7 he. He Oy te x ‘ es a Ri 7, 50) 3 2) N ao ne é « % j ia ree Sy SiaBis e id pater A eo he 7 STi 2] : ot x 7 f “efi k 4 Piss Fe 8? Mi | Le) ¥ : 5 - Fi i 4 2 PETER KROPOTKIN THE REBEL, THINKER AND HUMANITARIAN TRIBUTES AND APPRECIATIONS - EXCERPTS - FRAGMENTS FROM THE UN- COLLECTED WORKS - MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS - AND ILLUSTRATIONS COMPILED AND EDITED BY JOSEPH ISHILL PRIVATELY PUBLISHED AND PRINTED AT THE FREE SPIRIT PRESS BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY, U.S. A. Copyright, 1923, ; By Joseph Ishill. j - ‘ ‘f eo nEaeaT et ' a i moO N T E€E N T S ————_—_—_——— eee e ° e FOREWORD . ° ° ° By JOSEPH ISHILL PETER KROPOTKIN - AVE ATQUE VALE . By ROSE FLORENCE FREEMAN APPRECIATIONS AND TRIBUTES BY M. NETTLAU . e PAGE 11 VERA FIGNER fz ° PAGE 86 HAVELOCK ELLIS . & 19 ALEXANDRA P. KROPOTKIN 87 W. TCHERKESOFF . ~ 23 WILL DURANT - . 89 JEAN GRAVE - A 27 Dr. FRITZ BRUPBACHER ., 91 PAUL RECLUS Z . 35 L. GUERINEAU ° ° 97 ERRICO MALATESTA “ 38 H. W. NEVINSON . - 101 HIPPOLYTE HAVEL “ 41 T.J. GA. COBDEN-SANDERSON 106 SEBASTIAN FAURE ° 44 JACQUES MESNIL . & 107 GEORG BRANDES . . 49 ALBERT JENSEN 5 = 109 J. Ss. K. 3 * = 51 MILLY WITKOP-ROCKER . 112 EDWARD CARPENTER . 56 GEORGES HERZIG . ° 116 HENRY S. SALT A P 59 F. DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS 117 ROMAIN ROLLAND & 61 V. TCHERTKOFF . : 119 HENRI BARBUSSE . + 62 LUIGI FABBRI . . 121 BULGAKOFF fe H 63 BOLTON HALL é ' 123 LUIGI BERTONI . “ 66 EMMA GOLDMAN . : 124 N. TCHAIKOVSKY. , 69 FRANCOIS DUMARTHERAY 129 CATHERINE BRESHOVSKAYA 72 S. YANOVSKY . 3 130 ELISEE RECLUS 7 ‘ 75 A. HAZELAND fs : 133 RUDOLF ROCKER . ° 78 ALEXANDER BERKMAN . 135 C O NN ~ "EF * Qe [CONTINUED] IN REMEMBRANCE OF MANY ITALIAN AND SPANISH FRIENDS AND _ PAGE COMRADES - A NOTE ° . ° ° By M. NETTLAU 137 EXCERPTS FROM OSCAR WILDE . . - 141 G. BROCHER .. - 148 ELIE FAURE ‘ ; - 142 STEPNIAK p * - 149 BERTRAND RUSSELL . - 143 VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE - 150 FERDINAND BUISSON . - 144 VICTORINE ROUCHY-BROCHER151 FRANK HARRIS P - 145 JEAN WINTSCH : « 152 STEINLEN ‘ a - 146 A. MARSH : 3 - 152 FREDERICK VAN EEDEN - 146 CHARLES MALATO . - 153 ROBERT ERSKINE ELY PeLad MAX BAGINSKY ; - 154 BST SS ae ee FRAGMENTS FROM KROPOTKIN’S UNCOLLECTEDWORKS FROM KROPOTKIN’S STATEMENT BEFORE THE LYONS COURT-1883 . 157 THE FIRST WORK OF THE REVOLUTION . . ; : . 159 THE NECESSITY OF COMMUNISM. : ; . ; . 160 ROCKS AHEAD. p ‘ ; ; ; ; . 161 FROM AN ADDRESS ON COMMUNIST ANARCHISM : 3 . 162 COMMUNISM AND THE WAGE-SYSTEM 2 : ; - 8a? BEFORE THE STORM _. ; : E : ; : /63 KROPOTKIN’S WORDS ON THE “ELEVENTH OF NOVEMBER” , tke WILLIAM MORRIS . : ; : : : : : . 167 ELISEE RECLUS.. ; : : : : ; k . 169 BO N T E NOE T EN OPS [CONTINUED] MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS TO GEORG BRANDES - PAGE 173 JEAN GRAVE ‘ . PAGE 184 ALEXANDER ATABEKIAN 177 F DUMARTHERAY : 186 LUIGI BERTONI . : 180 ““FREIHEIT” GROUP x 189 “TOLSTOYAN” GROUP 189 ILLUSTRATIONS PETER KROPOTKIN, Frontispiece. From a photograph by Elliot & Fry, London. KROPOTKIN at the age of 22. From a photograph by Bergamasco, St. Petersburg. EKATERINA NIKOLAEVNA KROPOTKIN, (His Mother). From a painting. Woodcut by MAURICE DUVALET. Woodcut, cover for “Le Salariat” by KOPKA. Drawing by M. LUCE. Drawing, cover for “L’Esprit de Revolte” by DELANNOY. Facsimile page from KROPOTKIN’S MS. “Syndicalism and Anarchism”. Pencil Sketch of KROPOTKIN by A. BILLIS. KROPOTKIN in his Library, Bromley, Kent, England. From a photograph. Drawing from ““LIBERTAIRE”’. Facsimile page of “FREEDOM”, first copy of the English Anarchist paper. Two pages from a facsimile letter to Jean Grave. KROPOTKIN at his home in Dimitroff, Russia. Drawing by M. LUCE. The Room in which KROPOTKIN died. From a photograph, The cuts for the cover, title page and headpiece on page 9 are by MAURICE DUVALET. The headpiece on the first page of the contents is by FIDUS. 2 “The truth is, that a system of equal property requires no restrictions or super- intendence whatever. There is no need of common labour, common meals or common magazines. These are feeble and mistaken instruments for restraining the conduct without making conquest of the judgement. If you cannot bring over the hearts of the community to your party, expect no success from brute regulations. If you can, regulation is unnecessary. Such a system was well enough adapted to the military constitution of Sparta; but it is wholly unworthy of men who are enlisted in no cause but that of reason and justice. Beware of reducing men to the state of machines. Govern them through no medium but that of inclination and conviction.” WILLIAM GODWIN Um x ¥ e : 2 x SP SP ie ex ay DINAN, a : i Vent Sy” A Pe! AP ALED ANS VE Joule lex aaa HE NAME OF PETER KROPOTKIN EVOKES ONE OF y iy ‘a noes THE GREATEST PERSONALITIES IN THE ANNALS OF yaa Zu THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT, OF IDEAL HU- 4)MANITY, OF ANARCHISM. The heart of this rebel was one of the noblest that ever beat in a human breast against human bondage. He was a truthfal explorer in that science whose aim is to exalt labor and reduce misery—the science of ef- ficient revolution. This was unequivocally proven in all his works. He challenged all forms of authority which help spread the mist of ancient, traditional lies. It was his life’s dearest ideal to see the laboring masses liberated in the fullest sense of the word. Advocating the gospel of freedom, his ideas always concerned themselves with convincing facts. Everywhere is his work reinforced with concrete instances borrowed from nature and traced throughout the history of the sciences. Among the many whose illumined minds have had the courage to denounce a world of wrongs perpetrated by ex- ploiters, Kropotkin’s mind shines brightest. He courageously held the torch aloft, letting its searching rays fall upon the reactionary, the shameful, the corrupt, and exposing their inherent putridity. FOREWORD [wl Kropotkin had the keenest talent for observing all that is manifest in life. If cyinics and “practical” persons see in Kropotkin only the “naive dreamer”, they ought to be ad- vised to adjust their wisdom, and take a more profound view of this social and economic world which is so rapidly dis- integrating, and many of whose old institutions have me) crumbled. Kropotkin’s ideas have helped do this, and will in the future even more effectually shatter the shameful struc- ture of a society based upon hypocrisy, lies, and robbery. Kropotkin is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of famous revolutionists. In him is seen the ideal rebel exem- plified. His long activity in the field of human emancipation sufficiently proves that his life was dedicated to the masses. To thousands upon thousands of readers has his work be- come a most precious and enduring literature, and not only the rank and file, but to a great extent, scientists and liberal professors admire and follow his precepts. Many of his sociological predictions have become verified. The ideas which he advocated have, through the cupidity of pseudo-revolutionists, received a temporary set-back on the road to freedom. Nevertheless, his own eyes witnessed the downfall of Russian Czarism, the greatest despotic power an oppressed world has ever inherited. The heart of the old rebel must have overflowed with joy at its achievment. It was one of his “Utopias” come true! If what had happened has happened to Russia, of all nations, then Kropotkin’s other “Utopias” must be earnestly awaited because they are certain of realization. ~ Kropotkin’s ideas have struck deep root, and they are strik- ing further and farther down, establishing themselves more and more fundamentally; they only await the ripening time which is speedily and inevitably approaching, those liber- [ mt ] FOREWORD tarian ideas which have been watered with tears and sweat and blood since the beginning of human slavery. This book, as it here appears, may be criticised by some as an egoistic venture or as the effort of a well-financed in- dividual or group, because of its limited number of copies and its uncommercial form. The fact remains that it is the exclusive expression of a proletarian; neither group nor in- dividual has financed this work. It was accomplished solely through the effort and will of the writer. His determination to publish these collected tributes at his personal expense and labor, is his way of honoring the great personality of Kropotkin. He was inspired by Kropotkin’s almost unique idealism in a world drenched with the putrid materialism of a hypocritical civilization. The task was by no means a light undertaking. To see so much accumulated material which was gathered from various sources, and to have to sift it down and compress it in book-form, was ex- ceedingly difficult. It was necessary to limit the size and number of pages. Thus many of the articles are fragment- ary, and numerous biographical and incidental repetitions which are almost parallel in one way or another, had to be omitted. The unincluded material is voluminous and varied and could easily form several volumes. Kropotkin’s articles on revolutionary topics are of the utmost importance. It is the research and creative work ofa life-time, which he was too occupied to shape in book-form. Of these are included only a few fragments as a mere illustration, for the greater part remains still buried in the oblivion of scattered papers FOREWORD [Iv ] and periodicals. Such work is assuredly worth seeing col- lected and printed. Then, there are his personal letters to friends and comrades, some of great documentary value and as yet, nowhere pub- lished. This would add more illuminating material to his well-known “Memoirs of a Revolutionist”. These were compiled with the intention of having them inserted here; but as the number of pages is limited, the greater part of them remains unpublished. Far from the rumble of the Metropolis, and with sadly in- efficient equipment, the writer has endeavored to do what he considers his spiritual duty. To this quiet spot of earth and sky he returns exhausted with the day’s work, and when wheels and arms took their nightly rest, he began to set and print these pages. His joy in the work was inter- mingled with pain, for he has encountered many obstacles. Three times has his little hand-press broken down, utterly unable to cope with the overload placed upon it. In the end it unconditionally refused to be of further service and had to be consigned to the scrap-heap. Then, at great sacrifice it was replaced by another old, but larger press which also showed great disinclination to work. But at last strength was conquered by determination. The writer has sought to emulate the example of Kropotkin in Switzerland: During the hours when the workers were at rest around their hearths, Kropotkin would begin with a few others to set up the remaining columns of the “Révolte”, He sought to imitate him in his spiritual tendencies. It is sincerely hoped that this book may awaken in the hearts of the proletariat the desire to see not only a memorial book and one more worthy of Kropotkin, but also all his [v] FOREWORD works collected and printed in hundreds of thousands of copies. The writer wishes to express his thanks to M. Nettlau for his kindness and generosity in supplying an abundance of material, and many important suggestions for the book. He greatly regrets that there was not sufficient space for more than a small portion of the material submitted. He is grateful to Rose Florence Freeman who rendered many of the contributions into English. Thanks is also due to Thomas H. Keell, editor of “Freedom” who was kind enough to send some of the illustrative matter, and to Jean Grave for permitting to insert one of Kropotkin’s personal letters. He also is grateful to the artist Maurice Duvalet who has generously contributed several woodcuts, and to all the other contributors who have sent their tributes in memory of the great rebel: Peter Kropotkin. JOSEPH ISHILL BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N. J. AUGUST, 1923. S228 “It was once also universally supposed that slavery was a natural and quite legitimate institution — a condition into which some were born, and to which they ought to submit as to a Divine ordination; nay, indeed, a great propor- tion of mankind hold this opinion still. A higher social development, however has generated in us a better faith, and we now to a considerable extent recog- nise the claims of humanity. But our civilisation is only partial. It may by- and-by be perceived, that Equity utters dictates to which we have not yet listened; and men may then learn, that to deprive others of their rights to the use of the earth, is to commit a crime inferior only in wickedness to the crime of taking away their lives or personal liberties. ... We find that if pushed to its ultimate consequences, a claim to exclusive possession of the soil involves a land-owning despotism. We further find that such a claim is constantly denied by the enactments of our legislature. And we find lastly, that the theory of co-heirship of all men to the soil, is consistent with the highest civilisation; and that however difficult it may be to embody that theory in fact, Equity sternly commands it to be done.” HERBERT SPENCER PETER KROPOTKIN AVE ATQUE VALE The blood of Russia waters the stunted flower That wilts in our western sun; The heart of Russia beats in that holy hour When its petals one by one Shall raise their potent splendor and imbue The sacrificial dew. Comrade farewell! Your life was not indeed A martyrdom consoled Maternally by Death: You lived to bleed Your years out, growing old Captive or exile, steadfast soul unfurled For Russia and the world! Kropotkin, when your ancestors owned slaves, That sinister name rang out A challenge for their hirelings’ lifted staves, ; The Russian whip, the Knout ... Kropotkin, comrade, you have cleansed long since Your genial name from “prince !” That virile, Mosaic beard, those glances keen, The famed clasp of your hand Express a life as shriven and as clean As cleanly ocean-sand. Tomorrow’s dawn lights up your kindly head, And who would call you dead ?... Russia unbars her gates; night barely over, She does not see—she feels; Her groping spirit yearns to know its lover: Sly footfalls dog her heels... - Your grave is Russia’s breast.— Peace to the two! Peace to Russia—and you! ROSE FLORENCE FREEMAN “No man can emancipate himself, except by emancipating mith him all the men around him. My liberty is the liberty of everyone, for I am not truly free, free not only in thought but in deed, except when my liberty and my rights find their confirmation, their sanction, in the liberty and the rights of all men, my equals.” M. BAKUNIN “CAll are awaiting the birth of a new order of things; all ask themselves, some with misgivings, others with hope, what the morrow mill bring forth. It will not come with empty hands. The century which has witnessed so many grand discoveries in the world of science cannot pass away without giving us still greater conquests... After so much hatred we long to love each other, and for this reason we are the enemies of private property and despisers of the law.” ELISEE RECLUS Woopcut BY MAURICE DUVALET PETER KROPOTKIN AT WORK para] ROPOTKIN’S PERSONALITY AND IDEAS WERE }TO SUCH AN EXTENT BEFORE COMRADES y4| AND THE PUBLIC AT LARGE, UNTIL 1914 AT =| least, that little remains to be said at this 2M) hour of his death, when one feels dis- 4\|inclined to compile hosts of facts and =4j| figures, to dissect ideas, or to record small J traits and anecdotes. Again, that evolu- tion, let loose in 1914 and since being spelled with an R of ever-growing proportions, is still so un- settled that we can hardly calculate the different forces at work and foresee their final course; so, with many factors still hidden, at least to our observation, we cannot rightly judge at this moment what influence Kropotkin’s life-work and ideas had, and maintain, on all that happened and on the much greater bulk of all that is preparing. Authority, which he fought all his life, seems to be victorious every- where, from Imperialism to Bolshevism; and yet, to most PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS thinking people, these are hollow victories, the last and most hideous manifestations of Authority, digging its own grave by creating at last an immense desire for real freedom and good fellowship, and leading inevitably up to the time when all the seeds scattered by Kropotkin and so many other Anarchists will bear fruit. When in some countries the pres- ent system was discredited and broke down, it was probably inevitable that large parties and masses, eager for power and materially dissatisfied and hungry, should first grasp the reins of power and adopt rough authoritarian measures. Freedom’s turn comes next, and the question as to what extent coming events will be more directly inspired by free- dom than those since 1917 have been, is the great problem before us. We are in the very midst of this development, and a definite estimate of Kropotkin’s work and its lasting influence must be postponed. It is sufficient to say that during his life of activity, from the sixties until 1914, he did whatever man could do, and that few lives are so teeming with continuous work, work for science and the elaboration of ideas, work for propaganda and the spreading of ideas, all this accompanied by hard work for a modest livelihocd for himselfand family. Itis in this respect, as a hard-working man of rare and immense activity, that I will consider Kropotkin just now. He would not have been averse to a life a little more eas ; but circumstances chained him to his work for between fi and sixty years, and, once at work, he worked away with great intensity. I believe that his ideas were formed by a slow process of gathering materials and observations with scientific ardour, and then basing conclusions upon them. Once these conclusicns were formed, be it in the ’sixties or thirty years later, they got hold ofhim to an incredible de- [ Page 12 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS gree, and seemed unalterable throughout his life. Henceforth he would be untiring to seek confirmation of these ideas, but he would far less seem to be inclined or to find time to re- examine them and to revise their foundation. To me, at least, this rigid adherence to all he had ever observed, be it in the early sixties, and which his memory retained wonder- fully, appeared somewhat strange, and leading to a degree cf isolation in face of the ever-progressing advance of re- search. I should have wished to see his ideas thrown into the crucible of general scientific discussion to a much greater extent than they were, modified by criticism, augmented b the efforts of many others, and then they might be before us now in a more permanent and general, less personal form. But I recognise that many reasons prevented this, and fixed Kropotkin, if 1 may say 80, in some respect on the borderline between scientist and prophet. Scientists are plentiful and prophets also, but men nourished by true science and Beneticinitig it by themselves and spreading it like prophets are very scarce, and Kropotkin's position was in some respects unique. The brilliant progress of natural science after Darwin’s great work was published in the late fifties, and the immense un. developed resources of Russia and Siberia, which Kropotkin learnt to appreciate by his travels, stimulated his interest for natural science, and he became an active worker upon this immense field, which even in autocratic Russia was re. latively undisturbed. But here his natural unselfishness in- terfered, and when he saw the downtrodden state of the people, to whom the natural riches and mineral wealth of Russia, and all the researches of Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer meant absolutely nothirg, he threw up the scientific career and cast in his lot with those who prepared the Rus- sian Revolution. [ Page 13 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Thus, after his travels and studies of the sixties and much manual work, so to speak, in this domain, translations and the like, to earn a living, he applied the same intensity of work to revolutionary purposes, the organisation of secret propagandist travels, meetings, lectures and printing, and to secret lectures of his own in the guise of a working man. His interest was always a thorough one, he went to the bottom of things and did the real work, small or large, as required, from a revolutionary lecture to drawing up a plan for the reorganisation of the movement all over Russia. When the lives and ideas of many anarchist thinkers and actors will be more fully known and examined, it will be a charming task for a keen reasoner and psychologist to point out all the nuances and shades of their various conceptions of Anarchism — for Anarchism is happily quite the opposite of a