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{{Eastern Slavic name|Alexeyevich|Kropotkin}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name          = Peter Kropotkin
| birth_name    = Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin
| image         = Peter Kropotkin circa 1900.jpg
| image_size    = 220px
| alt           = 
| caption       = Kropotkin c. 1900 (aged 57)
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1842|12|9}}
| birth_place   = Moscow, [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1921|2|8|1842|12|9}}
| death_place   = [[Dmitrov]], [[Russian SFSR]]
| era           = {{unbulleted list |[[19th-century philosophy]] |[[20th-century philosophy]]}}
| region        = {{unbulleted list |[[Russian philosophy]] |[[Western philosophy]]}}
| school_tradition = [[Anarchist communism]]
| main_interests = {{hlist |[[Authority]] |[[Cooperation]] |Politics |Revolution |[[Labour relations|Labor]] |Economics |Agriculture |[[Evolution]] |[[Geography]] |Literature |Science |Philosophy |Ethics}}
| notable_ideas = {{unbulleted list |Founder of [[anarchist communism]] |[[Mutual aid (organization theory)|Mutual aid]] |Abolition of [[wage-labor]] |Four-hour workday |[[Voluntary community|Voluntary communes]] |''[[The Conquest of Bread]]'' |''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'' |{{nowrap|''[[Fields, Factories and Workshops]]''}}}}
| influences    = {{hlist |[[Karl Marx|Marx]] |[[Friedrich Engels|Engels]] |[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]] |[[Mikhail Bakunin|Bakunin]] |[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]}}
| influenced    = {{hlist |[[Alexander Berkman|Berkman]] |[[Errico Malatesta|Malatesta]] |[[Oscar Wilde|Wilde]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism|year=2009|publisher=PM Press|isbn=9781604862706|page=177|author=Peter Marshall}}</ref> |[[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Works of Leo Tolstoy|year=2007|publisher=MobileReference|isbn=9781605011561|author=Leo Tolstoy, MobileReference}}</ref> |[[Franz Kafka|Kafka]]<ref>{{cite book|title=A Franz Kafka Encyclopedia|year=2005|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313303753|page=170|editor=Richard T. Gray}}</ref> |[[Nestor Makhno|Makhno]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Who is Alexander Grothendieck? Part 1: Anarchy|year=2011|publisher=Books on Demand|isbn=9783842340923|page=30|author=Winfried Scharlau|quote=In June 1918 Makhno visited his idol Peter Kropotkin in Moscow...}}</ref> |[[Rudolf Rocker|Rocker]]<ref>{{cite book|title=An Anarchist Rabbi: The Life and Teachings of Rudolf Rocker|year=1997|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-312-17273-2|pages=22–36|author=Mina Graur}}</ref> |[[Shūsui Kōtoku|Kōtoku]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Japan at War: An Encyclopedia|year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598847420|page=190|editor=Louis G. Perez|chapter=Kōtoku Shūsui (1871–1911)}}</ref> |[[L. Susan Brown|Brown]] |[[Colin Ward|Ward]] |[[Luigi Galleani|Galleani]] |[[Emma Goldman|Goldman]] |[[George Woodcock|Woodcock]] |[[Murray Bookchin|Bookchin]]<ref name=Bookchin>Bookchin, Murray. ''The Ecology of Freedom''. Oakland: [[AK Press]], 2005. p.11</ref> |[[Bob Black|Black]] |[[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Noam Chomsky Reading List|url=http://leftreferenceguide.wordpress.com/noam-chomsky-reading-list/|publisher=Left Reference Guide|accessdate=January 8, 2014}}</ref> |[[Stephen Jay Gould|Gould]]}}
| signature     = Peter Kropotkin signature.svg
}}
{{Anarcho-communism sidebar |People}}

Prince '''Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin''' ({{IPAc-en|k|r|oʊ|ˈ|p|ɒ|t|k|ɪ|n|,_|k|r|ə|-}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kropotkin "Kropotkin"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{lang-ru|link=no|Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин}}; December 9, 1842 – February 8, 1921) was a Russian [[geography|geographer]], economist, activist, [[philology|philologist]], [[zoology|zoologist]], [[evolution|evolutionary theorist]], philosopher, writer, and prominent [[Anarchism|anarchist]].

Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between workers. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being ''[[The Conquest of Bread]]'' and ''[[Fields, Factories and Workshops]]'', and his principal scientific offering, ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]''. He also contributed the article on [[anarchism]] to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition]]''.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/PeterKropotkinEntryOnanarchismFromTheEncyclopdiaBritannica Peter Kropotkin entry on 'anarchism' from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (eleventh ed.)], Internet Archive. Public Domain text.</ref>

== Biography ==

===Early life===
Kropotkin was born in Moscow, into the second-highest level of the Russian aristocracy. His mother was the daughter of a [[Cossack]] general.<ref name="harman-p20" /> His father, Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, was a prince in [[Smolensk]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Peter Kropotkin: From Prince to Rebel|publisher=Black Rose Books|year=1990|isbn=9780921689607|page=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCpksaH3NrgC&pg=PA13 |author=Woodcock, George & Avakumović, Ivan}}</ref> of the [[Rurik dynasty]] which had ruled Russia before the rise of the Romanovs. Kropotkin's father owned large tracts of land and nearly 1,200 male [[serf]]s in three provinces.<ref name="harman-p20">{{cite book |author=Harman, Oren|title=The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2011|isbn=9780393339994|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZJ2evtw7HAC&pg=PA20}}</ref>

"[U]nder the influence of [[Republicanism|republican]] teachings," Kropotkin dropped his princely title at the age of twelve, and "even rebuked his friends, when they so referred to him."<ref name="rnb">Roger N. Baldwin, "The Story of Kropotkin's Life," in Kropotkin's ''Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings'', ed. by Baldwin (Orig. 1927; Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1970), p. 13.</ref>

In 1857, at age 14, Kropotkin enrolled in the [[Page Corps|Corps of Pages]] at [[St. Petersburg]]. Only 150 boys&nbsp;– mostly children of nobility belonging to the court&nbsp;– were educated in this privileged corps, which combined the character of a [[military school]] endowed with special rights and of a court institution attached to the [[Imperial Household]]. Kropotkin's memoirs detail the [[hazing]] and other abuse of pages for which the Corps had become notorious.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=Smith, Elder & Co.|location=London|pages=63|url=https://books.google.com/?id=LtdMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR7&dq=peter+kropotkin+memoirs+revolutionist#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>

In Moscow, Kropotkin had developed an interest in the condition of the peasantry, and this interest increased as he grew older. Although his work as a page for Tsar [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] made Kropotkin sceptical about the tsar's "liberal" reputation,<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Kropotkin, Petr Alexseyevich|editor=Winkle, Justin|title=The Concise New Makers of Modern Culture|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2009|isbn=9780415477826|page=425|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_mVLMM55gUC&pg=PA425}}</ref> Kropotkin was greatly pleased by the tsar's decision to emancipate the serfs in 1861.<ref>{{cite book |author=Todes, Daniel Philip|title=Darwin Without Malthus: The Struggle for Existence in Russian Evolutionary Thought|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1989|isbn=9780195058307|page=124|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjVskyJh6TgC&pg=PA124}}</ref> In [[St. Petersburg]], he read widely on his own account, and gave special attention to the works of the [[Encyclopédistes|French encyclopædists]] and to [[History of France|French history]]. The years 1857–1861 witnessed a growth in the intellectual forces of Russia, and Kropotkin came under the influence of the new liberal-revolutionary literature, which largely expressed his own aspirations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton, Mifflin & Company]]|location=Boston and New York|pages=270}}</ref>

In 1862, Kropotkin was promoted from the Corps of Pages to the army. The members of the corps had the prescriptive right to choose the regiment to which they would be attached. For some time, he was ''[[aide de camp]]'' to the governor of [[Transbaikalia]] at [[Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai|Chita]].  Later he was appointed attaché for [[Cossack]] affairs to the governor-general of East Siberia at [[Irkutsk]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton, Mifflin & Company]]|location=Boston and New York|pages=198}}</ref>

===Geographical expeditions in Siberia===
[[File:Peter Kropotkin 1864.png|thumb|left|upright|Kropotkin in 1864]]
Administrative work was scarce, and in 1864 Kropotkin accepted charge of a geographical survey expedition, crossing North [[Manchuria]] from [[Transbaikalia]] to the [[Amur River|Amur]], and soon was attached to another expedition which proceeded up the [[Sungari River]] into the heart of [[Manchuria]]. The expeditions yielded 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton, Mifflin & Company]]|location=Boston and New York|pages=214}}</ref>

