1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:10,960 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. 3 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 4 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Polly Fry. This is the. 5 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 2: Second part of our two parter on Peter Kropotkin, who 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 2: was deeply influential in the development of anarchism in the 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 2: late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We are picking up 8 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:33,560 Speaker 2: with Krapotkin's return to Russia from the Jura Mountains, which 9 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 2: was in May of eighteen seventy two. But first we 10 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 2: are going to take a quick jump ahead in the 11 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:44,240 Speaker 2: timeline for just a moment. In nineteen eleven, Kropotkin wrote 12 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,159 Speaker 2: the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Anarchism, and it seems useful 13 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:53,599 Speaker 2: at this point for context to talk a little bit 14 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 2: about what anarchism is as a political philosophy, since there 15 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 2: are a lot of different types of anarchism today and 16 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 2: they all have their own various goals and nuances. It's 17 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 2: also helpful to spell out what Kropotkin, who is an 18 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:11,720 Speaker 2: anarchist communist, meant by this terminology, and like what he 19 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 2: thought that somebody consulting the Encyclopedia about anarchism would need 20 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 2: to know about it. 21 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: Kropotkin began his entry on anarchism with its etymology from 22 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:27,040 Speaker 1: Greek words meaning contrary to authority. He defined it as 23 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,039 Speaker 1: quote the name given to a principle or theory of 24 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: life and conduct under which society is conceived without government. 25 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: Harmony in such a society being obtained not by submission 26 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: to law or by obedience to any authority, but by 27 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, 28 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 1: freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as 29 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs 30 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: and aspirations of a civilized being. In a societiety developed 31 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 1: on these lines, the voluntary associations, which already now begin 32 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:08,519 Speaker 1: to cover all the fields of human activity, would take 33 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:12,080 Speaker 1: a still greater extension, so as to substitute themselves for 34 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:16,800 Speaker 1: the state in all its functions. He went on to say, quote, 35 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,360 Speaker 1: if that is contended, society were organized on these principles, 36 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: man would not be limited in the free exercise of 37 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:29,519 Speaker 1: his powers and productive work by a capitalist monopoly maintained 38 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: by the state, nor would he be limited in the 39 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:37,360 Speaker 1: exercise of his will by a fear of punishment or 40 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: by obedience towards individuals or metaphysical entities, which both lead 41 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:47,760 Speaker 1: to depression of initiative and servility of mind. He would 42 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,799 Speaker 1: be guided in his actions by his own understanding, which 43 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: necessarily would bear the impression of a free action and 44 00:02:55,520 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: reaction between his own self and the ethical conceptions of 45 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: his surroundings. Man would thus be enabled to obtain the 46 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: full development of all his faculties intellectual, artistic, and moral, 47 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: without being hampered by overwork for the monopolists or by 48 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: the servility and inertia of mind of the great number. 49 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 1: He would thus be able to reach full individualization, which 50 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 1: is not possible either under the present system of individualism 51 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: or under any system of state socialism and the so 52 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: called Volkstak the popular state. Krapotkin went on to describe 53 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: private ownership of land and capitalist production for the sake 54 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: of profit as quote the main obstacle which prevents the 55 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:48,080 Speaker 1: successes of modern techniques from being brought into the service 56 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: of all so as to produce general well being. He 57 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:56,320 Speaker 1: called the state the chief instrument in permitting a few 58 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: people to monopolize the land and capitalists to keep a 59 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 1: disparate portionate amount of production for themselves. This five page 60 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: Encyclopedia entry also includes a history of anarchist thought going 61 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: back more than two thousand years, and a lengthy bibliography. 62 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:18,200 Speaker 1: It is not all that surprising that governments don't really 63 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,279 Speaker 1: like it when people start calling for their abolition, and 64 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:27,679 Speaker 1: in Russia, material about anarchism, socialism, and revolutionary ideas were banned. 65 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: Kropotkin had collected a library of these kinds of books 66 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: and papers during his travels through Western Europe, and he 67 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:39,160 Speaker 1: wanted to smuggle all of that into Russia. He had 68 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: heard that there were networks of Jewish smugglers operating along 69 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: the Russian frontier in Poland, and he negotiated with a 70 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:50,040 Speaker 1: smuggler who typically worked with cloth, to get his library 71 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: across the border. After arriving back in Saint Petersburg, Krapotkin 72 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: joined the Tchaikovsky Circle, named for the Russian revolutionary socialist 73 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 1: Nikol Chaikovsky. The circle had started as a student group 74 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: for self education and self improvement. It had evolved into 75 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: a revolutionary organization that printed and distributed materials on socialism, nihilism, 76 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:18,359 Speaker 1: and political agitation, and which tried to organize workers in 77 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: the country. The circle was focused on populism and socialism, 78 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: not on anarchism, and in eighteen seventy three Kropotkin wrote 79 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:31,040 Speaker 1: an essay called must we occupy Ourselves with an Examination 80 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: of the Ideal of a Future System to advocate for 81 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 1: other members to adopt anarchism. Krapotkin worked with the Tchaikowski 82 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,239 Speaker 1: Circle for about two years, and during that time more 83 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:46,919 Speaker 1: and more people who were connected to it or to 84 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,839 Speaker 1: other revolutionary movements in Russia were arrested. 85 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,840 Speaker 2: It started to become difficult to have meetings because so 86 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 2: many leaders had been imprisoned. Eventually, Krapotkin got word that 87 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 2: the police were targeting him, and he refused to leave 88 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 2: Russia or go into hiding, in part because he was 89 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 2: scheduled to hold a debate about his work with the 90 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:13,960 Speaker 2: Russian Geographical Society. In eighteen seventy four, Kerpotkin was captured 91 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 2: and imprisoned at the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg. 92 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,839 Speaker 2: His brother Alexander rallied the Russian scientific community to advocate 93 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:25,640 Speaker 2: for him to be allowed to complete his scientific work. 94 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:28,279 Speaker 2: He was working on a book at the time about 95 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 2: the Earth's glacial period that the geographic society wanted him 96 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 2: to be able to finish. Alexander was also motivated by 97 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,479 Speaker 2: the understanding that being in prison with nothing to occupy 98 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 2: his time would probably kill his brother. In Peter's words quote, 99 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 2: my brother turned the whole scientific world in Saint Petersburg 100 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 2: upside down to move it to support his application. Eventually, 101 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 2: the Czar gave permission for Kerpotkin to finish his report, 102 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:00,599 Speaker 2: and arrangements were made for him to be allowed to 103 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,839 Speaker 2: have a pen, ink and paper from sun up to 104 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 2: sundown every day. Sundown was at three in the afternoon 105 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 2: in the winter, and he was like, well, can't do 106 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 2: anything about that. When it got dark, someone would bring 107 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 2: him a lamp and take away his paper and pen, 108 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 2: and he spent his evenings reading history books. While Peter 109 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,920 Speaker 2: was in prison, his brother Alexander was also arrested after 110 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 2: writing a letter in which he described what was happening 111 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 2: to his brother at the prison and expressed his hatred 112 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 2: for the despotic rule of Russia. 