cast iron theory— and then Bakunin, Kropotkin, James Guillaume, Cafiero, Malatesta and others will meet before the eyes ofthe reader. It will be particularly interesting to compare the Anarchism of Kropotkin and that of Elisée Rezlus, who closely co-operated, an were intimate friends, and yet who seem, to me at least, to possess great differences as well as remarkable affinities. To me Kropotkin’s Anarchism seems harder, less tolerant, more disposed to be practical; that of Reclus seems to be wider, wonderfully tolerant, uncom- promising as well, based on a more humanitarian basis. There is room for both and more, and if Kropotkin’s Anar- chism is more of his time and parts of it may vanish with himself, that of Reclus seems more lasting to me; the time to recognise it fully has not yet arrived, but is sure to come. My personal recollection of him dates from the Commune meeting held in London in March 1888 and a series of lectures given by Kropotkin and other members of the Free- [ Page 14 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS dom group in that year, some of them at the Socialist League offices in Farringdon Road. But at that time no farther co- operation ensued between the League where revolutionary socialism predominated and the Group which was strictly anarchist communist and it was not until the Commonweal Group, the final outcome of the Socialist League, had been broken up by persecutions in 1894, and “Freedom” also was voluntarily interrupted for some months in 1894-95, that the rest of the Commonweal Group and the Freedom Group amalgamated and “Freedom” was resuscitated in May, 1895, to be published without a break from that time until to-day. Somehow none of these events, the stirring times of the early nineties, brought Kropotkin into a contact with the English movement so close as that which existed—as I heard from old comrades — between himselfand the movement in the Jura townships and at Geneva. The literary work for his living (auxiliary geographical work, etc.), and his health impaired by Russian and French prison life, also the many calls on his literary help, correspondence, etc., required a certain retirement, besides periods of strained library work; and he always dwelt at a considerable distance from the centre, at Harrow, Acton, Bromley (Kent), Muswell Hill, and finally, when his health demanded it, at Brighton, and only passed an odd week or so in London now and then for library researches. As he gave all his time to work, study, correspondence, and visitors, he could not possibly have done more; and if his contact with the London movement had been more frequent other paris of his work which appeal toa larger public must have been curtailed. He had so very many things in hand which led to studies, which, like all serious studies, never come to anend. Thus [ Page 15 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS he watched the whole range of organic life for proofs of mutual aid as against the struggle for life, and I saw him seldom so delighted as some afternoon in the British Muse- um when, at last; he had just discovered an account of early social tigers which a scientist had declared nct to exist, meaning thereby to strike a nasty blow against mutual aid. Kropotkin by accident found an account that tigers also had lived in herds until the persecutions of men reduced their numbers and forced them to isolate themselves in re- mote parts of the jungle. To this observation of the detai's of animal and social life he added by and by the burden of ethical research, where so much literature antagonistic to his ideas still required to be examined preliminarily. Then his American journey produced the invitation of the “Atlantic Monthly” to write his “Memoirs,” a task the first part of which revived all his early Russian memories and, in general, led him back to ever so many recollections of which he did not speak in the “Memoirs.” Knowing my historical and bibliographical interest — which he always very kindly seconded — he told me in those years many additions to the “Memoirs” which I used for my additional notes on Bakunin and the life of Malatesta or which, if they concern the last years of the International and Anar- chism of the eighties, repose still in my notes. This period of personal retrospection was interrupted by the greater in- terest which Russia claimed from him when at last in the years preceding 1905 the movement became more hopeful and some said: now or never! and the change of 1905 was brought about indeed. In those years Kropotkin visited America another time and gave those lectures which the book “Russian Literature” (1905) reproduces. [ Page 16 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS During the last few years before 1914 he felt very much the necessity of always having to work to keep his home going, and he would have dearly enjoyed some real rest, which for him would have meant the reading and even the collecting of books (for he was a book lover, too, and enjoyed getting hold of scarce revolutionary editions,) artistic pleasures, and listening to interesting news, with some peeps behind the curtains of politics among them which he dearly loved. But such leisure he was never to enjoy; some cares, im- paired working power and very precarious health never gave him a longer respite; it was painful to see how often work, overwork, downbreak and enforced rest succeeded each other almost automatically. Yet he was cheerful and gay and loved to joke and to laugh, but he was also the next moment dread. fully hard and earnest, and, above all, he was unalterable in his adherence to the different sorts of ideas which he had formulated. But why insist upon some weaknesses which, after all, no doubt had their advantages as well, and contributed to the composition of the unique personality he was. I last saw him before he left for Bordighera at the end of 1913. I was not surprised at his attitude on the war, since his opinions on this subject were old and deep rooted. I can thus feel and understand his life from 1914 to Sly; also his immense delight at the Russian Revolution of March, 1917, and the hope with which he returned to Rus- sia in Kerensky’s time. Some months later, however, his life must have become a tragedy, and must have been this to the very end. Tolstoy spoke up to the Tsar in 1908: “I can no longer be silent; I must speak!” — Kropotkin’s voice to [ Page 17 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Lenin was not heard, or only in a few letters printed abroad; but he may have thought that all his friends would interpret his silence, like that of Spiess when he met his death at Chicago in 1887: “There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are strangling to-day”— the silence of Kropotkin covers a tragedy before — which to us his weaker sides disappear, and his cheerful, indetatigable work for freedom, science, and humanity alone remains. M. NETTLAU De 4 eee AS WE ARE BY ;HEREDITARY PREJUDICES AND ; OUR UNSOUND EDUCATION AND TRAINING TO REPRESENT OURSELVES THE BENEFICIAL HAND OF GOVERNMENT, LEGIS- LATION AND MAGISTRACY EVERYWHERE, WE HAVE COME TO BELIEVE THAT MAN WOULD TEAR HIS FELLOW-MAN TO PIECES LIKE A WILD BEAST THE DAY THE POLICE TOOK HIS EYE OFF HIM; THAT ABSOLUTE CHAOS WOULD COME ABOUT IF AUTHOR- ITY WERE OVERTHROWN DURING A REVOLUTION. AND WITH OUR EYES SHUT WE PASS BY THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF HUMAN GROUPINGS WHICH FORM THEMSELVES FREELY, WITHOUT ANY INTERVENTION OF THE LAW, AND ATTAIN RE- SULTS INFINITELY SUPERIOR TO THOSE ACHIEVED UNDER GOV- ERNMENTAL TUTELAGE. ...” “THE CONQUEST OF BREAD” [ Page 18 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS KROPOTKIN & SONp ROM time to time there appear upon the earth Face <3 | men who stand aside from the streams of com- We FEN mon tradition and, in their thought or in their ey Bs yhU| lives, or in both, refuse to recognise the authority aerate) of external authority or of external rule, believing that human life can only be harmoniously and happily lived when its order is autonomous and comes from within. Of such men in recent years the most conspicuous and the most distinguished, after Tolstoy, was probably Peter Kropotkin. ¢ He was himself far too modest to magnify his own place in this great succession, but he loved to recall the names of these splendid figures in the past who had thus rejected the authority of the herd. He went far back for the first — about as far back as he well could go—and invoked the name of Lao-tze the first and greatest mystic. Then he came down to Aristippus and to the Cynics, to Zeno and those of the Stoics who advocated the free community and were in some respects remarkably near the libertarian thinkers of recent days. Later are to be noted some of the Hussites and some of the early Anabaptists. Kropotkin fails to mention Leo- nardo da Vinci who, by his complete rejection of all author- ity but that of Nature and his unqualified contempt for the herd, was on the intellectual side the supreme representative of the type. But he could not fail to recognize Rabelais who remains even by his conception of the Abbey of Thelema alone, the most brilliant and far-reaching among early expo- nents of this philosophy. He mentions — no doubt to the sur- prise of some—the name of Fenelon, and he could not fail to admit the free and flaming genius of Diderot. Then there was Godwin, who first formulated this philosophy in a coherent modern political and economic shape, and later [ Page 19] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS the gracious and charming figure of Guyau whom Kropotkin always regarded as the founder of anew morality. Kropotkin - himself takes his high place in this noble band not so much by power or brilliance in any one direction, as by a fine combination of qualities, for he was at once an aristocrat and a martyr, a philosophic thinker and a revolutionist, eminent not only by his high accomplishments in science but by his willingness to share the lot of the lowliest, and throughout all conspicuous by the nobility of his personal character. Through this possession of a beautifully many- sided nature he became not indeed one of the greatest of the long line of such men but one of the most typical. The men of this type are often called Anarchists and it was so that Kropotkin called himself. Invented by Proudhon in 1840 and since so often employed, it is yet not a happy name. It suggests a disorganised rebellion against all govern- ment, and it is not surprising that to the vulgar mind “anar- chist” often means “criminal”, and still less surprising that the common criminal is often pleased to dub himself “anar- chist”. But the people called Anarchists, outside criminal circles, are not in favour of disorganisation nor of the re- — jection of government. What they seek to maintain is or- ganisation from within rather than from without, and self- government rather than government by others. “Do what you will”, was the inscription Rabelais set up over the Abbey of Thelema, but he proceeded at once to point out that people who are well born and well bred will to do that only which it is good to do. In the wide sense Anarchists represent a stream of opinion which has never failed to exist. There have always been Statists, on the one hand, Kropotkin was accustomed to assert, and Anarchists on the other. The Statists rely on [ Page 20 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS established and more or less rigid institutions maintained by a strong minority dominating the majority; Anarchists reject the State together with Capitalism, oppression, and war, to which it inevitably leads. But there are, as we know, two groups of Anarchists, the Individualist Anarchists and the Communist Anarchists who believe in the concerted organisation of Society, initiated by revolution. The supreme figures in history who are claimed as Anarchists may prob- ably all be said to belong to the Individualist group. Obvi- ously, however, along that line there is little chance of a speedy remoulding of society, therefore sanguine and opti- mistic spirits tend to be drawn towards Communist Anar- chism which promises a speedier cure for the world’s ills. It was in this direction that Kropotkin was drawn. He expected a revolution to occur about the end of the nine- teenth century, to begin in one of the great countries of Europe and to overspread the world. The society thus formed would, he said, be an organised interwoven network. He overlooked the fact that that is just what the much-denounced State is, and that after kicking the State out of the front door he would be letting it in at the back door. For the mob remains the mob, whether or not it labels itself “State” and an oppressed majority has ever proved even more danger- ous than even an oppressing minority. Kropotkin’s psycho- logy was a little too simple. He asserted that some human beings are “venomous beasts” and must be destroyed by other human beings whom he regarded as pure-souled altru- ists. But he scarcely seems to have realised that the major- ity of human beings are neither the one nor the other, but have in them both a streak of the “venomous beast” and another of the pure-souled altruist. The great revolution that Kropotkin foresaw duly arrived, although a few years later than he expected. It is a revolution of which the exact char- [ Page 21 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS acter and the far reverberating influences, which can scarcely fail to be immense, we may not yet attempt to estimate. Kropotkin hastened to Russia to take part in it, and there in the heart of Russia, in the midst of the Revolution he had spent his life in preparing, but in which he now felt an alien and which showed itself completely indifferent to him, he at length died. We must riot therefore count Kropotkin a failure. On the contrary he was an immense success. It is true that the pure-hearted enthusiasts of this noble type are apt to over- estimate the power of their faith to remove mountains; they do not always recognise, as Diderot, one of the greatest of them, had the genius to see and to acknowledge, that their creed is “diablement idéal”. It matters little. They have let the light of their inspiration and their courage so shine before men that it can never be extinguished, but re- mains an ever burning flame, to keep alive in each one of us some spark of that higher life by which Mankind alone truly lives. y HAVELOCK ELLIS oh “WE REPRESENT OURSELVES A FORWARD MOVEMENT OF SOCI- ETY AS AN APPROACH TO THE ABOLITION OF ALL THE AUTHOR- ITY OF GOVERNMENT, AS A DEVELOPMENT OF FREE AGREEMENT FOR ALL THAT FORMERLY WAS A FUNCTION OF CHURCH AND STATE, AND AS A DEVELOFMENT OF FREE INITIATIVE IN EVERY INDIVIDUAL AND EVERY GROUP. AND THESE ARE THE TENDENCIES WHICH DETERMINE THE TACTICS OF THE ANAR- CHISTS IN THE LIFE OF BOTH THE INDIVIDUAL AND OUR CIR- CLES.” MODERN SCIENCE AND ANARCHISM [ Page 22 ] ite Bil PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS FRIEND AND COMRADE aN my long life as Socialist and revolutionist, I “(= have had the chance to meet many gifted and GER exceptional people, excelling in knowledge or ise rey _ talent, and distinguished by greatness of char- Ee eeaenaiacter. I knew even heroic men and women, as well as people with the stamp of genius... But Kropotkin stands as a most conspicuous, strongly defined character even in that gallery of noble fighters for humanitarian ideals and intellectual liberation. Kropotkin possesses in delightful harmony the qualities of a true inductive scientist and evolutionary philosopher with the greatness of a Socialist thinker and fighter, inspired by the highest ideals of social justice. At the same time by his temperament he is undoubtedly one of the most ardent and fearless propagandists of the social revolution and of the complete emancipation of working humanity through its own initiative and efforts. And all these qualities are united in Kropotkin so closely and intimately that one cannot, separ- ate Kropotkin, the scientist, from Kropotkin, the Socialist and revolutionist. As scientist— geographer and geologist— Kropotkin is famed for his theory of the formation of mountain chains and high plateaux, a theory now proved and accepted by science, and, in recognition of which the mountains in East Siberia explored by him have been named Kropotkin mountains. As naturalist and inductive thinker on evolution, Kropotkin has earned undying glory and admiration by his “Mutual Aid,” a work showing his vast knowledge as a naturalist and sociologist. [ Page 23 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS One of the most striking works of Kropotkin, I may say even classical by its form, deep knowledge, brilliant argu- mentation and noble purpose, is his “Fields, Factories and Workshops.” Here he shows to toiling humanity with facts and figures the abundance of produce obtainable, the com- forts and pleasures of life possible if physical and intellectu- al work are combined, if agriculture and industry are to go hand in hand. I think that for the last quarter of a century no book has appeared so invigorating, so encouraging and convincing to those who work for a happier society. No wonder that a London democratic weekly advised its readers to buy his book by all means, even if they had to pawn their last shirt to raise the shilling. ... 1 often ask myself if there exists another man equal to Kropotkin in quickness, intensity, punctuality and variety of work? It is simply amazing what he is capable of doing in a single day. He reads incredibly much, in English, French, German and Russian; with minute interest he follows polit- ical and social events, science and literature, and especially the Anarchist movement in the whole world. His study, with its booklined walls, has piles of papers, new books, etc.,on the floor, tables and chairs. And all this material, if not read, is at least looked through, annotated, often parts are cut out, classified and put away in boxes and portfolios made by himself. Kropotkin used to occupy himself for re-— creation with carpentry and bookbinding, ... and all his work is done with beautifal neatness and correctness. To give an idea of the variety of his work, I shall descrike my last visit to Kropotkin. I came with a French scientist, also a great workerand a sincere admirer of Kropotkin. We found him in his study, hard at work, giving the last touches to a new edition of his “Fields, Factories and Workshops.” [ Page 24 ] ee ae a ee ; : | | PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS One side of his table was covered with the French proofs of “La Science moderne et L’Anarchie.” There were also the appendix and glossary in English for the coming “Free- dom” edition of the same book. On a small table a half- finished article on Syndicalism was lying, and a pile of let- ters, some of them twelve pages long, exchanged with an old friend and comrade of the Federation Jurassienne, and dealing with the origin of Syndicalism, awaited an answer. Newspapers, books everywhere, volumes and separate articles on Bakunin were about, as Kropotkin is at present editing a complete Russian edition of Bakunin’s works. In the midst of all these things, vigorous, alive, active as a young man, smiling heartily, Kropotkin himself... At the end of the day, when the household has gone to rest, Kropotkin, with his usual consideration for those who have werked, moves about the house like a mouse, tiptoe- ing so as not to disturb sleep even if only the servant has gone to bed. Often he has whispered to me to be care- ful so as not to awaken her. Lighting his candle, he retires to his own room, sometimes till midnight reading new pub- lications for which he could not find time during the day. It is not astonishing that all who come in contact with him love and adore him. But there is another side to his character. Kropotkin, the political and social thinker, the revolutionist, the Anarchist- Communist, with his fiery temperament of a fighter, with his inflexible principles, his insight in political and social problems, is yet more admirable; he sees further, he understands better, he formulates clearer than any of our contemporaries. Few people feel so deeply and acutely the suffering and injustice of others, and he cannot rest until he has done all in his power to protect and help. From 1881, when he was expelled [ Page 25 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS from Switzerland for having organized a meeting protesting against the execution of Sophia Perovskaya and her com- rades, up till recently when he feverishly wrote his “Terror in Russia,” that crushing act of accusation against the Tsar’s wholesale murder and torture, he has always been the in- defatigable defender ofall the victims of social and political injustice. Such is, in; a few lines, Kropotkin, the Anarchist, the scien- tist, and, above all, the man, beloved by his comrades and friends