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

384 Pages·2002·7.46 MB·English

by  Caroline Cahm

KROPOTKIN
AND THE RISE OF
REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM
1872-1886

KROPOTKIN
AND THE RISE OF
REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM
1872-1886
CAROLINE CAHM
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© 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