113 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: Krapotkin was held at the fortress for about two years, 114 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,200 Speaker 1: during which he became increasingly ill. He was moved to 115 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: the house of detention next to the court once a 116 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: trial date was set. By that point, he was really sick, 117 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: and while people were allowed to bring him food, he 118 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,520 Speaker 1: had become too sick to eat most of it. 119 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 2: Eventually, in eighteen seventy six, he was sent to Saint 120 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:04,160 Speaker 2: Peter's Military Hospital, which wasn't as secure as the fortress 121 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 2: or the house of detention. He and his friend started 122 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 2: making a plan to break him out. There was a 123 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 2: gate at the hospital that was left open for carts 124 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:15,360 Speaker 2: to get in and out for deliveries and things, but 125 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 2: there were also guards watching. Kerpotkin and his friends communicated 126 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:24,640 Speaker 2: using enciphered letters and they worked out pre arranged signals. 127 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 2: He was supposed to watch for somebody walking by with 128 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 2: a red balloon singing a particular song, but then on 129 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 2: the day, Kerpotkin never saw a balloon. It turned out 130 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,199 Speaker 2: that his friends outside the prison had not been able 131 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:42,120 Speaker 2: to find one that day, But that worked out because 132 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 2: the carriage that he was supposed to get into to 133 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:48,839 Speaker 2: escape wound up getting stuck in traffic. They tried again 134 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,120 Speaker 2: with a new plan, involving a violin player that he 135 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 2: would need to listen for to give the signal, and 136 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:58,000 Speaker 2: Kerpotkin successfully made his escape. 137 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: Kropotkin's plan was to go back to Russia after the 138 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:05,199 Speaker 1: hubbub of his escape had died down, but instead, in 139 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,920 Speaker 1: his words quote, I was soon taken up by the 140 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:11,000 Speaker 1: wave of the anarchist movement which was just then rising 141 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:13,680 Speaker 1: in Western Europe, and I felt that I should be 142 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,480 Speaker 1: more useful in helping that movement to find its proper 143 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: expression that I could possibly be in Russia. 144 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 2: Krapotkins meant the next stretch of time traveling around parts 145 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:29,120 Speaker 2: of Western Europe, working and making contacts. He went to Finland, 146 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:32,280 Speaker 2: then to England, where he started writing science articles for 147 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,920 Speaker 2: the journal Nature. From there he went to Switzerland, where 148 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:39,960 Speaker 2: he joined the Jura Federation and the International Workingmen's Association 149 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:44,720 Speaker 2: also called First International. We talked about those organizations last time. 150 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:49,840 Speaker 2: He established an anarchist newspaper called Le Revolte in eighteen 151 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,520 Speaker 2: seventy nine. Some of the funding for that came from 152 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:57,680 Speaker 2: another anarchist geographer, that was Alysee Recluse, who was from 153 00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:02,320 Speaker 2: France and had become Krapotkin's friend and collaborator. Krapotkin and 154 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:07,440 Speaker 2: Recluse had very similar ideas on interpreting anarchism through science. 155 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:10,800 Speaker 2: I just I kind of love that there were these 156 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:14,359 Speaker 2: two specifically anarchist geographers. 157 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:18,199 Speaker 1: Yes, a lot of. 158 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 2: The places that Krapotkin lived and visited during these years 159 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:25,200 Speaker 2: were home to international groups of anarchists, including people who 160 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:29,199 Speaker 2: had been expelled or had fled from other countries, including Russia, 161 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 2: for their revolutionary activism. This included people who had been 162 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 2: part of the insurrection known as the Paris Commune in 163 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:42,200 Speaker 2: eighteen seventy one. Krapotkin had a lot of friends and collaborators, 164 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 2: and they held meetings and workshops, and they exchanged letters 165 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:49,240 Speaker 2: and papers as they, in his words, worked out the 166 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:55,760 Speaker 2: quote practical and theoretical aspects of anarchist socialism. During this time, 167 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 2: Krapotkin quote gradually came to realize that anarchists represents more 168 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 2: than a mere mode of action and a mere conception 169 00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:07,760 Speaker 2: of a free society. That it is part of a philosophy, 170 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 2: natural and social, which must be developed in a quite 171 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,080 Speaker 2: different way from the metaphysical or dialectic methods which have 172 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:19,320 Speaker 2: been employed in sciences. Dealing with man I saw that 173 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:24,680 Speaker 2: it must be treated by the same methods as natural sciences, not, however, 174 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 2: on the slippery ground of mere analogies such as Herbert 175 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:32,080 Speaker 2: Spencer accepts, but on the solid basis of induction applied 176 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:35,920 Speaker 2: to human institutions, and I did my best to accomplish 177 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 2: what I could in that direction. We'll talk more about 178 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:52,679 Speaker 2: this after a sponsor break. Because Peter Kropotkin had escaped 179 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:57,040 Speaker 2: from prison in Russia, and because his revolutionary and anarchist 180 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:01,200 Speaker 2: writings were somewhere between suspicious and illegal in a lot 181 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 2: of places, he had been traveling under the name Loveshof. 182 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:09,079 Speaker 2: In eighteen seventy seven, he went to Belgium for the 183 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:15,800 Speaker 2: International Workingmen's Association's International Congress and then the International Socialist Congress. 184 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 2: While he was in Ghent for the second of these, 185 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:24,800 Speaker 2: police discovered his alias. Friends, spotted police officers waiting for 186 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:27,439 Speaker 2: him outside of his hotel, and then got him out 187 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:30,560 Speaker 2: of the country and back to England. He stayed there 188 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 2: briefly before going to Paris. After one of his friends 189 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:38,040 Speaker 2: was arrested in a sting that was also apparently meant 190 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,720 Speaker 2: to include Kerpatkin, he left again and went to Switzerland. 191 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:47,280 Speaker 1: Kripatkin was wanted not just because of his anarchist communist ideas. 