respected and admired by honest people the world over. W. TCHERKESOFF re “HOW MUCH BETTER THE HISTORIAN AND THE SOCIOLOGIST WOULD UNDERSTAND HUMANITY IF THEY KNEW IT, NOT IN BOOKS ONLY, NOT IN A FEW OF ITS REPRESENTATIVES, BUT AS A WHOLE, IN ITS DAILY LIFE, DAILY WORK, AND DAILY AFFAIRS! HOW MUCH MORE MEDICINE WOULD TRUST TO HYGIENE, AND HOW MUCH LESS TO PRE SCRIPTIONS, IF THE YOUNG DOCTORS WERE THE NURSES OF THE SICK AND THE NURSES RECEIVED THE EDUCATION OF THE DOCTORS OF OUR TIME! AND HOW MUCH THE POET WOULD GAIN IN HIS FEELING OF THE BEAU- TIES OF NATURE, HOW MUCH BETTER WOULD HE KNOW THE HUMAN HEART, IF HE MET THE RISING SUN AMIDST THE TIL- LERS OF THE SOIL, HIMSELF A TILLER; IF HE FOUGHT AGAINST THE STORM WITH THE SAILORS ON BOARD SHIP; IF HE KNEW THE POETRY OF LABOR AND REST, SORROW AND JOY, STRUGGLE AND CONQUEST! GREIFT NUR HINEIN IN’S UOLLE MENSCHENLEBEN! GOETHE SAID; EIN JEDER LEBT’S — NICHT VIELEN IST’S BEKANNT. BUT HOW FEW POETS FOLLOW HIS ADVICE!” FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS [ Page 26 ] ee ee me re ee PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS -PERSONAL REMINISCENCES =e must have been in 1880 or 1881 that I met e242) Kropotkin for the first time. Arriving in Paris, GEN fess he came to pay me a visit accompanied by i) i) Madame Kropotkin. Oty) a ee: eee oe) 4, i We had already maintained epistolatory rela- tions. I had sent him some articles for “Le Révolté”, after which ensued a fortnightly correspondence on the social movement. Those days are long since passed, alas! and the details of that interview are a bit hazy in my memory. What survives is the simplicity, the kindness, the enthusiasm of the man. I have no doubt that I also must have pleased him, for it was at his suggestion that, some time afterward, when comrade Herzig, who up to then had occupied himself with “Le Révolte”, being unable to continue longer because of the serious necessity of devoting himself to relieve the wants of his family, Reclus asked me to go to Geneva in order to replace him. Kropotkin has remained young all his years. He has kept the ardor of a youth of twenty throughout his life. Despite sufferings, despite the privations he had to undergo in the course of his agitated existence, he remained young in soul and body. Notwithstanding the extensiveness of his knowledge he paid attention to his interlocutors and knew how to surrender to an argument when it struck him as sound. How many, even among the anarchists who had neither his knowledge nor erudition would have profited by the example of his life. I have never heard him boast nor speak of himself or his birth. [ Page 27 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS “On the part of an anarchist”, ‘it will be said, “it is very natural and contains nothing that should appear meritori- ous to us”. Quite so. But how many an anarchist in his place would have been the anarchist that he was ? Detained in France. . . Kropotkin was sentenced to five years imprisonment for “affiliation with the International”. Affiliated with the International he evidently had been, but; of all those who were sentenced with him, he was indeed the only one I know of who had been affiliated with it. And as, in fact, the International had ceased to exist for several years, the crime of affiliation no longer existed. At my house they seized a letter of Kropotkin’s, in which he discoursed on questions pertaining to “Le Revolte”, com- plaining especially of: my bad punctuation. This letter was read at the trial. It was rather a meager proof: in support of the accusation and a better was not produced. But at a po- litical trial it is unnecessary to be too particular about the selection of proofs. : Kropotkin and the others were transferred to Clairvaux. There, beside his scientific and literary work, Kropotkin found the means of} organising different courses in order to perfect the education of his comrades. In his correspond- ence he was particularly interested in the “Child”? — the “child” being “Le Revolte’’. It was there that he found time to collect in book-form his best articles from “Le Révolté”. Reclus found the title for it: “Paroles d’un Revolte’’. Reclus, moreover, had a talent for finding titles. It was he who baptised “La Conquete du Pain”. At the time of the publication of the French edition of ‘Memoirs ofa Revolu- : [ Page 28 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS tionist”’, he suggested “\Autour d’une Vie”. And for “Mutual Aid” he found the word “Entr’Aide” for the French edition. I have a vague idea that it was he who suggested to me the title of “La Société Mourante et Anarchie”. Eleven years later, when, thanks to this last book — which was my first —I was called to reside at Clairvaux at the government’s expense, I found the memory of Kropotkin among the prison-officials, director, inspector and even guards as fresh as if he had been there only the day before, so impressed were they by his personality. But our relations were rather epistolatory. We only saw each other on his rare visits to Paris or on my as rare visits to England. When amnesty, at the advent of Felix Faure, opened the gates of Clairvaux for me, my first care was to resume re- lations with those comrades who were not dispersed. Reclus had written asking me what I intended to do. To continue our propaganda and set the journal on its feet again, of course. And procuring a round-trip ticket to Brus- sels where Reclus lived, I paid him a visit. His first words were: “Have you seen Kropotkin?” “No.” Then you must go and see Kropotkin. Wecan do nothing without Kropotkin.’ i Taking my valise again the next morning, I embarked at Ostend for Douvres where I took the train to London. It is needless to speak of the welcome accorded me by Kropotkin. He was with us in all we would undertake. We could count on his co-operation. As I was short of money so that I could not risk losing the benefit of my return-ticket which was good for only [ Page 29 J PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS five days, I got on the train again the next day, stopping at Ostend and saw Reclus once more on my way to Brussels where I again took the train to Paris. Having left Clairvaux without a sou, I had found, indeed, at the house of friends who during my absence had saved what they could of my correspondence which had escaped postal confiscation, a check for 300 francs sent by friends in Argentina, which served me — in part at least — for the printing of some circulars calling a meeting of comrades. Apart from comrade Charles-Albert who found the means oO collecting a couple of hundred francs at Lyons, the results were rather poor. The subscriptions certainly did not equal the sum sent in by Charles-Albert. That did not prevent us from renewing a lease for twen years. This was an improvement on “Le Revolté” which had ‘started out with 27 francs. It was Reclus who found the name “Les Temps Nouveaux”, a title which he had given formerly to one of Kropotkin’s brochures. It is true, that, as a set-off, I received warm encouragements. Pity they cannot be cashed! I asked the collaboration of most of the literary men who had so ardently approved us. Well! I could count on them all: Mirbeau, Descaves, Bernard Lazare and so many others promised their contributions. But if promises are no scarcer than encouragements, it seems this will prove no precedent. Although I made it my duty at the beginning of the appearance of “Les Temps Nouveaux” to remind them that they had promised articles, I never received any- thing from them. It was at this period that I made the acquaintance of her who was to become my wife. [ Page 30 } ee et PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS She and her sisters had first met Kropotkin at the Stepniaks. He had read her first book that had just been published. Greatly interested, he found therein a marked tendency toward our ideas. Since she was going to Paris she was bound to become ac- quainted with the anarchist movement there, and he gave her a letter for me, inducing her to pay me a visit. ..... Again it is my wife who reminds me how he loved to divert himself with music. He was enthusiastic about Rus- sian music from which he often pla ed us airs—on the oc- casions of our rare visits. Naturally, “Le Drapeau Rouge” and “Le Chant des Travailleurs” were included. The winter prior to the war we visited him at Bordighera, the Swiss government not having desired to allow him to return to Locarno where he passed the preceding winter and where he had been welcomed even by the Municipality—if’ he did not humble himself to ask permission. Kropotkin had preferred to renounce a country-sojourn from which he derived great benefit rather than submit. In short, he was at Bordighera and we were enjoying some bits of music, when we saw two maids from the neighboring villa come up to listen, finding enough courage’ to approach the window for the purpose of hearing better. Kropotkin came out to them, installed them comfortably in the salon and played them the best pieces of his repertoire. It was done simply, with an unaffected good-nature, and without ostentation. He was happy to be able to yield a little pleasure to others. How like Kropotkin! 46.6 s > But it was not until 1916 that we were able to spend a few weeks with Kropotkin at Brighton when he was beginning to recover from an operation he had had to undergo. [ Page 31 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS As was appropriate, our conversation turned upon the cir- cumstances and impotence of the anarchists. If he were younger, as he always declared, Kropotkin would have been among the combatants and it is Kecaceie he was un- able to participate in the struggle that he for a long time re- fused to adopt the suggestion I made him of: publishing a declaration of our opinions on the drama which was un- folding. And, indeed, there is always something unpleasant about one who remains tranquil by his fire-side and has the ap- pearance of | assuming disputatious airs. I advisedly say “has the appearance of. assuming dispu- tatious airs” for, in sum, it was not a question of urging any one whatsoever either to enroll or to glorify the war or to desire it or to precipitate it since war was already raging. Up till then we had given our opinion on all ques- tions concerning human evolution — particularly when it was not asked of us -— and this was not the time to keep silent. There was no question... but that of honestly stating our sentiments on what was occurring. If too old to support the fatigues of an army in campaign, the denouement of the drama did not interest us the less for all that and did not deprive us of the right to say what we thought of it. It certainly was expected of some, at least, who thought as we did. It ended at last by my opinion being adopted. Asa result of our collaboration was issued the “Declaration” signed by 17 (?) of our friends and which caused us to be accused of treason by those of the anarchists who, confined to a deplorable sectarianism, unconsciously rendered themselves the allies to the most frightfal militarism by preaching non- resistance to its aggression. [ Page 32 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS When the revolution of 1917 permitted him to return to Russia— after 40 years of exile—it was with a heart joyous and full of hope that Kropotkin made ready to depart. It most assuredly was not yet the realisation of his dreams, but it was the end of despotism, of the arbitrary; it was an wee road toward possible realisations, a first step toward eedom, the creation of an atmosphere in which it was possible to breathe freely. I proposed to go and bid him farewell at Brighton but he wrote me that it would be impossible for us to find the time to speak practically in the midst of the packing up of his furniture and library. He had spoken to me of an understanding among some chosen comrades in the way of being prepared to resist a deviation of the movement, like that of Individualism, for example. It was a question of discussing the idea definit- ively and settling it. He made an appointment with me at London where he went to await his departure. Unfortunately the sailing of the ship which was to convey him was advanced before the date originally fixed and Kropotkin only had time to send me, through the interme- diary of comrade Turner, the secretary of the Shop Employ- ees’ Union, his farewell letter to the Occidental workers and fifty francs to help defray the expense of publication. It served as subject for one of the Bulletins published by Guerin to whom [ sent it together with the fifty francs. Poor Kropotkin! What has his life been yonder after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks! What cruel lacerations he must have felt to see his dreams of liberty, of well-being for all, atrociously scattered to the four winds, brutally trampled under foot in the very name of the social ideas which had been the motive-force of his whole life. JEAN GRAVE [ Page 33 ] N PROPORTION ONLY AS ALL THE OTHERS ROUND HIM BE- COME FREE” ae) “CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY, THE IDEAL, THE CON- CEPTION OF SOMETHING BETTER, ALWAYS GROWS IN THE MIND OF WHOEVER CRITICISES EXISTING INSTITUTIONS.” MODERN SCIENCE AND ANARCHISM [is INDIVIDUAL UNDERSTANDS THAT HE WILL BE REALLY FREE I mMMHMMHMMMMMM NSN MSM BW SY BH BM DB 2» ELIEF in an ice-cap reaching Middle Europe was at that time rank heresy; but before my eyes a grand picture was rising, and I wanted to draw it, with the thousands of de- tails I saw in it; to use it as a key to the present distribution of floras and faunas; to open new horizons for geology and physical geography. But what right had I to these highest joys, when all around me was nothing but misery and struggle for a mouldy bit of bread; when whatsoever I should spend to enable me to live in that world of higher emotions must needs be taken from the very mouths of those who grew the wheat and had not bread enough for their children? From some- body’s mouth it must be taken, because the aggregate production of mankind remains still so low. Knowledge is an immense power. Man must know. But we already know much! What if that knowledge — and only that — should become the possession of all? Would not science itself progress in leaps, and cause mankind to make strides in production, inven- tion, and social creation, of which we are hardly in a condition now to measure the speed ? The masses want to know: they are willing to learn; they CAN learn. There, on the crest of that immense moraine which runs between the lakes, as if giants had heaped it up in a hurry to connect the two shores, there stands a Finnish peasant plunged in contemplation of the beautiful lakes, studded with islands, which lie before him. Not one of these peasants, poor and downtrodden though he may be, will pass this spot without stopping to admire the scene. Or there, on the shore of a lake, stands another peasant, and sings something so beautiful that the best musician would envy him his melody, for its feeling and its meditative power. Both deeply feel, both meditate, both think; they are ready to widen their knowledge, -- only give it to them, only give them the means of getting leisure. This is the direction in which, and these are the kind of people for whom, I must work. All those sonorous phrases about making mankind progress, while at the same time the progress-makers stand aloof from those whom they pretend to push onwards, are mere sophisms made up by minds anxious to shake off a fretting contradiction. . . .” MEMOIRS OF A REVOLUTIONIST e [ Page 34 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS THE TORCH-BEARER ==) WISH only to evoke the comrade of forty years, - —Kropotkin— the friend of the warm hand- < clasp and the hearty embrace, the upright and 4 intelligent man of playful humor, of impec- | cable family-life. Kropotkin was a worker intent upon his work. When he un- dertook an article on the subject of “Recent Science” for the English magazine “The Nineteenth Century” which occupied him for a score of years, he went to spend a week or two at London in the neighborhood of the British Museum and examined documents; then, home again, he wrote out the article directly into English, but re-wrote it four, five and six times in succession, until the content and form satisfied him. An article of twenty pages frequently kept him busy for more than two months without pause and yielded him 750 francs. When he did sociological work, it was in French that he thought and wrote; then he usually sent the proofs to Elisee Reclus, or rather to his sister, Mme. Dumesnil, for the last revision. Ofhis other works, his personal re- collections in particular were conceived in his mind in the Russian language. Sunday afternoons were devoted to his friends. The personal worth of Kropotkin and the magnetism he exerted rendered him dear to a great meny people who certeinly were not anarchists, such as that extracrdinary Belgian magistrate Ernest Nys who died a few months ago. Diversity of opin- ions lent a great interest to the conversation. And what ardor Pierre put into it! On one of my last visits to his [ Page 35 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS home in Brighton, I brought with me ten young Belgians from 15 to 16 years of | age. He welcomed them in quite a ; paternal manner, made them take tea and spoke to each _ Ri one of them, setting them entirely at ease and interesting = them....... ; I became acquainted with Kropotkin in Switzerland at Cheziere, before 1880, I think. He was then the geograph- ical adviser of Elisee Reclus for his volume on Siberia. After _ the condemnation of Lyons, Sophie went to live with us at — Paris until the time when she received permission to see her husband every day. Then she came to live at Clairvaux and once I was permitted to embrace Pierre in prison. Later on, on the outskirts of London, at Acton, Highgate and at Bromely, I saw him often. Finally, for the last time, at — Brighton, in November, 1914. Shall I speak of his private life, of his tenderness for Sophie and Sasha their daughter, of the attentions which were lavished upon him, of his all- too-frequent pulmonary attacks? No, it was altogether sim- ple and would lose much in the telling. Let us be content — with recalling the welcome he accorded his friends and in which Sophie so warmly seconded him. Let us be content with seeing him strolling along the cliff at Brighton while convalescent, figure upright, shoulders squared, cane in hand, thinking of the article he was about to begin, of the Russia of his childhood, of a new social order. . . . ; Kropotkin’s main characteristic was, in my opinion, his kindness. It overflowed from his eyes, enveloped one, warmed one instantly. Others will say that it was intelli- gence articularly which shone through his spectacles. Per- haps ee depended on the person who presented himself to his regard. At all events, it seems, it is a combination of these qualities that put him on the track of “Mutual Aid”, a conceplion which cannot be called rew since Espinasse [ Page 36 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS has written “Les Sociétés animales”, but which Kropotkin has enlarged, at once diffused among the people and ren- dered almost acceptable to official science, which, in England at least, had heretofore recognised only the struggle for exist- ence, tooth and nail. . . . It will certainly be said here and there that he was part of the Elite, that he was ofa superior essence. Perhaps it is so, but then only because he did not believe himself to be a superior man, because he felt himself the equal of all fighters for the Ideal, of all manual producers, because he knew himself to be the brother of all the “humiliated and offended”’. As Man, he was one of the best on earth, through the happy balancing of all parts of his being, the harmony of his intellectual, sensitive and psychical faculties, the initiating thought, the indefatigable kindness, the straightforwardness of his character. Peter Kropotkin was the torch-bearer, the tender, the honorable man: the good and virtuous Dissem- inator. PAUL RECLUS “MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS HAVE LABORED TO CREATE THIS CIVILISATION ON WHICH WE PRIDE OURSELVES TO-DAY. OTHER MILLIONS, SCATTERED THROUGH THE GLOBE, LABOR TO MAIN- TAIN IT. WITHOUT THEM NOTHING WOULD BE LEFT IN FIFTY YEARS BUT RUINS. THERE IS NOT EVEN A THOUGHT, OR AN INVENTION, WHICH IS NOT COMMON PROPERTY ... THOUSANDS OF INVENTORS, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, WHO HAVE DIED IN POVERTY, HAVE CO-OPERATED IN THE INVENTION OF EACH OF THESE MACHINES WHICH EMBODY THE GENIUS OF MAN.” THE CONQUEST OF BREAD [ Page 37 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS THE MOST GREATLY HUMANE MAN mas rol HAVE been asked to sum up the opinions of cee >=. Kropotkin. I believe it would be preferable to eS) ) recommend everyone to read, and