Words of a Rebel

152 Pages·2019·2.216 MB·English

by  Pëtr Kropotkin

Words of a Rebel
Pëtr Kropotkin
1885
Contents
IntroductionbyGeorgeWoodcock 4
IntroductiontotheFirstFrenchEditionbyElisieReclus 13
Chapter1:TheSituationToday 15
Chapter2:TheBreakdownoftheState 18
Chapter3:TheInevitabilityofRevolution 21
Chapter4:TheComingRevolution 24
Chapter5:PoliticalRights 28
Chapter6:TotheYoung 32
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter7:War! 45
Chapter8:RevolutionaryMinorities 49
Chapter9:Order 53
Chapter10:TheCommune 57
Chapter11:TheParisCommune 62
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter12:TheAgrarianQuestion 71
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Chapter13:RepresentativeGovernment 80
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter14:LawandAuthority 98
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Chapter15:RevolutionaryGovernment 111
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Chapter16:AllofUsSocialists! 120
Chapter17:TheSpiritofRevolt 123
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Chapter18:TheoryandPractice 135
Chapter19:Expropriation 139
1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
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Introduction by George Woodcock
Parolesd’unRevolte wasKropotkin’sfirstbook,publishedinParisin1885,andthisisitsfirst
complete English version. A very different work from the more familiar books of the mature
Kropotkin,likeMutualAid;Fields,FactoriesandWorkshops;andMemoirsofaRevolutionist,itis
theproductofananarchistagitatorratherthanalibertariansavant.Anditderivesitsinterestas
muchfromwhatitrevealsaboutanimportanttransitionalphaseinthedevelopmentofanarchist
doctrines as it does for what it shows us of Kropotkin himself during a transitional period for
himaswell,anactivistinterludebetweenhisescapefromRussianprisonsandhislongrefugein
theproductiveexileofLondonsuburbia.
The forcing house of early anarchism was the First International, the International Working-
men’s Association that was founded in London in 1864 by a heterogenous group of rebels and
reformers,includingthemutualistfollowersoftheearlyanarchistProudhon,someEnglishtrade
unionists,ahandfulofGermansocialistsledbyKarlMarxandFriedrichEngels,andascattering
oftheneo-JacobinfollowersofAugustBlanquiandtheItaliannationalistfollowersofGiuseppe
Mazzini. The designation ”anarchist” was not much used by any faction at this period (though
Proudhon had proclaimed himself an ”anarchist” in 1840) but an essential division existed be-
tween those, like Marx and his followers, who wished to proceed by governmental means to-
wardsthesocialrevolution(withtheStateperhapswitheringaway,asEngelsputit–inthefar
future),andthose,soontobeledbyMichaelBakunin,whobelievedthattheStateandtherevolu-
tionwereincompatibleentitiesandthattherevolutionshouldleadimmediatelytothelibertarian
societybasedonthefederationofcommunesandworkers’associations.
The Congresses of the International became battlegrounds between the Marxists and the
Bakuninists,andverysoonthedisputetookonnationallines,withtherevolutionariesofLatin
Europe – Spain and Italy, the Midi of France and the French-speaking parts of Switzerland –
supportingBakunin,andthenorthernEuropeansingeneralsupportingMarx,withtheEnglish
tradeunionistsholdingthemiddleground.TheMarxistsgainedcontroloftheGeneralCouncil,
butattheHagueCongressin1872theBakuninistinfluencebecamesostrongthattheMarxists
moved the headquarters of the General Council to New York, where it quickly languished and
died.MeanwhiletheBakuninistsgainedcontrolofwhatremainedoftheInternationalinEurope,
and the Jura Federation of Switzerland, where the watchmakers were disciples of Bakunin
almost to a man, became its main nerve centre. There, at Sonvillier, antigovernmental groups
hadheldtheirfirstgatheringinNovember1871,evenbeforethebreakupoftheHagueCongress,
and it was at St. Imier that the libertarian section of the International held its first Congress in
1873.
Kropotkin had encountered the Bakuninists in the Jura in 1872 on his first trip to western
Europeandhehadbeenconvertedbytheirdedicationasmuchasbytheirarguments.Whenhe
returnedtoSwitzerlandinearly1877afterhisescapefromRussianprisons,hequicklyresumed
contactwithhiscomradesintheJura,onlytofindthatthelibertarianInternationalwasquickly
followingitsMarxistoppositeonthewaytoextinction.ItslastCongresswouldactuallybeheld
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atVerviersinBelgiumin1877andthenitwoulddiequietlyaway.EvenintheJurathesparkthat
”legrandMichel”hadimplantedflickeredoutafterBakunindiedin1876.