192 00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 1: There were also anarchists who were using violence in pursuit 193 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: of their social and political goals. In eighteen seventy eight, 194 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 1: there were four different assassination attempts against European heads of state, 195 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:03,280 Speaker 1: so the twelfth of Spain, amberto the first of Italy, 196 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:06,680 Speaker 1: and two different attempts on the life of Kaiser Wilhelm, 197 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:11,480 Speaker 1: the First of Germany. The assailants were anarchists, and anarchist 198 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:16,400 Speaker 1: organizations and publications expressed their sympathy or support for them. 199 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 1: Rumors started to spread that these attacks were an international conspiracy, 200 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:27,160 Speaker 1: possibly coordinated by the Jura Federation. There were other violent 201 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: incidents as well, including bombings. Nerdania Voglia or the People's Will, 202 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: was formed in eighteen seventy nine. Some of this organization's 203 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:42,319 Speaker 1: leaders were anarchist revolutionaries, and its tactics included terrorism and 204 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: a series of assassination attempts, eventually the successful assassination of 205 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 1: Zar Alexander the Second in eighteen eighty one. In Part one, 206 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,200 Speaker 1: we read from Kerpotkin's writings about the goal of attaining 207 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:59,679 Speaker 1: quote the greatest results with the most limited amount of 208 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 1: civil war, the least number of victims, and a minimum 209 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,560 Speaker 1: of mutual embitterment. But he never disavowed this kind of 210 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,760 Speaker 1: political violence there were other incidents that were more like 211 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: massacres that he did criticize, but like, this was not 212 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that he really saw a need 213 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:20,240 Speaker 1: to try to disavow or disclaim. And after Alexander the 214 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: Second's assassination, Krapotkin and his wife Sophie considered working with 215 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:30,720 Speaker 1: Narada Ya Volya. Sophie or Sophia Grigoryevna was a Jewish 216 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: woman from Ukraine, and she married Peter Kropotkin in October 217 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:39,560 Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy eight. Krapotkin doesn't actually mention their meeting 218 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:43,080 Speaker 1: or their marriage in his memoir, sort of like his 219 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:47,040 Speaker 1: offhand mention of being hospitalized for half of his first 220 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:49,480 Speaker 1: winter at the core of pages that we talked about 221 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:52,720 Speaker 1: in part one. He just casually mentions his wife later 222 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 1: on in the narrative, like everybody knows about her, Like. 223 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:57,720 Speaker 2: When did he get a wife? 224 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, she just kind of pops in the number of 225 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: sources described Kerpotkin as almost twice her age, but she 226 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:06,960 Speaker 1: was born in eighteen fifty six, so when they got 227 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: married she would have been twenty two and he was 228 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:13,600 Speaker 1: thirty six. Sophie was a teacher and a writer and 229 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:17,560 Speaker 1: a collaborator in her husband's work. They seemed to have 230 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,360 Speaker 1: had a happy marriage, but they were separated at various 231 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 1: points when Peter was traveling, or had to flee, or 232 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: was imprisoned. After the assassination of Alexander the Second, Kerpotkin 233 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 1: was expelled from Switzerland, something he believed had been done 234 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: at Russia's request. He and his wife went to London, 235 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: where they stayed for about a year. There wasn't much 236 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: of an anarchist or revolutionary movement happening in London at 237 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: that point, and they found that really isolating, so they 238 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,680 Speaker 1: went to France and they reconnected with the movement there. 239 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,400 Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty two, Sophie's brother died and that night 240 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:58,040 Speaker 1: Gendarmes came to arrest Peter. Was not related to his 241 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: brother's death, that was just when they showed up tried 242 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: to take him into custody. He asked if he could 243 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:06,840 Speaker 1: stay with his wife until after his brother in law's funeral, 244 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: and that was refused. Elisee Reclue and his friends from 245 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:15,400 Speaker 1: Geneva came to stay with her. Krapotkin's arrest was part 246 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:18,920 Speaker 1: of a wave of arrests of suspected anarchists and members 247 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 1: of the International Workingmen's Association, which was banned in France. 248 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 1: He was tried and imprisoned in Lyons, and then he 249 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:29,520 Speaker 1: was moved to a prison in Clairvaux, along with twenty 250 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,040 Speaker 1: two others who had all been sentenced to more than 251 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: a year in prison. In Claervaux, Krapotkin got sick again. 252 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,800 Speaker 1: The prison was in a swampy area and he got malaria, 253 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 1: and he also developed scurvy. Sophie and their friends and 254 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: allies continually petitioned for his release. In eighteen eighty six, 255 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:53,760 Speaker 1: Peter's brother Alexander took his own life. The brothers had 256 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:58,160 Speaker 1: stopped corresponding after Peter had first left Russia because of 257 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,480 Speaker 1: the risks that would have posed to Alexander to be 258 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,200 Speaker 1: writing to this brother who was basically a political exile 259 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,800 Speaker 1: at that point, but that did not really protect Alexander. 260 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:12,280 Speaker 1: He was exiled to Siberia under suspicion that he had 261 00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: helped with Peter's eighteen seventy six prison escape. After reconnecting, 262 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 1: a lot of their writing was about science, and Peter 263 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:24,440 Speaker 1: described his brother as despairing because he knew that once 264 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:27,879 Speaker 1: he was released from exile, he would never be allowed 265 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,560 Speaker 1: to live in any of the university towns in Russia 266 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:35,280 Speaker 1: or Western Europe. He was survived by a wife and 267 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: three children. Kropotkin was released from prison in eighteen eighty six, 268 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:44,360 Speaker 1: and a year later he and his wife welcomed a daughter, Alexandra, 269 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:49,439 Speaker 1: named for Kropotkin's late brother. Kropotkin's experiences up to this 270 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: point led him to condemn all prisons, and in eighteen 271 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: eighty seven he published a book titled In Russian and 272 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:01,800 Speaker 1: French Prisons. While Kerpatkin had been in prison, an anarchist 273 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 1: movement had gotten under way in England, and he went 274 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:08,120 Speaker 1: there to join it. He had become one of Europe's 275 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:11,679 Speaker 1: foremost writers and thinkers on the subject of anarchism, and 276 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,800 Speaker 1: he also started to become connected to anarchists in North America. 277 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:19,120 Speaker 1: In the wake of the Haymarket affair, in which four 278 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,480 Speaker 1: men were executed after someone threw a bomb during a 279 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: labor demonstration at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Kropotkin wrote letters 280 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: condemning their death sentences, and then stayed abreast of what 281 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,800 Speaker 1: was happening in the anarchist movement in the United States afterward. 282 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,439 Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety Kropotkin wrote his first article on the 283 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:45,440 Speaker 1: subject of mutual aid, titled Mutual Aid among Animals, which 284 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,120 Speaker 1: was the start of a whole series of articles published 285 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,880 Speaker 1: in the journal The Nineteenth Century. In eighteen ninety two, 286 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,200 Speaker 1: he published a book titled The Conquest of Bread, which 287 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 1: was originally a series of articles that appeared in Le Revolte. 