 9, 1842[a] – February 8,
1921) was a Russian activist, writer, revolutionary, scientist,
economist, sociologist, historian, essayist, researcher, political
scientist, biologist, geographer[11] and philosopher who
advocated anarcho-communism.

Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, he attended a


military school and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he
participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned
for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later.
He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where
he was imprisoned for almost four years) and in England. While
in exile, Kropotkin gave lectures and published widely on
anarchism and geography.[12] He returned to Russia after the
Russian Revolution in 1917 but was disappointed by the
Bolshevik form of state socialism. Kropotkin c. 1900 (aged 57)
Born Prince Pyotr
Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralised communist society
Alexeyevich
free from central government and based on voluntary associations
Kropotkin
of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He
December 9, 1842
wrote many books, pamphlets, and articles, the most prominent
Moscow, Russian
being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and
Empire
Workshops; and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A
Factor of Evolution. He also contributed the article on anarchism Died February 8, 1921
to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition[13] and left (aged 78)
unfinished a work on anarchist ethical philosophy. Dmitrov, Russian
SFSR
Education Corps of Pages
(1857–1862)
Contents
Saint Petersburg
Biography Imperial University
Early life (1867; no degree)[1]
Geographical expeditions in Siberia
Notable work The Conquest of
Activism in Switzerland and France
Bread
Activism in Russia and arrest
Escape and exile Mutual Aid: A Factor
Return to Russia of Evolution

Death Fields, Factories and


Workshops
Philosophy
Critique of capitalism Spouse(s) Sofia Ananyeva-
Cooperation and competition Rabinovich
Mutual aid
Era 19th-century
Self-sufficiency
philosophy
Works 20th-century
Books philosophy
Pamphlets
Region Russian philosophy
Articles
Western philosophy
See also
School Anarcho-
Notes
communism
References
Main Political philosophy
Further reading interests
Books on Kropotkin Political history
Journal articles Economics

External links Ethics


Darwinian theory
Notable Political, ethical and
Biography ideas economic theory of
anarcho-
communism
Early life Mutual aid

Pyotr Kropotkin was born in Moscow, into an ancient Russian Criticisms of wage-
labour
princely family. His father, major general Prince Alexei Petrovich
Four-hour workday
Kropotkin, was a descendant of the Smolensk branch,[14] of the
Rurik dynasty which had ruled Russia before the rise of the Voluntary
Romanovs. Kropotkin's father owned large tracts of land and communes
nearly 1,200 male serfs in three provinces.[15] His mother was the Influences
daughter of a Cossack general.[15] Bakunin · Marx · Darwin · Freud ·
Nietzsche · Proudhon · Reclus
"Under the influence of republican teachings", Kropotkin
dropped his princely title at age 12, and "even rebuked his Influenced
friends, when they so referred to him."[16] Berkman · Malatesta · Wilde[2] ·
Tolstoy[3] · Kafka[4] · Makhno[5] ·
In 1857, at age 14, Kropotkin enrolled in the Corps of Pages at Rocker[6] · Kōtoku[7] · Ward ·
St. Petersburg.[17] Only 150 boys – mostly children of nobility Goldman · Woodcock · Bookchin[8] ·
belonging to the court – were educated in this privileged corps, Black · Žižek · Chomsky[9] · Gould
which combined the character of a military school endowed with
exclusive rights and of a court institution attached to the Imperial Scientific career
Household. Kropotkin's memoirs detail the hazing and other Fields Geography
abuse of pages for which the Corps had become notorious.[18] Institutions Russian
Geographical
In Moscow, Kropotkin developed what would become a lifelong
Society
interest in the condition of the peasantry. Although his work as a
page for Tsar Alexander II made Kropotkin skeptical about the Academic Boleslar
tsar's "liberal" reputation,[19] Kropotkin was greatly pleased by advisors Kazimirovich Kukel
the tsar's decision to emancipate the serfs in 1861.[20] In St. Signature
Petersburg, he read widely on his own account and gave special
attention to the works of the French encyclopædists and French
history. The years 1857–1861 witnessed a growth in the
intellectual forces of Russia, and Kropotkin came under the
influence of the new liberal-revolutionary literature, which largely expressed his own aspirations.[21]

In 1862, Kropotkin graduated first in his class from the Corps of Pages and entered the Tsarist army.[22]
The members of the corps had the prescriptive right to choose the regiment to which they would be
attached. Following a desire to "be someone useful", Kropotkin chose the difficult route of serving in a
Cossack regiment in eastern Siberia.[22] For some time, he was aide de camp to the governor of
Transbaikalia at Chita. Later he was appointed attaché for Cossack affairs to the governor-general of East
Siberia at Irkutsk.[23]

Geographical expeditions in Siberia


The administrator under whom Kropotkin served, General Boleslar
Kazimirovich Kukel, was a liberal and a democrat who maintained
personal connections to various Russian radical political figures exiled to
Siberia. These included the writer Mikhail Larionovitch Mikhailov, to
whom Kukel sent Kropotkin to warn the exiled intellectual that Moscow
police agents were on the scene to examine his ongoing political
activities in confinement.[24] As a result of this assignment, Kropotkin
made the acquaintance of Mikhailov, who provided the young Tsarist
functionary with a copy of a book by the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon — Kropotkin's first introduction to anarchist ideas.[24] Kukel
was subsequently dismissed from his administrative position, and
Kropotkin moved from administration to state-sponsored scientific Kropotkin in 1864
endeavors.[24]