make others ee ff A aed Ne i | read, his books. Ideas which are confused in xeon aed) $0 many ways with the collective conception elaborated in the mind of the old International and the an- archist movement of different countries, have been so clearly expounded by him in his brochures of propaganda that he certainly has no need of. interpreters. In any case, I really feel that I lack the courage to touch upon his luminous expositions. I prefer, on this occasion,... to speak of Kropotkin as man. The great charm of Kropotkin lies in the fact that in him the savant, the author, the propagandist, the man self -de- prived of privilege, are all blended in a harmonious unity that constitutes the most greatly humane man I have ever known in my life. : He loves man. All he thinks and all he does is determined by this fineness, by this great love of man, of all men, which is the primordial quality of his being. His entire life is a labor of love; whether he studies phy- siography and the natural sciences, examines the life of uman societies, or mingles in the revolutionary agitations and bitter struggles against tyrants and exploiters, his motive- force is always this ardent desire to make man more free, more powerful, happier. If the eminent talents with which Nature has endowed him and the privileged environment in which he found himself have placed him above the masses of his humbler and less fortunate brothers, he has not become presumptuous for [ Page 38 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS all that; he has not set himself to scorn those masses as often happens to a number of petty “great men”. He has not enclosed himself in the ivory tower of the “misunder- stood”. On the contrary, he has made use of his superior faculties as weapons perfected to fight the battles for human progress, and he has always thought that greater talents impose greater duties. He has even been always tormented as’ with remorse because of the fact that he was able to develop his mind and attain to moral and intellectual emin- ence whilst the great masses of the toilers stagnate in mis- ery and ignorance. It is with an ecstacy of. expiation that he has consecrated his life to the struggle against that injustice of which fate had made him the involuntary beneficiary. And that, not because of any metaphysical idea of Duty and Justice, but very simply because of the necessary radi- ance of the force, the wealth, of his moral nature. A systematic intellect, he has gathered the anarchist, concep- tions into a philosophical ensemble that may, or may not, be accepted. But all theories aside, he is anarchist-communist because he desires all men to be hap y and is convinced that the happiness of all can be achieved through the liberty of everyone and through the co-operation and the conscious and voluntary solidarity of all. It is for this that I love him. It is for this that not only those who claim the ideas of anarchism love him, but all men of feeling who dream of a better humanity. “Les Temps Nouveaux”’, Dec. 1912. ERRICO MALATESTA Sat “THE ORIGIN OF THE WEALTH OF THE RICH IS YOUR MISERY. LET THERE BE NO FOOR, THEN WE SHALL HAVE NO MILLION. AIRES”. THE PLACE OF ANARCHISM IN SOCIALISTIC EVOLUTION [ Page 39 ] “Memoirs ofa Revolutionist” Errico Malatesta Malatesta was a student of medicine, who had left the medical profession and also his fortune for the sake of the revolution: full of fire and intelligence, a ‘pure idealist, who all his life... has never thought whether he would have a piece of bread for his supper and 2 a bed for the night. Without even so much as a room that he could call his own, he would sell sherbet in the streets of London to get his living, and in the evening write — brilliant articles for the Italian papers. Imprisoned in France, released, expelled, re- condemned in Italy, confined in an island, escaped, and again in Italy in disguise; al- ways in the hottest of the struggle, whether it be in Italy or elsewhere, — he has perse- vered in this life for thirty years in succession. And when we meet him again, released from a prison or escaped from an island, we find him just as we saw him last; always i. renewing the struggle, with the same love of men, the same absence of hatred toward __ his adversaries and jailers, the same hearty smile for a friend, the same caress for a child. PETER KROPOTKIN 2 [ Page 40] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS KROPOTKIN— REVOLUTIONIST HE Anarchist movement lost its greatest expo- nent in Peter Alexandrovitch Kropotkin. oN Kropotkin’s life and activities demolish the shal- low arguments of our utilitarians, who judge all spiritual and intellectual life from their own narrow point of view. His work disproves the belief that ours is an age of specialists only. Like every great thinker, Kropotkin was many-sided in his intellectual activity; life and science as well as art found in him a great interpreter. Many speak of Kropotkin as the great scientist, the histo- rian, the philologue, the littérateur; he is all this, but he was at the same time far more—he was an active revolutionist! He was not satisfied, like so many scientists, merely to in- vestigate natural phenomena and make deductions which ought to be of value to mankind; he knew that such dis- coveries cannot be applied as long as the system of exploit- ation exists, and he therefore works with all his power for the Social Revolution which shall abolish exploitation. Were it not for men like Kropotkin, the pseudo-scientific Socialists would long since have succeeded in extinguishing the revolutionary flame in the hearts of the workers. It is to his lasting credit that he has used all his great knowledge to fight the demoralizing activities of these reformers, who use the name of Revolutionist to hide their mental corrup- tion. It is this — the uncompromising attitude, his direct participation in social revolt, his firm belief in the proleta- riat — which distinguished Peter Kropotkin from many other leaders of modern thought. Kropotkin was the most beloved comrade in the Anarchist movement; his name is a household word in the revolution- ary family in all parts of the world. Our ill-fated Japanese [ Page 41 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS comrades were proud of being called Kropotkinists. This was no idolatry on their part, but simply the expression of deep appreciation of his work. Those who have had the opportunity of meeting Kropotkin in his home or in public know that simplicity an modesty were his chief characteristics. As he never failed to emphasize that our place is among the workers in the factories and in the fields, not among the so-called intellectuals, so he was never hap- pier than when he sat with his comrades and fellow-work- ers. I remember his indignation many years ago in Chicago when he accepted an invitation to a social gathering, expect- ing to meet his comrades, and found himself instead among vulgar bourgeois women who pestered him for his autograph. The irony of it! The man who gave up gladly his aristo- cratic title and his position at the Russian court to go to the people being entertained by the porkocracy of Chicago! Of the thousands of congratulations and good wishes con- veyed to Peter Kropotkin by his admirers, friends and sym- pathizers, none found in his heart such a responsive echo as those expressed — most of them in silence— by the simple workers in the Anarchist movement, the men who are neither writers nor speakers, whose names are unknown to the great public, the quiet, self-sacrificing comrades without whom there would be no movement. Those of us who have shared their bed and their last bit of bread know their feeling for the beloved teacher, their love for the man who gave up his position among the favored ones and stepped down to the lowly to share their daily struggle, their sorrows, their aspirations; the man who be- came their guide in the sacred cause of the Social Revolu- tion, and the exponent ofa free Society. Kropotkin is the most widely read revolutionary author; the [ Page 42 } ie Se a ae ha i Ml PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Bible and the “Communist Manifesto” are the only works which have been translated into so many tongues as “The Words of'a Rebel”, “The Appeal to the Young”, and other writings of his. It would be impossible to state in how many editions and translations each of his pamphlets has appeared. Sometimes I wonder whether he recognized his own children: the pamphlets went through so many trans- Brations in their journeyings from one language to an- other ! He stood foremost among the thinkers and scientists of our time but in the memory of the rebel workers he will live mainly as their comrade, teacher and friend —- Peter, the Revolutionist. HIPPOLYTE HAVEL “THERE ARE EPOCHS... IN WHICH THE MORAL CONCEPTION CHANGES ENTIRELY. A MAN PERCEIVES THAT WHAT HE HAD CONSIDERED MORAL IS THE DEEPEST IMMORALITY. IN SOME INSTANCES, IT IS A CUSTOM, A: VENERATED TRADITION, THAT IS FUNDAMENTALLY IMMORAL; IN OTHERS WE FIND A MORAL SYSTEM FRAMED IN THE INTERESTS OF A SINGLE CLASS. WE CAST THEM OVERBOARD AND RAISE THE CRY “DOWN WITH MORALITY !” IT BECOMES A DUTY TO ACT “IMMORALLY.” ANARCHIST MORALITY [ Page 43 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS OUR ILLUSTRIOUS MASTER (Seo e rag LIGHT has just been extinguished; one of those KES, my beacons destined to illumine the dolorous way oy that humanity traverses on the march toward (25) the promised land of happiness. ===) A magnificent intellect has just vanished; one of those intellects which are capable, because of their vast extent, of surveying the entire domain that human under- standing can embrace. A conscience has just left us; one of those consciences that, in their purity, arise as marvellous exceptions from the breast of universal putrefaction. Kropotkin has just died. Death spares none. Great and small, powerful and impo- tent, the privileged and the disinherited, the intelligent and the stupid, the savant and the ignoramus, the brave and the cowardly, the good and the wicked, all are indiscrimin- ately struck down, as if to remind each of us that we are marching toward the same fatal end. In Kropotkin the most exalted virtues were allied to the most precious gifts. Those lives are very rare indeed, which offer, in an equal degree, the noble and salutary example of the Beautiful and the Good so closely united. — By birth Kropotkin belonged to the oldest nobility of Rus- sia. His childhood was passed in luxury, he grew up in the pride ofa princely race and his family dedicated him, from his adolescence, to the pomp of the highest posts in the em- pire of the czars. But behold!... this heart of exquisite sensibility, this brain of exceptional comprehension, this will of rare quality, this [ Page 44 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS conscience of inflexible uprightness, Peter Kropotkin, who would have been able to live in opulence and idleness, has lived by labor and in poverty; Kropotkin who would have been able to shine among the oppressors, has undergone the fearful trials of persecution; Kropotkin, who, in his own country, and elsewhere, would have been able to exercise the highest functions, and occupy the most envied places has had to take the roads of exile and ask the modest re- sources by which he lived of the fecund labor that yields him today our respectful affection and assures him of the merited gratitude of : coming generations. It is voluntarily that this illustrious master, whose disciples we are proud to be, has renounced the pleasures of wealth, the splendor of brilliant positions, the vanities of high of- fices. From the day when, having bent above human pain, he sounded the profundity of it, his generous heart vowed to do everything possible to spread the balm of consolation over the wound of the suffering; from the day when this scrupulous observer, attentive and sincere, discerned the cause which breeds the servitude and misery of the masses, he swore to courageously denounce this cause and to combat its disastrous effects vigorously; from the day when his scholarly and philosophical works led him to ascertain that anarchism alone inspires in the poignant distress of the exploited multitude and in the bondage of the oppressed masses the spirit of revolt and the methods of action most suitable to liberate them from slavery and hunger, he con- secrated himself entirely to the libertarian idea of which he was and will remain one of the purest and most prolific of disciples. What a great, splendid figure is that of this man abdicating of his own, deliberate volition all the privileges that birth [ Page 45 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS and fortune conferred upon him and who had not failed to amplify the most remarkable capacities in order to conse- crate himself for fifty years to the worship of the truth he had glimpsed. . Truly one does not know which to admire. most: the man who joyfully makes such sacrifices for the cause he espouses or the cause that is capable of | creating such sacrifices. We understand Kropotkin deserting the spheres where his pate was marked in order to live among those whom he ad given himself the mission to enlighten and convert; we > can conceive that he unhesitatingly preferred the harsh ex- istence the ardor of his convictions imposed upon him to the gilded life that was open to him. And we do not exalt his merit beyond measure. The workingman who, as anarchist, risks his bread and his liberty every day, on this level, appears to us the equal of Kropotkin. But when one thinks of the platitudes, the duplicities, the base intrigues that the ambitious and the upstarts multiply in order to arm themselves with a portion of power or of wealth and when to the disinterestedness and sincerity of a Kropotkin one opposes the vileness of which certain men among the people render themselves guilty in order to rank among the rulers of the rich, the rascality of these impudent rogues is a powerful contrast to the pure conscience of this prince turned anarchist. Sneeringly, mockers and envious, the vulgar will say: “Shamefil fall!” We say to ourselves: “Admirable ascent!” The “Libertaire” will not fail to recall and study the con- siderable work of him whom death has just ravished from Science and Humanity. It will state what both owe to him whom we mourn. [ Page 46 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Yes, we mourn him, although since August 1914 a grave dissention separated us from him. He had written unforgettable pages against militarism, war, and nationalism, pages that will remain a model of clarity and vigor. His marvellous clear-sightedness caused him to have a presentiment of the imminent conflict. He had fore- told and denounced it in a fashion so gripping that it was an inexpressible surprise to us when we learned his attitude. And when we saw his name, his illustrious respected, be- loved name included in the Manifesto of the sixteen which set up between the signers and ourselves an insurmountable barrier, a cruel disillusion, an immense sadness struck at our hearts. We well knew that the attitude of Kropotkin on the world- war was not inspired by any interest, any cowardice; it was an error on his part; but what a formidable and desolating ! error ! To some degree Kropotkin was already dead to us since 1914; our hearts went into inconsolable mourning for him. Nevertheless he was, in our common work, atoiler, so im- passioned, his labor was so conscientious, his effort so persevering his works remain so vast and powerful that nothing will be able to dispel the gratitude we owe him for it. Kropotkin had gone to die in the country where he was born. After half'a century of exile, he had come to termin- ate his days in the land where they commenced. He has not lived in Russia except in his youth and in his old age. How many changes were accomplished there between these two epochs of his life! The Russian people have written with their blood the first act of the historical drama that will be the world-revolution, { Page 47 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS the revolution which Kropotkin has so ardently loved and for which he has so nobly striven. This first act of the universal revolution is doubtlessly not such as he would have desired and the illustrious old man was not of those who blindly approve and sanctimoniously exalt all that was done there. But if the social régime that is at present affirmed in Rus- sia is not that which Kropotkin has dreamed of and would have desired to establish, we certainly know that he was ready for everything as we are ourselves in order to defend revolutionary Russia against all her enemies. He had the felicity of saluting before yielding his last breath, the dawn of the World which will be tomorrow at peace, in well-being and liberty. May we, also, at the end of our career, assist in the advent, in our own countries of this regime of liberty, abundance and harmony, to which we have consecrated all our energies! On that day, like the Old Man of the Scriptures, like Peter Kropotkin, like all those who have seen their dearest hopes Foe to be falfilled, we will be able to chant our “Nunc imittis!...” SEBASTIAN FAURE Fo “In the next revolution we hope this cry will go forth: Burn the guillotines; demolish the prisons; drive away the judges, policemen, and in- formers — the impurest race upon the face of the earth; treat as a brother the man who has been led by passion to do ill to his fellow; above all, take from the ignoble products of the middle-class idleness the possibility of displaying their vices in attractive colors; and be sure that but few crimes will mar our society.” WORDS OF A REBEL { Page 48 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS PETER KROPOTKIN = E is the man of whose friendship I am proud. z) I know no man whose disinterestedness is so | great, no one who possesses such a store of | varied knowledge, and no one whose love of 4, mankind is up to the standard of his. pes Wie eh Sea He has the genius of the heart, and where his originality is greatest, as in “Mutual Aid’, it is his heart which has guided his intellect. The passion for liberty which is quenched in other men, when they have attained the liberty they wanted for them- selves, is inextinguishable in his breast. His confidence in men gives evidence of the nobility of his soul, even if he had perhaps given the work of his life a firmer foundation, having received a deeper impression of the slowness of evolution. : But it is impossible not to admire him when we see him e 2 e e ° J e preserving his enthusiasm in spite of bitter experience and numerous deceptions. A character like his is an inspiration and an example. “Mother Earth’’, Dec. 1912. In 1906 the Danes of London desired my arrival in Eng- land so that I deliver an address at the annual féte in celebration of our constitution and they begged me to let them know of some friends whose presence would be agree- able to me on that occasion. I named but one friend. [ Page 49 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Since Kropotkin understood everything, even a little of the Scandinavian languages, I caused him to be invited to the banquet. He sent a polite refusal to the committee under some pretext or other. As I asked him the real reason, he responded ° “TI cannot come. Doubtlessly they will toast the King of — Denmark and the King of England. In conformity with my convictions I could not rise and this would scandalize the assembly. A month ago I was invited toa banquet of the Geographical Society of London. The chairman pro- posed, “The King!” Everybody arose and I alone remained seated. It was a painful moment. And I was thunderstruck ‘when immediately afterward the same chairman cried, “Long live Prince Kropotkin!” and everybody, without exception arose.” , The members of the Geographical Society were men of mind and soul. They have set the example. In good society, no matter where, one only needs to say: “Peter Kropotkin!” and, regardless of political or social convictions, everybody will arise, moved. GEORG BRANDES e “The greatest obstacle to the maintenance of a certain moral level in our present socie- ties lies in the absence of social equality. Without real equality, the sense of justice can never be universally developed, because Justice implies the recognition of Equality; while in a society in which the principles of justice would not be contra- dicted at every step by the existing inequalities of rights and possibilities of develop- ment, they would be bound to spread and to enter into the habits of the people.” MODERN SCIENCE AND ANARCHISM ~ [ Page 50} a5 ¥ - a a RSS Poe KROPOTKIN : TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS OBITUARY — PRINCE KROPOTKIN —~ ~~ HE announcement of the death of Prince Peter IN, Ks Alexeivich Kropotkin on February 8, in asmall : S41 town near Moscow, where he was virtually in- is 29 