In 1866, Kropotkin began reading the works of the French anarchist [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], and other political thinkers such as [[John Stuart Mill]] and [[Alexander Herzen]]. These readings, along with his experiences amongst the peasantry in Siberia, led him to declare himself an anarchist by 1872.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ward, Dana|chapter=Alchemy in Clarens: Kropotkin and Reclus, 1877–1881|editors=Jun, Nathan J. & Wahl, Shane|title=New Perspectives on Anarchism|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2010|isbn=9780739132418|page=211|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5t0R0ckDMAC&pg=PA211}}</ref>

In 1867, Kropotkin resigned his commission in the army and returned to St. Petersburg, where he entered the university to study mathematics, becoming at the same time secretary to the geography section of the [[Russian Geographical Society]].<ref name="Marshall-2010-p311">{{cite book |author=Marshall, Peter|title=Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism|publisher=PM Press|year=2010|isbn=9781604860641|page=311|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDWIOL_KtGYC&pg=PA311}}</ref> His departure from a family tradition of military service prompted his father to disinherit him, "leaving him a 'prince' with no visible means of support."<ref name=Riggenbach>{{cite journal|last=Riggenbach|first=Jeff|title=The Anarchism of Peter Kropotkin |journal=Mises Daily |publisher=[[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] |date=March 4, 2011|url=https://mises.org/daily/5071/The-Anarchism-of-Peter-Kropotkin}}</ref> In 1871, he explored the glacial deposits of [[Finland]] and [[Sweden]] for the Society.<ref name="Marshall-2010-p311" /> In 1873, he published an important contribution to science, a map and paper in which he showed that the existing maps entirely misrepresented the [[geography of Asia|physical features of Asia]]; the main structural lines were in fact from southwest to northeast, not from north to south or from east to west as had been previously supposed. During this work, he was offered the secretaryship of the Society, but he had decided that it was his duty not to work at fresh discoveries but to aid in diffusing existing knowledge among the people at large. Accordingly, he refused the offer and returned to St. Petersburg, where he joined the revolutionary party.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton, Mifflin & Company]]|location=Boston and New York|pages=235–236}}</ref>

===Activism in Switzerland and France===
Kropotkin visited [[Switzerland]] in 1872 and became a member of the [[International Workingmen's Association]] (IWA) at [[Geneva]]. It was there that he found that he did not like IWA's style of socialism. Instead, he studied the programme of the more radical [[Jura federation]] at [[Neuchâtel]] and spent time in the company of the leading members, and adopted the creed of anarchism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton, Mifflin & Company]]|location=Boston and New York|pages=282–287}}</ref>

On returning to Russia, Kropotkin's friend Dmitri Klements introduced him to the [[Circle of Tchaikovsky]], a socialist/populist group that had been created in 1872. Kropotkin worked to spread revolutionary propaganda amongst peasants and workers, and acted as a bridge between the Circle and the aristocracy. Throughout this period, Kropotkin maintained his position within the Geographical Society in order to provide cover for his activities.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cahm, Caroline|title=Kropotkin: And the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism, 1872–1886|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|isbn=9780521891578|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zk7wTSWT3JUC&pg=PA44}}</ref>