In 1864 Kropotkin accepted a position in a geographical survey expedition, crossing North Manchuria
from Transbaikalia to the Amur, and soon was attached to another expedition up the Sungari River into
the heart of Manchuria. The expeditions yielded valuable geographical results. The impossibility of
obtaining any real administrative reforms in Siberia now induced Kropotkin to devote himself almost
entirely to scientific exploration, in which he continued to be highly successful.[25]

Kropotkin continued his political reading, including works by such prominent liberal thinkers as John
Stuart Mill and Alexander Herzen. These readings, along with his experiences among peasants in Siberia,
led him to declare himself an anarchist by 1872.[26]

In 1867, Kropotkin resigned his commission in the army and returned to St. Petersburg, where he entered
the Saint Petersburg Imperial University to study mathematics, becoming at the same time secretary to
the geography section of the Russian Geographical Society.[27] His departure from a family tradition of
military service prompted his father to disinherit him, "leaving him a 'prince' with no visible means of
support".[28]

In 1871, Kropotkin explored the glacial deposits of Finland and Sweden for the Society.[27] In 1873, he
published an important contribution to science, a map and paper in which he showed that the existing
maps entirely misrepresented the physical features of Asia; the main structural lines were in fact from
southwest to northeast, not from north to south or from east to west as had been previously supposed.
During this work, he was offered the secretaryship of the Society, but he had decided that it was his duty
not to work at fresh discoveries but to aid in diffusing existing knowledge among the people at large.
Accordingly, he refused the offer and returned to St. Petersburg, where he joined the revolutionary
party.[29]

Activism in Switzerland and France


Kropotkin visited Switzerland in 1872 and became a member of the International Workingmen's
Association (IWA) at Geneva. However, he found that he did not like IWA's style of socialism. Instead,
he studied the programme of the more radical Jura federation at Neuchâtel and spent time in the company
of the leading members, and adopted the creed of anarchism.[30]

Activism in Russia and arrest


On returning to Russia, Kropotkin's friend Dmitri Klements introduced him to the Circle of Tchaikovsky,
a socialist/populist group created in 1872. Kropotkin worked to spread revolutionary propaganda among
peasants and workers and acted as a bridge between the Circle and the aristocracy. Throughout this
period, Kropotkin maintained his position within the Geographical Society in order to provide cover for
his activities.[31]

In 1872, Kropotkin was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for subversive political
activity, as a result of his work with the Circle of Tchaikovsky. Because of his aristocratic background, he
received special privileges in prison, such as permission to continue his geographical work in his cell. He
delivered his report on the subject of the Ice Age in 1876, where he argued that it had taken place in not
as distant a past as initially thought.[32]

Escape and exile


In 1876, just before his trial, Kropotkin was moved to a low-security prison in St. Petersburg, from which
he escaped with the help of his friends. On the night of the escape, Kropotkin and his friends celebrated
by dining in one of the finest restaurants in St. Petersburg, assuming correctly that the police would not
think to look for them there. After this, he boarded a boat and headed to England.[33] After a short stay
there, he moved to Switzerland where he joined the Jura Federation. In 1877, he moved to Paris, where
he helped start the socialist movement. In 1878, he returned to Switzerland where he edited the Jura
Federation's revolutionary newspaper Le Révolté and published various revolutionary pamphlets.[34]

In 1881, shortly after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, he


was expelled from Switzerland. After a short stay at Thonon
(Savoy), he stayed in London for nearly a year.[35] He attended
the Anarchist Congress in London from July 14, 1881.[36] Other
delegates included Marie Le Compte, Errico Malatesta, Saverio
Merlino, Louise Michel, Nicholas Tchaikovsky, and Émile
Gautier. While respecting "complete autonomy of local groups",
the congress defined propaganda actions that all could follow and
agreed that propaganda by the deed was the path to social
revolution.[36] The Radical of July 23, 1881 reported that the
congress met on July 18 at the Cleveland Hall, Fitzroy Square,
with speeches by Marie Le Compte, "the transatlantic agitator", Kropotkin by Nadar
Louise Michel, and Kropotkin.[37] Later Le Compte and
Kropotkin gave talks to the Homerton Social Democratic Club and the Stratford Radical and Dialectical
Club.[38]

Kropotkin returned to Thonon in late 1882. Soon he was arrested by the French government, tried at
Lyon, and sentenced by a police-court magistrate (under a special law passed on the fall of the Paris
Commune) to five years' imprisonment, on the ground that he had belonged to the IWA (1883). The
French Chamber repeatedly agitated on his behalf, and he was released in 1886. He was invited to Britain
by Henry Seymour and Charlotte Wilson and all three worked on Seymour's The Anarchist. Soon after
Wilson and Kropotkin would split from the individualist anarchist Seymour and found the Freedom
Press, an anarchist newspaper which continues to this day. Kropotkin was a regular contributor while
Wilson was integral to the administrative and financial running of the paper until she resigned its
editorship in 1895. He settled near London, living at various times in Harrow, then Bromley, where his
daughter and only child, Alexandra, was born on April 15, 1887.[39][40] He also lived for many years in
Brighton.[41] While living in London, Kropotkin became friends with a number of prominent English-
speaking socialists, including William Morris and George Bernard Shaw.[42]

