Editing Peter Kropotkin (section)

=== Critique of state socialism ===

Kropotkin believed that a [[Communism|communist]] society could be established only by a [[social revolution]], which he described as, "... the taking possession by the people of all social wealth. It is the abolition of all the forces which have so long hampered the development of Humanity".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Revolutionary Government |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-revolutionary-government |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309063440/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-revolutionary-government |archive-date=9 March 2017 |access-date=13 December 2022 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref> However, he criticized forms of revolutionary methods (like those proposed by [[Marxism]] and [[Blanquism]]) that retained the use of state power, arguing that any central authority was incompatible with the dramatic changes needed by a social revolution. Kropotkin believed that the mechanisms of the state were deeply rooted in maintaining the power of one class over another, and thus could not be used to [[Emancipation|emancipate]] the [[working class]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-modern-state |title=The Modern State |language=en |access-date=13 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213065703/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-modern-state |archive-date=13 December 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Instead, Kropotkin insisted that both [[private property]] and the [[State (polity)|state]] needed to be abolished together.

<blockquote>The economic change which will result from the Social Revolution will be so immense and so profound, it must so change all the relations based today on property and exchange, that it is impossible for one or any individual to elaborate the different social forms, which must spring up in the society of the future. [...] Any authority external to it will only be an obstacle, only a trammel on the organic labor which must be accomplished, and beside that a source of discord and hatred.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>

Kropotkin believed that any post-revolutionary [[government]] would lack the local knowledge to organize a diverse population. Their vision of society would be limited by their own vindictive, self-serving, or narrow ideals.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Revolutionary Studies |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-revolutionary-studies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213065733/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-revolutionary-studies |archive-date=13 December 2022 |access-date=13 December 2022 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref> To ensure order, preserve [[authority]], and organize [[Production (economics)|production]] the state would need to use [[violence]] and [[coercion]] to suppress further revolution, and control workers. The workers would be reliant on the state [[bureaucracy]] to organize them, so they would never develop the initiative to self-organize as they needed.<ref name=":1" /> This would lead to the re-creation of [[Social class|classes]], an oppressed workforce, and eventually another revolution.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-modern-state |title=The Modern State |language=en |chapter=XI. CAN THE STATE BE USED FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKERS? |access-date=13 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213065703/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-modern-state |archive-date=13 December 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Thus, Kropotkin wrote that maintaining the state would paralyze any true social revolution, making the idea of a "revolutionary government" a contradiction in terms:

<blockquote>We know that Revolution and Government are incompatible; one must destroy the other, no matter what name is given to government, whether dictator, royalty, or parliament. We know that what makes the strength and the truth of our party is contained in this fundamental formula — "Nothing good or durable can be done except by the free initiative of the people, and every government tends to destroy it;" and so the very best among us, if their ideas had not to pass through the crucible of the popular mind, before being put into execution, and if they should become masters of that formidable machine — the government — and could thus act as they chose, would become in a week fit only for the gallows. We know whither every dictator leads, even the best intentioned, — namely to the death of all revolutionary movement.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>

Rather than a centralized approach, Kropotkin stressed the need for decentralized organization. He believed that dissolving the state would cripple counter-revolution without reverting to authoritarian methods of control, writing, "In order to conquer, something more than guillotines are required. It is the revolutionary idea, the truly wide revolutionary conception, which reduces its enemies to impotence by paralyzing all the instruments by which they have governed hitherto."<ref name=":2" /> He believed this was possible only through a widespread "Boldness of thought, a distinct and wide conception of all that is desired, constructive force arising from the people in proportion as the negation of authority dawns; and finally—the initiative of all in the work of reconstruction—this will give to the revolution the Power required to conquer."<ref name=":2" />

Kropotkin applied this criticism to the [[Bolsheviks]]' rule following the [[October Revolution]]. Kropotkin summarized his thoughts in a 1919 letter to the workers of Western Europe, promoting the possibility of revolution, but also warning against the centralized control in Russia, which he believed had condemned them to failure.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Government: Letter to the Workers of Western Europe |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-russian-revolution-and-the-soviet-government-letter-to-the-workers-of-wester |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213065732/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-russian-revolution-and-the-soviet-government-letter-to-the-workers-of-wester |archive-date=13 December 2022 |access-date=13 December 2022 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref> Kropotkin wrote to [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] in 1920, describing the desperate conditions that he believed to be the result of bureaucratic organization, and urging Lenin to allow for local and decentralized institutions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letter to Lenin (4 March 1920) |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-letter-to-lenin-4-march-1920 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213065733/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-letter-to-lenin-4-march-1920 |archive-date=13 December 2022 |access-date=13 December 2022 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref> Following an announcement of executions later that year, Kropotkin sent Lenin another furious letter, admonishing him for the terror which Kropotkin saw as needlessly destructive.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letter To Lenin (21 December 1920) |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-letter-to-lenin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213065705/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-letter-to-lenin |archive-date=13 December 2022 |access-date=13 December 2022 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref>