Kropotkin P.A., (1842-1921), revolutionary, geographer and geologist

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Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
KROPOTKIN Peter Alexeevich (1842-1921), duke, ideologist of anarchism, sociologist, historian, geographer, and geologist. A member of the ancient family of dukes deriving lineage from the Rurikid Dynasty. He was educated in the Page Corps (from 1861, he had been a Chamber Page to Emperor Alexander II). Upon graduating in 1862, he served in the Amur Cossack Army under the Governor General of Eastern Siberia. In 1864-67, he participated in expeditions to Manchuria and Siberia. In 1867, he resigned and returned to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petersburg University, simultaneously working in the Statistic Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and participated in the work of the Russian Geographic Society. In 1872, he joined anarchistic wing of the First International in Switzerland. On returning to St. Petersburg he entered the Chaykovsky Circle and distributed propaganda among Petersburg workers. In 1874, he was arrested and imprisoned in the St. Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1876, he was sent to the Nikolaevsky Military Hospital, to escape soon afterwards and emigrated. He was a member of the Organisation of Russian Anarchists, worked for their editions. In June 1917, he returned to Petrograd and declined the proposal to enter the Provisional Government. In August 1917, he moved to Moscow, then settled in Dmitrov city of Moscow Province and involved himself in scientific work. He was the author of works in Geography, Geology, Sociology and the history of the Great French Revolution of the late 18th century, Memoirs of a Revolutionary. In 1927, Kropotkin's name was given to a street on Petrogradskaya Side (formerly Malaya Belozerskaya).

References: Маркин В. А. Петр Алексеевич Кропоткин, 1842-1921. М., 1985; Труды Международной научной конференции, посвященной 150-летию со дня рождения П. А. Кропоткина. М., 1995.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Alexander II, Emperor
Kropotkin Peter Alexeevich, Duke
Kropotkina St./Saint Petersburg, city
Page Corps
State University, St. Petersburg
Russian Geographical Society
St. Peter and Paul fortress