In 1916 Kropotkin and Jean Grave drafted a document -Manifesto of the Sixteen- which advocated an
Allied victory over Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War. Because of the
Manifesto, Kropotkin found him self isolated by the mainstream[43] of the anarchist movement.[44]

Return to Russia
In 1917, after the February Revolution, Kropotkin returned
to Russia after 40 years of exile. His arrival was greeted by
cheering crowds of tens of thousands of people. He was
offered the ministry of education in the Provisional
Government, which he promptly refused, feeling that
working with them would be a violation of his anarchist
principles.[45]

His enthusiasm for the changes occurring in the Russian


Kropotkin in Haparanda, 1917
Empire expanded when Bolsheviks seized power in the
October Revolution. He had this to say about the October
Revolution: "During all the activities of the present revolutionary political parties we must never forget
that the October movement of the proletariat, which ended in a revolution, has proved to everybody that a
social revolution is within the bounds of possibility. And this struggle, which takes place worldwide, has
to be supported by all means - all the rest is secondary. The party of the Bolsheviks was right to adopt the
old, purely proletarian name of "Communist Party". Even if it does not achieve everything that it would
like to, it will nevertheless enlighten the path of the civilised countries for at least a century. Its ideas will
slowly be adopted by the peoples in the same way as in the nineteenth century the world adopted the
ideas of the Great French Revolution. That is the colossal achievement of the October Revolution." .... "I
see the October Revolution as an attempt to bring the preceding February Revolution to its logical
conclusion with a transition to communism and federalism." [46]

Even though he led a life on the margins of the revolutionary upheaval, Kropotkin became increasingly
critical of the methods of the Bolshevik dictatorship and went on to express these feelings in writing.
“Unhappily, this effort has been made in Russia under a strongly centralized party dictatorship. This
effort was made in the same way as the extremely centralized and Jacobin endeavor of Babeuf. I owe it to
you to say frankly that, according to my view, this effort to build a communist republic on the basis of a
strongly centralized state communism under the iron law of party dictatorship is bound to end in failure.
We are learning to know in Russia how not to introduce communism, even with a people tired of the old
regime and opposing no active resistance to the experiments of the new rulers.”[47]

Death
Kropotkin died of pneumonia on February 8, 1921, in the
city of Dmitrov, and was buried at the Novodevichy
Cemetery in Moscow. Thousands of people marched in his
funeral procession, including, with Vladimir Lenin's
approval,[48] anarchists carrying banners with anti-Bolshevik
slogans.[49] The occasion, the last public demonstration of
anarchists in Soviet Russia, saw engaged speeches by Emma
Goldman and Aron Baron. In some versions of Peter
Kropotkin's[50] Conquest of Bread, the mini-biography states
that this would be the last time that Kropotkin's supporters Kropotkin's friend and comrade Emma
would be allowed to freely rally in public. Goldman, accompanied by Alexander
Berkman, delivers a eulogy before crowds
In 1957 the Dvorets Sovetov station of the Moscow Metro at Kropotkin's funeral in Moscow.
was renamed Kropotkinskaya in his honor.[51]

Philosophy

Critique of capitalism
Kropotkin pointed out what he considered to be the fallacies of the economic systems of feudalism and
capitalism. He believed they create poverty and artificial scarcity while promoting privilege. Instead, he
proposed a more decentralized economic system based on mutual aid, mutual support, and voluntary
cooperation, asserting that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and
in human society.[52]

He disagreed with the Marxian critique of capitalism, including the labour theory of value, believing
there was no necessary link between work performed and the prices of commodities. His attacks on the
institution of wage-labour were based more on the power employers exerted over employees – which he
claimed was made possible by the state protecting private ownership of productive resources – than the
extraction of surplus value from their labour.[53]

Cooperation and competition


In 1902, Kropotkin published his book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which provided an alternative
view of animal and human survival, beyond the claims of interpersonal competition and natural hierarchy
proffered at the time by some "social Darwinists" such as Francis Galton. He argued that "it was an
evolutionary emphasis on cooperation instead of competition in the Darwinian sense that made for the
success of species, including the human".[54]

In the last chapter, he wrote:[55]


In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that
they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its
wide Darwinian sense – not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle
against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species[...] in which
individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits[...] and the practice of mutual aid
has attained the greatest development[...] are invariably the most numerous, the most
prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection which is obtained
in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher
intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance
of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on
the contrary, are doomed to decay.

— Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902), Conclusion.

Kropotkin did not deny the presence of competitive urges in humans, but he did not see them as the
driving force of history.[56]:262 He believed that seeking out conflict proved to be socially beneficial only
in attempts to destroy unjust, authoritarian institutions such as the State or the Church, which he saw as
stifling human creativity and impeding human instinctual drive towards cooperation.[57]

Kropotkin's observations of cooperative tendencies in indigenous peoples (pre-feudal, feudal, and those
remaining in modern societies) led him to conclude that not all human societies were based on
competition, such as those of industrialized Europe, and that many societies exhibited cooperation among
individuals and groups as the norm. He also concluded that most pre-industrial and pre-authoritarian
societies (where he claimed that leadership, central government, and class did not exist) actively defend
against the accumulation of private property by, for example, equally distributing within the community a
person's possessions when he died, or by not allowing a gift to be sold, bartered or used to create wealth
(see Gift economy).[58]