288 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:04,399 Speaker 1: This book laid out Krapotkin's anarchist communist ideas and also 289 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:09,080 Speaker 1: countered common objections to those ideas. At various points in 290 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 1: the text, Krapotkin rhetorically asks a question and then answers it. 291 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,720 Speaker 1: The first chapters are more focused on political philosophy, and 292 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,560 Speaker 1: the later chapters are more practical, detailing how to power 293 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:27,480 Speaker 1: a revolution and what would happen afterward, with sections on food, dwellings, clothing, 294 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: and ways and means. He almost plays Devil's advocate against 295 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,919 Speaker 1: his own arguments so that then he can address those 296 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:37,480 Speaker 1: devil's advocate questions. 297 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 2: Uh. Krapotkin was aware of various utopian social experiments that 298 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:48,520 Speaker 2: were underpinned with communist ideals but were ultimately unsuccessful. We've 299 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 2: talked about various of them on the show before, and 300 00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:54,679 Speaker 2: he thought that one reason for some of these failures 301 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 2: was that a lot of these experiments were very austere, 302 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:00,879 Speaker 2: and a lot of them had a very focus on 303 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:05,199 Speaker 2: rules or religious or moral standards. Their leaders could be 304 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:09,439 Speaker 2: very controlling. An answer to this, The Conquest of Bread 305 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:14,119 Speaker 2: also has chapters on the need for luxury and agreeable work, 306 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:16,440 Speaker 2: and the need for people to be able to make 307 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:18,359 Speaker 2: free agreements with one another. 308 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:24,880 Speaker 1: This all rested on the core idea of everyone having value. Quote. 309 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:29,600 Speaker 1: We must recognize and loudly proclaim that everyone, whatever his 310 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:34,000 Speaker 1: grade in the old society, whether strong or weak, capable 311 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:39,199 Speaker 1: or incapable, has before everything the right to live, and 312 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:42,880 Speaker 1: that society is bound to share amongst all, without exception, 313 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:47,600 Speaker 1: the means of existence at its disposal. We must acknowledge 314 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:50,840 Speaker 1: this and proclaim it allowed, and act up to it. 315 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,439 Speaker 2: He went on to say, quote this cannot be brought 316 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:58,639 Speaker 2: about by acts of Parliament, but only by taking immediate 317 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 2: and effective possession of all that is necessary to ensure 318 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 2: the well being of all. This is the only really 319 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:09,600 Speaker 2: scientific way of going to work, the only way which 320 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,919 Speaker 2: can be understood and desired by the mass of the people. 321 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 2: We must take possession in the name of the people 322 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:19,840 Speaker 2: of the granaries of the shops full of clothing. In 323 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 2: the dwelling houses, nothing must be wasted. We must organize 324 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,600 Speaker 2: without delay, a way to feed the hungry, to satisfy 325 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 2: all wants, to meet all needs, to produce, not for 326 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,359 Speaker 2: the special benefit of this one or that one, but 327 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:39,280 Speaker 2: so as to ensure to society as a whole its 328 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:43,959 Speaker 2: life and further development. Enough of ambiguous words like the 329 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,199 Speaker 2: right to work, with which the people were misled in 330 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:50,720 Speaker 2: eighteen forty eight, and which are still resorted to with 331 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,120 Speaker 2: the hope of misleading them, Let us have the courage 332 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 2: to recognize that well being for all, henceforward possible must 333 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:00,720 Speaker 2: be realized. 334 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,199 Speaker 1: Okay, if you're wondering at this point, what does this 335 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,120 Speaker 1: have to do with bread specifically, here's more quote. If 336 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: we wish for a social revolution, it is no doubt 337 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: first of all, to give bread to everyone, to transform 338 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:19,000 Speaker 1: this execrable society in which we can every day see 339 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,320 Speaker 1: capable workmen dangling their arms for want of an employer 340 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:26,920 Speaker 1: who will exploit them, women and children wandering shelterless at night, 341 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: whole families reduced to dry bread men, women and children 342 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:36,200 Speaker 1: dying for want of care, and even for want of food. 343 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 1: It is to put an end to these inequities that 344 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:43,720 Speaker 1: we rebel, but we expect more from the revolution. We 345 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: see that the worker compelled to struggle painfully for bare existence, 346 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,720 Speaker 1: is reduced to ignore the higher delights, the highest within 347 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 1: man's reach, of science, and especially of scientific discovery, of art, 348 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,960 Speaker 1: and especially of artistic creation. It is, in order to 349 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,920 Speaker 1: obtain for all of us joys that are now reserved 350 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,040 Speaker 1: to a few, in order to give leisure and the 351 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:12,520 Speaker 1: possibility of developing everyone's intellectual capacities, that the social Revolution 352 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:18,320 Speaker 1: must guarantee daily bread to all. After bread has been secured, 353 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: leisure is the supreme aim. To move on from this book, 354 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,440 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety seven, Kripotkin made his first of two 355 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,560 Speaker 1: visits to North America. He was invited for the Association 356 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 1: for the Advancement of Science meeting in Toronto, and then 357 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: spent ten weeks in Canada. From there, he went to 358 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: Detroit for the meeting of the American Association for the 359 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: Advancement of Science, and then to the conference of the 360 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: National Geographic Society in Washington, d C. He also gave 361 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 1: various lectures and speeches, many of which were republished and 362 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:56,160 Speaker 1: distributed by anarchist organizations in North America. On this trip, 363 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,680 Speaker 1: he also went to Massachusetts, where he admired a communal 364 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:03,200 Speaker 1: diet dining room that was organized by less affluent students 365 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,680 Speaker 1: at Harvard, and to New York where he made arrangements 366 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:11,000 Speaker 1: to start publishing an autobiography in installments in the Atlantic. 367 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:16,119 Speaker 1: That autobiography was Memoirs of a Revolutionist which we have 368 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,600 Speaker 1: been reading from over these two episodes, that was published 369 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 1: as a book in eighteen ninety nine. That same year 370 00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 1: that that book came out, Kirpotkin also published Fields, Factories 371 00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:33,080 Speaker 1: and Workshops, which applied the anarchist idea of decentralization to industry. 372 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: He also examined how this would work through a scientific lens, 373 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,159 Speaker 1: and he discussed work as a form of art with 374 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:45,080 Speaker 1: practical learning and important part of a person's education. In 375 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine, another thing that happened was the Socialist International, 376 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: also called the Second International, was founded. It was one 377 00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:58,520 Speaker 1: of the successors to the International Workingmen's Association or First International. 378 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,880 Speaker 1: Kin part of debates within the Federation about the use 379 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: of political action, meaning participation and advocacy through existing political systems. 380 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:15,400 Speaker 1: Kropotkin thought that political action could lead to very minor changes. 381 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:16,280 Speaker 1: At most. 382 00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:20,600 Speaker 2: Anarchists were banned from the Federation in eighteen ninety six. 383 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,480 Speaker 2: In nineteen oh one, Krapotkin made his second visit to 384 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:28,760 Speaker 2: North America, this time at the invitation of the Lowell Institute, 385 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,640 Speaker 2: which had been founded in Boston to provide educational opportunities 386 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,919 Speaker 2: to the public regardless of race, education, or economic status. 