August 18, 2025 • 9 mins
In Memoirs of a Revolutionist, Vol. 1, Peter Kropotkin, a notable Russian anarcho-communist and scientist, invites readers into his captivating life journey. This autobiography not only chronicles his personal experiences but also sheds light on the intricate tapestry of 19th-century Russian society and politics. Born into nobility and educated in the military, Kropotkin ultimately rejected the values of his social class to champion anti-authoritarian socialism, standing against both the Tsarist regime and the authoritarian Bolsheviks. With a diverse range of interests spanning literature, biology, economics, and geographical exploration, Kropotkins memoirs begin with his childhood and education, leading to his transformative time in Siberia. (Introduction by Elin)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The cores of pages chapter seven of Memoirs of a Revolutionist,
Volume one by Peter Kropotkin. This LibriVox recording is in
the public domain recording by Eelin. Every summer we went
out camping at Peterhoff with the other military schools of
the Saint Petersburg district. All things considered, our life there
(00:24):
was very pleasant and certainly was excellent for our health.
We slept in spacious tents, we bathed in the sea,
and spent all the six weeks in open air exercise
in military schools. The main purpose of camp life was
evidently military drill, which we all disliked very much, but
the dulness of which was occasionally relieved by making us
(00:46):
take part in maneuvers. One night, as we were already
going to bed, Alexander the Second aroused the camp by
having the alert sounded. In a few minutes, all the
camp was alive, several thousand gathering round their colors, and
the guns of the artillery school booming in the stillness
of the night. All military petrov was galloping to our camp,
(01:10):
but owing to some misunderstanding, the Emperor remained on foot.
Orderlies were sent in all directions to get a horse
for him, but there was none, and he, not being
a good rider, would not ride any horse but one
of his own. Alexander the Second was very angry and
freely ventilated his anger. Imbecile, durak have I only one horse?
(01:32):
I heard him shout to an orderly who reported that
his horse was in another camp. What were the increasing darkness,
the booming of the guns, and the rattling of the cavalry.
We boys grew very much excited, and when Alexander ordered charging,
our column charged straight upon him, tightly packed in the
racks with lowered bayonets. We must have had a menacing aspect,
(01:56):
for I saw Alexander the Second, who was still on foot,
glaring the way for the column in three formidable jumps.
I understood then the meaning of a column which is
marching in serried ranks, under the excitement of the music
and the march itself. There stood before us the Emperor,
our commander, whom we all venerated very much. But I
(02:17):
felt that in this moving mass, not one page or
cadet would have moved an inch aside or stopped a
while to make room for him. We were the marching
column he was, but an obstacle, and the column would
have marched over him. Why should he be in our way?
The pages said afterwards, boys rifle in hand are even
(02:38):
more terrible in such cases than old soldiers. Next year,
when we took part in the great maneuvers of the
Saint Petersburg Garrison, I got an insight into the side
lights of warfare. For two days in succession, we did
nothing but march up and down on a space of
some twenty miles, without having the slightest idea of what
(02:59):
was going on round us, or for what purpose we marched.
Cannon boomed now in our neighborhood, and now far away,
sharp musketry fire was heard somewhere in the hills in
the woods. Orderlies galloped up and down, bringing the order
to advance, and next the order to retreat. And we marched,
marched and marched, seeing no sense in all these movements
(03:22):
and counter movements. Masses of cavalry had passed along the
same road, making out of it a deep mass of
moveable sand, and we had to advance and retreat several
times along the same road, till at last our column
broke all discipline and represented an incoherent mass of pilgrims
rather than a military unit. The colors alone remained in
(03:44):
the road. The reminders slowly paced along the sides of
the road in the wood. The orders and the supplications
of the officers were of no avail. Suddenly a shout
came from behind. The Emperor is coming, the emperor. The
officers ran about, supplicating us to gather in the ranks.
No one listened to them. The Emperor came and ordered
(04:07):
us to retreat once more. Turn round. The words of
command resounded. The Emperor is behind us, Please turn round,
the officers whispered, But the battalion hardly took any notice
of the command, and none whatever of the presence of
the emperor. Happily, Alexander the second was no fanatic of militarism,
(04:27):
and after having said a few words to cheer us
with a promise of rest, he galloped off. I understood, then,
how much depends in warfare upon the state of mind
of the troops, and how little can be done by
mere discipline when more than an average effort is required
from the soldiers. What can discipline do when tired troops
have to make a supreme effort to reach the field
(04:49):
of battle at a given hour, it is absolutely powerless.