Mutual aid
In his 1892 book The Conquest of Bread, Kropotkin proposed a system of economics based on mutual
exchanges made in a system of voluntary cooperation. He believed that should a society be socially,
culturally, and industrially developed enough to produce all the goods and services required by it, then no
obstacle, such as preferential distribution, pricing or monetary exchange will prevent everyone to take
what they need from the social product. He supported the eventual abolition of money or tokens of
exchange for goods and services.[59]

Kropotkin believed that Bakunin's collectivist economic model was just a wage system by a different
name[60] and that such a system would breed the same type of centralization and inequality as a capitalist
wage system. He stated that it is impossible to determine the value of an individual's contributions to the
products of social labour, and thought that anyone who was placed in a position of trying to make such
determinations would wield authority over those whose wages they determined.[61]

According to Kirkpatrick Sale:[54]

With Mutual Aid especially, and later with Fields, Factories, and Workshops, Kropotkin was
able to move away from the absurdist limitations of individual anarchism and no-laws
anarchism that had flourished during this period and provide instead a vision of communal
anarchism, following the models of independent cooperative communities he discovered
while developing his theory of mutual aid. It was an anarchism that opposed centralized
government and state-level laws as traditional anarchism did, but understood that at a certain
small scale, communities and communes and co-ops could flourish and provide humans with
a rich material life and wide areas of liberty without centralized control.

Self-sufficiency
Kropotkin's focus on local production led to his view that a country should strive for self-sufficiency –
manufacture its own goods and grow its own food, lessening dependence on imports. To these ends, he
advocated irrigation and greenhouses to boost local food production ability.[62]

Works

Books
In Russian and French Prisons (https://archive.org/details/i
nrussianfrenchp00kroprich/page/n5), London: Ward and
Downey; 1887.
The Conquest of Bread (Paris, 1892) Project Gutenberg e-
text (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/23428), Project
LibriVox audiobook (http://librivox.org/the-conquest-of-brea
d-by-peter-kropotkin/)
The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 (French original:
Paris, 1893; English translation: London, 1909). e-text (in
French) (http://kropot.free.fr/Kropotkine-GrdRev.htm),
Anarchist Library e-text (in English) (https://theanarchistlibr
ary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-great-french-revolution-17
89-1793)
The Terror in Russia, 1909, RevoltLib e-text (http://www.re The Conquest of Bread by Peter
voltlib.com/anarchism/the-terror-in-russia/view.php) Kropotkin, influential work which
Words of a Rebel (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/pet presents the economic vision of
r-kropotkin-words-of-a-rebel-1), 1885, anarcho-communism
Fields, Factories and Workshops (London and New York,
1898).
Memoirs of a Revolutionist, London : Smith, Elder; 1899. Anarchist Library e-text (https://the
anarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-memoirs-of-a-revolutionist), Anarchy Archives e-
text (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/literature/russianlittoc.html)
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (London, 1902) Project Gutenberg e-text (http://www.gute
nberg.org/etext/4341), Project LibriVox audiobook (http://librivox.org/mutual-aid-a-factor-of-e
volution-by-peter-kropotkin/)
Russian Literature: Ideals and Realities (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1905). Anarchy Archives e-
text (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/literature/russianlittoc.html)
The State: Its Historic Role, (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-state-its
-historic-role) published 1946,
Ethics: Origin and Development (http://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/ethics-origin-and-devel
opment/view.php) (unfinished). Included as first part of Origen y evolución de la moral
(Spanish e-text) (http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090630104916/http://bivir.uacj.mx/LibrosElectr
onicosLibres/Autores/PedroKropotkin/Pedro%20Kropotkin%20-%20Origen%20y%20evoluc
i%F3n%20de%20la%20moral.pdf)
Modern Science and Anarchism (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-moder
n-science-and-anarchism), 1930, *

Pamphlets
An Appeal to the Young (1880) Wars and Capitalism (http://www.revoltlib.c
Communism and Anarchy (http://www.revo om/anarchism/wars-and-capitalism/view.p
ltlib.com/anarchism/communism-and-anar hp) (1914)
chy/view.php) (1901) Revolutionary Government (https://theanar
Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and chistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-revolu
Principles (http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/ tionary-government) (1892)
www/kropotkin/ancom/) (1887) The Scientific Basis of Anarchy (http://ww
The Industrial Village of the Future (http:// w.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-scientific-ba
www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-industrial sis-of-anarchy/view.php) (1887)
-village-of-the-future/view.php) (1884) The Fortress Prison of St. Petersburg (htt
Law and Authority (https://theanarchistlibra p://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-fortre
ry.org/library/petr-kropotkin-law-and-author ss-prison-of-st-petersburg/view.php)
ity) (1886) (1883)
The Coming Anarchy (http://www.revoltlib. Advice to Those About to Emigrate (http
com/anarchism/the-coming-anarchy/view.p s://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/advice-to-
hp) (1887) those-about-to-emigrate/view.php) (1893)
The Place of Anarchy in Socialist Evolution Some of the Resources of Canada (http://
(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31104) www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/some-of-the-
(1886) resources-of-canada/view.php) (1898)
The Wage System (http://www.revoltlib.co Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal (http://
m/anarchism/the-wage-system/view.php) www.panarchy.org/kropotkin/1896.eng.htm
(1920) l) (1896)
The Commune of Paris (http://www.revoltli Revolutionary Studies (http://www.revoltlib.
b.com/anarchism/the-commune-of-paris/vi com/anarchism/revolutionary-studies/view.
ew.php) (1880) php) (1892)
Anarchist Morality (http://www.revoltlib.co Direct Action of Environment and Evolution
m/anarchism/anarchist-morality/view.php) (http://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-dir
(1898) ect-action-of-environment-and-evolution/vi
ew.php) (1920)
Expropriation (http://www.revoltlib.com/ana
rchism/expropriation-kropotkin/view.php) The Present Crisis in Russia (http://www.re
voltlib.com/anarchism/the-present-crisis-in-
The Great French Revolution and Its
russia/view.php) (1901)
Lesson (http://www.revoltlib.com/anarchis
m/the-great-french-revolution-and-its-lesso The Spirit of Revolt (http://www.revoltlib.co
n/view.php) (1909) m/anarchism/the-spirit-of-revolt/view.php)
Process Under Socialism (http://www.revol (1880)
tlib.com/anarchism/process-under-socialis The State: Its Historic Role (http://www.pa
m/view.php) (1887) narchy.org/kropotkin/1897.state.html)
(1897)
Are Prisons Necessary? (http://www.panar
chy.org/kropotkin/prisons.html) Chapter X On Economics (http://www.panarchy.org/kr
from "In Russian and French Prisons" opotkin/economics.html) Selected
(1887) Passages from his Writings (1898–1913)
The Coming War (http://www.revoltlib.com/ On the Teaching of Physiography (http://w
anarchism/the-coming-war/view.php) ww.revoltlib.com/anarchism/on-the-teachin
(1913) g-of-physiography/view.php) (1893)
War! (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/
petr-kropotkin-war) (1914)