In 1877 the last issue of the Bulletin of the Jura Federation, which had been the semi-official
organ of pure anarchism, was published. Kropotkin contributed a few articles to late numbers,
and then retreated to Geneva, where anarchist activity was reviving because of the presence
of a number of exiles from Russia and refugees from the Paris commune, and here he and the
youngFrenchdoctorPaulBroussecollaboratedineditingasmallpaper,L’AvantGarde,intended
mainly for smuggling into southern France. By publishing articles praising terrorist attacks on
Europeanrulers,L’AvantGardeoffendedSwitzerland’sincreasingsusceptibilitytothepressures
from its more powerful neighbours, and it was suppressed in December 1878, Brousse being
brieflyimprisonedbecauseaseditorheassumedresponsibilityforarticleswithwhoseextremity
ofapproachhedisagreed.
Kropotkin felt that it was urgent to create a journal that would take over the role of L’Avant
Garde, but when he sought for collaborators, he found the other leading anarchists then in
Geneva, including Reclus and Malatesta, had other things to do. Eventually it was with two
Genevaworkingmenthathewenttowork,FranqoisDumartherayandGeorgeHerzig;Kropotkin
portrayedthemvividlyinhisMemoirsofaRevolutionist,anditisworthquotinghiswords,since
theyconveyagreatdealaboutthesettinginwhichtheessayscontainedinParolesd’unRevolte
werewritten,firstofallforpublicationinthenewmagazine,LeRevolte,
DumartheraywasborninoneofthepoorestpeasantfamiliesinSavoy.Hisschooling
hadnotgonebeyondthefirstrudimentsofaprimaryschool.Yethewasoneofthe
most intelligent men I ever met. His appreciations of current events and men were
so remarkable for their uncommon good sense that they were often prophetic. He
was also one of the finest critics of the current socialist literature, and was never
takeninbythemeredisplayoffinewordsorwould-bescience.Herzigwasayoung
clerk, born in Geneva; a man of suppressed emotions, shy, who would blush like a
girlwhenheexpressedanoriginalthought,andwho,afterIwasarrested,whenhe
becameresponsibleforthecontinuanceofthejournal,bysheerforceofwilllearned
towriteverywell…
To the judgement of these two friends I could trust implicitly. If Herzig frowned,
muttering, ’Yes – well – it may go,’ I knew that it would not do. And when Du-
martheray, who always complained of the bad state of his spectacles when he had
to read a not quite legibly written manuscript, and therefore generally read proofs
only, interrupted his reading by exclaiming, ’Non, ca ne va pas!’ I felt at once that
itwasnottheproperthingandtriedtoguesswhatthoughtorexpressionprovoked
hisdisapproval.Iknewtherewasnouseaskinghim,’Whywillitnotdo?’Hewould
have answered: ’Ah,that is not my affair; that’s yours. It won’t do; that is all I can
say.’ButIfelthewasright,andIsimplysatdowntorewritethepassage,or,taking
thecomposingstick,setupintypeanewpassageinstead.
Kropotkin setting up his own words in type was a development that took place after the
Quixotic beginnings of Le Revolte. The three editor-publishers started with 15 francs left over
fromL’AvantGardeandscrapedupanother10francsbetweenthem.(Thefrancwasthenvalued
at about 5 to the US dollar.) Yet they decided boldly to print 2,000 copies of the first issue even
5
thoughno localanarchistpaperinthepastsoldmorethan600copies.Theybeggedanother50
francsandthepaperappeared;therewerenewtroubles,forverysoontheprintertoldKropotkin
thathehadbeeninformedhewouldlosehislucrativegovernmentprintingcontractsifhecon-
tinuedtoproduceLaRevolte,andwhenhevisitedalltheotherprintinghousesinGenevaandin
thetownsoftheJura,Kropotkincameawayeverytimewiththesameanswer.
Dumartheray immediately suggested that they should buy a plant on credit and set up their
ownprintingestablishment.InspiteofKropotkin’smisgivingstheydidso,establishingtheIm-
primerieJurasienneandveryquicklyworkingthemselvesoutofdebt.
The arrangement could not have been more eccentric, for the compositor in the tiny room
where they edited and set up their type, which a printing house ran off clandestinely for them,
was a little Russian who worked for 60 francs a month and knew no French, less of a disability
than it might appear, for the worst typographical errors occur when a language is known at a
functional level and the compositor-typographer inserts a familiar but wrong word or spelling,
or substitutes a homonym when in doubt. With vigilant correction, Kropotkin, Dumartheray,
Herzig and their White Russian managed well. But Kropotkin himself also learned to compose
typeandindeed,asDumartherayremembered,playedhisfullpartinproducingaswellaswriting
LeRevolte.
