''Memoirs of a Revolutionist'' is

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...

's autobiography and his most famous work.

Summary

Kropotkin's ''Memoirs'' address the arc of his life, the development of his anarchist philosophy, and his activism for socialist causes. It covers his childhood,

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schooling, geographical work, political awakening, international travel, and Chaykovsky Circle work. He discusses his exile and activism in Western Europe after escaping from a Russian jail.

Publication history

Elements of what would become Kropotkin's ''Memoirs of a Revolutionist'' were first published in ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' between 1898 and 1899 in English, the same year it received its first publication from

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with an introduction by Georg Brandes. Later editions of this original 1899 release include those edited and introduced by James Allen Rodgers ( Doubleday, 1962) and Nicolas Walter (

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, 1971). Both use

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to address Kropotkin's subsequent Russian-language additions in the translation of his ''Memoirs''. After its initial release, Kropotkin continued to revise his ''Memoirs'' with Russian-language additions in a translation of the 1902 English release. These were published in multiple editions between 1906 and 1929. The canonical 1933 Soviet

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edition derived from Kropotkin's Russian manuscript and became the basis for Soviet reprints. A reviewer of the English editions in ''

The Slavonic and East European Review ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', the journal of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (University College London), is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Slavonic and East European Studies. It was estab ...

'' remarked that the memoirs remained readable and interesting in the present day. While he praised the editors' extensive notes and sufficient indices, he felt that ready footnotes would have been more appropriate than endnotes for putting Kropotkin's additions in context, and that the 1933 Russian edition's illustrations would have been worthwhile imports.

Summary

Publication history

See also

References

Further reading