Only enthusiasm and confidence can at such moment induce the
soldiers to do the impossible. And it is the impossible
that continually must be accomplished to secure success. How often,
later on in Siberia, I recall to memory that object
(05:10):
lesson when we also had to do the impossible during
our scientific expeditions. Comparatively little of our time was, however,
given during our stay in the camp to military drill
and maneuvers. A good deal of it was given to
practical exercises and surveys and fortification. After a few preliminary exercises,
(05:31):
we were given a reflecting compass and told go and
make a plan of say this lake, or these roads
or that park, measuring the angles with the compass and
the distances with your pace. And early in the morning,
after a hurriedly swallowed breakfast, the boy would fill his
spacious military pockets with slices of rye bread and would
(05:52):
go out for four or five hours every day in
the parks miles away, mapping with his compass and paces
the beautiful shape roads, the rivulets, and the lakes. His
work was later on compared with accurate maps, and prizes
in optical and drawing instruments at the boy's choice were awarded.
For me, these surveys were a deep source of enjoyment,
(06:15):
that independent work, that isolation under the centuries old trees,
that life of the forest, which I could enjoy undisturbed,
while there was at the same time the interest in
the work. All these left deep traces in my mind.
And if I later on became an explorer of Siberia
and several of my comrades became explorers in Central Asia,
(06:36):
the ground for it was prepared in these surveys, and finally,
in the last form, parties of four boys were taken
every second day to some villages at a considerable distance
from the camp, and there they had to make a
detailed survey of several square miles with the aid of
the surveyor's table and a telescopic ruler. Officers of the
(06:56):
general staff came from time to time to verify their
work and to advise them. This life amidst the peasants
in the villages had the best effect upon the intellectual
and moral development of many boys. At the same time,
exercises were made in the construction of natural sized cross
sections of fortifications. We were taken out by an officer
(07:18):
in the open field, and there we had to make
the cross sections of a bastion or of a bridge head,
nailing poles and batons together in exactly the same way
as railway engineers do in tracing a railway. When it
came to embrasers and barbettes, we had to calculate a
great deal to obtain the inclinations of the different plains,
and after that geometry in the space ceased to be
(07:40):
difficult to understand. We delighted in such work, and once
in town, finding in our garden a heap of clay
and gravel, we at once began to build a real
fortification on a reduced scale, with well calculated straight and
oblique embrasures and barbettes. All was done very neatly, and
(08:01):
our ambition now was to obtain some planks for making
the platforms for the guns, and to place upon them
the model guns which we had in our class rooms.
But alas our trousers wore an alarming aspect. What are
you doing here? Our captain exclaimed, Look at yourselves, You
look like navvies. That was exactly what we were proud
(08:21):
of what if the Grand Duke comes and finds you
in such a state, we will show him our fortifications
and ask him to get his tools and boards for
the platforms. All protests were vain. A dozen workers was
sent next day to cart away our beautiful work as
if it were a mere heap of mud. I mention
(08:42):
this to show how children and youths long for real
applications of what they learn at school in abstract and
how stupid are the educators who are unable to see
what a powerful aid they could find in concrete applications
for helping their pupils to grasp the real sense of
the things they learn in our school. All was directed
towards training us for warfare. But we should have worked
(09:05):
with the same enthusiasm at tracing a railway, at building
a log house, or at cultivating a garden or a field.
But all this longing of the children and youths for
real work is wasted simply because our idea of the
school is still the medieval scholasticism, the medieval monastery. End
(09:26):
of the Cores of Patis, Chapter seven
The cores of pages chapter seven of Memoirs of a Revolutionist,
Volume one by Peter Kropotkin. This LibriVox recording is in
the public domain recording by Eelin. Every summer we went
out camping at Peterhoff with the other military schools of
the Saint Petersburg district. All things considered, our life there
(00:24):
was very pleasant and certainly was excellent for our health.
We slept in spacious tents, we bathed in the sea,
and spent all the six weeks in open air exercise
in military schools. The main purpose of camp life was
evidently military drill, which we all disliked very much, but
the dulness of which was occasionally relieved by making us
(00:46):
take part in maneuvers. One night, as we were already
going to bed, Alexander the Second aroused the camp by
having the alert sounded. In a few minutes, all the
camp was alive, several thousand gathering round their colors, and
the guns of the artillery school booming in the stillness
of the night. All military petrov was galloping to our camp,
(01:10):
but owing to some misunderstanding, the Emperor remained on foot.
Orderlies were sent in all directions to get a horse
for him, but there was none, and he, not being
a good rider, would not ride any horse but one
of his own. Alexander the Second was very angry and
freely ventilated his anger. Imbecile, durak have I only one horse?