387 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,840 Speaker 2: Krapakin gave lectures on both Russian literature and anarchism in 388 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,760 Speaker 2: and around Boston, and then went to New York, where 389 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 2: Emma Goldman arranged many of his appearances. Krapakin got the 390 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 2: flu during this tour and he had to take some 391 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 2: time off before going on to Pittsburgh and then to Chicago, 392 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,080 Speaker 2: where he stayed with Jane Adams and spent a week 393 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,920 Speaker 2: living at Hull House. We have talked about Jane Adams 394 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:06,120 Speaker 2: and Hull House on the podcast before, and another previous subject, 395 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:10,399 Speaker 2: doctor Alice Hamilton, was living there at the time. She 396 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 2: said that everyone there came to love him. While in Chicago, 397 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:20,040 Speaker 2: Kropotkin also visited the tomb of the Haymarket murders. Yeah, 398 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:21,919 Speaker 2: we haven't really mentioned it, but like a lot of 399 00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:26,360 Speaker 2: people described Krapotkin as like really friendly and happy and personable. 400 00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,560 Speaker 2: People seemed to just like him wherever he went. Four 401 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 2: months after Krapotkin left the United States, President William McKinley 402 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:41,240 Speaker 2: was assassinated by anarchist Lean Zolgitz. Rumors spread that this 403 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 2: assassination was a plot that had been orchestrated by Krapotkin 404 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:50,120 Speaker 2: and Goldman. Krapotkin was deeply upset by this, especially when 405 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,480 Speaker 2: people that he had worked with while in the United 406 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,400 Speaker 2: States were jailed in the wake of these allegations. 407 00:26:55,880 --> 00:27:00,320 Speaker 1: That November, he had a heart attack. Anarchists had carried 408 00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:04,359 Speaker 1: out multiple other assassinations between those of Alexander the Second 409 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:09,320 Speaker 1: and William McKinley. Those included President Sadi Carnot of France 410 00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty four, Premier Antonio Canovas del Castillo of 411 00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:17,600 Speaker 1: Spain in eighteen ninety seven, Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 412 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:22,120 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight, and King Umberto of Italy in nineteen hundred. 413 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,280 Speaker 1: Kropotkins's visit to the US in nineteen oh one was 414 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,600 Speaker 1: his last since in nineteen oh three, Congress passed a 415 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,640 Speaker 1: law banning anarchists from entering the country. 416 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,840 Speaker 2: Kropotkin's book Mutual Aid, A Factor of Evolution was published 417 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,919 Speaker 2: in nineteen oh two and is often described as this masterpiece, 418 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,320 Speaker 2: and we will get to that after a sponsor break. 419 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 2: Peter Kropotkin's nineteen oh two book Mutual Aid A Factor 420 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:00,440 Speaker 2: of Evolution grew out of the work and experience chances 421 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,040 Speaker 2: that we talked about in part one of this episode. 422 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 2: In a lot of ways, it feels like the whole 423 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,520 Speaker 2: episode has been working up to this book. There was 424 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 2: also a response to some of the scientific and social 425 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 2: writing of the time. Charles Darwin had published on the 426 00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:20,240 Speaker 2: Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in eighteen 427 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:25,399 Speaker 2: fifty nine. Other scientists had interpreted Darwin's work primarily in 428 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 2: terms of survival of the fittest, meaning that life on 429 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:33,240 Speaker 2: Earth was rooted in continual struggle, with only the strongest surviving. 430 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:37,879 Speaker 2: There's some of that in Darwin's work, but like people, 431 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:38,760 Speaker 2: kind of took it. 432 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:39,680 Speaker 1: To an extreme. 433 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 2: Social Darwinists had also applied the idea to humans, framing 434 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,520 Speaker 2: human groups and human races in a hierarchy, with the 435 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:53,480 Speaker 2: strongest and best being the white men. Social Darwinism was 436 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,840 Speaker 2: explicitly racist and ablest, and was used to justify eugenics 437 00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:02,440 Speaker 2: and laissez fair capitalism. It basically framed the poor as 438 00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:07,480 Speaker 2: less fit. In eighteen eighty eight, Thomas Henry Huxley published 439 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:12,440 Speaker 2: The Struggle for Existence in Human Society, which also incorporated 440 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:17,600 Speaker 2: Thomas Malthus's theory that population growth will always outpace the 441 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:23,080 Speaker 2: amount of food available. This essay framed human existence as 442 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 2: one of inevitable, relentless struggle, and Kerpatkin's Mutual Aid was 443 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:32,200 Speaker 2: a response to it. Mutual Aid was also inspired in 444 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:35,800 Speaker 2: part by a lecture given by Russian zoology professor Karl 445 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 2: Kessler at the Russian Congress of Naturalists in January eighteen 446 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,040 Speaker 2: eighty Kessler argued that there was a law of struggle 447 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,440 Speaker 2: in the animal world, but also a law of mutual aid, 448 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,720 Speaker 2: and that cooperation was more important to survival than competition. 449 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,920 Speaker 2: This was a short introductory address, so it didn't include 450 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,479 Speaker 2: a lot of detail, and it had only been printed 451 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 2: in Russian, so the idea he is in it had 452 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:05,800 Speaker 2: not really spread beyond the Russian scientific community. The first 453 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:10,520 Speaker 2: chapters of Mutual Aid discuss mutual aid among non human animals. 454 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:14,680 Speaker 2: For Potkin notes that there is violence and conflict in 455 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,360 Speaker 2: the animal world, but he argues that there is as 456 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 2: much or even more mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defense, 457 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 2: and then he gives numerous examples. We are not saying 458 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 2: them all by any stretch, but they are things like 459 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,479 Speaker 2: ants working collectively to build nests and rear young and 460 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,840 Speaker 2: forage for food and raise aphids. He notes that ants 461 00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 2: maintain this social structure by punishing ones who violate it, 462 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,680 Speaker 2: like ants will kill an ant that has food and 463 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,480 Speaker 2: refuses to share it with other ants that are hungry, 464 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,440 Speaker 2: where they will drive that ant out of the nest. 465 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 2: He writes, quote, if we knew no other facts from 466 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 2: animal life than what we know about the ants and 467 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:05,440 Speaker 2: the termites, we already might safely conclude that mutual aid, 468 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 2: which leads to mutual confidence, the first condition for courage 469 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 2: an individual initiative, the first condition for intellectual progress, are 470 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:20,280 Speaker 2: two factors infinitely more important than mutual struggle and the 471 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:22,040 Speaker 2: evolution of the animal kingdom. 