2), terned, will have been received with regret by wer = a wide circle ofall classes and creeds. He had left England, which had been his home for many years, for Russia in 1917, after the revolution had broken out, no doubt, with the hope that his “anarchist” aspirations would be realized on a large scale. It need hardly be said that he was grievously disappointed. But this is not the place to deal in detail with Kropotkin’s political views, except to express regret that his absorption in these seriously dimin- ished the services which otherwise he might have rendered to Geography. He had long been interested in Siberia and its geographical problems, especially those connected with the Amur and the Usuri... During his five years in Siberia he had oppor- tunities for carrying out exploring and survey work on the Amur and in Manchuria, the maps of which abounded in blanks and errors. Later still he explored the Western Say- ans, and caught a glimpse of the Siberian Highlands. Fi- nally he undertook a long journey to discover a direct com- munication between the gold mines of the Yakutsk province and Transbaikalia All this proved of great service to Krop- otkin when, after his return to Europe, he took up the dif- ficult problem of the structure of Northern and Central Asia. In time, Kropotkin and his brother Alexander, who was stationed at Irkutsk, became more and more interested in the revolutionary movements which were developing in Rus- [ Page 51] ; PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS sia and oiher European countries. They decided to leave the Army and return to St. Petersburg; this they did early in 1867. Kropotkin entered the University where he worked hard for five years mainly on scientific subjects, devoting special attention to geography. He became intimately as- sociated with the Imperial Geographical Society in his ca- pacity of secretary to its section of physical geography. But his main geographical interest at this time was the vast problem of the Orography of Northern Asia, the maps of which he considered were “mostly fantastic”. This led him in time to extend his investigations into Central Asia. He not only made use of the results of his own travels in Siber- ia, but with infinite labor collected all the barometrical, ge- ological and physical observations that had been recorded by other travellers. This preparatory work took him more than two years; followed by months of intense thought to bring order out of what seemed a “bewildering chaos”. Suddenly the solution flashed upon him. The structural lines of Asia, he was convinced, did not run north and south or east and west, as Humbolt represented them, but from north-east to south-west. This work he considered his chief contribution to science. The next important geographical work undertaken by Krop- otkin at the request of the Imperial Geographical Society was a journey through Finland in 1871-72 to study the glaciology of the country. He returned with a mass of most interesting observations. After a visit to Western Europe, Kropotkin returned to St. Petersburg, and in 1874 presented his report on Finland. This he did at a meeting of the Geographical Society where it was keenly discussed. A day or two later he was arrested, and finally imprisoned in the terrible fortress of Saint Peter and St. Paul, but was permit- ted to finish his work on the Glacial Period in Finland and { Page 52 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS in Central Europe, which with his magnum opus on the Or- ography of Asia were published after his escape, while he was residing in England under the name of Levashoff. In April 1876 he had been transferred to another prison, and in a few days placed in the military hospital. The romantic story of his escape from this hospital is well-known. He had no difficulty in passing through Finland and Sweden to Christiania, where in a British steamer he crossed to Eng- land, landing in Hull and going to Edinburgh. As he had to work for his living he began to send, in his assumed name of Levashoff notes, mainly geographical, to the “Times” and “Nature”; of the latter I was then sub-editor. He ultimately, in 1877, I think, moved to London where I made his personal acquaintance, which developed into a life friendship. Soon after his arrival a large work in Rus- sian was to come for review and naturally it was sent to Levashoff. He called to see me with the book and asked if I read Russian, and alas I had to admit that I could not. Pointing to the title-page he told me it was a treatise on the geology and glaciation of Finland, by P. Kropotkin, that he sent to me. He told me briefly his story, and naturally I was intensely interested. I told him we had no one ina position to review the book, and he might write an article, stating brieflly its main features and the conclusions arrived at, which I am glad to say he did. Between London, France and Switzerland he migrated, until, afte rtwo years’ impris- onment in France he finally settled down in London, where he remained, with a few intermissions till his unfortunate return to Russia in 1917. He soon formed literary connec- tions in England in addition to the “Times” and “Nature”. He wrote largely for the “Nineteenth Century”, through which he ran his two well-known books, “Fields, Factories and Workshops” and “Mutual Aid among Animals”. To the eleventh edition of the “Britannica” he contributed most [ Page 53] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS of the Russian geographical articles. Of course, he soon made himself at home at the Royal Geographical Society, and was a valued contributer to the “Journal”. Among his contributions to the “Nineteenth Century” was an article in December 1885, entitled, “What Geography Ought to Be”, which is well-worth reading. It is based on the Report on Geographical Education issued by the Society in that year, and gives a comprehensive view of what he considered the field of geography ought to be, its value from the scientific and practical standpoint, and the place it ought to hold in education. “Surely”, he says, “there is scarcely another science which might be rendered as attractive for the child as geography, and as powerful an instrument for the gen- eral development of the mind, for familiarising the scholar with the true method of scientific reasoning, and for awak- ening the taste for natural science altogether.’ | Unfortunately, Kropotkin had never again an opportunity of doing active work in the field of scientific exploration. He became more and more absorbed in the promotion of | his socialistic or rather anarchistic views, and suffered more and more from the consequences of the hardships he had to endure in prison. In his later years he became almost a chronic invalid, wheeled in a Bath chair about Brighton, where he lived for the last few years. His main contributions to geography are the records of his explorations in Eastern Siberia and the discussion of the great problems which they suggested to him, and his investigations into the Glaciology of Finland. He was a keen observer, with a well-trained intellect, familiar with all the sciences bearing on his subject; and although his conclusions may not be universally ac- cepted, there is no doubt that his contributions to geograph- ical science are of the highest value. He made many friends { Page 54 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS in England. He had a singularly attractive and loveable personality, sympathetic nature, a warm but perhaps too tender heart, and a wide knowledge in literature, science and art. J. S.K. & “And in this ceaseless struggle how often has the worker, sinking under the weight of difficulties, exclaimed in vain: “ “Where are those young men who have been educated at our expense? whom we have clothed and fed whilst they studied? For whom, with backs bowed down under heavy loads, and with empty stomachs, we have built these houses, these academies, these museums? For whom we, with pallid faces, have printed those fine books we cannot so much as read? Where are they, those professors who claim to possess the science of humanity, and in whose eyes mankind is not worth a rare species of caterpillar? Where are those men who preach of liberty and who never rise to defend ours, daily trodden under foot? These writers, these poets, these painters, all this band of hypocrites, in short, who speak of the people with tears in their eyes, and who nevertheless never come among us to help us in our work?’ ” “You, doctors, who have learnt Socialism by bitter experience; never weary of telling us to-day, to-morrow, in and out of season, that humanity itself hurries onward to de- cay if men remain in the present conditions of existence and work; that all your medi- caments must be powerless against disease while the majority of mankind vegetate in conditions absolutely contrary to those which science tells us are healthful; convince the people that it is the causes of disease which must be uprooted, and show us all that is necessary to remove them. Come with your scalpel and dissect for us with unerring hand this society of ours fast hastening to putrefaction. Tell us what a rational existence should and might be. In- sist, as true surgeons that a gangrenous limb must be amputated when it may poison the whole body.” ; ; : : : : : “Ay, all of us together, we who suffer and are insulted daily, we are a multitude whom no man can number, we are the ocean that can embrace and swallow up all else. When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the earth shall bite the dust.” WORDS OF A REBEL [ Page 55 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS “MY DAYS AND DREAMS?” “<<) | war and the Paris Commune. The atmosphere | 8) of the intellectual Russian centres was, at this =| epoch, entirely impregnated with these two events. Socia revolutionary ideas and their propaganda among great numbers of the population were in the order of the day. ... It was of prime importance for the young aristocrat and savant prince Respotltn to enter a group of socialist-populists formed of students of all origins; this was then called the rasnotchintzi (plebs), in some kind of class re- pudiation adopted among gentlemen, ecclesiastical students, cossacks, peasants, etc. We others considered ourselves perfect democrats, com- pared with this true aristocrat of the court and Kropotkin appeared somewhat ashamed of his birth. He also consid- ered us as authorized specialists in the practical work of secret propagarda. But, in reality, all amongus were not of true democratic birth, as for example, Sophie Perovskaya, seventeen years of age, young daughter of a well known ezarist minister who, in order to join us, secretly left the paternal roof. Moreover, Kropotkin was not at all a neo- phyte in the movement of democratic and socialist ideas; he was our senior not only by his age, but also through his experience of life. Young officer, thirty years of age, learned and active, he had already renounced a brilliant career at the court, had worked five years in Siberia, finished his higher education at the University and made a sojourn in Switzerland. These five years passed at an administrative employment in Siberia, served him, in his own words, as a school of [ Page 69 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS life. There he met people of all classes and conditions, and he soon learned “the absolute impossibility of doing any- thing really useful for the masses through the medium of the administrative machine.” Kropoikin became anti-Statist. Then he began to comprehend “the intimate forces of social life and the creative labor of the unknown masses so rarely mentioned in books.” Kropotkin then became a convinced populist, and at last, the example of the sectarians who had established themselves on the Amur, had placed before him the advantages of the communist regime which brought him to Communism. Briefly, at this epoch, Kropotkin was already a mature man, as to the essential traits of his char- acter. On the other hand, at the time of his voyage in Swit- zerland in 1871, where he became acquainted with the watchmakers of Jura, he had acquired there the compre- hension of the foreign international workers’ movement, such as enlightened Bakunin. I recall the reception given to the communication of our friend Dimitri Klemens, that a comrade of the University, a pure-blooded aristocrat, Prince K., was interested in the same questions as our organization was and he proposed K. as a member of our group. “What prince have you now?” we responded. “He desires perhaps to amuse himself under the mask of democracy; later he will become a dignitary and cause us to be hanged.” Klemens defended to the best of his ability the proposed member and the meeting took place just the same. I remember the first interview with Kropotkin at his home, which was only one room with a bare ottoman that plainly served our host as bed also. There were books upon the { Page 70 ] as 4 : aD ie bh EY. “eS. 2 PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS shelves, the tables and even the chairs and ona large work- table a pile of maps. Our conversation turned upon a sub- ject of the times: it was a question of knowing where to direct our propaganda; to the youthful students or the work- ers of the towns. Kropotkin favored an immediate concen- tration of all the forces of the organization in the working- men’s centres without awaiting the improvement of the rop- agandist lists taken among the students, this last then tak- ing an important part of our time and efforts. After this first meeting with Kropotkin our friendship pro- gressed rapidly. In proportion, the divergence of the views of Kropotkin and of the majority of our members, particularly on political questions, became more and more evident, but that did not prevent there being between us confidence and reciprocal affection; so much so that when we had to estab- lish the plan of our programme, it was to Kropotkin that this task was confided although he was then already anarchist- communist and we socialist-statists. And he falfilled the task to the satisfaction of all. In spite ofall his anarchism, Kropotkin was not a destroyer; he was a creator in science as well as in the social life of his native land and from this source wells up allthe charm- ing beauty and force of his soul so rich in nuances. N. TCHAIKOVSKY a “Anarchist Communism sums up all that is most beautiful and most duratle in the progress of humanity; the sentiment of justice, the sentiment of liberty, and solidarity or community of interest. It guarantees the free evolution, both of the individual and of society. Therefore, it will triumph.” THE PLACE OF ANARCHISM IN SOCIALISTIC EVOLUTION [ Page 71 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS KROPOTKIN THE PROPHET ==] T is not we Russians who should be grateful to <;\ Europe; indeed it is. Europe who howd be ~ grateful to us. It has been destined that those (| who were the most precious treasures of Rus- i= =.=) sia, the greatest spirits and greatest characters grown on her soil, should be eee to abandon their country and live and work outside its pale. Herzen, Bakunin, Lav- roff, Plechanoff, Metchnikoff, Kropotkin and so many other torch-bearers of science and humanity have bequeathed to the West a quantity of precious works in all domains of thought and knowledge. Their writings appeared in other European languages before appearing in the Russian lan- guage. Alas! Russia was the last to read those books of genius and even then by stealth and fragmentarily. a | x rit | \ —_ ae It is not only as philosophers, theorists, and savants that Europe recognized our great countrymen; she knew them also as men of a superior morality, uniting in themselves all the accomplishments of mankind. Their devotion, their ardor, the vivacity of their thoughts infused new life into the congealed veins of the old civiliza- tion, were the leaven of new ideas. Among these men, banished by the czarist despotism, the personality of Peter Kropotkin shines with a particular lus- ter: a brilliant proof of the powerful influence that a lumin- ous soul can exercise on even prosaic spirits whom it o- bliges to accept the extreme idealist perceptions of a man with a rare, inward power. | en was an anarchist. This Russian prince dered to disdain the titles of his ancestors, renounce all the privileges of the brilliant career that offered itself to him; he gave up [ Page 72 ] ma ee PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS his wealth and became a poor man, in order to make known to the world the truth which burned in his heart. Full of an enthusiastic faith in mankind, he extended to the entire unt- verse the qualities of his great soul. He believed all men ready for a life of comradeship and fraternity. Love, Science, the Arts, Beauty, he desired to see them accessible to all without exception. He hated the barriers that closed to. 90% of humanity the access to the most beautiful things of life. He defended with all his heart’s blood the rights of the dis- inherited, and chastised with his powerful eloquence those who are responsible for injustice. He hated evil in the name of a limitless love of justice and he did not recoil before any sacrifice for the sake of justice. For him, the most pain- ful sacrifice was the necessity of being separated from his own country, his own people. Neither domestic felicity nor the respect with which, as a geographic savant, he was sur- rounded at the academy of London of which he was a mem- ber, nor even the pilgrimages of all the eager and curious spirits of the four corners of the world made to him — no- thing could ameliorate his sorrow at being separated from the Russia his whole soul aspired to serve. It is in a simple workingman’s lodging, a room in which four persons found difficulty in accomodating themselves, in a small study fur- nished with a table of white wood, a wicker arm chair and a large drawing-board where he executed the maps of the rivers and mountains of our Siberian wastes which he need- ed for his confreres at the Academy,—it is there that Peter Kropotkin worked in intimate communion with his ideal. He always created. He traced for the world pictures of an existence always more beautiful, attracting the sympathy, the tenderness, the love of all whose souls were good. His memoirs, forbidden then, was introduced in Russia at the cost of a great many risks and welcomed as a source of living truth. His books, such as the “Conquest of Bread”, { Page 73 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS provoked enthusiasm even among the wealthy. They came to propose us that we print them in our private printing- establishment, offering us considerable sums of money for doing so. It is not as anarchist, it is not as a member of any party that one esteems Kropotkin so highly and loves him so ten- derly. He is admired as a prophet whose every word was in accord with his pure life. There lies his main force which conquered skeptics. But now that the Revolution breaks out, overturning the ancient regime in Russia, and after a half-century of a wandering life full of anguish and ardent aspirations the old, brilliant officer of the court returns to his own country, a white-headed man, without teeth and with undermined health. But his soul always glowed with the same ardent love for man, for his dear people, as full of naive faith as himself. There only, could Peter Kropotkin see that the king- dom of God was not yet realized on earth, that all spirits and all hearts are far from being permeated with that light illuminating the goals and destinies of man which shone un- extinguishable in his pure heart above all the temptations of the world. In spite of the unexpected events which afflicted him, he lost faith neither in his people nor in the fature of humanity. He limited himself to postponing in his imagin- ation, the realization of social perfection in the immediate future and he continued to think and to write. He showed that the idea of anarchism is at the same time that of an implacable severity toward himself, nature’s superior being. Savant, courageous citizen, man of exceptional purity of soul, elegant writer, Peter Kropotkin will always remain one of the best examples of these gifts so elevated and so varied which are the ornaments of the Russian spirit. CATHERINE BRESHOVSKAYA [ Page 74 } By M. LUCE miokin » PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS A TRULY NOBLE PERSONALITY [= —==sjHE impending revolution, however important it 0) G9 may be in the development of humanity, will Kes a "certainly not differ from former revolutions by ty) 79) making a sudden leap: nature does not act so. pT, ° reese : A iisz08—) But it may be said, that judging by a thousand indications, a thousand profound indications, the Anarchistic society has been for a long while full grown. It shows itself wherever free thought disentangles itself from the