Peter Kropotkin (9 December 1842-8 February 1921) was a Russian philosopher who advocated anarcho-communism.
Biography[]
Peter Kropotkin was born in Moscow, Russian Empire on 9 December 1842 into a noble family; his father's family was of noble descent, while his mother was descended from a cossack general of the Imperial Russian Army. He served in the military of Russia and was appointed as a liaison to the cossacks, as well as being sent on an expedition into Siberia. In 1872, he joined the International Workingmen's Association in Geneva, Switzerland, only to be expelled after the assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia in 1881. Kropotkin developed a new ideology based on Karl Marx's socialism, anarcho-communism. Kropotkin argued that a classless society could only be built in the absence of the state, in which workers' councils provide leadership over individual communities. Kropotkin's beliefs would shape the views of the new anarchist movement of Europe, and his ideology became a powerful form of leftist politics. Kropotkin became a hero among leftists, and he was greeted by crowds of tens of thousands of people upon his return to Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. Kropotkin was offered the post of Minister of Education of the Russian SFSR, but he believed that taking up a government position would violate his anarchist views. He died in 1921.