Articles
"The Constitutional Agitation in Russia," (ht "The old beds of the Amu-Daria", The
tp://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-const Geographical Journal, Vol. 12, No. 3. (Sep.
itutional-agitation-in-russia/view.php) 1905. 1898), pp. 306–310, JSTOR (https://www.j
"Brain Work and Manual Work," (http://ww stor.org/stable/1774317)
w.revoltlib.com/anarchism/brain-work-and- "Russian Schools and the Holy Synod," (ht
manual-work/view.php) 1890. tp://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/russian-s
"Manifesto of the Sixteen," (http://www.rev chools-and-the-holy-synod/view.php) 1902
oltlib.com/anarchism/the-manifesto-of-the- Mr. Mackinder; Mr. Ravenstein; Dr.
sixteen/view.php) 1916. Herbertson; Prince Kropotkin; Mr.
"Organized Vengeance Called 'Justice.'" (h Andrews; Cobden Sanderson; Elisée
ttp://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/organise Reclus, "On Spherical Maps and Reliefs:
d-vengeance-called-justice/view.php) Discussion", The Geographical Journal,
Vol. 22, No. 3. (Sep. 1903), pp. 294–299,
"A Proposed Communist Settlement: A
New Colony for Tyneside or Wearside." (ht JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/17751
90)
tp://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/proposed
-communist-settlement-a-new-colony-for-ty "The desiccation of Eur-Asia",
neside-or-wearside/view.php) Geographical Journal, 23 (1904), 722–41.
"What Geography Ought to Be," (http://ww “Finland” in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th
w.revoltlib.com/anarchism/what-geography ed.), 1911 (in part; with Joseph R. Fisher
-ought-to-be/view.php) 1885. and John Scott Keltie)
"Organized Vengeance Called 'Justice'" (ht "Finland: A Rising Nationality," (http://www.
tp://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/organise revoltlib.com/anarchism/finland-a-rising-na
d-vengeance-called-justice/view.php) tionality/view.php) Nineteenth Century,
"On Order" (http://www.revoltlib.com/anarc 1885
hism/on-order/view.php) “Anarchism” (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/a
"Maxím Górky," (http://www.revoltlib.com/a narchist_archives/kropotkin/britanniaanarc
hy.html) in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th
narchism/maxim-gork/view.php) 1904
ed.), 1911
"Research on the Ice age", Notices of the
"Anti-militarism. Was it properly
Imperial Russian Geographical Society,
understood?" (http://contentdm.warwick.a
1876.
c.uk/cdm/ref/collection/tav/id/3889),
"Baron Toll", The Geographical Journal, Freedom, vol.XXVIII, no. 307 (November
Vol. 23, No. 6. (Jun. 1904), pp. 770–772, 1914), pp. 82–83.
JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/17764
"An open letter of Peter Kropotkin to the
95)
Western workingmen" (http://contentdm.w
"The population of Russia", The arwick.ac.uk/cdm/ref/collection/russian/id/7
Geographical Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2. (Aug. 979), The Railway Review (29 June 1917),
1897), pp. 196–202, JSTOR (https://www.j p. 4.
stor.org/stable/1774603)

See also
Anarcho-communism
Anarchist schools of thought
Katorga
List of Russian anarchists
Kropotkin family

Notes
a. According to the new style calendar (modern Gregorian), Kropotkin was born on 21
December 1842. According to the old style (Old Julian) calendar used in the Russian
Empire at the time, it was 9 December 1842. Russia converted from the old to the new style
calendar in 1918.