fetter of dogma, wherever the genius of research ignores old formulas, wherever human will displays itself in independent action, wherever sincere men, rebels against all imposed discipline, unite of their own accord for mental improvement, and to _ reconquer jointly, without any master, their share of life and the full satisfaction of their needs. This is Anarchy, even when it is unconsciously so; and it comes to be recognized as such more and more. How can it fail to triumph, since it has its ideal and the courage of its desires, whilst its crowd of adversaries, from this time forth without any belief, bow to fate crying: “fin de siecle, fin de siecle!” When there are no longer either rich or poor, when the fam- ished man no longer looks with envious eyes on him that is filled, a natural amity will spring up among men, and the religion of solidarity, stifled now-a-days, will take the place of this vague religion that traces fleeting images on the mists of heaven. The revolution holds within it more than it promises. It will renew the sources of life, by purifying us from the un- clean touch of all politics and by freeing us at last from those base preoccupations concerning money, which poison [ Page 75 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS our existence. Then will every one be able to follow freely his own inclinations; the worker will do the work that best suits him; the investigator will study without any mental reservations; the artist will no longer prostitute his ideal of beauty to win bread, and thenceforth, ftiends all round, we shall be able to realize in harmony the great things of which the poets have caught but glimpses. Then, no doubt, we shall sometimes remember the names of those who by their devoted teachings, paid for by exile or imprisonment, paved the way for the new society. It is of them we think in giving to the world the “Conquest of Bread”: they will perhaps feel somewhat strengthened in re- ceiving this testimony of common thought through their prison bars or in foreign lands. .. . Preface to “La Conquete du Pain” (1892). wm wm ww He is my friend and if I express all the good I think of him, it is probable that I should be accused of too-credulous faith or of blind partiality. ... Among those who have either intimate or distant knowledge of Fis life there is no one who should not respect him or appreciate his high order of intellect and his heart overflowing with kindness, no one who should not recognize him as a truly noble and pure personality. After all, has he not his own qualities to thank that he is now sundered from the world? His sin consists in the fact that he loves the poor and the weak; his crime that he pleaded their cause. Public opinion agrees that such a man ought to be respected, yet it is not confounded that the prison-doors should pitilessly close behind him; so nat- ural does it seem that devotion and kindness should be re- warded by suffering. [ Page 76 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS It is not possible to see Kropotkin in the prison-yard, to greet him and not to ask oneself at the same time: “What about myself? Why, then, am I free? Is it because I am, perhaps, unworthy ?” The happiness of humanity does not lie in the election of new masters. Therefore, we anarchists, the enemy of Christ- | ianity must remind an entire society which pretends to be Christian of these words ofa man it made God: “Call no man Master, Master!’’ Let each individual be his own master. It is in vain that you turn to the seats of officialdom or the turbulent platform, it is in vain that you await the word of freedom from that quarter; listen rather to the voices lower down, even though they issue from between the iron bars of a prisoner’s cell. Preface to “Paroles d’un Revolte” (1885). ELISEE RECLUS ao Bo “The Commune of Paris, the child of a period of transition, born beneath the Prussian guns, was doomed to perish. But by its eminently popular character it began a new series of revolutions, by its ideas it was the forerunner of the social revolution. Its lesson has been learnt, and when France once more bristles with communes in revolt, the people are not likely to give themselves a government and expec that government to initiate revolutionary measures. When they have rid themselves of the parasites who devour them, they will take possession of all social wealth to put it in common, according to the principles of anarchist-communism. And when they have entirely abolished property claims, government and the State, they will form themselves afresh and freely, according to the necessities indicated by life itself. Breaking its chains, overthrowing its idols, humanity will march onward to a better future, knowing neither masters nor slaves, keeping its veneration for the noble martyrs who bought with their blood and suffering those first attempts at emancipation, which have enlightened our march toward the conquest of liberty.” THE COMMUNE OF PARIS [ Page 77 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TREBUTES & APPRECIATIONS PETER KROPOTKIN AND THE YIDDISH WORKERS’ MOVEMENT Ee : hoever first visits the narrow and winding ~ §"@\ iy) 5) streets and alleys of the Russian immigrants’ TPa\ Be wig quarter in the East of London, stretching from 1) Sal Bishopsgate to Bow and from Bethnel Green to 4) the London Docks, is strangely impressed by the contrast he observes between this and ordinary London street life and seems to move in quite another world. He > forgets that he is in London and believes he is far away. The view of this involved mass of streets where the stranger loses his way, of this strange population, these dark symp- toms of proletarian misery and etting care, is far from el- evating, and the visitor always breathes more freely when he turns his back upon this quarter. Very few, however, are aware that behind the darkened walls of these time-worn houses not only need and misery are living, but that ideal- ism is at home there also, hopeful idealism, prepared for every sacrifice. I have lived eighteen years in the midst of this singular world; accident introduced me there and I felt during this time the strongest and most imperishable impres- sions of my life. Ninety of a hundred of the immigrant quarter’s population are Jewish proletarians from Russia and Poland, driven from their homes by the ruthless persecution of the old czarist system and finding an asylum in this quarter. They created new industries, chiefly in the ready-made tailoring trade, to eke out a bare living in this foreign country. In this remarkable centre a handful of intellectuals about forty years ago laid the first foundations of a labor movement, the history of which remains to be written and may form one of the most interesting chapters of international labor history. [ Page 78 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Thirty-five years ago the “Arbeiter Freund” (“Worker’s Friend”) was founded here, the oldest continuous anarchist paper besides the Paris “Temps Nouveaux” (1879) and “Freedom” (1886). But this is not the place to enter upon the story of the Yiddish anarchist movement, rich in inci- dents and struggles, since only Peter Kropotkin’s connection with this movement will be discussed here. To the East End immigrants the name of Kropotkin was a kind of symbol; no other had such a great influence upon the mental development of the Yiddish workers as he. His writings formed the real basis of their socialist education and were spread in many thousands of copies. The groups, especially the “Worker’s Friend” group, practised sacrifice and devotion to render the production of this literature pos- sible, to an extent which I never observed elsewhere. Some really gave the last they had; there wasa rivalry in sacrifice and solidarity. None wanted to stand back. Young women and girls earning with pains their 10 or 12 shillings a week in the infamous sweated trades of the East End, re ularly gave their share, took it from their last money, in nas not to be behind their male comrades. In this way the “Work- er’s Friend” group alone, within not quite ten years edited nearly a half million of books and pamphlets, among them numerous works of some hundreds of pages, like Kropot- kin’s “Words of a Rebel”, and “Conquest of Bread”, Louise Michel’s “Memoirs”, Grave’s “Moribund Society” and several others. London was, so to speak, the school where the newly ar- rived from Russia and Poland drifting continuously to Eng- land were introduced to the new ideas; from here propaganda spread over many countries. Want of work, material priva- _ tions and often that restless migratory impulse proper to many Jewish proletarians, led hundreds of good comrades [ Page 79 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS from London to France, Belgium, Germany, Egypt, South Africa, Australia and to the North and South of America; most of whom maintained their contact with the London movement and worked untiringly in their new spheres of life, until yonder also groups for anarchist agitation among Yiddish immigrants were formed. They did not forget the financial support of the London mother movement to render possible the publication of the paper and that of further anarchist literature. But Kropotkin not only influenced this movement by his writings, he was also in very intimate personal contact with it and took a lively interest in all its struggles and under- takings. After coming to England in 1886 when released from the prison of Clairvaux he often visited the Berner Street Club, the then intellectual centre of the London Yiddish labor movement. In later years when chronic heart disease made his participation in public meetings always more difficult or impossible, his East End visits became rarer, but the intellectual contact remained always and took again quite regular forms when the anarchist movement in Russia began to take greater development. During the first years of the present century many comrades returned from London to Russia where they propagated the anarchist ideas in secret groups. Many a one died on the gallows and many were buried for long years in the prisons of Russia and Siberia. Secret means of communication between London and Russia were created and kept up by correspondence and secret emissaries. A very great quantity of Russian and Yiddish literature was smuggled from London into Russia to help the comrades there at their ceaseless task. Later on: the paper “Chleb i Volya” (Bread and Freedom) was founded and edited by Kropotkin. In England itself, the Yiddish movement had a great [ Page 80 ]} PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS rise, especially before and after the Russian Revolution of 1905. Trade Unions in which the anarchists unceasingly took part, flourished, great strike movements stirred up the immigrants’ quarter to the utmost, and the anarchist move- ment took proportions as never before. At that time the “old man”, as the Yiddish workers universally called him, came oftener to the East End and spoke even at meetings, whilst strictly forbidden to do so by medical orders. I re- member especially a meeting held at our club in Jubilee Street in December 1905 on the anniversary day of the Dekabrists revolt (1825). Kropotkin was one of the speakers. To prevent overcrowding, the meeting was not publicly an- nounced, since Mme. Kropotkin urgently appealed to us to take care of the “old man”. Nevertheless, the news spread like lightning, and in the evening the great hall and the gal- lery were overcrowded, and hundreds could not be admitted and had to turn back. His voice faltered slightly at the beginning of his speech. An invisible charm seemed to issue from this man and enter into the inmost hearts of the audi- ence. I had heard him speak hundreds of times, but only once before this had I noticed such a tremendous impres- sion as this evening. The “old man” was no orator of rhetorical gifts, sometimes even, his words were uttered with some hesitation, but the manner of his speaking, this un- dertone of deepest conviction underlying each word pene- trated the minds of the audience with elementary force and put them completely under his spell. But Kropotkin also was mightily impressed by this audience which listened to his words with breathless attention and when he had re- turned home, he had a grave attack of heart-disease which put his life in danger and tied him down for some time to his sick-bed. I had a similar impression at a great demonstration in Hyde [ Page 81 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Park held in protest against the massacre of the Jewish inhab- itants of Kishineff instigated by the czar’s government. The inhuman cruelties of this gruesome tragedy created the great- est excitement in the East End immigrant quarter. The organ- ization of all shades of opinion and parties met in confer- ence which led to the Hyde Park meeting. Many thousands of Yiddish workers marched from Mile End Gate to the Park, one of the strangest demonstrations which London ever saw. Many prominent men of all parties addressed the masses gathered round their platform raising a just protest, in vehement words against the atrocious policy of ond of Plehve’s system. When Kropotkin arrived at the Park en- trance, a large crowd of Yiddish workers received him enthusiastically, took the dear “old man” in their midst and led him to the meeting place. Here he was carefully lifted above the heads of the crowd up to the car which served as a platform. When he began to speak I also noticed that vibration of his voice which always madea peculiar impres- sion upon me. By and by his voice became stronger and his pauses more regular. He was seized with strong feelin and this was communicated to the thousands who pb with bated breath and followed his words with silent vener- ation. His speech was a flaming accusation of the bloody regime of the Russian henchmen. Every word came from the depths of his heart and had the pressure of a hundred- weight. The expression of mildness which made his face so very attractive, had quite left it, his eyes were flaming and the gray beard trembled violently as if swayed by the tre- mendous impetus of this sweeping accusation. Every sentence was inspired by the spirit of deepest truth and met an im- pressive echo in the hearts of the audience under his spell. When he had finished, his face was unusually pale and his entire body trembled with inward excitement. I am convinced [ Page 82 ] DRAWING BY DELANNOY aia, PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS that the strong impression of his words on that occasion remains unforgotten by all those who have heard him. Kropotkin also took a lively interest in the great Yiddish labor struggles. In 1911 the great tailors’ strike began on the East End, first as a mere strike of solidarity to help the West End tailors and gradually growing to be a gigantic struggle against the hellish sweating system which was actu- ally crushed by it. I visited Kropotkin soon after the end of this strike; he had followed its phases with the greatest at- tention. I acquainted him with all the details in which I had had an active part from beginning to end. I told him the situation at the beginning of the strike. The different organ- izations then had almost no funds at hand, but it was neces- sary to keep faith with the fighting English and German comrades of the West End and wavering was out of place. It was a famine strike in the worst sense of the word, for even the splendid solidarity of the other Yiddish trades could not guarantee even a bare pittance to the strikers and their families. From ten to twelve thousand workers were out on strike and hardly four or five shillings a week could be given as strike pay. Feverish activity set in on the East End to alleviate the misery in some degree. Community kitchens were created in several of the workers’ clubs, the Yiddish bakers’ trade union made bread for the strikers, the cigar- makers’ union distributed cigarettes to the strike pickets who had also to be on the look-out all the night through, all Yiddish trade-unions raised special levies which were gladly paid by the members. All means of direct action were used in this struggle and many workers were arrested and sent to prison. The struggle lasted for six weeks when that mem- orable midnight meeting which was to decide on the continua- tion of the strike was held at the Pavilion Theatre. The theatre was crowded and many hundreds who could not be admit- [ Page 83 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS ted stood waiting outside. Many strikers had brought their wives with them who nearly all had stood up splendidly during these hard times. I shall never forget this picture, the mon- ster meeting at midnight with all these pale faces marked by toil and care. When at last the audience was asked to decide whether the strike should come to an end and the moderate concessions of the employers remain all that resulted from it, a storm swept the audience and a powerful No! No! No! sounded all over the wide room. They did not want to have undergone all this sacrifice for no purpose. This broke the spell. The Masters’ Association split and the struggle ended ina complete victory for the workers. I told this to the “old man” who listened attentively and took many notes. When I told him. further that the same Yiddish workers, quite exhausted by this strenuous strug- gle, had at once undertaken a new act of . solidarity by board- ing some hundreds of children of the striking dockers in their families, to help the English comrades in their hard struggle against Lord Davenport, Kropotkin’s eyes became moist and he pressed my hand in silence. “This is a good contribution to the chapter on mutual aid,” I said. —“Cer- tainly, certainly,” he replied with emotion, “As long as such forces operate within the masses there is no reason to de- spair of the future.” I could tell many interesting episodes to confirm the intim- ate relations between Kropotkin and the Yiddish workers’ movement, but there is no room and these few examples may be sufficient, I believe. When on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, a splendid meeting was held at the Pavilion Theatre (East End), addressed by socialists and radicals of all shades, Bernard Shaw in his address made the significant remark: “I am persuaded that of all the man- ifestations of these days to express love and sympathy to Page 84] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS him, Kropotkin will be touched by none so deeply and -moved so joyfully, as by this greeting of the proletarians of the East End.” é : e E I know not whether Shaw knew of the intimate relations which always existed between Kropotkin and the Yiddish workers’ movement, but in any case he hit upon the simple truth by his observation. Berlin, October 1921. RUDOLF ROCKER uO “The natural and social calamities pass away. Whole populations are periodically re- duced to misery or starvation; the very springs of life are crushed out of millions of men, reduced to city pauperism; the understanding and the feelings of the millions are vitiated by teachings worked out in the interest of the few. All this is certainly a part of our existence. But the nucleus of mutual-support institutions, habits, and cus- toms remains alive with the millions; it keeps them together; and they prefer to cling to their customs, beliefs, and traditions, rather than to accept the teachings of a war of each against all, which are offered to them under the title of science, but are no science at all.” MUTUAL AID [ Page 85 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS A GREAT HEART Sea |HEN a friend, a beloved friend, is interred, one aca IE wishes to preserve silence, to think only of that DI es and to be sorrowful because of it. It is dif- 7, ip \ficult to collect one’s thoughts and to give them is ON |\proper form. These thoughts do not shape themselves of their own accord. It seems to me that the thing which most attracted all hearts to Peter Alexeyevitch was his profound, blessed faith in the masses of countless millions of beings, in the life which cre- ated within them the sentiment of justice, in ther capacity for organizing themselves and working upon the bases of solidarity, of fraternity,as soon as the freedom for doing so was granted them, and as soon as they were delivered foe. all violence and all bondage. All the works of Kropotkin and his relations toward the people are permeated with this faith in mankind. One al- ways feels in them the warmth of a great heart. It happens that authors do not reveal themselves in their works. It happens that what is inscribed does not corres- pond to the real image of the author, or, indeed, that the work exposes that part of the author’s personality which is hidden and which ordinarily escapes the eye. But Peter Alexeyevitch is perfectly clear, transparent in his books as in his discourse, and in both he is