Heneverwastedamomentattheprintingestablishment,eitherworkingascompos-
itororhandlingalittlehand-pressfortheprintingofoursmallpamphlets.
When the forms of the journal had to be carried to the printing house, he was the
first to seize the shafts of the cart. When the printed sheets were returned to the
shop, he set an example of great ability to his comrades of folding and dispatching
copies.
They were hard times for Kropotkin. He took nothing out of the funds of Le Revolte for the
twoweekseachmonththatpreparingthejournaloccupied,andhisfamilywerenolongerable
tosendhimmoneyfromRussia,sothathelivedbyhisscientificjournalism,whichwasill-paid
and laborious. As he told Malatesta at the time, he often had to workuntil four in the morning
to earn enough money to bring out the journal. In late 1878 he had married a Russian woman
student, Sophie Ananiev, and by 1880 Sophie was suffering from the cold winds of Geneva, so
that the doctors suggested finding a more sheltered place to live. Elisee Reclus, then a refugee
fromtheCommune,wasworkingonhisGeographieUniverselle atClarens,avillageinthehills
aboveLacLeman,andheinvitedKropotkintojoinhim,soPeterandSophiemovedto”asmall
cottage overlooking the blue waters of the lake, with the pure snow of the Dent du Midi in the
background.”
It was at Clarens, near enough to Geneva to maintain his contacts with the workers there,
butfarenoughawaytoavoidanexcessofvisitors,thatKropotkinwrotehisbestarticlesforLe
Revolte,includingmostofthosewhichlaterbecamepartofParolesd’unRevolte.Hispiecesinthe
early issues were mainly concerned with the contemporary issues, prophesying, with the airy
optimismthatflourishedinthosedays,theproximatedestructionofthemassivestatesandem-
piresthatthreatenedthepeaceofEurope.EliseeReclus,inhispreface,talksofmaterialwritten
and published in Le Revolte between 1879 and 1882, but the articles included actually run from
1880 to 1882. They were written while Kropotkin was in constant touch with Reclus, and they
were also the subject of constant discussion between Peter and Sophie, ”with whom I used to
6
discuss every event and every proposed paper, and who was a severe literary critic of my writ-
ings.” He was also in fairly regular touch with leading libertarian exiles like Malatesta and the
oldCommunardLefrancais,andofcourse,throughhiscollaboratorsinLeRevolte,withworking
class comrades in Geneva. As a result, the essays in Paroles d’un Revolte give as good a picture
asonecanfindofthechangesthatweretransformingtheanarchistmovementduringtheearly
1880s.
To begin, the movement’s distinctiveness was being more sharply defined at this time. The
anarchistsmightstilltalkofthemselvesassocialists–andsocialistsofthetruekind–butthey
alsodefinedtheirowndirectionmoreboldlythaneverbeforeasanarchist.
ThebreakupoftheFirstInternationalhadinfactcreatedariftbetweentheauthoritarianand
the libertarian socialists that would prove impossible to bridge. A United Congress in Ghent
in 1877, which Kropotkin attended under the name of Levashov, ended in total failure, and an
AnarchistCongress,heldinLondoninMay1881andattendedbyKropotkin,Malatesta,Louise
Michelandmanyotherofthewell-knownspokespeopleforthecausedidlittlemorethandefine
anarchistattitudes,sincenolastingorganizationresultedfromit.
In a series of Congresses in 1891,1893 and 1896 the socialist Second International refused to
invitetheanarchistsandkeptoutthosewhoarrived.Thesplit,whichwasalreadyevidentwhen
Kropotkin was editing Le Revolte, had by the 1890s become definitive, and only a few socialists
ofthemaverickkind,likeWilliamMorris,continuedtoassociatewiththeanarchists.
WordsofaRebel makesquiteclear,inbothpoliticalandeconomicterms,thegroundsforthe
division between anarchistsand socialists. Kropotkin rejects the ideas of parliamentary democ-
racy put forward by the republican bourgeoisie; he also condemns the ideas of revolutionary
government put forward by Marx’s followers and the ideas of revolutionary dictatorship put
forward by the followers and the ideas of revolutionary government of Auguste Blanqui. Like
Bakunin before him he sees the revolution as a popular insurrection in the broadest of terms,
withpowerabolished,orperhapsratherignoredoutofexistence,andwiththegeneralexpropri-
ation of property and its takeover by communal groups,the producers and the consumers. The
public wealth, all that has been accumulated by the joint work of mankind over the centuries,
would thus return to its rightful owners, the people. Anarchism in this way revealed itself as
the logical extremity of populism, and one had only to read Words of a Rebel to realize why it
became impossible for the anarchists to work any longer with authoritarian revolutionaries or
withtheadvocatesofrepresentativegovernment,whosedemocraticpretensionsKropotkinand
hisassociatesrejectedwithcontemptasanotherformoftyranny.Theattitudewasnotentirely
a new one. Proudhon’s tirades against universal suffrage had been monumental and seemed to
bejustifiedwhentheFrenchpeopleinthetwilightofthe1848revolutionvotedinPrinceLouis
Napoleonastheirpresident.
