Editing Peter Kropotkin (section)

=== Anarchism ===

[[File:Кропоткин, Петр Александрович (1842-1921; примерно 1876).jpg|thumb|Kropotkin in 1876]]

While Kropotkin became increasingly revolutionary in his writings, he was not known for activism.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=18}} He was spurred by the 1871 [[Paris Commune]] and trial of [[Sergey Nechayev]]. He and his brother attended meetings on the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and revolutionism.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=33}} Likely at the encouragement of a Swiss extended family member and his own desire to see the socialist worker's movement, Kropotkin set out to see Switzerland and Western Europe in February 1872. Over three months, he met [[Mikhail Sazhin (revolutionary)|Mikhail Sazhin]] in Zurich, worked and fell out with [[Nikolai Utin]]'s Marxist group in Geneva, and was introduced to the [[Jura Federation]]'s [[James Guillaume]] and [[Adhémar Schwitzguébel]]. The Jura were the main internal opposition to the Marxist-controlled [[First International]], as followers of [[Mikhail Bakunin]].{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=34}} Kropotkin was quickly impressed and was instantly converted to anarchism by the group's egalitarianism and independence of expression,{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|pp=14, 34}} but narrowly missed meeting the leading anarchist, Bakunin, while there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shatz |first=Marshall S. |title=The Conquest of Bread and Other Anarchist Writings |date=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45990-7 |page=xi |language=en |chapter=Introduction |oclc=832639138 }}</ref>{{efn|Kropotkin previously had some passing familiarity with Bakunin.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=33}} Historians wrote that Bakunin likely did not wish to meet Kropotkin based on the latter's familial connection to the socialist [[Peter Lavrov]].{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=35}} }} Kropotkin visited Belgium's movement before returning to Russia in May with contraband literature.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=35}}

Back in St. Petersburg, Kropotkin joined the [[Circle of Tchaikovsky|Chaikovsky Circle]], a group of revolutionaries that Kropotkin considered more educational than revolutionary in their activities.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=35}} Kropotkin believed in the inevitability of [[Social revolution]] and the need for stateless social organization. His [[Populism|Populist]] revolutionary program for the group focused on urban workers and peasants whereas the group's moderates focused on students. Partially for this reason, he declined to contribute his personal wealth to the group. He viewed professionals as unlikely to forgo their privileges and judged them to not live societally useful lives. His program emphasized federated agrarian communes and a revolutionary party. While he could speak powerfully, Kropotkin was not a successful organizer.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=36}}

Kropotkin's first political memo in November 1873 covered his basic plan for stateless social reconstruction including common property, worker control of factories, shared physical labor towards societal need, and labor vouchers in lieu of money. He emphasized living among commoners and using propaganda to focus mass dissatisfaction. He rejected the Nechayev conspiracy model.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|pp=36–37}} Members of the circle began to be arrested in late 1873 and the [[Third Section]] secret police came for Kropotkin in March 1874.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=37}}

His arrest for agitation, as a former ''page de chambre'' and officer, was scandalous.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|pp=14, 37}} Kropotkin had just filed his Ice Age report and had been recently elected president of the Geographical Society's Physical and Mathematical Department. At the society's request the tsar granted Kropotkin books to finish his glaciation report. Kropotkin was held in the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]].{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=37}} His brother, who had also radicalized as a follower of Lavrov,{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=35}} was also arrested and [[katorga|exiled in Siberia]], where he committed suicide about a decade later.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=38}}

Kropotkin was moved to the House of Detention prison military hospital in St. Petersburg for poor health, with the help of his sister. With assistance from friends, he escaped from the minimal-security prison in June 1876. By way of Scandinavia and England, Kropotkin arrived in Switzerland by the end of the year, where he met Italian anarchists [[Carlo Cafiero]] and [[Errico Malatesta]]. He visited Belgium and Zurich, where he met French geographer [[Élisée Reclus]], who became a close friend.{{sfn|Osofsky|1979|p=38}}