the same, brilliant messenger of a better future for humanity. The union of the author and the man is complete in him. Truly all his life, in big things as in small, even to the pet- tiest daily occurrences, is pure and in accord with his revo- lutionary ideas and social ideals. Is it at all to be wondered atif his loss that has surprised us, afflicts us so profoundly that we desire to keep silent and plunge ourselves in our 9 SOrrow : VERA FIGNER [ Page 86 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS “NO JUSTICE WITHOUT EQUALITY” = ee |GREAT many people have evinced surprise that “<5 Kropothin should have remained aloof from KG ‘~) current events for three years, — an aloofness } ¥ | We y that characterized the last years of his life. Its “cause Is very simple. He was a revolutionist above all; dying, he firmly believed in the same ideals of combat that he followed all his life; he believed that revolution raised beacon-lights which ought to — illumine humanity on its way. He learned that errors are inevitable in the moments of the creation of a new life and that creators must work in narrow camps surrounded by enemies with traitors and hinderers within their very walls. But what principally caused Kropotkin to refrain from crit- icising the present state of affairs in Russia could be found in the words of a member of the communist party of Russia, a few days ago, while they were choosing the site of my father’s grave. These words were: “He marched onward in advance of us all; and through our faults we will arrive at last to that absence of- power which is the ideal.” Never yet was there in the history of the civilized world so many men, who, at the cost of errors and suffering have learned all the truth of the anarchist ideal. More than ever is their number legion in Russia... All those who think honestly, all those who have graduated from the dolorous school of failure and disappointment, all those who have learned that everything Shick. is beautiful in theory does not necessarily produce beautiful results in life, those only, precisely at this moment in which errors are so evident, must compre- hend that the man who loyally and passionately marches toward the final ideal cannot tolerate all the obstacles along the road. Upon the highway of life where the caravans jog [ Page 87 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS . along, the couriers gallop. The caravans halt provisionally pitching their tents and every new camp, although an im- provement on the one preceding it still resembles it to a great degree. And the couriers gallop in advance toward the mountain upon which must arise not merely a provisionary construction, a temporary tent along the road, but that eter- nal and marvellous city which always lures us forward. As Peter Kropotkin stated in his last work on ethics: “There is no justice without equality and no morality without jus- tice.” We have the quintessence of his life in those few words, the synthesis of his soul and mind. In that work may also be found the battle-cry of the revo- lutionist, his love of mankind, the profound philosophy of his soul in all its crystalline purity. But it is foolish fo con- sider Kropotkin solely as a philosopher, a savant, or Tols- toyan. He believed in equality above everything else. For him, justice without equality could not exist. But justice alone is a dead thing when unillumined by that profound love of humanity which was his most shining and charac- teristic trait. He loved mankind with that love which is peculiar to the Russian people,—as he himself always said —a compassionate love. He was a revolutionist and not only a Russian revolution- ist. In his letters to the comrades and workers of western Europe he always urged them forward. He passionately awaited the dawn of revolution in all lands. He awaited it not only as the salvation of his own country, but as the glorious sunlight of | equality that should illumine at last the workers of the whole world. Moscow, February 11, 1921. ALEXANDRA PETROVNA KROPOTKIN @ [ Page 88 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS AN AFTERNOON WITH KROPOTKIN Se HEN I went to Europe, in 1912, I supposed | ‘@\ e-/f should be moved most by the traditional sights M 4 of | stately structures and historic monuments, by “4 this Forum where Caesar fell, and this Trium- | phal Arch whose silent oratory still echoed the | apoleon. I saw many countries, many types and classes, and many men; but I saw only one man. My keenest memory of Europe now is the afternoon I spent with Peter Kropotkin. I went out to Brighton to see him, and found him in avery modest apartment, whose largest room was a library. The walls were hidden by rows of books from floor to ceiling everywhere, books in all languages and on all subjects. I was fingering a set of Ferrer’s writings, in Spanish, when Kropotkin came into the room. His portraits had not belied him in his main features: here were the broad round face, the almost hairless crown, and the immense patriarchal beard. But the pictures had not conveyed the startling short- ness of the man — there was here hardly enough body to hold up the massive head. But more, the pictures had failed to catch the brilliance, the vivacity and kindliness of the eyes; you felt at once that this man was both a philos- opher and a saint. He was interested to hear about the Ferrer School of New York (then at East Twelfth Street); he praised Ferrer highly, and urged me to learn Spanish if only to translate the works of the great educator. We spoke of his own books; I com- a on their range of | subject, but expressed a preference for “Mutual Aid”; if I remember rightly, he agreed with me. In the preface to “Memoirs of a Revolutionist” he had expressed his feelings that so long as the exploitation of [ Page 89 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS man by man continued, a man should be a revolutionist first and a scientist afterward; but it appeared, nevertheless, that he attached more value to his contributions to geog- raphy, geology and biology than to such works of propa- ganda as “The Conquest of Bread”. These exhortative works were, after all, highly theoretical; they dealt with a problematical future, and presumed social and economic developments of: considerable scope; but his work in science had been practical and decisive; it had checked the current of political Darwinism, had undermined the supposed bio- logical case for privilege and oligarchy and had provided an excellent scientific basis for a program of democracy and co-operation. His mental preoccupations were now (it was his seventieth year) almost exclusively scientific; he dis- coursed eagerly on questions of genetics, expressed a dis- trust of eugenics, and warmly defended Lamark’s view as against Weismann’s view o heredity. He was engaged, he said, in bringing together a great welter of material on morality; he hoped within a few years to ublish a volume of ethics which would be the magnum opus of his life. I wonder what has happened to the MS. which he prepared on this subject? Surely if any man had a right to talk on the good life it was this Russian prince who came down from the heaven of | privilege and leisure to become a man and suffer for all men. When one thinks of the Niagara of cant that has poured from well-paid pens on the subject of morality, one thirsts for the cleansing currents of Kropotkin’s thought. . . . When we parted he put his arm around me in fatherly fashion and saleieied me with messages of regard to his friends in America. I parted from him as I used in early days to go out from eee tense and awed with a sense of something whole and priceless in this experience. I have never met a finer man. WILL DURANT [ Page 90 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS A VISIT TO KROPOTKIN IN 1905. [Dr Brupbacher, here describes his own mental evolution, that of a young Swiss intellectual with strong social feelings and a desire for practical action. In Zurich at least, as a Swiss citizen, he had free scope for theoretical and practical studies; his experience made him approach Kropotkin’s ideas without quite falling under his spell. Later he examined the history of the International and wrote “Marx und Bakunin” (Munchen, 1913,) 202 pp.] | EELING stifled by mouldering decaying bourgeois- lism I became an oppositional individualist in : the sense of Max Stirner. Thence I arrived at * 9 Marx, because his optimism based on social een? || fatalism pronounced the doom of bourgeofsism without requiring an optimistic conception of man. Ihad read in the mean time Kropotkin’s “Conquest of Bread” and his “Memoirs” without receiving a deeper impression from them, because my pessimism acquired by bourgeois surroundings made Kropotkin’s optimistic conception of human nature in- accessible to me. So I became a social democrat; I entered the movement as a working medical man, a propagandist and elected municipal representative. I witnessed the in- capability of social democratic politics, the sacrifices of many workers for their class and became aware of the necessity of men of initiative and of action. I met anarchists and read Kropotkin’s “Mutual Aid” and “Fields, Factories and Work- shops”. This time I was more receptive for an optimistic evaluation of men and was struck by the individual features of production. Kropotkin’s description of Jersey agriculture fascinated me and I visited the island. From mutual friends I heard that Kropotkin in that summer of 1905 stayed in Brittany and I went to see him there; he struck me as a gentleman of some sixty years of age of almost retiring disposition. [ Page 91 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS I began by asking his opinion of municipal socialism, as preconized by social democrats. He thought that only the capitalists, fee all the landlords, profited by it. Kropotkin spoke with great enthusiasm on French revolu- tionary syndicalism in which he saw the resuscitation of the left wing of the old International. He disagreed only with the antipatriotic antimilitarism of syndicalists, since he consid- ered it worth while to defend republican France against the German junkers. ' Being little informed at that time on the subject of the first International, I inquired from which sources it could be best studied. Upon this Kropotkin pointed to an elderly, rather a- gile gentleman who was present, whose name I had not caught before—it was James Guillaume. “My friend,” said Kropot- kin, “has just got the proofs of the first volume of the ‘In- ternational’,” upon which Guillaume protested that he did not write the history of the society, but only his personal recollections: 2 1 Kropotkin’s standpoint on this subject was made public a short time later by an article in “Le Temps” (Paris, Oct. 19, 1905,) corrected by Kropotkin’s letter of Oct. 21, (ib Oct. 31); see also “Les Temps Nouveaux”, Oct. 28: ‘Antimilitarisme et Revo- lution’; Charles Albert’s article (ib., Nov. 11, 18) and Amedee Dunois (ib. Dec. 16.) 2 This book “L’Internationale. Documents et Souvenirs” (1864-1878,) 4 vols. of over 1309 pp. was published between Nov. 1905 and March 1910. It is indeed for those who cannot refer to the very scarce and scattered original publications, the best work on this complicated subject and it records also much of Kropotkin’s early doings in Switzerland until 1877. J. Guillaume, born 1844, died 1917; he was the most active Swiss Inter- nationalist until 1878, and for a number of years Bakunin’s nearest comrade; between 1878 and 1993 he worked hard in the field of advanced pedagogic literature and pub- lished the educational documents of the French Revolution from public records. In 1903 he re-entered the labor movement by giving many years of disinterested help to French and Swiss revolutionary syndicalism, being an invaluable link between the mod- ern movements and their forerunners forty years ago. Kropotkin and Guillaume were equally delighted to renew their early intimacy and it was equally interesting to listen to either of them when they told of these happy days in Britanny or of similar visits in Paris. [ Page $2 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Kropotkin spoke in harsh terms of Marx, and still more harshly of Engels; Engels had exercised the worst possible influence upon Marx in his opinion. 3 After this we spoke of “Mutual Aid”. I told him that his book had induced me to examine the reasons of the decay of the Swiss allmend (pastures held in common by the in- habitants of Swiss Alpine villages). I attributed this decay not only to the use of force but also to the fact that those who possessed little or no cattle, by and by lost their inter- est in the common pasture and let those who had much cattle dispose of it. Kropotkin did not like to hear this, still he expressed great interest in the matter and used material which I sent him for the appendix of the French edition of his book. + His conversation showed warm interest and natural exu- berant charm, suddenly interrupted by dire wrath against Marxists and Russian Social Revolutionists. This wrath easily propelled him to make unjust remarks. But it was not repulsive and I liked it rather, want of justice and all. It was the want of justice of a living man who hates and loves with equal warmth. In the evening, after our talk, Guillaume played dances on the piano and Kropotkin danced with the young girls and did all sorts of nonsense and playful tricks. In the 3 Itis well known upon what material Kropotkin’s opinion was based; J. Guil- laume’s book just mentioned and V. Tcherkesoff’s writings (mostly published in “Les Temps Nouveaux” and “Freedom”) contain these early materials, to which the fatal influence of real and distorted Marxism on the Russian movement at all times must be added. It is not intended to reduce the weight of these charges, only it might be re- membered that the correspondence between Marx and Engels had not been published then. These four large volumes, issued not very long before the war, contain such abundant intimate material on the real relations between Marx and Engels that opin- ions expressed before cannot be considered definite. 4 “L’Entr’aide, un facteur d’evolution”. (Paris, 1906,) translated by L. Breal. [ Page 93 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS meanwhile the conversation mainly turned upon Russia where he intended to go to live whenever possible. 5 I have never seen him since then, but had someletters from him. One of these refers to my intended exclusion from the Swiss Social Democratic party for holding anarchist opin- ions. I opposed this exclusion on the ground of my not be- ing opposed in principle to parliamentary action, and I con- sidered that the ideas of direct action, of the general strike, of antimilitarism, and of the abolition of the State were not in opposition to the social democratic movement. I wrote a series of articles under the title “Soctal Democrat and Anar- chist” to which Kropotkin refers in his letter in which he says: “To tell the truth I don’t believe that you are right. You would be right in saying “Socialist and Anarchist’, but not ‘Social Democrat and Anarchist”. For when Marx and Engels wrote the passages which you quote, they were not yet social democrats, nor did anarchists exist at that time as a definite section. Marx, Eng- els, Lavroff © at that time were still under the influence of the ideas defended by Déjacque, Stirner, etc. These ideas are compat- ible with socialism which, as you perhaps are aware of, was also Merlino’s standpoint. 7 But social democracy and anarchism are absolute opposites, one excluding the other, and frankly speaking, I regret your attempt to mix them up. Social democratism, plainly spoken, means the conquest of power within the present State, in order to realize socialism by this power, 5 At that time the Russian movement of 1905 was well under way, but the events of October, followed up some time later by an amnesty, had not yet taken place. After October Kropotkin was indeed eager to go to Russia where much work to make the victory won in October a permanent and real one remained to be done. When he came to London, from Bromley, to work in the British Museum, about November, he would tell me once or twice that he had spent some leisure hours in a shooting gallery to get some rifle practice and was satisfied to note that he could still hit his mark. “It may be [ Page 94 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS to abolish class distinctions and thus to bring about a change which would make the State unnecessary. But anarchism says: it is a contradiction to work for conquering power within the present State for the purpose of abolishing this State. We must work from now on to hinder or diminish the in- crease of the State, the belief in the State, and all authority of the State, in whatever direction we can, and we must right now elaborate those forms of life which render unnecessary the State and the capitalist. These two standpoints are quite antagonistic and render in every way, in every single case co-operation impossible. Therefore the Social Democrats ate in my opinion quite right when they exclude an anarchist from their party. We are not a party and therefore we need not exclude anyone, All we can say is that we cannot co-operate with people of such tendencies.” 8 useful and it might come to this,” he would say. There was much discussion whether the events in Russia were like 1789 or only like 1848 and while some may have encouraged him to go to Russia, others warned him. After the disastrous defeat of the revolution in Moscow, at Christmas 1905, he could only have gone to his ruin, if he had gone. Georg Brandes told some details of these days which I only know as summed up in Albert Jensen’s “Peter Kropotkin” (Stockholm, 1921), p. 25-26. 6 A long essay by Peter Lavroff, “The Statist Element in Future Society” (London, Vpered, 1876, VIII, 199 pp.; in Russian) was here before Kropotkin’s mind. 7 It would be too long to try to explain what made Kropotkin mention Joseph De- Jacque, a little off-hand. — Dr. F. S. Merlino’s pamphlet “Necessite et Bases d’une entente” (Brussels, May 1892, 32 pp.) is still remembered. 