International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Peter Kropotkin was one of the foremost theorists of anarchism – its principal exponent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and someone who imbued it with a philosophical and scientific legitimacy that would greatly enhance its reception in his own day and beyond. Kropotkin himself traced his anarchist sensibility back to his earliest years. He was born in Moscow in 1842 to a family that belonged to the highest stratum of Russian nobility. Kropotkin's father was a military officer and serf owner. Though his father's treatment of the family serfs was mild by relative standards, Kropotkin was dismayed by the extent of their oppression, and would come to sympathize deeply with their plight. After his mother died, Kropotkin and his siblings were placed almost entirely in the care of serf servants, and the loving affection and devotion the young Kropotkin received from them contributed strongly to the respect he had for the peasantry and the solidarity he felt with them throughout his life. His feelings of solidarity with the lower strata of society were further reflected in his refusal, at age 12, to be addressed as “Prince” – the beginning of a lifelong rejection of special status on account of his noble blood. Having caught the eye of Emperor Nicholas I at a reception in the emperor's honor, Kropotkin was shortlisted for the Corps of Pages, the most prestigious ... log in or subscribe to read full text