References
1. Slatter, John. "Kropotkin, Pyotr Alexeyevich." (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-34041
00697.html) Encyclopedia of Russian History. 2004. Retrieved March 1, 2016 from
Encyclopedia.com.
2. Peter Marshall (2009). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. PM Press.
p. 177. ISBN 9781604862706.
3. Leo Tolstoy, MobileReference (2007). Works of Leo Tolstoy. MobileReference.
ISBN 9781605011561.
4. Richard T. Gray, ed. (2005). A Franz Kafka Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group.
p. 170. ISBN 9780313303753.
5. Winfried Scharlau (2011). Who is Alexander Grothendieck? Part 1: Anarchy. Books on
Demand. p. 30. ISBN 9783842340923. "In June 1918 Makhno visited his idol Peter
Kropotkin in Moscow..."
6. Mina Graur (1997). An Anarchist Rabbi: The Life and Teachings of Rudolf Rocker. New
York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 22–36. ISBN 978-0-312-17273-2.
7. Louis G. Perez, ed. (2013). "Kōtoku Shūsui (1871–1911)". Japan at War: An Encyclopedia.
ABC-CLIO. p. 190. ISBN 9781598847420.
8. Bookchin, Murray. The Ecology of Freedom. Oakland: AK Press, 2005. p.11
9. "Noam Chomsky Reading List" (http://leftreferenceguide.wordpress.com/noam-chomsky-rea
ding-list/). Left Reference Guide. January 18, 2009. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
10. "Kropotkin" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kropotkin). Random House Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary.
11. Stoddart, D. R. (1975). "Kropotkin, Reclus, and 'Relevant' Geography". Area. 7 (3): 188–
190. JSTOR 20001005 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20001005).
12. Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 414. ISBN 9780415252256.
13. Peter Kropotkin entry on 'anarchism' from the Encyclopædia Britannica (eleventh ed.),
Internet Archive. Public Domain text.
14. Woodcock, George & Avakumović, Ivan (1990). Peter Kropotkin: From Prince to Rebel (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=KCpksaH3NrgC&pg=PA13). Black Rose Books. p. 13.
ISBN 9780921689607.
15. Harman, Oren (2011). The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of
Kindness (https://books.google.com/books?id=cZJ2evtw7HAC&pg=PA20). W.W. Norton &
Company. p. 20. ISBN 9780393339994.
16. Roger N. Baldwin, "The Story of Kropotkin's Life," in Kropotkin's Anarchism: A Collection of
Revolutionary Writings, ed. by Baldwin (Orig. 1927; Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1970), p. 13.
17. Martin A. Miller, "Introduction" to P. A. Kropotkin, Selected Writings on Anarchism and
Revolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970; p. 7.
18. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist (https://books.google.com/?id=LtdMAA
AAYAAJ&pg=PR7&dq=peter+kropotkin+memoirs+revolutionist#v=onepage&q&f=false).
London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 63.
19. Winkle, Justin, ed. (2009). "Kropotkin, Petr Alexseyevich" (https://books.google.com/books?
id=z_mVLMM55gUC&pg=PA425). The Concise New Makers of Modern Culture. Taylor &
Francis. p. 425. ISBN 9780415477826.
20. Todes, Daniel Philip (1989). Darwin Without Malthus: The Struggle for Existence in Russian
Evolutionary Thought (https://books.google.com/books?id=rjVskyJh6TgC&pg=PA124).
Oxford University Press. p. 124. ISBN 9780195058307.
21. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Company. p. 270.
22. Miller, "Introduction," pg. 8.
23. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Company. p. 198.
24. Miller, "Introduction," p. 9.
25. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Company. p. 214.
26. Ward, Dana (2010). "Alchemy in Clarens: Kropotkin and Reclus, 1877–1881" (https://books.
google.com/books?id=p5t0R0ckDMAC&pg=PA211). In Jun, Nathan J. & Wahl, Shane
(eds.). New Perspectives on Anarchism. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 211.
ISBN 9780739132418.
27. Marshall, Peter (2010). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=QDWIOL_KtGYC&pg=PA311). PM Press. p. 311.
ISBN 9781604860641.
28. Riggenbach, Jeff (March 4, 2011). "The Anarchism of Peter Kropotkin" (https://mises.org/dai
ly/5071/The-Anarchism-of-Peter-Kropotkin). Mises Daily. Ludwig von Mises Institute.
29. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Company. pp. 235–236.
30. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Company. pp. 282–287.
31. Cahm, Caroline (2002). Kropotkin: And the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism, 1872–1886 (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=zk7wTSWT3JUC&pg=PA44). Cambridge University
Press. p. 44. ISBN 9780521891578.
32. Todes, Daniel Philip (1989). Darwin Without Malthus: The Struggle for Existence in Russian
Evolutionary Thought (https://books.google.com/books?id=rjVskyJh6TgC&pg=PA125).
Oxford University Press. p. 125. ISBN 9780195058307.
33. Bell, Jeffrey A. (2002). "Kropotkin, Pyotr" (https://books.google.com/books?id=XB6ckxWOq
9kC&pg=PA199). In Bell, Jeffrey A. (ed.). Industrialization and Imperialism, 1800–1914: A
Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 199. ISBN 9780313314513.
34. Kropotkin, Peter (1899). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Company. pp. 417–423.
35. Kropotkin, Peter (2010). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. reproduction of 1899 edition. Dover
Publications. p. 440. ISBN 978-0-486-47316-1.
36. Bantman, Constance (2006). "Internationalism without an International? Cross-Channel
Anarchist Networks, 1880–1914" (http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/534407/1/Internationalism%20w
