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Kropotkin 1842 - 1921 (79)

Well-being for all is not a dream.


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The Conquest

of Bread

Kropotkin became famous more for his writings than for his actions. He argued that despite the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest, cooperation was the main factor in the evolution of species. He made a significant leap in the development of anarchist economic thought by arguing that individual property and unequal incomes should be replaced by the free disposal of products and services. Each person would receive from the common stores whatever he deemed necessary. He envisioned a society where all people would perform both physical and intellectual labor, working 4.5 hours a day, which is enough for a comfortable life if the few do not exploit most of the productive goods.

Pyotr Kropotkin (1842 - 1921) was a Russian revolutionary and anarchist, one of the most important theorists of anarcho -communism. He was born in Moscow on December 9th in an aristocratic family, his father was a prince, a descendant of a family that had ruled Russia before the Romanovs and had 1200 serfs, his mother was the daughter of a Cossack general. In 1857, at the age of 14, Pyotr was sent to a scholl that prepared the children of the aristocracy for a military career. From 1862 to 1867 he served as an officer in Siberia, where he also served in geographical research and studied the books of French anarchist Proudhon, English philosopher John Stewart Mill.

In 1867 he resigned from the army, which displeased his father, who dismissed him. He enrolled at the University of St. Petersburg to study mathematics and at the same time continued his geographical research in Sweden and Finland. In 1871 he denied the position of Secretary General of the Russian Geographical Society and in 1872 renounced the title of Prince who had inherited and declared that he was an anarchist, determined to devote his life to the struggle for equality and social justice.

In the same year he visited Switzerland and became a member of the International Workers' Union, also known as the first international. On his return to Russia he joined a revolutionary group that made propaganda between farmers and workers and spread anarchism. In March 1874 he was arrested for subversive action and locked up in prison. In the summer of 1876, shortly before his trial, he escaped with the help of his friends. He went to England and then to Switzerland, where he was deported at the request of the Russian government. He fled to France where he was arrested and remained in prison for three years, on charges of revolutionary activity. He was released in 1886 and settled in England, where he remained for thirty years. During his exile, Kropotkin wrote a series of books in order to put anarchism on a scientific basis. The most important are "The conquest of bread" (1892), "Fields, Factories and Workshops " (1899) and "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution " (1902).

After the 1917 revolution, he was allowed to return to Russia, where he was received with great enthusiasm. He was offered the Ministry of Education, but he refused, because any acceptance of the proposal would overturn his anarchist ideas. After the Bolsheviks were seized in October 1917, his enthusiasm turned into frustration. He died of pneumonia on February 8, 1921, in the city of Dimitrov, Russia. His funeral took place in Moscow and was attended by thousands of people.