In 1874 Kropotkin was arrested and imprisoned in the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]] for subversive political activity, as a result of his work with the Circle of Tchaikovsky. Because of his aristocratic background, he was granted special privileges while in prison, such as being allowed to continue his geographical work in his cell. He delivered his report on the subject of the [[Ice Age]], where he argued that it had taken place in not as distant a past as originally thought. In 1876, just before his trial, Kropotkin was moved to a low-security prison in St. Petersburg, from which he escaped with the assistance of his friends. On the night of the escape, Kropotkin and his friends celebrated by dining in one of the finest restaurants in St. Petersburg, assuming correctly that the police would not think to look for them there. After this, he boarded a boat, and headed to England.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bell, Jeffrey A.|chapter=Kropotkin, Pyotr|editor=Bell, Jeffrey A.|title=Industrialization and Imperialism, 1800–1914: A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2002|isbn=9780313314513|page=199|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XB6ckxWOq9kC&pg=PA199}}</ref> After a short stay there, he moved to Switzerland where he joined the Jura Federation. In 1877 he moved to Paris, where he helped start the socialist movement. In 1878 he returned to Switzerland where he edited the Jura Federation's revolutionary newspaper ''Le Révolté'', and published various revolutionary pamphlets.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton, Mifflin & Company]]|location=Boston and New York|pages=417–423}}</ref>
[[File:Kropotkin Nadar.png|thumb|right|Kropotkin by [[Nadar (photographer)|Nadar]]]]  
In 1881, shortly after the [[Alexander II of Russia#Assassination|assassination of Tsar Alexander II]], he was expelled from Switzerland. After a short stay at [[Thonon]] (Savoy), he went to London where he stayed nearly a year.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|publisher=[[Dover Publications]]|page=440|year=2010 (reproduction of 1899 edition)|isbn=978-0-486-47316-1}}</ref> He attended the Anarchist Congress that met in London from July 14, 1881.<ref name=Bantman2006>{{cite journal |ref=harv |url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rbph_0035-0818_2006_num_84_4_5056 |page=965
 |last=Bantman|first=Constance|title=Internationalism without an International? Cross-Channel Anarchist Networks, 1880–1914
 |journal=Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire |year=2006|volume=84|issue=84–4|accessdate=2013-08-30 |doi=10.3406/rbph.2006.5056}}</ref>
Other delegates included [[Marie Le Compte]], [[Errico Malatesta]], [[Saverio Merlino]], [[Louise Michel]], Nicholas Tchaikovsky and [[Émile Gautier]]. While respecting "complete autonomy of local groups" the congress defined propaganda actions that all could follow and agreed that [[propaganda by the deed]] was the path to social revolution.<ref name=Bantman2006/> ''The Radical'' of July 23, 1881 reported that the congress met on July 18 at the [[Cleveland Hall, London|Cleveland Hall]], Fitzroy Square, with speeches by Marie Le Compte, "the transatlantic agitator", Louise Michel, and Kropotkin.<ref>{{cite web |ref=harv |url=http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/01/09/russians-in-london-pyotr-kropotkin/ |last=Young |first=Sarah J.|date=January 9, 2011|title=Russians in London: Pyotr Kropotkin|accessdate=2013-08-30}}</ref> Later Le Compte and Kropotkin gave talks to the Homerton Social Democratic Club and to the Stratford Radical and Dialectical Club.<ref>{{cite web |ref=harv |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317725/1/281916.pdf |page=20 |last=Shpayer |first=Haia |title=British Anarchism 1881–1914: Reality and Appearance|date=June 1981|accessdate=2013-08-30}}</ref>

Kropotkin returned to Thonon in late 1882. Soon he was arrested by the French government, tried at [[Lyon]], and sentenced by a police-court magistrate (under a special law passed on the fall of the [[Paris Commune]]) to five years' imprisonment, on the ground that he had belonged to the IWA (1883). The French Chamber repeatedly agitated on his behalf, and he was released in 1886. He was invited to Britain by [[Charlotte Wilson]], with whom he co-founded the [[Freedom Press]], an anarchist newspaper which continues to this day. Kropotkin was a regular contributor. He settled near London, living at various times in [[Harrow, London|Harrow]]&nbsp;– where his daughter, Alexandra, was born&nbsp;– [[Ealing]] and [[Bromley]] (6 Crescent Road 1886–1914).<ref>Bromley Council guide to blue plaques</ref> He also lived for a number of years in [[Brighton]].<ref>Peter Marshall ''Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism'', London: Fontana, 1993, p.315</ref> While living in London, Kropotkin became friends with a number of prominent English-speaking socialists, including [[William Morris]] and [[George Bernard Shaw]].{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

===Return to Russia===
[[File:Krapotkin in Haparanda.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Kropotkin in [[Haparanda]], 1917]]
In 1917 after the [[February Revolution]], Kropotkin returned to Russia again after years of exile. Upon his arrival, he was greeted by crowds of tens of thousands of people, cheering his return. He was offered the ministry of education in the provisional government, which he promptly refused, feeling that working with them would be a violation of his anarchist principles.<ref>{{cite book |author=Burbank, Jane|title=Intelligentsia and Revolution: Russian Views of Bolshevism, 1917–1922|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1989|isbn=9780195045734|page=99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJHHAttsOL4C&pg=PA99}}</ref>