ithout%20an%20International.pdf) (PDF). Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire. 84 (84–
4): 965. doi:10.3406/rbph.2006.5056 (https://doi.org/10.3406%2Frbph.2006.5056).
37. Young, Sarah J. (January 9, 2011). "Russians in London: Pyotr Kropotkin" (http://sarahjyoun
g.com/site/2011/01/09/russians-in-london-pyotr-kropotkin/). Retrieved August 30, 2013.
38. Shpayer, Haia (June 1981). "British Anarchism 1881–1914: Reality and Appearance" (http://
discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317725/1/281916.pdf) (PDF). p. 20. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
39. "Alexandra Kropotkin" (https://books.google.com/books?id=8z8mdUYp-6gC&pg=PA16&lpg=
PA16&dq=%22Peter+Kropotkin%22+1887+Alexandra&source=bl&ots=cXFi9ZZ2vP&sig=O
Qyj3kHr6IPR7ymhnSYh0YThNpE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwil8LKz9ODTAhXIhVQKHbQ
CDyoQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=%22Peter%20Kropotkin%22%201887%20Alexandra&f=f
alse) Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America by Paul Avrich (2005) AK
Press pps. 16-18; Retrieved May 8, 2017
40. Bromley Council guide to blue plaques
41. Peter Marshall Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, London: Fontana, 1993,
p.315
42. Gibbs, A. (2001). A Bernard Shaw Chronology (https://books.google.com/books?id=E1h9D
AAAQBAJ&lpg=PA365&dq=kropotkin%20george%20bernard%20shaw&pg=PA365#v=onep
age&q&f=false). Springer. p. 365. ISBN 9780230599581.
43. peter marshall, p 332, Demanding the impossible 1993
44. THE PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF ANARCHISM, Edited by Carl Levy and Matthew S.
Adams, page 404 publication Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
45. Burbank, Jane (1989). Intelligentsia and Revolution: Russian Views of Bolshevism, 1917–
1922 (https://books.google.com/books?id=nJHHAttsOL4C&pg=PA99). Oxford University
Press. p. 99. ISBN 9780195045734.
46. "A meeting between V.I. Lenin and P. A. Kropotkin" (https://www.bolshevik.info/meeting-leni
n-kropotkin-bonc-brujevic1919.htm).
47. "Letter to the Workers of Western Europe", in Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets. Dover
Publications Inc. 1970. p. 254. ISBN 9780486225197.
48. Goldman, Emma (1931). Living My Life. Dover Publications. pp. 867–868 (https://archive.or
g/details/livingmylife02gold/page/867). ISBN 978-0-486-22543-2.
49. "Papers of William Wess" (https://cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/russian/id/
528). cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org.
50. "The Biography of Prince Pyotr Kropotkin" (https://www.moscovery.com/pyotr-kropotkin/).
July 9, 2016.
51. Muscovites Step Up Effort To Rename Metro Station Honoring Tsar's Killer (https://www.rfer
l.org/a/russia-moscow-metro-station-voikovskaya-rename/27378036.html).
52. Kropotkin, Peter (1902). Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (https://books.google.com/?id=uD
AaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). p. 223.
53. Bekken, John (2009). Radical Economics and Labour. Chapter 2: Peter Kropotkin's
anarchist economics for a new society (https://books.google.com/?id=3PoqAJrrYtAC&pg=P
T18&dq=kropotkin+labor+theory#v=onepage&q=kropotkin%20labor%20theory&f=false).
London & New York: Routledge. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-415-77723-0.
54. Sale, Kirkpatrick (July 1, 2010) Are Anarchists Revolting? (http://www.amconmag.com/articl
e/2010/jul/01/00045/), The American Conservative
55. Kropotkin, Peter (1902). quotation from Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (https://en.wikiquo
te.org/wiki/Kropotkin#Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution_.281902.29).
56. Gallaher, Carolyn; Dahlman, Carl T.; Gilmartin, Mary; Mountz, Alison; Shirlow, Peter (2009).
Key Concepts in Political Geography (https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&
pg=PA262). London: SAGE. p. 392. ISBN 978-1-4129-4672-8. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
57. Vucinich, Alexander (1988). Darwin in Russian Thought (https://books.google.com/books?id
=dh1NvIxiaIIC&pg=PA349). University of California Press. p. 349. ISBN 9780520062832.
58. Morris, David. Anarchism Is Not What You Think It Is – And There's a Whole Lot We Can
Learn from It (http://www.alternet.org/story/154126/anarchism_is_not_what_you_think_it_is
_--_and_there%27s_a_whole_lot_we_can_learn_from_it/), AlterNet, February 13, 2012
59. Kropotkin, Peter (1892). The Conquest of Bread (https://books.google.com/?id=TB2ul8NVV
PcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). p. 201.
60. Kropotkin wrote: "After the Collectivist Revolution instead of saying 'twopence' worth of
soap, we shall say 'five minutes' worth of soap." (quoted in Brauer, Fae (2009). "Wild Beasts
and Tame Primates: 'Le Douanier' Rosseau's Dream of Darwin's Evolution" (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=kZisTVt0GJQC&pg=PA211). In Larsen, Barbara Jean (ed.). The Art of
Evolution: Darwin, Darwinisms, and Visual Culture. UPNE. p. 211. ISBN 9781584657750.)
61. Avrich, Paul (2005). The Russian Anarchists. AK Press. pp. 28–29. ISBN 9781904859482.
62. Adams, Matthew S. (June 4, 2015). Kropotkin, Read, and the Intellectual History of British
Anarchism: Between Reason and Romanticism (https://books.google.com/?id=bFFOCgAA
QBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=Kropotkin+on+self-sufficiency#v=onepage&q=Kropotki
n%20on%20self-sufficiency&f=false). Springer. ISBN 9781137392626.

