Kropotkin, Peter (1842–1921)

Peter Kropotkin [PYOTR Alekseievich], anarchist and geographer, was born in Moscow into a princely family. He was educated at the Corps of Pages (1857–62), an elite military school in St. Petersburg, and served as an officer in the Far East where he undertook important work in exploration, glaciation, and orography with the support of the Imperial Geographical Society, whose gold medal he was awarded. He resigned his army commission in 1867 to study mathematics at St. Petersburg University (1867–68) and then continued his geographical work on the Far East, extending his glacial studies to Finland and Sweden. He had already repudiated his title of prince, and on a visit to western Europe in 1872 he turned to anarchism, returning to Russia to join the revolutionary ...