Thus,whileMarxalso,writingthelastvolumeofCapitalataboutthesametimeasKropotkin
wroteWordsofaRebel,wouldtalkofthe”expropriationoftheexpropriators,”thetwomenused
theterminentirelydifferentways,MarxtoadvocateacollectivistStateunderthe”dictatorship
oftheproletariat,”andKropotkintoadvocateafreesocietyinwhichgovernmentwouldbeabol-
ishedatthesametimeasprivateproperty,withoutanindefinitewaitingperiodforwhatEngels
oncewistfullycalled”thewitheringawayoftheState.”Asanarchismdefineditselfmoresharply
fromotherkindsofsocialism,twonewdirectionsemerged,oneintermsoftheeconomicorgani-
zationofarevolutionarysociety,andtheotherintermsofpre-revolutionarytactics.Bothwere
adumbratedinParolesd’unRevolte.
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Thefirstwasthetheoreticalshifttoanarchistcommunism,inwhichKropotkinandhisasso-
ciates at the time were closely involved. Early anarchists, like their State socialist counterparts,
tendedtoconcentrateonthecontrolofproduction,consideringthattheimportantachievement
was to socialize the places and means of production, which in the case of the various anarchist
schools meant getting them into the hands of the workers. Proudhon had advocated a society
ofindividualcraftsmenandpeasantswhopossessed–ratherthanactuallyowning–theirown
land and workshops. Larger enterprises in industry and transport would be controlled by asso-
ciationsofworkers,andthewholewouldbecementedbyanetworkofpeople’sbanksinwhich
creditwouldbegivenforthefullvalueoftheworkperformed.Later,Bakuninandhisassociates
movedontoacollectivistideaoftheownershipofthemeansofproduction.Individualproperty
would be abolished, everything would be owned by collective associations of workers or local
communes, but still payment would be made to individual workers in proportion to the actual
valueoftheworktheyhaddone;inonewayoranother,thewagessystemwouldsurvive.
Anarchist communism addressed the problem of consumption as well as that of production.
Saint-Simon, the early Utopian socialist, is credited with inventing the phrase that would echo
down through the nineteenth century: ”from each according to his means, to each according
to his needs.” And to this question the collectivist way of doing justice to the producer was no
answer.Foritwas,afterall,asconsumersthathumanbeingslivedandsurvived.
It began to dawn on the anarchists as early as the 1870s that the liberation of economic re-
sources from the profit-oriented limitations of capitalism would result in increased production
ofnecessitiessothatforthefirsttimeinhistorytherewouldbeenoughforall.Andthisinturn
would solve the difficulty of relating access to consumer goods to actual work achievement; it
would also take care of the problem of those who were unable to work or too old to work or
weredoingmoreforhumanitybytheirwritingorpaintingthanby makingbreadrollsorturn-
ingscrews.Andinallitsforms,withfreedistributionaccordingtoneed,thewagessystemwould
die away. It was not wholly a new idea. Sir Thomas More had advocated it in Utopia in the six-
teenthcenturyandtheDiggerGerardWinstanleyintheseventeenth;itwasafeatureofThomas
Campanella’sCityoftheSun,andeveninthework-orientedphalansteriesenvisagedbyCharles
Fourierintheearlynineteenthcenturythosewhocouldnotbepersuadedtofindworkattractive
wouldstillhavetheirrighttoreceivethemeansofagoodlifefromthecommunity.