472 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 1: Kripacin describes cooperation among the lower animals like the social insects, 473 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: as driven by instinct, but in higher animals like mammals 474 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,200 Speaker 1: and other vertebrates, he attributes it at least partly to reason, 475 00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: His examples include pelicans fishing together by paddling together in 476 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,760 Speaker 1: a half circle, driving the fish ahead of them toward 477 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:50,080 Speaker 1: the shore, birds migrating together and singing in concert, social 478 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:54,200 Speaker 1: mammals playing together for pleasure, including animals of different species 479 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: and in numerous species, all across the animal kingdom, sentries 480 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 1: keeping watch to warn others of threats. He wrote that 481 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,680 Speaker 1: even rats, which fight each other in People's sellers, quote, 482 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: are sufficiently intelligent not to quarrel when they plunder our larders, 483 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:14,880 Speaker 1: but to aid one another in their plundering expeditions and migrations, 484 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 1: and even to feed their invalids. He writes, quote, All 485 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:24,520 Speaker 1: these mammals live in societies and nations, sometimes numbering hundreds 486 00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:29,400 Speaker 1: of thousands of individuals. Although now, after three centuries of 487 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 1: gunpowder civilization, we find but the debris of the immense 488 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:38,720 Speaker 1: aggregations of old, how trifling in comparison with them are 489 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: the numbers of the carnivores. And how false therefore is 490 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,720 Speaker 1: the view of those who speak of the animal world, 491 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: as if nothing were to be seen in it but 492 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: lions and hyenas plunging their bleeding teeth into the flesh 493 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,960 Speaker 1: of their victims. One might as well imagine that the 494 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,320 Speaker 1: whole of human life is nothing but a succession of 495 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:03,160 Speaker 1: war mass. But then after that, he notes that even 496 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:08,440 Speaker 1: the carnivores cooperate, starting with wolves, jackals, and hyaenas hunting 497 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,880 Speaker 1: together in packs, and in the non human animals most 498 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: like us being the monkeys and apes. Quote, it is 499 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: hardly needful to say that those mammals, which stand at 500 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:22,640 Speaker 1: the very top of the animal world and most approach 501 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:27,280 Speaker 1: man by their structure and intelligence, are eminently sociable. All 502 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,400 Speaker 1: things considered, it must be said that sociability, action in common, 503 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,880 Speaker 1: mutual protection, and a high development of those feelings which 504 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:40,000 Speaker 1: are the necessary outcome of social life are characteristic of 505 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 1: most monkeys and apes, from the smallest species to the 506 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:47,440 Speaker 1: biggest ones. Sociability is a rule to which we know 507 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,320 Speaker 1: but a few exceptions. 508 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,600 Speaker 2: He goes on to say, quote life in societies enables 509 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 2: the feeblest insects, the feeblest birds, and the feeblest mammals 510 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 2: to resist or protect them from the most terrible birds 511 00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 2: and beasts of prey. It permits longevity. It enables the 512 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,120 Speaker 2: species to rear its progeny with the least waste of 513 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,800 Speaker 2: energy and to maintain its numbers, albeit a very slow 514 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 2: birth rate. It enables the gregarious animals to migrate in 515 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:23,680 Speaker 2: search of new abodes. Therefore, while fully admitting that force, swiftness, 516 00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:27,960 Speaker 2: protective colors, cuttingness, and endurance to hunger and cold, which 517 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,960 Speaker 2: are mentioned by Darwin and Wallace, are so many qualities 518 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:37,400 Speaker 2: making the individual or the species the fittest under certain circumstances, 519 00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:42,840 Speaker 2: we maintain that under any circumstances, sociability is the greatest 520 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:48,160 Speaker 2: advantage in the struggle for life. Kropotkin eventually moves from 521 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:53,600 Speaker 2: cooperation among non human animals to cooperation in human societies, 522 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:57,040 Speaker 2: and just to be clear here he uses some very. 523 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:02,560 Speaker 1: Outdated language describing mutual aid among savages and then barbarians, 524 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,200 Speaker 1: and then medieval cities, and then among ourselves, kind of 525 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,560 Speaker 1: walking through what he perceives as the timeline of development. 526 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,719 Speaker 1: The point that he was making was that humans have 527 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,279 Speaker 1: worked together and helped each other as human social structures 528 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,760 Speaker 1: have evolved from societies that were organized around a whole 529 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:23,000 Speaker 1: tribe or clan. Those are the ones he called the savages, 530 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,880 Speaker 1: to societies in which smaller villages became the core unit. 531 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:31,000 Speaker 1: Those were, by his definition, the barbarians, to the development 532 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,720 Speaker 1: of medieval cities with governments, to the creation of whole 533 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:39,279 Speaker 1: nations the way we live today. Yeah, he apparently criticized 534 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,759 Speaker 1: this language later on, but he continued to use it 535 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 1: because it was still like the language that was in 536 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:49,360 Speaker 1: use at the time. He continues to give lots of 537 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:53,280 Speaker 1: examples through these chapters. He acknowledges that there are limits 538 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,239 Speaker 1: to what we know about a lot of indigenous communities 539 00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:00,200 Speaker 1: of the past, who faced warfare and genocide and were 540 00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,800 Speaker 1: sometimes written about primarily by the people who had tried 541 00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:08,640 Speaker 1: to exterminate them. But he also includes examples from indigenous 542 00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: hunting and gathering peoples that still exist today, like the 543 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 1: San peoples of southern Africa, who were also known as 544 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,319 Speaker 1: the Bushmen. He writes that before many of them were 545 00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,520 Speaker 1: forced to abandon their way of life, they quote lived 546 00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:26,560 Speaker 1: in small tribes or clans, sometimes federated together, that they 547 00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:30,080 Speaker 1: used to hunt in common and divided the spoil without quarreling, 548 00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:34,400 Speaker 1: That they never abandoned their wounded and displayed strong affection 549 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:39,360 Speaker 1: to their comrades. Kripatken writes of the quote barbarian village 550 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,520 Speaker 1: communities that they were quote not only a union for 551 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:46,080 Speaker 1: guaranteeing to each one his fair share in the common land, 552 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,280 Speaker 1: but also a union for common culture, for mutual support 553 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:54,319 Speaker 1: in all possible forms, for protection from violence, and for 554 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,840 Speaker 1: a further development of knowledge, national bonds and moral conceptions. 555 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,919 Speaker 1: And every charge and the judicial, military, educational, or economical 556 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,680 Speaker 1: manners had to be decided at the folkmoots of the village, 557 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:09,440 Speaker 1: the tribe, or the confederation. 558 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 2: When it comes to the medieval city, he writes about 559 00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:19,240 Speaker 2: the common people trying to free themselves from feudal lords, saying, quote, 560 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,440 Speaker 2: no period of history could better illustrate the constructive powers 561 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,640 Speaker 2: of the popular masses than the tenth and eleventh centuries, 562 00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:31,359 Speaker 2: when the fortified villages and marketplaces, representing so many oases 563 00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 2: among the feudal forest, began to free themselves from their 564 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:41,719 Speaker 2: lord's yoke and slowly elaborated the future city organization. But unhappily, 565 00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:45,880 Speaker 2: this is a period about which historical information is especially scarce. 566 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:49,240 Speaker 2: We know the results, but little has reached us about 567 00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,840 Speaker 2: the means by which they were achieved. The whole process 568 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,840 Speaker 2: of liberation progressed by a series of imperceptible acts of 569 00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:00,359 Speaker 2: devotion to the common cause, accomplished by many men who 570 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,080 Speaker 2: came out of the masses by unknown heroes whose very 571 00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,360 Speaker 2: names have not been preserved by history. 