His enthusiasm for the changes happening in the [[Russian Empire]] turned to disappointment when the [[Bolsheviks]] seized power in the [[October Revolution]]. "This buries the revolution," he said.<ref name=Riggenbach/> He thought that the Bolsheviks had shown how the revolution was not to be made; by [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] rather than [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] methods.<ref name=Riggenbach/> He had spoken out against [[authoritarian socialism]] in his writings (for example ''[[The Conquest of Bread]]''), making the prediction that any state founded on these principles would most likely see its own breakup and the restoration of capitalism.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

===Death===
[[File:Emma Goldman gives eulogy at Peter Kropotkin's funeral.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Kropotkin's friend and comrade [[Emma Goldman]] delivers a eulogy before crowds at his funeral, accompanied by [[Alexander Berkman]].]]
Kropotkin died of pneumonia on February 8, 1921, in the city of [[Dmitrov]], and was buried at the [[Novodevichy Cemetery]]. Thousands of people marched in his funeral procession, including, with [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s approval,<ref>{{cite book|last=Goldman|first=Emma|authorlink=Emma Goldman|title=[[Living My Life]]|year=1931|publisher=[[Dover Publications]]|pages=867–868|isbn=0-486-22543-7}}</ref> anarchists carrying banners with anti-Bolshevik slogans. It was to become the last public demonstration of anarchists, which saw engaged speeches by [[Emma Goldman]] and [[Aron Baron]]. In 1957 the Dvorets Sovetov station of the [[Moscow Metro]] was renamed [[Kropotkinskaya]] in his honor.

==Philosophy==

===Critique of capitalism===
Kropotkin pointed out what he considered to be the fallacies of the [[Economics#Criticisms|economic systems]] of [[feudalism]] and [[Criticism of capitalism|capitalism]].  He believed they create poverty and [[artificial scarcity]] while promoting [[Privilege (social inequality)|privilege]]. Instead he proposed a more decentralized economic system based on mutual aid, [[mutual aid (organization)|mutual support]], and [[cooperation|voluntary cooperation]], asserting that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and in human society.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

===Cooperation and competition===
In 1902 Kropotkin published his book ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'', which provided an alternative view of animal and human survival, beyond the claims of interpersonal [[competition]] and natural hierarchy proffered at the time by some "[[social Darwinism|social Darwinists]]" such as [[Francis Galton]]. He argued that "it was an evolutionary emphasis on cooperation instead of competition in the Darwinian sense that made for the success of species, including the human".<ref name=Sale>[[Kirkpatrick Sale|Sale, Kirkpatrick]] (July 1, 2010) [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/jul/01/00045/ Are Anarchists Revolting?], ''[[The American Conservative]]''</ref> Kropotkin explored the widespread use of [[cooperation]] as a survival mechanism in human societies - through their many stages - and amongst animals. He used many real-life examples in an attempt to show that the main factor in facilitating [[evolution]] is cooperation between individuals in free-associated societies and groups, without central control, authority, or compulsion. He did so in order to counteract the concept of fierce competition as the core of [[evolution]], which concept provided a rationalization for the dominant political, economic, and social theories{{which|date=July 2014}} of the time and for the prevalent interpretations of [[Social darwinism|Darwinism]].{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} In the last chapter, he wrote:<ref>{{cite book |author = Kropotkin, Peter | title = quotation from ''Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution'' | year = 1902 | url = http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kropotkin#Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution_.281902.29 }}</ref>

{{quote|In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense{{spaced ndash}}not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species[...] in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits[...] and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development[...] are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay.|source=Peter Kropotkin, ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'' (1902), Conclusion.}}

Kropotkin did not deny the presence of competitive urges in humans, but did not see them as the driving force of history (as did [[capitalist]]s and social Darwinists).<ref name=Gallaher>{{cite book |last1=Gallaher |first1=Carolyn |author-link1=Carolyn Gallaher |last2=Dahlman |first2=Carl T. |last3=Gilmartin |first3=Mary |last4=Mountz |first4=Alison |last5=Shirlow |first5=Peter |date=2009 |title=Key Concepts in Political Geography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&pg=PA262 |publisher=SAGE |location=London |pages=392 |isbn=978-1-4129-4672-8 |oclc= |accessdate=July 31, 2014}}</ref>{{rp|262}} He did believe that at times seeking out conflict proved socially beneficial, but only during attempts to destroy unjust, authoritarian institutions such as the State or [[organized religion|the Church]], which he saw as stifling human [[creativity]] and freedom and impeding humans' instinctual drive towards sociality and cooperation.<ref>{{cite book |author=Vucinich, Alexander|title=Darwin in Russian Thought|publisher=University of California Press|year=1988|isbn=9780520062832|page=349|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dh1NvIxiaIIC&pg=PA349}}</ref>

Kropotkin's observations of cooperative tendencies in [[indigenous people]]s (pre-feudal, feudal, and those remaining in modern societies) led him to conclude that not all human societies were based on competition, such as those of industrialized Europe, and that many societies exhibited cooperation among individuals and groups as the norm. He also concluded that most pre-industrial and pre-authoritarian societies (where he claimed that [[leadership]], central government and class did not exist) actively defend against the accumulation of private property by, for example, equally distributing within the community a person's possessions when he died, or by not allowing a gift to be sold, bartered or used to create wealth (see [[Gift economy]]).<ref>
Morris, David. [http://www.alternet.org/story/154126/anarchism_is_not_what_you_think_it_is_--_and_there%27s_a_whole_lot_we_can_learn_from_it/ Anarchism Is Not What You Think It Is – And There's a Whole Lot We Can Learn from It], [[AlterNet]], February 13, 2012
</ref>

===Mutual aid===
In ''[[The Conquest of Bread]]'', Kropotkin proposed a system of economics based on mutual exchanges made in a system of voluntary cooperation. He believed that should a society be socially, culturally, and industrially developed enough to produce all the goods and services required by it, then no obstacle, such as preferential distribution, pricing or monetary exchange will stand as an obstacle for all taking what they need from the social product. He supported the eventual abolishment of money or tokens of exchange for goods and services.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

Kropotkin believed that [[Mikhail Bakunin|Bakunin]]'s [[collectivist]] economic model was simply a wage system by a different name,<ref>Kropotkin wrote: "After the Collectivist Revolution instead of saying 'twopence' worth of soap, we shall say 'five minutes' worth of soap." (quoted in {{cite book |author=Brauer, Fae|chapter=Wild Beasts and Tame Primates: 'Le Douanier' Rosseau's Dream of Darwin's Evolution|editor=Larsen, Barbara Jean|title=The Art of Evolution: Darwin, Darwinisms, and Visual Culture|publisher=UPNE|year=2009|isbn=9781584657750|page=211|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZisTVt0GJQC&pg=PA211}})</ref> and thought that such a system would breed the same type of centralization and inequality as a capitalist wage system. He stated that it is impossible to determine the value of an individual's contributions to the products of social [[Wage labour|labor]], and thought that anyone who was placed in a position of trying to make such determinations would wield authority over those whose wages they determined.<ref>{{cite book |author=Avrich, Paul|title=The Russian Anarchists|publisher=AK Press|year=2005|isbn=9781904859482|pages=28–29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pqSkSgKacAC&pg=PA28}}</ref> He further developed these ideas in ''[[Fields, Factories and Workshops]]''.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

According to [[Kirkpatrick Sale]]:<ref name=Sale/>

{{quote|With ''Mutual Aid'' especially, and later with ''[[Fields, Factories, and Workshops]]'', Kropotkin was able to move away from the absurdist limitations of [[Individualist anarchism|individual anarchism]] and no-laws anarchism that had flourished during this period and provide instead a vision of communal anarchism, following the models of independent cooperative communities he discovered while developing his theory of mutual aid. It was an anarchism that opposed centralized government and state-level laws as traditional anarchism did, but understood that at a certain small scale, communities and communes and co-ops could flourish and provide humans with a rich material life and wide areas of liberty without centralized control.}}

===Self-sufficiency===
His focus on local production led to his view that a country should strive for [[autarky|self-sufficiency]]{{spaced ndash}}manufacture its own goods and grow its own food, lessening dependence on imports.  To these ends he advocated irrigation and growing under glass to boost local food production ability.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

==Works==
[[File:La conquête du pain.jpg|right|thumb|200px|''[[The Conquest of Bread]]'' by Peter Kropotkin, influential work which presents the economic vision of [[anarcho-communism]]]]

