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KROPOTKIN, PETER ALEXEIVICH, PRINCE (...
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See also:KROPOTKIN, See also:PETER ALEXEIVICH, See also:PRINCE (1842- ) , See also:Russian geographer, author and revolutionary, was See also:born at See also:Moscow in 1842. His See also:father, Prince Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, belonged to the old Russian See also:nobility; his See also:mother, the daughter of a See also:general in the Russian See also:army, had remarkable See also:literary and liberal tastes. At the See also:age of fifteen Prince Peter Kropotkin, who had been designed by his father for the army, entered the See also:Corps of Pages at St See also:Petersburg (1857). Only a See also:hundred and fifty boys—mostly See also:children of the nobility belonging to the See also:court—were educated jn this privileged corps, which combined the See also:character of a military school endowed with See also:special rights and of a Court institution attached to the imperial See also:household. Here he remained till 1862, See also:reading widely on his own See also:account, and giving special See also:attention to the See also:works of the See also:French encyclopaedists and to See also:modern French See also:history. Before he See also:left Moscow Prince Kropotkin had See also:developed an See also:interest in the See also:condition of the Russian peasantry, and this interest increased as he See also:grew older. The years 1857-1861 witnessed a See also:rich growth in the intellectual forces of See also:Russia, and Kropotkin came under the See also:influence of the new Liberal-revolutionary literature, which indeed largely expressed his own aspirations. In 1862 he was promoted from the Corps of Pages to the army. The members of the corps had the prescriptive right of choosing the See also:regiment to which theywould be attached. Kropotkin had never wished for a military career, but, as he had not the means to enter the St Petersburg University, he elected to join a Siberian Cossack regiment in the recently annexed See also:Amur See also:district, where there were prospects of administrative See also:work. ' For some See also:time he was aide de See also:camp to the See also:governor of See also:Transbaikalia at See also:Chita, subsequently being appointed attache for Cossack affairs to the governor-general of See also:East See also:Siberia at See also:Irkutsk. Opportunities for administrative work, however, were scanty, and in 1864 Kropotkin accepted See also:charge of a See also:geographical survey expedition, See also:crossing See also:North See also:Manchuria from Transbaikalia to the Amur, and shortly afterwards was attached to another expedition which proceeded up the Sungari See also:River into the See also:heart of Manchuria. Both these expeditions yielded most valuable geographical results. The impossibility of obtaining any real administrative reforms in Siberia now induced Kropotkin to devote himself almost entirely to scientific exploration, in which he continued to be highly successful. In 1867 he quitted the army and returned to St Petersburg, where he entered the university, becoming at the same time secretary to the See also:physical See also:geography See also:section of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1873 he published an important contribution to See also:science, a See also:map and See also:paper in which he proved that the existing maps of See also:Asia entirely misrepresented the physical formation of the See also:country, the See also:main structural lines being in fact from See also:south-See also:west to north-east, not from north to south, or from east to west as had been previously supposed. In 1871 he explored the glacial deposits of See also:Finland and See also:Sweden for the Russian Geographical Society, and while engaged in this work was offered the secretaryship of that society. But by this time he had determined that it was his See also:duty not to work at fresh discoveries but to aid in diffusing existing knowledge among the See also:people at large, and he accordingly refused the offer, and returned to St Petersburg, where he joined the revolutionary party. In 1872 he visited See also:Switzerland, and became a member of the Inter-See also:national Workingmen's Association at See also:Geneva. The See also:socialism of this See also:body was not, however, advanced enough for his views, and after studying the See also:programme of the more violent See also:Jura Federation at See also:Neuchatel and spending some time in the See also:company of the leading members, he definitely adopted the creed of See also:anarchism (q.v.) and, on returning to Russia, took an active See also:part in spreading the nihilist propaganda. In 1874 he was arrested and imprisoned, but escaped in 1876 and went to See also:England, removing after a See also:short stay to Switzerland, where he joined the Jura Federation. In 1877 he went to See also:Paris, where he helped to start the socialist See also:movement, returning to Switzerland in 1878, where he edited for the Jura Federation a revolutionary See also:news-paper, Le Revolte, subsequently also See also:publishing various revolutionary See also:pamphlets. Shortly after the assassination of the See also:tsar See also: Shortly afterwards he was arrested by the French government, and, after a trial at See also:Lyons, sentenced by a See also:police-court See also:magistrate (under a special See also:law passed on the fall of the See also:Commune) to five years' imprisonment, on the ground that he had belonged to the See also:International Workingmen's Association (1883). In 1886 however, as the result of repeated agitation on his behalf in the French Chamber, he was released, and settled near London. Prince Kropotkin's authority as a writer on Russia is universally acknowledged, and he has contributed largely to the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica. Among his other works may be named Paroles d'un revolte (1884); La Conquete du See also:pain (1888) ; L'Anarchie: sa philosophie, son ideal (1896); The See also:State, its Part in History (1898); See also:Fields, Factories and Workshops (1899); See also:Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1900); Mutual Aid, a See also:Factor of See also:Evolution (1902); Modern Science and Anarchism (See also:Philadelphia, 1903) The See also:Desiccation of Asia (1904) ; The See also:Orography of Asia (1904); and Russian Literature (1905). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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