Further reading

Books on Kropotkin
Mac Laughlin, Jim (2016). Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition. Pluto Press
(UK). ISBN 9780745335131.
Alan, Barnard (March 2004). "Mutual Aid and the Foraging Mode of Thought: Re-reading
Kropotkin on the Khoisan". Social Evolution & History. 3 (1): 3–21.
Joll, James (1980). The Anarchists. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-
674-03641-3. LCCN 80-010503 (https://lccn.loc.gov/80-010503).
Woodcock, George & Avakumovic, Ivan (1950). The Anarchist Prince: A Biographical Study
of Peter Kropotkin.
Miller, Martin A. (1976). Kropotkin. University of Chicago Press.
Morris, Brian (2004). Kropotkin: the Politics of Community. Humanity Press.
The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret
Police by Alex Butterworth (Pantheon Books, 2010)
Engelbert, Arthur (2012). Help! Gegenseitig behindern oder helfen. Eine politische Skizze
zur Wahrnehmung heute (http://arthur-engelbert.de/publikationen/help-gegenseitig-behinder
n-oder-helfen-eine-skizze-zur-wahrnehmung-heute/). Würzburg: Königshausen &
Neumann. ISBN 978-3-8260-5017-6.
Cahm, Caroline (1989). Kropotkin and the rise of revolutionary anarchism 1872–1886.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36445-0.
Walter, Nicolas (2004). "Kropotkin, Peter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online
ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/42326 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%
3Aodnb%2F42326). (Subscription or UK public library membership (http://www.oxforddnb.com/help/su
bscribe#public) required.)

Journal articles
Gould, S.J. (June 1997). "Kropotkin was no crackpot" (https://www.marxists.org/subject/scie
nce/essays/kropotkin.htm). Natural History. 106: 12–21.
Basic Kropotkin: Kropotkin and the History of Anarchism (https://web.archive.org/web/20090
530190615/http://www.afed.org.uk/ace/kropotkin_history_of_anarchism.html) by Brian
Morris, Anarchist Communist Editions pamphlet no.17 (The Anarchist Federation, October
2008).
Efremenko D., Evseeva Y. Studies of Social Solidarity in Russia: Tradition and Modern
Trends. // American Sociologist, v. 43, 2012, no. 4, pp. 349–365. – NY: Springer
Science+Business Media.
Prince P. A. Kropotkin: [Obituary] // Nature. 1921. Vol. 106. P. 735-736.

External links
Works by Peter Kropotkin (https://www.gut Summary of records (http://yourarchives.n
enberg.org/author/Kropotkin,+Petr+Alekse ationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Kro
evich,+kniaz) at Project Gutenberg potkin%2C_Peter_Alexeivitch_%281842-1
Works by or about Peter Kropotkin (https:// 921%29_Prince%2C_Russian_Anarchist)
archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28su in The National Archives and elsewhere,
bject%3A%22Kropotkin%22%20OR%20cr with a link to the National Register of
eator%3A%22Kropotkin%22%20OR%20d Archives pages.
escription%3A%22Kropotkin%22%20OR% Kropotkin's works (http://theanarchistlibrar
20title%3A%22Kropotkin%22%29%20O y.org/authors/Petr_Kropotkin.html) at
R%20%28%221842-1921%22%20AND% TheAnarchistLibrary.org
20Kropotkin%29%29%20AND%20%28-m Kropotkin's grave at Novodevichy
ediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive Cemetery (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8
Works by Peter Kropotkin (https://librivox.o 5101573@N00/139484527)
rg/author/2278) at LibriVox (public domain Site Elisée Reclus (http://raforum.info/reclu
audiobooks) s)
Peter Kropotkin Full Collected Works page Kropotkin: The Coming Revolution (https://
(https://www.revoltlib.com/people/peter-kro vimeo.com/30571222) short documentary
potkin/) at RevoltLib.com in Kropotkin's own words.
Kropotkin Page (https://web.archive.org/w Map of the Southern Half of Eastern
eb/20040607163737/http://recollectionboo Siberia and Parts of Mongolia, Manchuria,
ks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/KropotkinPete and Sakhalin: For a General Sketch of the
r.htm) at the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Orography of Eastern Siberia (http://www.
Encyclopedia wdl.org/en/item/125/) by Kropotkin, from
The Peter Kropotkin text archive (http://libc the World Digital Library
om.org/library/peter-kropotkin) on Album of the funeral of P.A. Kropotkin in
libcom.org library Moscow (1922) (http://contentdm.warwick.
Peter Kropotkin (http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/A ac.uk/cdm/ref/collection/russian/id/528)
narchist_Archives////////kropotkin/Kropotkin The virtual Museum of P.A. Kropotkin (htt
archive.html) entry at the Anarchy p://www.kropotkin.ru/)
Archives with complete collected works
Newspaper clippings about Peter
Peter Kropotkin-Short Documentary (http Kropotkin (http://purl.org/pressemappe20/f
s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu4n5uopvr older/pe/010522) in the 20th Century
g) on YouTube Press Archives of the ZBW

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Kropotkin&oldid=931727644"

This page was last edited on 20 December 2019, at 20:06 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

You might also like