8 The documents referring to Dr. Brupbacher’s case (January to November 1913) and his theoretical arguments etc., were published as a supplement to the Zurich socialist paper “Volksrecht” of December 6, 1913. By 196 against 43 votes, the Zurich society “Eintracht” refused to exclude him. I have not in mind the arguments then used, but I think that the claim can be based on the claim which all social democrats still uphold: that they are socialists. The same claim is rightly made by all anarchists, the Tucker- Mackay nuance of individualists excepted. The International founded 1864 until 1869 [ Page 95 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS I wrote these pages to show Kropotkin’ s effect upon us here who were never quite in the van of his ideas. They leave much unsaid. With us in Switzerland, in the social democratic, at present also in the bolshevist-communist movement, Kropotkin is one of the most read and beloved of authors. Revolutionists of every description all took something of the spirit of Kropotkin. His books are like living beings. One fondles them, loves them and regrets that there are so few of them. Zurich, Switzerland, July 1921. FRITZ BRUPBACHER (Congress held at Basel) held socialists of all shades of opinions, Marxists, collectivist- anarchists, Proudhonians, co-operators, etc., and the bigoted fanaticism of Marx in- troducing social democratic tenets as an obligatory, leading doctrine, led from 1871 on- ward to the Anarchist revolt. Again when in 1889 and after, international socialist con- gresses met again, anarchists went there as socialists and were only excluded finally in 1896 (London) by dispositions of odious narrowness which called but for scorn and contempt. Dr. Brupbacher, continued to fight, challenging the Zurich society to which he had belonged for many years, not to exclude him, since they continued to consider themselves socialists and so did he, having forefeited none of his socialism by accepting anarchist and syndicalist ideas — and by 195 against 43 the members upheld his standpoint. I do not know whether the matter ended there. M. N. [ Page 96 J Piola li | PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS A FEW RECOLLECTIONS = | OME days after the banquet, celebrating the 70th Coe 2 ae of Kropotkin, I saw Pierre Martin who PSN ~ said to me: “Have you heard? He has spoken Nae E4!to us again of that.” This time he felt once more “32 Le ithe need of speaking of his love for France. The war broke out, he heeded his sentiment. His admiration for the French Revolution, the fear he félt of Teutonic centralization as mistress cf the world, werea night- mare to him and seemed to him a peril for the Federalist spirit of the Latin countries. For several years his upright nature had taken into account that anti-statism is above wars of secret capitalism under cover of nationality. And if we had had the happiness of seeing him these last days, he would surely have con- fessed his error of 1914, for he was too as a lover of truth not to speak frankly. Going out of the British Museum when he went home for his coffee, playing with the children, I remember that he said to them: “You are mistaken; nobody is perfect and I also often commit errors.” Heretofore we lived in Paris where we underwent police perquisitions for the most trivial causes, because we were known for our ideas as well as be- cause in 1888 I had founded a Syndicate that was the first to preconize the general strike, and also because in 1890 I was the founder of the journal “Le Pot a Colle”. It is known that Ravachol was arrested on the accusation of the brother-in-law of Viry, restaurateur of the boulevard Magenta. Some months later the restaurant was dynamited. Our comrade Meunier was suspected of this deed and he departed for London: arrested there, the French government { Paze 97 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS demanded his extradition. It was our duty to testify in favor of Meunier. The English judges granted the extradition. In Paris during this time, the police sought to inculpate me in the trial of the Thirty. I was informed of it by M. Desplat, the lawyer of Meunier who wrote me to remain at London, that in Paris, the testimony of my wife was sufficient. This explains our sojourn at London with my wife, my daughter Louise and little Gaston Merigeau, five years old, whom we adopted while his father, the victim of a police machination, served four years of prison at Poissy. Whilst my daughter questioned him, the little Gaston pulled his long beard; he defended himself by blowing a whiff of cigarette smoke at him, confessing to them his great fault of smoking; then, the children preventing him from rolling his cigarettes, he said laughing: “Logic comes from below.” Continuing to smoke he added: “Strength surpasses reason.” My memory recurs to those intimate little reunions to which came Domela Nieuwenhuis, Landauer, Malatesta, Tcher- kesoff, Louise Michel, Elisee Reclus; the latter, keen and precise, pointing an error out to him, Pierre replied: “Yes, I am wrong. Ah! it is because Elisee yielded no concession — to the State in all it is possible to do.” : One felt alive in listening to the discussions of all those up- right souls. I saw these human beingsas great; their general knowledge overawed me, I felt the necessity of always learning, in order to be enabled like they were, to expose the Truth with ease. Certainly the negation of authority and its unfortunate ac- tion was of all time; Rabelais exalted it, Diderot affirmed it; in these epochs of divine right they were audacious precur- sors. [ Page 98 } PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Later, Proudhon undermined the state from its very found- ations, as also property and the representative system. It was Bakunin particularly who interposed a barrier against authoritary centralism and the fatalism of Karl Marx; it was free and autonomous federation, the antithesis of Statism. It is necessary to come to Kropotkin in order to have a co- hesive concretion in the negation of property and the State. With an expert hand he gave us the structure of anarchist- communism as the natural philosophy in the life of a society without gods and without masters. He constructed the model of it, foresaw all parts of the edifice. Forty years later he said tous: “Here are the plans of the work !” He had put his i ascider - the wheel since 1877, in Switzer- land with Reclus. I saw him again in ’79 or ’80 (I have not the notes) in the group of la rue Pascal. I was in a corner, unknown or al- most unknown, he was conversing with us of anarchy. ... Fiction was dead. His analysis had given us the real thing. Just at present I have not the dates and documents that would aid me in narrating the salient acts of this first Par- isian nucleus from which issued the anarchist movement that was extended at first to France in the region of the Rhone in order to penetrate from there into Italy, Switzer- land, Spain, and then the entire world. Without pause, incessantly, Pierre expounded the society of tomorrow. His first preliminary book, “Les Paroles d’un Revolte”, is a master-piece for humanity. In Rivoli hall I saw him again in 1886, speaking to a new public, a mixture of workers bourgeois, students and novices. [ Page 99 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS His positive and generous words had gained the enthusiasm of the crowd. The rulers were afraid and wanted to expel him. Kropotkin anticipated them and went to London. A few years later, returning to France, the authorities at Dieppe prevented him from going ashore by notifying him of his expulsion. In ’94 I found him again at London; He whose immense fortune had been confiscated by the czar, was contributing to scientific journals in order to gain a livelihood. The old and first propagandists of anarchy were his disciples and his scholars. He was the first educator. He is the founder of the generous and grand Idea that had its martyrs who knew how to go to prison and die with their heads unbowed. The new generation who will annihilate evil and its horrors is impregnated with anarchist communism. Only the direct- ing hand was necessary to show that it is possible. Peter Kropotkin ! In you we salute the prophet of great humanity ! L. GUERINEAU oF oa “Such is the regular life of the prison, a life running for years without the least modifi- cation, and which acts depressingly on man by its monotony and its want of impressions; a life which a man can endure for years, but which he cannot endure—if he has no aim beyond this life itself—without being depressed and reduced to the state of a machine which obeys but has no will of its own; a life which results in an atrophy of the best qualities of man, and a development of the worst of them, and, if much prolonged, renders him quite unfit to live afterwards in a society of free fellow-creatures. ...” “The real cause of recidivism lies in the perversion due to such infection-nests as the Lyons prison is. I suppose that to lock up hundreds of boys in such infection-nests is surely to commit a crime much worse than any of those committed by any of the convicts themselves.” IN RUSSIAN AND FRENCH PRISONS [ Page 100 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS COMRADE KROPOTKIN me T must be nearly thirty years ago, and the scene (25) was a cellar in Windmill Street, off Tottenham Ueee|Court Road. The lower part of the house was See then used as an Anarchist club— “The Auto- ee )nomy”, I think it was called—and there were a good many of that unpolitical creed at that time in the neigh- borhood, for they had a kind of school in Fitzroy Street near by, where I gave occasional instruction to the little Anar- chists in the elements of orderly drill — a difficult task. Among comfortable people there was the same kind of panic about Anarchists as there is now about Bolsheviks, though there is little resemblance between the two parties, except that Anarchism also terrified Capital and was vaguely con- nected with Russia. Every now and then the panic was stim- ulated by an enlivening scare — a man found shattered by his own bomb in a park, or the discovery of a bomb factory in Staffordshire. The Government was supposed to have al- lured certain worms crawling towards hell to act as provoca- tive agents, and from my subsequent knowledge of Govern- ments I think that was very likely true. Anyhow, like every dangerous cause, Anarchist Communism had won enthusi- astic adherents, and they met in a cellar in Windmill Street. Comrade Peter Kropotkin was then about fifty, but he looked more. He was already bald. His face was battered and crinkled into a kind of softness, perhaps owing to loss of teeth through prison scurvy. His unrestrained and bushy beard was already touched with the white that soon overcame its reddish brown. But eternal youth diffused his speech and stature. His mind was always going full gallop, like a horse that sometimes stumbles in its eagerness. Behind his spec- { Page 101 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS tacles his grey eyes gleamed with invincible benevolence. Like Carlyle’s hero, he seemed longing to take all mankind to his bosom and keep it warm. One felt thet if any bureau- crat or the czar himself had come destitute or afflicted, he would have found shelter there. To all the weary and heavy- laden that open heart would have given consolation. And yet there lived a contradiction in the figure of the man, for there was nothing soft or tender about that. The broad shoulders, the deep chest, the erect carriage, and straight back revealed the military training of his youth. But for his head, you would have cried, “Behold, the Guardsman!” A Guardsman like one of ‘those troops of whom Czar Nicholas I., reviewing them on parade, exclaimed with a sigh of disappointment, “And yet they breathe !” “Man is a very complex being,” as Kropotkin himself ob- served in his “Mutual Aid,” and I was often amused, dur- ing my long acquaintance, by this admixture of the aristocrat and officer in a nature so strongly opposed by reason to rank and war. Unconsciously, perhaps unwillingly, he kept in himself the leavings or relics of his birth and training. His “Memoirs of a Revolutionist” were not published till a- bout seven years after my first meeting with him, and there the origin and meaning of this queer complexity are revealed. Those Memoirs are to be counted among the most interest- ing autobiographies ever written. His method of work was peculiar, and, to an orderly Eng- lishman, embarrassing. During the appalling period of Rus- sian reaction (it seemed appalling then, though we have since seen how readily our own and other Governments can rival its horror, as in Ireland, Finland and Hungary) — during that ghastly persecution of all advocates of freedom under [ Page 102 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Nicholas II. and Stolypin in 1908 and 1909, while Tolstoy was issuing his superb pamphlet, “I Cannot be Silent,” Kropotkin was writing his book, called “The Terror in Rus- sia.” As I had been out during the revolution of 1905 and the two following years, he asked me to help him in getting the subject into order. Order was his difficulty. He knew so much, thought so much, felt so much, it seemed impos- sible for him to keep within limits. Writing at great speed, he poured out sheets of | straggling manuscript. Then omis- sions occurred to him—omissions by the dozen. With strange devices of flying lines, loops, brackets, and circles he struggled to get them in. He was constantly altering his arrangement, never sure in what sequence the statements or reflections ought to come. Loose leaves would be scribbled over, and they had to be tucked into the manuscript somehow. Unaccustomed to work in that manner, I felt as though floundering in a bottomless bog upon an unlimited steppe. All appeared uncertainty, confusion, and chaos. But Kropot- kin never for a moment lost his temper or his genial exuber- ance. I suppose his was the Russian way of doing things, for he never thought it in the least perplexing or strange. And in the end the chaos worked itself out, as definite and well-arranged as the starry heavens. No one reading that book could imagine what a turmoil of confusion it went through before it emerged perfectly clear and clean and trim as it stands. In reading his other books — ‘Mutual Aid”, the “Memoirs”, “Fields, Factories, and Workshops”, “The Conquest of Bread”, and so on—always so well-ordered and easy to understand, I often wonder whether they too had passed through this process of dishevelled undress. I saw him last on the occasion of his seventieth birthday in December, 1912. I had just come from the war of the Balkan League against Turkey, and we naturally talked of [ Page 103 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS war. He was already expecting the overwhelming disaster that was to fall upon Europe in eighteen months’ time, and when it came, he certainly welcomed it. He hoped and believed it would end militarism and the despotic State for- ever. Perhaps he was the only man of distinction who sin- cerely believed in “The War to end War.” His faith in humanity was inexhaustible. When the Russian Revolution of March, 1917, came about, he welcomed it in the same manner. It seemed that the time foretold to him by Sophie Perovskaya some years before her execution had come at last: “We have begun a great thing,” she had said; “two generations, perhaps, will succumb in the task, and yet it must be done.” Unhappily, Kropotkin lived to see both these great hopes frustrated. As is usual after wars, the conquered have led the conquerors captive. German militar- ism and the tyranny of the State have been transferred in almost full abomination to this country and to France, to say nothing of the new States carved out of Austria’s corpse. And the revolution in Russia has taken to itself forms far different from Kropotkin’ s ideal of the free and communistic associations upon which his hope was set when he wrote:— “A new form of society is germinating in the civilized natiors, and must take the place of the old one: a society of equals, who will not be compelled to sell their hands and brains to those who choose to employ them in a haphazard way, but who will be able to apply their knowledge and capacities to production, in an organ- ism so constructed as to combine all efforts for procuring the great- est sum possible of well-being for all, while full, free scope will be left for every individual initiative. This society will be composed of a multitude of associations, federated for all the purposes which require federation.” — And so on, the agreements between the federations being entirely free. [ Page 104 ] a PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS Lenin’s Government fulfills some of those conditions, but it is a “Government”, and upon individual freedom and free- dom of association it appears to impose strictly narrow limits. Perhaps Kropotkin retained too fond a faith in the unity and fundamental goodness of mankind, as he expounds itin the main thesis of his ‘Mutual Aid”. Perhaps he never fully realized how incalculably lower than the angels man still remains. But when I remember his sunshiny nature, his inextinguishable hopefulness, his loving kindness to all who came, and his utter and regardless devotion to the one cause of the working people, I could easily forgive our bishops and clergy, our Lords of the Council and all the nobility, our Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, and all who set themselves in authority over us if they fell into similar errors, provided only that they followed his great example. For to remember him is to perceive a guiding star in these our darkest hours. “The Nation” London, Feb. 5, 1921. H. W. NEVINSON on “We should understand that the standpoint being wrong, the so-called ‘laws’ of value and exchange are but a very false explanation of events, as they happen nowadays; and that things will come to pass very differently when production is organized in such a manner as to meet all needs of society.” “Individual appropriation is neither just nor serviceable. All belongs to all. All things are for all men, since all men have need of them, since all men have worked in the measure of their strength to produce them.” “What we proclaim is THE RIGHT TO WELL-BEING : WELL-BEING FOR ALL!” THE CONQUEST OF BREAD [ Page 105 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS HIS LAST EVENING IN ENGLAND =| E passed his last evening in England with his wife Sophie at our home at Hammersmith. He = }| was in a feverish state of excitement; the venge- sps|ance of the exiles had arrived; Russia was in saw 4e=5\the hands of the Revolutionists and her great doors wide open. Liberty was established and the country was bound to be free. Imagine the new world that should be built on these fertile plains. Some days later, he and Sophie had traversed the North Sea, and from Bergen we received a card which terminated in these words: “Au revoir, dear and good friends! Our next meeting will take place, let us hope, in Russia!” Alas, no more meetings and never more a word. A long, a very long prison-silence, and then, ... the exile died. We recall vividly our first interview with Kropotkin. We read the description that Stepniak gave of him in “Under- ground Russia”, and his writings were familiar to us. It was on the occasion of a meeting of English revolutionists which took place in Hyde Park a very long time ago, that we saw his smiling face raised towards us from a carriage in which we were posted. From this first day we had been intimate friends. We believe that save by his personal apostolic character, it is doubtful whether he had influence on the development of socialist ideas in England. He certainly had some disciples. But Anarchism, such as he and Reclus taught it, Bod but little echo in our country whose revolutionists allow them- selves from the very beginning to be guided by the Marxists. Kropotkin was a heart of gold, a precious friend, a noble teacher; may his memory survive a long time, and inspire - the future of humanity in its incessant although often ob- SCUre expanding. T. J. AND ANNE COBDEN-SANDERSON [ Page 106 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS KROPOTKIN’S “MEMOIRS” See 25) MONG all the works of Kropotkin I prefer his 4 | “Memoirs of a Revolutionist”, because they eS ve reflect his personality in the most complete way 9.) and express best of all what his soul contained BAC: lof deep humanity, apart from all theory and beyond the passing forms his thought underwent. In all his writings certainly his kindness, his generosity of heart pen- etrate everywhere even from among the most objective sci- entific or historical considerations; this natural kindness and generosity give also to his pages of general contents an al- most lyrical elevation and often form the most convincing part of his argument. Who remembers not in the “Words ofa Rebel” that appeal to the young which is so warm, so vibrating, that a sincere heart which the egoism of practical life has not yet hardened, cannot help being deeply moved _ by it? And yet these writings do not reveal the whole kindness of the author, all the force of his sentiment; on the contrary they take away something of them: his reasonings lead to discussion, his affirmations challenge criticism, combatable opinions form a cloud before essential, incontestable truths which sentiment permits one to perceive. In all which directly concerns human life, in particular social life, there exists sentimental truths which cannot Le proved by arguments—whatever the pseudo-scientists of our days may think. These truths which many feel more or less dis- tinctly, are only revealed to the best and this revelation is still more achieved by acts than by words. For a Kropotkin, for an Elisée Reclus, ideas are only the intellectual expres- sion of truths connected with their soul, with their whole [ Page 107 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS life, truths which emanate from their actions, from the lines of their faces, from the sparkling of their eyes. For these reasons the “Memoirs” of Kropotkin, the corres- pondence of Elisée Reclus, not only excite the interest of those who knew them or sympathize with them, but they have also the highest educational value: they throw sparks of light amidst the darkness created by hypocrisy and lies which up till now corrupted the social atmosphere; they show what heights may be reached by a human mind which is sincere, frank, free from prejudice and false conventionality; they make us see the possibility of human relations based no longer upon violence, but upon the free agreement of the participants, upon their will expressed spontaneously. When we close the “Memoirs” of Kropotkin we cannot do less than confess: here is a man worthy to live in a society without laws and obligations, here is a man whose word is worth more than all legal guarantees, here is one who will never try to oppress others, here is the model of the citizen of an ideal society where freedom and equality will really reign supreme. “Il Pensiero’’, numero unico. JACQUES MESNIL Bologna, December 1912. “Law introduces, or gives sanction to, Slavery, Caste, paternal, priestly, and military authority; or else it smuggles in serfdom, and, later on, subjection to the State. By this means, Law has always succeeded in imposing a yoke on man without his perceiving it, a yoke which he has never been able to throw off save by means of revolutions.” MODERN SCIENCE AND ANARCHY [ Page 108 ] PETER KROPOTKIN: TRIBUTES & APPRECIATIONS )< | Full of joy old Kropotkin went back to the fabu- PP