Kropotkin Peter

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Peter Alexeivich Kropotkin (1842-1921)

life

Peter Kropotkin was born with the title of ‘prince’ into the Russian aristocracy in 1842. As his father and grandfather he was expected to serve in the army and, naturally arising his class, he attended an elite military academy in his teens (Blunt & Willis, 2000, p4.). After graduation he accepts a commission in the Czar’s army, however he requests an assignment in Siberia where he knows there’s not much military involvement and were they are busy mapping the region and documenting its flora and fauna through geographical expeditions. As he was way more interested in geography and zoology than he was in the military (Riggenbach, 2011). In the next years he works within the army in several geographical expeditions. In 1867 he resigns his commission in the army, and starts working in the University of St Petersburg within the Russian Geographical society. He does research on glaciations in Siberia, Sweden and Finland and developed a new theory about the galaciology and the orography of Asia (Blunt & Willis, 2000, p4) in witch he proved that the plains of Northern Europe, Asia and America had been covered with ice and so there had been a Glacial Period in this area (Naumov, 2008).

But Kropotkin is not only interested in physical geography, he is also known for the political ideas and theory’s he develops. In this area he was important for the theoretical framework of anarchism (Blunt & Willis, 2000, p8) and a big inspiration for the radical geography of the 1960s (Johnston, Gregory, Pratt & Watts, 2000, p 3-4). His first anarchist insights are formed by the peasants of Siberia, who lived without state control and regulation, building their own communities in such harsh conditions. Back in Russia he joins the Chaikovsky circle for 2 years and sympathises with the peasant-based movement of the Narodniks. In 1974 he is imprisoned for his ideas and activities, after 3 years he knows to escape to Swiss (Blunt & Willis, 2000, p4.). He is arrested in France again in 1882, by then he has build up a reputation as an academic and in 1886 he is released under pressure of other academics. He then goes to London, were he spends 41 years on academic work and writing, before returning to Russia after the fall of the Czar for the last three years of his life. But his excitement for revolution in Russia is greatly disappointed by the Bolsheviks and he declares: “this buries the revolution” and “how revolution was not to be made- that is, by authoritarian rather than libertarian methods” (Riggenbach, 2011).

Kropotkin’s theory of mutual aid

In Mutual aid (1992) Kropotkin founds his anarchism and counters the ideas of social Darwinists and Hobbes who argued that competition is the cornerstone of human nature and the driver of evolution (Blunt & Willis, 2000, p7; Riggenbach, 2011). Having observed animal activity and human societies in his geographical work Kropotkin argues that the survival of any species depends upon co-operation. By supporting other members of there communities animals would stand a bigger chance to challenges of their survival. Even animals that would be weak as individuals, such as ants, stand strong in a group or colony. For the existence of exploitation, war and repression in human society he blames the state and other authorial institutions, who according to him disrupt the natural order: “ The absorption of all social functions by the state necessarily favoured the development of an unbridled narrow-minded individualism. In proportion as the obligations towards the state grew in numbers the citizens were evidently relieved from their obligations towards each other.” (kropotkin, 1902, in Blunt & Willis, 2000, p7.)

As a geographer Kropotkin also wrights on the physical form of society from within his political ideas. He sees that in a society without authority social order can only exist by coordinated decision making of (all) individuals. For this it is necessary to form small-scaled communities (Blunt & Willis, 2000, p.10). In Fields, Factories and workshops (1899) he proposes a “radical reshaping of Britain upon the dispersion of small, community-owned village factories, reductions in the size of cities and generally a humanized landscape, frequently punctuated with villages, hamlets and intensively plots.” (Douglas, Huggett & Robinson, 1996, p.283)


Radical geography

As said Kropotkin had an important influence on the upcoming radical geography of the 1960s. In this academic movement the separation between facts and values encouraged geographers to consider questions of politics and personal intervention as Kropotkin had done in his time (Johnston et al., 2000 p. 3-4). How Kropotkin can be seen as a radical geographer ahead in time becomes clear from this quote, where he speaks on education in What geography ought to be (1885):

“Geography must render, moreover, another far more important service .It must teach us, from our earliest childhood, that we are all brethren, whatever our nationality. In our time of wars, of national self-conceit, of national jealousies and hatreds ably nourished by people who pursue their own egotistic, personal or class interests, geography must be-in so far as the school may do anything to counterbalance hostile influences- a means of dissipating these prejudices and of creating other feelings more worthy of humanity.” (Kropotkin, 1885)


References

  • Blunt, A. & Wills, J. (2000). Dissident geographies, An introduction to radical ideas and practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
  • Douglas I., Huggett R., Robinson M. (Eds.). (1996) Companion Encyclopaedia of geography The environment of humankind, London: Routledge.
  • Johnston R.J., Gregory D. Pratt G., Watts, M. (Eds.).(2000) The dictionary of human geography (4th ed.). Oxford, Blackwell publishing Ltd.


contributors

  • page created by Marron Borroka, 20:00 8 september 2011 (UTC)
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