===Books===
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{Cite book
|title     = [[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]
|publisher = [http://www.extendinghorizons.com Extending Horizons Books], [http://www.portersargent.com Porter Sargent Publishers]
|location  = [[Boston]]
|edition   = 1955 paperback (reprinted 2005), includes Kropotkin's 1914 preface, Foreword and Bibliography by [[Ashley Montagu]], and [[The Struggle for Existence]], by [[Thomas H. Huxley]]
|isbn        = 0-87558-024-6
}} [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4341 Project Gutenberg e-text], [http://librivox.org/mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution-by-peter-kropotkin/ Project LibriVox audiobook]
* ''[[The Conquest of Bread]]'' [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/23428 Project Gutenberg e-text], [http://librivox.org/the-conquest-of-bread-by-peter-kropotkin/ Project LibriVox audiobook]
* ''[[Fields, Factories and Workshops]]''
* ''[http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/prisons/toc.html In Russian and French Prisons]'', London: Ward and Downey; 1887
* ''[[Memoirs of a Revolutionist]]'', London : Smith, Elder; 1899. Kropotkin's own memoirs, which were also published in the United States in the same year and have appeared in a number of modern editions.
* ''[[The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793]]'', New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, London, William Heinemann, 1909, translated from the French by N.F. Dryhurst. [http://kropot.free.fr/Kropotkine-GrdRev.htm e-text (in French)]
* ''Russian Literature: Ideals and Realities'' (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1915). Available online at the Anarchy Archives,<ref>{{anarchives|kropotkin/literature/russianlittoc.html|''Russian Literature: Ideals and Realities''}}</ref>
* ''Ethics'' (unfinished). Included as first part of  [http://bivir.uacj.mx/LibrosElectronicosLibres/Autores/PedroKropotkin/Pedro%20Kropotkin%20-%20Origen%20y%20evoluci%F3n%20de%20la%20moral.pdf ''Origen y evolución de la moral'' (Spanish e-text)]
{{refend}}

===Articles===
{{refbegin|2}}
* "Research on the [[Ice age]]", ''Notices of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society'', 1876.
* "The [[desiccation]] of Eur-Asia", ''[[Geographical Journal]]'', 23 (1904), 722–41.
* Mr. Mackinder; Mr. Ravenstein; Dr. Herbertson; Prince Kropotkin; Mr. Andrews; Cobden Sanderson; Elisée Reclus, "On Spherical Maps and Reliefs: Discussion",  The Geographical Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3. (Sep. 1903), pp.&nbsp;294–299, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398%28190309%2922%3A3%3C294%3AOSMARD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O JSTOR]
* "Baron Toll", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 23, No. 6. (Jun. 1904), pp.&nbsp;770–772, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398%28190406%2923%3A6%3C770%3ABT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B JSTOR]
* "The population of Russia", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2. (Aug. 1897), pp.&nbsp;196–202, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398%28189708%2910%3A2%3C196%3ATPOR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V JSTOR]
* "The old beds of the Amu-Daria", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 12, No. 3. (Sep. 1898), pp.&nbsp;306–310, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398%28189809%2912%3A3%3C306%3ATOBOTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D JSTOR]
* “Finland” in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), 1911 (in part; with [[Joseph R. Fisher]] and [[John Scott Keltie]])
{{refend}}

===Pamphlets===
{{refbegin|2}}
* ''[http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/kropotkin/atty.html An Appeal To The Young]''
* War
* Law and Authority
* The Place of Anarchy in Socialist Evolution
* Revolutionary Government
* [http://www.panarchy.org/kropotkin/prisons.html Are Prisons Necessary?] Chapter X from "In Russian and French Prisons" (1887)
* [http://www.panarchy.org/kropotkin/1896.eng.html Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal] (1896)
* [http://www.panarchy.org/kropotkin/1897.state.html The State: Its Historic Role] (1897)
* [http://www.panarchy.org/kropotkin/economics.html On Economics] Selected Passages from his Writings (1898–1913)
{{refend}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Anarchism|Biography|Russia}}
* [[Anarchist communism]]
* [[Anarchist schools of thought]]
* [[Katorga]]
* [[List of Russian anarchists]]
{{Clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==

===Books on Kropotkin===
<!-- To add a new book, use the following: * {{cite book |author=|title=|publisher=|location=|year=|isbn=|url=}} -->
* {{cite journal |author=Alan, Barnard|title=Mutual Aid and the Foraging Mode of Thought: Re-reading Kropotkin on the Khoisan|work=Social Evolution & History|volume= 3|issue= 1|date=March 2004|pages=3–21}}
* {{cite book |author=Joll, James|title=The Anarchists|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|year=1980|isbn=0-674-03641-7|lccn=80-010503|url=}}
* {{cite book|title=The Anarchist Prince: A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin|publisher=|location=|year=1950|isbn=|url= |author=Woodcock, George & Avakumovic, Ivan}}
* {{cite book |author=Morris, Brian|title=Kropotkin: the Politics of Community|publisher=Humanity Press|location=|year=2004|isbn=|url=}}
* ''The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Police'' by Alex Butterworth (Pantheon Books, 2010)
* {{cite book |author=Engelbert, Arthur|title= Help! Gegenseitig behindern oder helfen. Eine politische Skizze zur Wahrnehmung heute|publisher=Königshausen & Neumann|location=Würzburg|year=2012|isbn=978-3-8260-5017-6|url=http://arthur-engelbert.de/publikationen/help-gegenseitig-behindern-oder-helfen-eine-skizze-zur-wahrnehmung-heute/}}
* {{cite book |author=Cahm, Caroline|title=Kropotkin and the rise of revolutionary anarchism 1872–1886|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1989|isbn=0 521 36445 0}}

===Journal articles===
* {{cite journal |author=Gould, S.J.|title=Kropotkin was no crackpot|url=http://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/kropotkin.htm|work=Natural History|volume=106|date=June 1997|pages=12–21}}
* [http://www.afed.org.uk/ace/kropotkin_history_of_anarchism.html ''Basic Kropotkin: Kropotkin and the History of Anarchism''] by Brian Morris, Anarchist Communist Editions pamphlet no.17 (The Anarchist Federation, October 2008).
* Efremenko D., Evseeva Y. Studies of Social Solidarity in Russia: Tradition and Modern Trends. // American Sociologist, v. 43, 2012, no. 4, pp.&nbsp;349–365. – NY: Springer Science+Business Media.

==External links==
{{Sister project links|wikt=no|b=no|q=Peter Kropotkin|s=Author:Peter Kropotkin|commons=Пётр Алексеевич Кропоткин|n=no|v=no}}
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Kropotkin,+Petr+Alekseevich,+kniaz}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Kropotkin}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2278}}
* [http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/KropotkinPeter.htm Kropotkin Page] at the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia
* [http://libcom.org/library/peter-kropotkin The Peter Kropotkin text archive] on libcom.org library
* [http://www.blackcrayon.com/people/kropotkin/ BlackCrayon.com: People: Peter Kropotkin]
* {{anarchives|kropotkin/Kropotkinarchive.html}} with complete collected works
* {{YouTube|iu4n5uopvrg|Peter Kropotkin-Short Documentary}}
* [http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Kropotkin%2C_Peter_Alexeivitch_%281842-1921%29_Prince%2C_Russian_Anarchist Summary of records] in [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] and elsewhere, with a link to the [[National Register of Archives]] pages.
* [http://theanarchistlibrary.org/authors/Petr_Kropotkin.html Kropotkin's works] at TheAnarchistLibrary.org
* [https://secure.flickr.com/photos/85101573@N00/139484527 Kropotkin's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery]
* [http://raforum.info/reclus Site Elisée Reclus]
* [http://vimeo.com/30571222 Kropotkin: The Coming Revolution] short documentary in Kropotkin's own words.
* ''[http://www.wdl.org/en/item/125/ Map of the Southern Half of Eastern Siberia and Parts of Mongolia, Manchuria, and Sakhalin: For a General Sketch of the Orography of Eastern Siberia]'' by Kroptokin, from the [[World Digital Library]]
* {{Find a Grave|6153859|Pyotr Alexeevich Kropotkin}}
{{refend}}

{{Anarchism}}
{{Freedom Press}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
| NAME              = Kropotkin, Peter
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Kropotkin, Pyotr; Kropotkin, Pëtr
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Anarchist, naturalist
| DATE OF BIRTH     = December 21, 1842
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = Moscow, Russia
| DATE OF DEATH     = February 8, 1921
| PLACE OF DEATH    = [[Dmitrov]], Russia
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kropotkin, Peter}}
[[Category:1842 births]]
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