Theideaoflinkinganarchismandcommunismseemstohavebeendevelopedandpolishedin
thesmallgroupofactivistsgatheredinGenevaduringthelate1870sandtheearly1880s.Elisee
Reclus had been a Phalansterian, a follower of Fourier, until he fell under the spell of Michael
Bakunin and became a leading anarchist, and it seems likely that he brought some of Fourier’s
ideaswithhim.Butthefirstpublicationadvocatinganarchistcommunismwasalittlepamphlet
by the Francois Dumertheray who eventually assisted Kropotkin in publishing Le Revolte. The
pamphlet,AuxTravailleursManuelsPartisansdeL’ActionPolitiquewaspublishedinGenevadur-
ing 1876, which rules out any influence on the part of Kropotkin, who did not reach Geneva
afterhisescapefromRussiauntilFebruary1877,thoughitseemsverylikelythatReclusandDu-
martherayhadbeendiscussingtheidea.ItspreadquicklyandG.Cherkesov,theGeorgianprince
whowasactiveamongtheanarchistsatthisperiod,saysthattheideawasacceptedeverywhere
inSwisslibertariancirclesduring1877,thoughmanywerestillreluctanttousethephrase,”an-
archistcommunism.”ItwastakenupbyItaliananarchistslikeMalatestaandCarloCafierowho
often found it convenient to hide out in Switzerland when police persecution at home became
toointense.
8
It was a joint effort by Reclus, Cafiero and Kropotkin that persuaded the 1880 Congress of
the Jura Federation to accept free communism as its economic doctrine. Kropotkin presented
a report entitled ”The Anarchist Idea from the Point of View of its Practical Realization,” later
published in Le Revolte but not included in Words of a Rebel. The report stressed the need for
a revolution, when it came, to be based on the local communes, which would carry out all the
necessary expropriations and socialise the means of production. The report did not specifically
mentionthecommunistmethodofdistribution,butinthespeechthataccompanieditKropotkin
madeitquiteclearthatheregardedcommunism–inthesenseoffreedistributionofgoodsand
theabolitionofanyformofwagessystem–astheresultthatshouldfollowimmediatelyfromthe
collectivizationofthemeansofproduction.HemadeLeRevolte theorganofthenewanarchist
trend and so his name would henceforward be associated with it. Words of Rebel contained the
firstessaysinwhichheworkedouttheidea.Amoreconcretediscussionofanarchistcommunism
wouldappearinlaterworks,notablyinTheConquestofBread,butalso,developedinadifferent
way,inMutualAid andFields,FactoriesandWorkshops.
Whenwecometothequestionofrevolutionarytactics,wehavetorememberthatKropotkin
adheredtotheromanticrevolutionarytraditionwhichtookitsinspirationfromtheFrenchRev-
olutionof1789-93.HevirtuallyignoredthefactthatEnglandintheseventeenthcenturyandthe
Americansintheeighteenthhadexperiencedtheirownrevolutions(CharlesIwasafterallexe-
cutedbyhisownsubjectsnearlyacenturyandahalfbeforeLouisXVI),whichhadconsiderable
influenceinFranceduringthepre-revolutionaryperiod.Inhissomewhatnarrowvisionhesaw,
as would become evident in the pages of Le Revolte, the lesser revolutionary outbreaks of 1830
and 1848, and the Paris Commune of 1871. There was something of the millenarian historicist
aboutKropotkin;hedisplayedtheratherschizoidattitudecommontomanynineteenthcentury
revolutionaries, who wished to see men free, but regarded the process of socio-political devel-
opment as historically determined; the influence of Hegel filtered far.He always believed there
would be a great European war, and that there would be a great and final revolution in the not
far distant future, and in the long run he was correct, for the European war came in 1914, and
revolution on a large scale came in 1917, but in Russia rather than France, and it turned out to
beanoperationofthepartisansofrevolutionarydictatorshipinwhichKropotkin’shopeswere
submerged and negated. It is against such authoritarian revolutionaries as the Bolsheviks, who
combinedthetacticalviewsofMarxandofBlanqui,thatKropotkinwasspeakinginWordsofa
Rebel.Heenvisagedadifferentkindofrevolutionarymilitant,whounderstandsthattruerevolu-
tionsaretheworkofthepeoplethemselves,andperceiveshisownroleasthatofenlightening
andinspiringbyappropriatepropagandaratherthanattemptingtocontroltherevolutioneither
initscourseorinitsfulfilment.
And it is in this context that he develops the idea of deeds as well as words as the media of
revolutionary propaganda. Both in Words of a Rebel, and to a much greater extent in his ma-
jor historical work, The Great French Revolution, so largely a study of grassroots insurrection,
Kropotkin sets out to show that the real initiatives of the revolution were carried out by the
people, who forced the politicians to act in ending serfdom and distributing the land, and that
their action was prepared and encouraged by largely unknown militants who performed acts
of symbolic defiance, sometimes involving violence against the regime and its representatives.
HisthinkingranparalleltothatoftheItaliananarchists,whohadderivedfrommid-nineteenth
century radical republicans like Carlo Pisacane the idea that the propaganda of the word was
fruitless unless accompanied by revolutionary actions, even if for the moment they were futile.
9