572 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:11,640 Speaker 1: Kropotkin also describes medieval cities as having overlapping systems of 573 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,719 Speaker 1: support and mutual aid. Quote. The medieval city thus appears 574 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 1: as a double federation of all households united into small 575 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:24,480 Speaker 1: territorial unions the street, the parish, the section, and of 576 00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:28,640 Speaker 1: individuals united by oath into guilds according to their professions, 577 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:32,120 Speaker 1: the former being a produce of the village community origin 578 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,200 Speaker 1: of the city, while the second is a subsequent growth 579 00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: called to life by new conditions. From there, kripat Can 580 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:43,240 Speaker 1: moves into the present and the growth of military states, 581 00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:47,719 Speaker 1: which most of us are living in today. Even if 582 00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:51,360 Speaker 1: it doesn't have a standing military, there's probably other military 583 00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:55,680 Speaker 1: presence there. He believed that as states became more powerful, 584 00:38:55,840 --> 00:39:00,800 Speaker 1: developed these militaries and social structures, communities found new ways 585 00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 1: to collectively help one another. This included the rise of 586 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,840 Speaker 1: labor unions and their mutual aid during strikes, and mutual 587 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:13,719 Speaker 1: aid organizations among people living in slums. In Krapotkin's point 588 00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:16,640 Speaker 1: of view, this need to help is an innate part 589 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:20,080 Speaker 1: of us quote. The sophisms of the brain cannot resist 590 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:23,640 Speaker 1: the mutual aid feeling because this feeling has been nurtured 591 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:27,200 Speaker 1: by thousands of years of human social life and hundreds 592 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:30,400 Speaker 1: of thousands of years of pre human life in societies, 593 00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,399 Speaker 1: and it extends to clubs and organizations that are all 594 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:39,399 Speaker 1: about enjoying things in life or study, research, education, or art, 595 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:44,520 Speaker 1: not just helping people with basics of survival. The book 596 00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:49,640 Speaker 1: Mutual Aid became a foundational text of anarchist communism, even 597 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:54,200 Speaker 1: though it doesn't include the terms anarchism or anarchy anywhere 598 00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:57,160 Speaker 1: in its three hundred and seventy five pages, and the 599 00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,880 Speaker 1: word communism is only in their seven times. Four of 600 00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:06,319 Speaker 1: those times are in descriptions of indigenous social structures as 601 00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:10,399 Speaker 1: quote primitive communism, and two of them are a book 602 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:14,520 Speaker 1: title and that book's entry and the index whi jeeves 603 00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,400 Speaker 1: one use of the word communism, which was again to 604 00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,600 Speaker 1: describe an existing social structure. This is really a work 605 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:24,759 Speaker 1: of zoology and anthropology, but the examples throughout the book 606 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:28,560 Speaker 1: and the perspective on them are examples of the ideas 607 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 1: of anarchist communism in action. There are also passages like 608 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,520 Speaker 1: this quote in short, neither the crushing powers of the 609 00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:42,080 Speaker 1: centralized state, nor the teachings of mutual hatred and pitiless struggle, 610 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:46,080 Speaker 1: which came adorned with the attributes of science from obliging 611 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:50,400 Speaker 1: philosophers and sociologists, could weed out the feeling of human 612 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:55,680 Speaker 1: solidarity deeply lodged in men's understanding and heart, because it 613 00:40:55,680 --> 00:41:00,720 Speaker 1: has been nurtured by all our preceding evolution. The outcome 614 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,799 Speaker 1: of evolution since its earliest stages cannot be overpowered by 615 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,239 Speaker 1: one of the aspects of that same evolution. And the 616 00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:11,520 Speaker 1: need of mutual aid and support, which had lately taken 617 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,520 Speaker 1: refuge in the narrow circle of the family, or the 618 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,000 Speaker 1: slum neighbors in the village, or the secret union of workers, 619 00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:22,920 Speaker 1: reasserts itself again even in our modern society, and claims 620 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,719 Speaker 1: its rights to be as it has always been, the 621 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:30,520 Speaker 1: chief leader towards further progress. Such are the conclusions which 622 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:34,200 Speaker 1: we are necessarily brought to when we carefully ponder over 623 00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,520 Speaker 1: each of the groups of facts briefly enumerated in the 624 00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:38,919 Speaker 1: last two chapters. 625 00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:43,759 Speaker 2: To move on from this book, a revolution swept through 626 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:48,399 Speaker 2: Russia in nineteen oh five as people demanded political reforms, 627 00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:53,040 Speaker 2: including the creation of a Russian parliament, Nicholas the Second 628 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:58,239 Speaker 2: eventually issued the October Manifesto, which promised the creation of 629 00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:02,480 Speaker 2: a popularly elected life legislative body, the Duma, as well 630 00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:07,399 Speaker 2: as other reforms. Some people, including Krapotkin, thought this Manifesto 631 00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:11,759 Speaker 2: did not go nearly far enough. This inspired him to 632 00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,840 Speaker 2: look for lessons from the French Revolution, and he published 633 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:17,960 Speaker 2: a book on that in nineteen oh nine. When World 634 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,319 Speaker 2: War One began in the nineteen teens, Krapotkin took the 635 00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:25,759 Speaker 2: stance of supporting the Allied Powers, which many anarchists saw 636 00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 2: as a betrayal. Militarized states were antithetical to the core 637 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:35,000 Speaker 2: ideas of anarchism, but Kropotkin thought that the authoritarianism of 638 00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,480 Speaker 2: Germany and the Central Powers was the much bigger threat. 639 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,680 Speaker 2: He also thought that if the Allies won the war, 640 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:45,520 Speaker 2: France might act as an inspiration for social equality and 641 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,880 Speaker 2: liberty around the world. This led to divisions within the 642 00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:55,080 Speaker 2: anarchist movement. Then, in March of nineteen seventeen, after years 643 00:42:55,160 --> 00:43:00,560 Speaker 2: of wartime deprivation and military defeats, Zar Nicholas the Second 644 00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:04,479 Speaker 2: abdicated the throne, which marked the end of Tsarist rule 645 00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:08,839 Speaker 2: in Russia. Peter Kropotkin, he was now seventy four, went 646 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:12,319 Speaker 2: back to Russia with his family. They arrived there that May. 647 00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,840 Speaker 2: He was so eager to get there that he left 648 00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:20,960 Speaker 2: while the war was still ongoing, like they were traveling 649 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:25,880 Speaker 2: through hostile waters to get there. He had been meeting 650 00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:30,640 Speaker 2: and corresponding with Russian anarchists and other revolutionaries for years, 651 00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:34,160 Speaker 2: especially after that nineteen oh five revolution. He had been 652 00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:39,280 Speaker 2: nicknamed the grandfather of the Russian Revolution. After he arrived 653 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,040 Speaker 2: back in Russia, he played a role in setting the 654 00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:46,160 Speaker 2: direction of the provisional government, although he turned down a 655 00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:49,520 Speaker 2: cabinet level position of Minister of Education. 