Historical story

Pyotr Kropotkin, the anarchist prince

Our task is first to identify, through the analysis of society, its characteristic tendencies at a given moment in its evolution and to present them clearly. Then to put these tendencies into practice in our relationships with all those who think like us. And finally, starting today, but especially during the period of the revolution, let's tear down the institutions as well as the prejudices that prevent the development of these trends. This we can do more and more, both peacefully and revolutionary and we know that by helping to give birth to these trends, we are working for progress and that everything done against these trends will only hinder the course of progress .
- Piotr Kropotkin , speech on 6/3/1896 in Paris on "Anarchy, philosophy and its ideal".

Anarchism first appeared in the mid-19th century, rooted in social struggles and helped transfer political power from the hands of the feudal aristocracy to the wealthy bourgeoisie. Early anarchism, which appeared after the French Revolution, flourished between the Paris Commune (1871) and World War I, leaving a deep mark on the labor movement and the intellectual world.

Despite its marginalization due to the failure of the mass pacifist movement and the eventual attraction of the Bolshevik model, anarchism continued to influence political and social becoming, successively changing forms, through existential and cultural revolts, from Dadaism and British punk, the May 1968 and the Leninist leftism of the 70s, up to modern neo-anarchism.

In this long process, there were many intellectuals and theorists who attempted to describe and delineate the principles and beliefs of anarchism. The "anarchist democrat" Proudhon fought the state and private ownership of the means of production, Bakunin clashed with Marx over the nature of the forces supposed to overthrow bourgeois society, Louise Michel drew on the dramatic experience of the Paris Commune claiming anarchist paternity.

But no one was able to popularize the theoretical approaches of anarchism as successfully as Piotr Kropotkin, whose compositions managed to have a huge impact on the proletariat, since through his personal example they had the strongest possible basis of application and response. Kropotkin envisioned the moral progress of people, based on mutual aid and justice, but without interference of any kind by the laws of the state. A unique and supreme – in his opinion – law was the evolution of humanity. But let's take things from the beginning.

IN Czarist Russia

Born in 1842 in Moscow and the son of Prince Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, Piotr was trained in the elite body of the Followers in Petrograd and after serving a year as aide-de-camp to Tsar Alexander II, he left for Siberia, where he put his studies in geography and zoology, exploring the fauna and morphology of the area. In 1871 the Geographical Service of Russia offered him the post of secretary, but Pyotr refused and subsequently renounced all his aristocratic titles, determined to live the rest of his life among the peasants and workers.

Wanting to help rid his country of autocracy, he decided to leave behind all that he despised:life at Court, the nobles and their corrupt morals. He traveled to almost all the states of Europe, was closely associated with the members of the First International and with his exiled compatriots and formed the belief that the only way to achieve social justice was the organized popular will.

When he returned to Russia, he joined the secret organization of the Tchaikovskys (gentlemen and aristocratic youths who taught reading, writing and history to the uneducated population), constantly speaking to the peasants against the tsarist and feudal regime. In 1874 he was arrested by the police and imprisoned in a fortress in St. Petersburg, in miserable conditions and in complete isolation. Three years later he was transferred to a military hospital, his health having deteriorated dangerously, but he managed to escape and take refuge in England.

THE EXILE

He then settled in Nosatel, Switzerland, became a member of the "Federation of the Jura" (an anarchist group that had broken away from the First International) and founded the newspaper "Le Revolte" (the rebel). The Tsar demanded his expulsion from Switzerland, and the hunted Piotr returned to England, continuing to write books and lecture about the atrocities against the people of Russia.

In 1882 he was arrested in France and sentenced for acts of terrorism to five years in prison. After spending 3 years in the Clervaux prison, he was released after the intervention of the French scientific community and returned to England, where he lived until June 1917, when he was given permission to return to Russia.

THE END OF THE JOURNEY

At the age of 75, Kropotkin, after some 40 years of exile, was enthusiastically received by 60,000 Russians and the provisional revolutionary government of Alexander Kerensky offered him the position of Minister of Education, which he declined. Although his attitude towards the Bolsheviks was criticized (mostly in letters he sent to Lenin), he concentrated his action against the counter-revolution and the foreign armies sent to Russia.

Some time later his body, weakened by decades of adventures and hardships, could not stand it and the chronic bronchitis he suffered from developed into pneumonia. As soon as Lenin learned of Kropotkin's illness, he urgently sent doctors and food to Dmitrov, but the end came on the morning of February 8, 1921. His funeral was held at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery in the presence of tens of thousands of anarchists and turned into an anti-Bolshevik protest march with the tolerance of Lenin who feared generalized incidents in case of prohibition or intervention.

THE FREE COMMUNE AND THE REBELLION

Throughout his life, Kropotkin strongly supported the free Commune:"All attempts at reunification under a central control of the naturally separated parts of the Russian Empire are doomed to failure" , noted in "Letter to the Workers of Western Europe". The independent Commune was for him the only authentic freedom. And popular uprisings had to prepare the ground. Deeply influenced by the French Revolution, he spoke of mass participation with a central meeting point where people of all classes would go every day to exchange news, discuss leaflets and pamphlets, renew their enthusiasm for future action, to get to know and understand each other.

Watching the Paris Commune of 1871, but also similar uprisings in Cartagena and Barcelona, ​​Spain, he understood their significance. While they often spring from desperation, they are essential to revolution:"Sometimes they revolted during strikes or in small stands against an official they disliked or to obtain food for their starving children, but more often , without hope of success, simply because the conditions were intolerable. Not one or two or ten, but hundreds of similar uprisings have preceded and must precede every revolution. Without them no revolution can ever be forged" . He declared that insurrections are not only the means but also the key to determine the ends of revolution:"And it may be noted as a general rule, that the character of every revolution is determined by the character and aim of the insurrections which preceded it." " .

