Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Sania Ali Mirza, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net LIVES OF GREAT ALTRURIANS COMRADE KROPOTKIN BY VICTOR ROBINSON "_To liberate one's country!" she said. "It is terrible even to utter those words, they are so grand._" TURGENEV: "On the Eve." PRICE, ONE DOLLAR THE ALTRURIANS 12 MOUNT MORRIS PARK WEST NEW YORK CITY 1908 This book is not copyrighted-- How could it be? [Illustration: PETER ALEXEIVITCH KROPOTKIN Born in the Old Esquerries' Quarter of Moscow in 1842] CONTENTS DEDICATION FOREWORD PAGE UNDER NICHOLAS I. 7 SCENES FROM SERFDOM 15 EXPLORATIONS 23 THE NIHILISTS 29 THE TERRORISTS 36 SOPHIA PEROVSKAYA 43 THE FORTRESS OF PETER AND PAUL 54 BROTHERS 62 THE OPEN GATE 71 FROM THE PRINTING PRESS 82 IN LATER LIFE 106 THE HISTORIAN OF THE REVOLUTION 120 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PETER KROPOTKIN Frontispiece PAGE THE SCAFFOLD'S BRIDE 32 NICHOLAS CHAYKOVSKY 44 SOPHIA PEROVSKAYA 52 BEFORE THE SEARCH 66 THE COSSACKS 112 _TO GEORGE KENNAN_ _I dedicate this work. I need not say why. He will know-- Everyone will know. With tears, during the night, I have read your book, thou earnest truth-seeker. O compassionate traveler, what a man you must have been! For the weary Siberian exiles called you 'Dear George Ivanovich!' With a heart Full of thankfulness for the work you have done, I lay my bitter and bloody pages at your feet._ VICTOR ROBINSON FOREWORD Bernard Shaw calls us a nation of villagers. To a large extent this appellation holds good. We are so self-sufficient unto ourselves that the most important events in the world leave us cold if they take place outside of the realm of the star-spangled banner. A wonderful and terrible thing is happening in the largest empire on earth; a downtrodden people is engaged in a death-grapple with its merciless rulers; and never were masters so inhuman, and never were people so heroic. In comparison with this titanic struggle the French Revolution itself sinks into insignificance. But what do we know about it? And what do we care? Russia is far away.... Once in a while the report of a particularly atrocious massacre, or a particularly cruel torture inflicted upon a young girl revolutionist will shock our sensibilities, will cause a pang in our hearts, will perhaps make our hair stand on end,--but in a day or two we forget all about it. We are so busy!