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Kropotkin: And the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism, 1872-1886 PDF

384 Pages·2002·7.46 MB·English
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KROPOTKIN AND THE RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM 1872-1886 KROPOTKIN AND THE RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM 1872-1886 CAROLINE CAHM The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE NEW YORK PORT CHESTER MELBOURNE SYDNEY Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1989 First published 1989 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge British Library cataloguing in publication data Cahm, Caroline Kropotkin and the rise of revolutionary anarchism 1872-1886. 1. Soviet Union. Anarchism. Kropotkin, Peter Alekseevich, Kniaz, 1842-1921 I. Title 335'.83'0924 Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Cahm, Caroline. Kropotkin and the rise of revolutionary anarchism 1872-1886 / Caroline Cahm. pp. cm. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0-521-36445-0 1. Kropotkin Petr Alekseevich. kniaz, 1842-1921. 2. Anarchists - Soviet Union - Biography. 3. Anarchism - History - 19th century. I. Title. II. Series. HX914.7.K7C34 1989 335'.83'092-dc20 89-7195 CIP [B] ISBN 0 521 36445 0 WD TO THE MEMORY OF MY PARENTS LESLIE AND JESSIE HUNT CONTENTS Preface page ix Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 Part I Kropotkin and the development of the theory of anarchist communism 1 Bakuninism 17 From reform to revolution: 1872 Kropotkin's first contact with the 17 International and bakuninism The Anti-authoritarian International: statist/anti-statist polarisation 28 2 Anarchist communism 36 The origin of anarchist communist ideas 36 Kropotkin and anarchist communism 18 77—1886 44 Part II Kropotkin and the development of anarchist ideas of revolutionary action by individuals and small groups (1872-1886) 3 Revolutionary action and the emergent anarchist 71 movement of the seventies 4 Propaganda by deed: the development of the idea 76 5 Kropotkin and propaganda by deed 92 6 Kropotkin and acts of revolt 116 7 The Congress of London 1881 and 'The Spirit of Revolt' 152 8 The trial of Lyon 1883 and response to persecution 178 vn viii Contents Part III Kropotkin and the development of anarchist views of collective revolutionary action (1872—1886) 9 Trade unionism and the emergent anarchist movement 213 of the seventies 10 Kropotkin and collective action in the labour movement 231 Early hostility to trade unions: his denunciation of British trade 231 unionism The Pittsburgh strikes in the United States and the revival of the 242 labour movement in England and France The Strikers' International 251 Conclusion 270 Notes 287 Bibliography 350 Index 367 PREFACE Anarchism, encompassing as it does such a broad spectrum of ideas, cannot be as precisely defined in ideological terms as marxism, nor has it, outside Spain, made the same impact on twentieth-century Euro- pean history. It is perhaps not altogether surprising, therefore, that the anarchist movement which emerged from the struggles in the First International has tended to attract attention from scholars primarily in terms of its relevance to the development of marxism. Interest has focussed mainly on the life and work of Bakunin whose quarrel with Marx was such an important feature of the early history of marxism. Peter Kropotkin, however, was the chief exponent of the ideas of the European anarchist movement, which for the most part, only developed after Bakunin's death. The study of anarchism as a historical movement, in spite of notable exceptions such as Maitron's work on the French anarchist move- ment,1 has tended until recent years to be neglected. It now evokes a much keener interest both amongst scholars and the public at large. This is perhaps partly because of an increasing scepticism about the efficacy of conventional politics and a tendency for the aggrieved to take to the streets which have given a new point and relevance to the anarchist critique of the state. At the same time there has been an upsurge of 'green' and 'community' politics which, in common with anarchism and particularly anarchist communism, focus on free association in community initiative and action and insist on the need for balance and harmony between humankind and the rest of the natural world. Nevertheless, the history of the European anarchist movement and the anarchist communist ideas which have tended to dominate its thinking and activity are only just beginning to receive the attention they deserve. There is still a dearth of modern general histories both of x Preface the movement itself and of the Anti-authoritarian International out of which the anarchist movement developed. At the same time biogra- phies of leading anarchists usually lack that solid, informative, histori- cal context which Stafford provided in his study of the career of Paul Brousse.2 The first serious biographical study of Kropotkin which was written by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic appeared only in 1950.3 As well as lacking references and documentation it also suffered from restrictions placed on the authors by the inaccessibility at that time of the important Kropotkin archives in Amsterdam and the Soviet Union. In 1972 a biography by the Soviet scholar, N. M. Pirumova, was pub- lished in Moscow, a study which, although not a comprehensive biography, did utilise the rich Russian archives to provide an infor- mative and indeed even sympathetic account particularly of Kropotkin's later life.4 In 1976 Martin Miller produced a biography, which, in contrast with that of Woodcock and Avakumovic, did con- tain careful and valuable documentation and did benefit from the author's comprehensive study of archives both in the West and in the Soviet Union.5 None of these studies, however, attempted any sort of in depth examination of Kropotkin's development as a revolutionary in the historical context of the Western European anarchist movement — even though his life and work were such an integral and indeed vibrant part of it. Miller, in reaction to the tendency of Soviet historians to reduce biographies to negative or positive features in the marxist his- torical landscape, actually seemed anxious to avoid doing so. I have attempted to supplement the general biographical works with a more searching study of Kropotkin's development situated firmly in the historical context of the development of the European anarchist movement. This is something that cannot really be done in a general biography of someone whose life and work were associated with the anarchist movement in so many countries over a period of almost fifty years. The present study, therefore, whilst endeavouring to show the continuity in the development of Kropotkin's life and career as a whole, concentrates on that period when he was most intimately and actively involved in the European anarchist movement, a period which began with his commitment to bakuninism in 1872 and ended with his arrival in England in 1886 after some twelve years of energetic activity as a revolutionary agitator first in Russia, then in Switzerland and France. In my treatment of sources I have devoted a good deal of attention to

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This major study of Peter Kropotkin sets him firmly in the context of the development of the European anarchist movement as the man who became, after Bakunin's death, their chief exponent of anarchist ideas. It traces the origins and development of his ideas and revolutionary practice from 1872 to 1
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