THE REVOLUTION

The free Commune was for Kropotkin the means and the goal of the authentic revolution. He abhorred representative governments and hated bureaucrats who tried to put themselves above the rights of the people. He blamed those so-called leaders who gave orders from afar to the street movements, and contrary to them, he himself participated in armed demonstrations, damning the cowardice that, in his opinion, absolutely had to be overcome within the movement.

Kropotkin's faith in the common people was boundless. He admired the "spontaneous organization displayed by the people of Paris" in the French Revolution, but noted the assassination of the revolution once the revolutionary committees were absorbed by the State. In his writings, Kropotkin described democratic regimes and representative governments as satisfying the aspirations of middle-class radicals, those who wanted reforms of the existing system to improve themselves, rather than revolutionize the whole of society.

ANARCHIST COMMUNISM

Kropotkin was above all an internationalist, then an anarchist and then a communist. He believed in the solidarity and mutual assistance of people and peoples, from there he believed that all revolutions spring from. He wrote about the role of "La Revolte", his newspaper:"To make someone feel sympathy with the pulse of the human heart, with its rebellion against chronic injustice, with its efforts to find new forms of life, that must be the chief task of a revolutionary newspaper. It is hope, not despair, that makes successful revolutions" .

Kropotkin argued that the real origin of anarchism was the creative and constructive action of the masses. He said that anarchism derives its origin from the people and will retain its vitality and creative power only if it remains a movement of the people, reaching the goal of its creed, as he depicted it in "The Conquest of Bread": "Every society which has abolished private property will, we argue, be forced to organize itself on the lines of Communist Anarchy. Anarchy leads to Communism, and Communism to Anarchy, both of which are alike expressions of the dominant tendency in modern societies, of search for equality". .

But he was staunchly opposed to anything that was opposed to popular self-government. "Communist organizations cannot be left to be created by legislative bodies called parliaments, municipal or community councils. They must be the work of all, a natural development, a derivative of the constructive genius of the masses" , was his non-negotiable position. Although he accepted the political and ideological struggle (in contrast to the anarcho-syndicalists), he supported the Commune structure as the only form of social organization.

According to Kropotkin, the Commune was the federation of loose, loose associations, councils, and voluntary groups that promoted mutual aid and self-organization. On the other hand, going beyond Bakunin's anti-authoritarian socialism and anarcho-collectivism, he did not believe in a stable economic system. He states in "The Conquest of Bread" among other things:"In our opinion the collectivists fall into a double error in their plans for the reconstruction of society. While they talk about the abolition of the capitalist system, they intend on the other hand to preserve two institutions which constitute the very basis of this system and which are the Representative Government and the Salary System" .

THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM OF THE COMMUNITY

The basic economic principle espoused by Kropotkin is summed up in a single phrase: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". That is, everything should be produced, distributed and exchanged based on the present needs of each individual and society. In the chapter "Anarchist Communism" ("The Conquest of Bread") he considers that absolute monarchy corresponds to the system of slavery, while representative government corresponds to that of capitalist law.

Not only the political but also the economic form of a free society was clear to Kropotkin. In his book "Modern Science and Anarchism" he states it with absolute clarity:"This is the form that the social revolution, the independent commune, should take. Let the whole country and the whole world be against it. From the the moment its inhabitants have decided that they will make the consumption of commodities, their exchange and production common, they must carry it out among themselves" .

ANARCHAL ETHICS

The supreme law for man was according to Kropotkin, the law of the evolution of mankind. Since the natural sciences have proven that everything changes in nature, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly, then the same applies to human society. In order for there to be a healthy development, the laws must first be abolished, that is, judicial coercion. If we examine the laws, says Kropotkin, we will see that they fall into three categories. To those concerned with the protection of property, to those protecting the government, and to those protecting individuals.

But in the end, the protection of property is the protection of those who exploit others, and the protection of government is the mechanism intended to preserve the privileges of the ruling class. It remains to protect individuals, yet it is known that fear of punishment has never disarmed a murderer. Conclusion; The set of legal institutions harms society, since it maintains a regime of exploitation and privileges. And he concludes:The state is the greatest obstacle to human evolution. It is the fortress of the owner against the proletarian.

With its ever-increasing expenses, it is a cancer of society. Like the law, so too the state is a product of historical development, doomed to annihilation. After its disappearance, people will live in a united society, without coercion and the only obligation is the observance of a free contract. But private property is also now an obstacle to the progress of humanity. It causes poverty, unemployment, crises, material and moral impoverishment in most of the society. Accumulated wealth is the expropriated property of the whole and to it must return.

WORKS OF Pyotr Alekseevich KROPOTKIN

Cover of "Mutual Help"

Kropotkin left behind a large literary work consisting of books, essays, scientific writings, studies, articles, lectures, letters, etc.

The main ones are:

  • The conquest of bread
  • Anarchist Ethics
  • Anarchy, its philosophy and its ideal
  • Mutual help
  • The state and its historical role
  • Memoirs of a Rebel
  • The great French Revolution
  • Farms, factories, workshops
  • The Paris Commune
  • Modern Science and Anarchism
  • Law and Authority

Sources: athens.indymedia.org, politikokafeneio.com, "New Greek" Magazine, Larousse Le siècle rebelle, eretikon.blogspot.gr

Video:Moments from the life of Pyotr Kropotkin

Video:The Anarchist International


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