656 00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:54,279 Speaker 1: Kropotkin had immense hopes for what this revolution could mean 657 00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:59,040 Speaker 1: for Russia. The provisional government established basic civil rights, including 658 00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:02,960 Speaker 1: free speech rights and the rights to form unions, bargained collectively, 659 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:07,040 Speaker 1: and to strike. There was a flourishing of communal efforts, 660 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:11,359 Speaker 1: mutual aid organizations and unions, which Kripopkin hoped would lead 661 00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:16,080 Speaker 1: to a decentralized, stateless society. But there was also ongoing 662 00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:19,680 Speaker 1: unrest and food shortages, and some of that led to 663 00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:25,719 Speaker 1: food riots. Then in November of nineteen seventeen or late October, 664 00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,319 Speaker 1: in the old style calendar. The Bolshevik Party, led by 665 00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:35,759 Speaker 1: Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisional government. Tensions rose between the 666 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 1: Bolsheviks and the anti Bolsheviks, which led to the Russian 667 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:43,000 Speaker 1: Civil War between the Bolshevik Red Army and the opposing 668 00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:47,040 Speaker 1: White Army. In March of nineteen eighteen, Russia signed the 669 00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:51,000 Speaker 1: Treaty of Brest Litvosk with the Central Powers and withdrew 670 00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:55,640 Speaker 1: from World War One. That July, the Bolsheviks murdered Nicholas 671 00:44:55,680 --> 00:45:00,040 Speaker 1: the second and his family. The Russian Civil War and 672 00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,520 Speaker 1: with a Bolshevik victory in nineteen twenty and Russia and 673 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:07,760 Speaker 1: three other socialist republics formed the Union of Soviet Socialist 674 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:13,920 Speaker 1: Republics In nineteen twenty two. Krapotkins said of the Bolshevik takeover, quote, 675 00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:18,880 Speaker 1: this buries the revolution. A lot of Lenin's rhetoric paralleled 676 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:23,080 Speaker 1: Kropotkin's own writing, with a vision of decentralized Soviets led 677 00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:26,920 Speaker 1: by workers and peasants. There was so much overlap that 678 00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,879 Speaker 1: outside of Russia there were people who thought the Bolsheviks 679 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:34,360 Speaker 1: were anarchists, but Krapotkin saw Lenin as a dictator, and 680 00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:37,800 Speaker 1: the Bolsheviks reminded him of the Committee of Public Safety 681 00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:42,400 Speaker 1: in the French Revolution. They had suppressed the democratically elected 682 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:46,920 Speaker 1: Constituent Assembly and had carried out a violent campaign of repression, 683 00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:52,279 Speaker 1: hostage taking, and executions known as the Red Terror. Kropotkin 684 00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:55,279 Speaker 1: corresponded with Lenin and tried to discourage all of this, 685 00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:59,320 Speaker 1: but to no avail. He described Russia as a Soviet 686 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:03,920 Speaker 1: republic in name only, not ruled by worker led Soviets, 687 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:09,000 Speaker 1: but by party committees. Lenin called Kropotkin's advice stupid. 688 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:13,600 Speaker 2: Kropotkins spent the last years of his life in Dimitrov, 689 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:18,319 Speaker 2: north of Moscow, where an anarchist cooperative had formed, and 690 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:20,920 Speaker 2: there he worked on a history of ethics and some 691 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:25,360 Speaker 2: of his other unfinished writing. Accounts of his last years 692 00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:28,879 Speaker 2: describe him as devastated by the rise of the Bolsheviks 693 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:32,480 Speaker 2: in the Civil War. He died on February eighth, nineteen 694 00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:36,560 Speaker 2: twenty one, at the age of seventy eight. His funeral 695 00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,759 Speaker 2: was massive, with Emma Goldman delivering a eulogy. It was 696 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,800 Speaker 2: the last anarchist gathering in Russia until after the dissolution 697 00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,200 Speaker 2: of the Soviet Union. His work continues to be very 698 00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:52,760 Speaker 2: influential today people still cite that nineteen eleven Britannica article 699 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:56,040 Speaker 2: and the conquest of Bread was a big influence on 700 00:46:56,080 --> 00:47:01,759 Speaker 2: the occupy movement, for example. So that's Peter Potkin. I'm 701 00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:05,120 Speaker 2: sure we'll have things to discuss on Friday. Yup, do 702 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,960 Speaker 2: we have listener mail? I do have listener mail, Katie 703 00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:13,000 Speaker 2: wrote to say, Hello, history pals. I've mentally composed so 704 00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,759 Speaker 2: many emails to you over the years that don't make 705 00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,000 Speaker 2: it to the digital page, but after listening to your 706 00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:21,640 Speaker 2: recent episode on Hercules Posey, I had to stop and 707 00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:24,880 Speaker 2: finally write to you. There is a restaurant in Washington, 708 00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:28,600 Speaker 2: d C. Called Founding Farmers and Distillers, and they commissioned 709 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,600 Speaker 2: portraits of Hercules and old doll that are on display 710 00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:37,120 Speaker 2: at their Massachusetts Avenue restaurant. And then there is a 711 00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:41,040 Speaker 2: link to the Founding Farmers and Distillers web page attached 712 00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,160 Speaker 2: your photos of the portrait and the plaque about the 713 00:47:43,239 --> 00:47:46,520 Speaker 2: artist and the intent behind the paintings. These paintings are massive, 714 00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,560 Speaker 2: easily five feet tall, as my memory serves, so it's 715 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:51,600 Speaker 2: hard to get a photo, a good photo all in 716 00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:54,960 Speaker 2: one frame, but they're stunning and full of detail. Aside 717 00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:57,799 Speaker 2: from the beautiful art. I remember the food and cocktails 718 00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:00,640 Speaker 2: there to be excellent. It would definitely be worth going 719 00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:02,920 Speaker 2: if you're in the area I am in. I imagine 720 00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:07,359 Speaker 2: Holly is already perusing the menus for pet tax I'm 721 00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:10,120 Speaker 2: including pictures of one of our cats, Draper, who was 722 00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:12,400 Speaker 2: hiding so well in plain sight that we looked for 723 00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,440 Speaker 2: him for fifteen minutes before laughing at our oversight. The 724 00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:19,160 Speaker 2: joys of having black cats. He's a sweet boy with 725 00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:22,400 Speaker 2: a big personality, powered by canned food and fuzzy blankets. 726 00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:24,359 Speaker 2: He was a ball of nerves when we adopted him 727 00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:27,040 Speaker 2: from the rescue, but he is relaxed into a sweet 728 00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:29,480 Speaker 2: and curious guy, but is still prone to hide under 729 00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:31,399 Speaker 2: the bed sometimes when life is a bit too much 730 00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:35,040 Speaker 2: relatable to be honest. I hope you are each finding 731 00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:37,480 Speaker 2: moments of joy in these difficult times. The work you 732 00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,360 Speaker 2: do on this podcast each week is deeply appreciated, not 733 00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:42,600 Speaker 2: only for its content, but for the humanity you bring 734 00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:46,480 Speaker 2: to your subjects. Wishing you all the best, Katie, so yes, 735 00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:51,560 Speaker 2: we have pictures this portrait of Hercules. I am very 736 00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:54,920 Speaker 2: curious about this restaurant. The next time in Washington, d C. 737 00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:57,080 Speaker 2: Maybe I'll manage to make it over there. But we 738 00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:00,200 Speaker 2: have a picture of a cat tree which looks it's 739 00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:00,840 Speaker 2: like it's empty. 740 00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:03,000 Speaker 1: It is not. 741 00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:06,280 Speaker 2: There's a black cat in the shadows there. 742 00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:09,640 Speaker 1: I am incidentally looking at the cocktail menu right now 743 00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:14,560 Speaker 1: and going, oh, if we ever head there for work 744 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,640 Speaker 1: for some reason, maybe we can go together. Yeah, if 745 00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:18,960 Speaker 1: you would like to send us a dough we're a 746 00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:23,560 Speaker 1: history podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can find our 747 00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:26,680 Speaker 1: show notes, including the names of all these books by 748 00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:29,759 Speaker 1: Peter Kropotkin that we have referenced and read from over 749 00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:33,880 Speaker 1: these two episodes. That's at mystonhistory dot com. And you 750 00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:36,400 Speaker 1: can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app and 751 00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:40,080 Speaker 1: anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. 752 00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 2: Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 753 00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:52,000 Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 754 00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,160 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.