Kropotkin, Peter, << kruh POT kihn, PYAW ter >> (1842-1921), was a Russian geographer and political writer associated with anarchism—the belief that all forms of government are immoral and must be abolished. He was born in Moscow on Dec. 21, 1842. Kropotkin was a prince, but he renounced his title in 1871. From 1867 to 1871, he explored Siberia, Manchuria, Finland, and Sweden. In 1873, Kropotkin published a new map of northern Asia.
In 1872, Kropotkin joined the International Workingmen’s Association, an early Communist group. He developed theories of anarchist communism based on the elimination of private property and wealth.
Kropotkin was jailed in 1874, but he escaped in 1876 and fled Russia. In 1883, he was imprisoned in France for his part in a plot involving dynamite. He was released in 1886 and settled in England. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he returned to Russia. Kropotkin’s books include Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899). He died on Feb. 8, 1921.
