Kropotkin
The Anarchist Prince. By George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovie. (Boardman. 2 I S.) THERE has been a revival' of sorts in this country in recent years of anarchist philosophy, no doubt largely by way of literary protest against the itatisme of our day, and there was an excellent oppor- tunity for a book about Prince Peter Kropotkin, the learned and versatile theorist of " the free society " of anarchist doctrine and not the least eminent Russian exile of his generation, who died almost thirty years ago. The easier and more rewarding course would have been to compose a full-length portrait of a revolutionary of an almost forgotten stamp, a man of singular sweetness and charm of character, who won the regard and affection of most of the principal figures of the nascent English Socialist movement and who is still warmly remembered in England by many now living. Or Kropotkin's ideas and activities might have served to illustrate the failure of the anarchist or Communist-anarchist ideal in its bid for popular support against Marxist doctrine and theories of State Socialism generally from the days of the First International onwards. The present volume is neither quite one thing nor. the other. It is an ample, serious-minded and conscientious work, full of small gleanings from a wide miscellany of English, French, German and Russian sources. The portrait, however, is rather lifeless, with too few graces of style to touch the imagination ; while as a study in the history of revolutionary ideals or of the ideological sequel to the Marx-Bakunin controversy the book lacks concentration, often spending itself on trifles of biographical detection. The Russian passages, incidentally, tend to labour what is already sufficiently well known and are sometimes—for instance, in explanation of the word Raznochintsi, the intellectuals of all classes—a little inaccurate.
Kropotkin retains a very genuine interest, however. Borp in 1842- of an ancient princely family, he entered the Imperial Corps des Pages, chose to serve in a Siberian regiment, explored uncharted reaches of the Amur and made notable geographical and geological discoveries, read Herzen, Proudhon, Bakunin, was drawn into the Populist movement, was arrested and imprisoned for two years in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, escaped to Europe, married, was expelled from Switzerland and imprisoned in France, and in 1886 settled in this country. Here, like Lenin in later years, he made himself at home in the reading-room of the British Museum, kept in touch with the rich assortment of émigré anarchist groups of those years, wrote and lectured, made friends with Hyndman, Morris, Keir Hardie, Patrick Geddes, Cunninghame Graham, Shaw and many others, and produced in Memoirs of a Revolutionist (on which the present book draws freely) what is generally recognised as the most illuminating work in its kind since Herzen's My Past and Thoughts. He boiled and spilled over with Russian patriotism in 1914, returned to Russia after the February Revolution, hoped, lamented, acknowledged failure and died in 1921.'
In spite of all that was prophetic in Kropotkin's sense of the supreme evil of the omnicompeteut State, it is the man rather than the anarchist thinker who holds our interest today. Not long before he died G.B.S., we are told in this book, said to one of the authors:' " Personally, Kropotkin was amiable to the point of saintliness, and with his red full beard and lovable expression might have been 4 shepherd from the Delectable Mountains." That is the enchanting impression he appears to have made on almost everybody. His was too enthusiastic a temperament, too optimistic a faith, too—dare one say ?—innocent a heart to reckon with the imperfectibility of man. The associations or communes of pro- ducers organised on a voluntary basis, to which he looked forward, represent a noble ideal of a co-operative and free society, but even at the turn of the century our industrial civilisation had surely passed beyond the reach of his Mutual Aid. R. D. CHARQUES.
Previous page