(01:32):
I heard him shout to an orderly who reported that
his horse was in another camp. What were the increasing darkness,
the booming of the guns, and the rattling of the cavalry.
We boys grew very much excited, and when Alexander ordered charging,
our column charged straight upon him, tightly packed in the
racks with lowered bayonets. We must have had a menacing aspect,
(01:56):
for I saw Alexander the Second, who was still on foot,
glaring the way for the column in three formidable jumps.
I understood then the meaning of a column which is
marching in serried ranks, under the excitement of the music
and the march itself. There stood before us the Emperor,
our commander, whom we all venerated very much. But I
(02:17):
felt that in this moving mass, not one page or
cadet would have moved an inch aside or stopped a
while to make room for him. We were the marching
column he was, but an obstacle, and the column would
have marched over him. Why should he be in our way?
The pages said afterwards, boys rifle in hand are even
(02:38):
more terrible in such cases than old soldiers. Next year,
when we took part in the great maneuvers of the
Saint Petersburg Garrison, I got an insight into the side
lights of warfare. For two days in succession, we did
nothing but march up and down on a space of
some twenty miles, without having the slightest idea of what
(02:59):
was going on round us, or for what purpose we marched.
Cannon boomed now in our neighborhood, and now far away,
sharp musketry fire was heard somewhere in the hills in
the woods. Orderlies galloped up and down, bringing the order
to advance, and next the order to retreat. And we marched,
marched and marched, seeing no sense in all these movements
(03:22):
and counter movements. Masses of cavalry had passed along the
same road, making out of it a deep mass of
moveable sand, and we had to advance and retreat several
times along the same road, till at last our column
broke all discipline and represented an incoherent mass of pilgrims
rather than a military unit. The colors alone remained in
(03:44):
the road. The reminders slowly paced along the sides of
the road in the wood. The orders and the supplications
of the officers were of no avail. Suddenly a shout
came from behind. The Emperor is coming, the emperor. The
officers ran about, supplicating us to gather in the ranks.
No one listened to them. The Emperor came and ordered
(04:07):
us to retreat once more. Turn round. The words of
command resounded. The Emperor is behind us, Please turn round,
the officers whispered, But the battalion hardly took any notice
of the command, and none whatever of the presence of
the emperor. Happily, Alexander the second was no fanatic of militarism,
(04:27):
and after having said a few words to cheer us
with a promise of rest, he galloped off. I understood, then,
how much depends in warfare upon the state of mind
of the troops, and how little can be done by
mere discipline when more than an average effort is required
from the soldiers. What can discipline do when tired troops
have to make a supreme effort to reach the field
(04:49):
of battle at a given hour, it is absolutely powerless.
Only enthusiasm and confidence can at such moment induce the
soldiers to do the impossible. And it is the impossible
that continually must be accomplished to secure success. How often,
later on in Siberia, I recall to memory that object
(05:10):
lesson when we also had to do the impossible during
our scientific expeditions. Comparatively little of our time was, however,
given during our stay in the camp to military drill
and maneuvers. A good deal of it was given to
practical exercises and surveys and fortification. After a few preliminary exercises,
(05:31):
we were given a reflecting compass and told go and
make a plan of say this lake, or these roads
or that park, measuring the angles with the compass and
the distances with your pace. And early in the morning,
after a hurriedly swallowed breakfast, the boy would fill his
spacious military pockets with slices of rye bread and would
(05:52):
go out for four or five hours every day in
the parks miles away, mapping with his compass and paces
the beautiful shape roads, the rivulets, and the lakes. His
work was later on compared with accurate maps, and prizes
in optical and drawing instruments at the boy's choice were awarded.
For me, these surveys were a deep source of enjoyment,
(06:15):
that independent work, that isolation under the centuries old trees,
that life of the forest, which I could enjoy undisturbed,
while there was at the same time the interest in
the work. All these left deep traces in my mind.
And if I later on became an explorer of Siberia
and several of my comrades became explorers in Central Asia,
(06:36):
the ground for it was prepared in these surveys, and finally,
in the last form, parties of four boys were taken
every second day to some villages at a considerable distance
from the camp, and there they had to make a
detailed survey of several square miles with the aid of
the surveyor's table and a telescopic ruler. Officers of the
(06:56):
general staff came from time to time to verify their
work and to advise them. This life amidst the peasants
in the villages had the best effect upon the intellectual
and moral development of many boys. At the same time,
exercises were made in the construction of natural sized cross
sections of fortifications. We were taken out by an officer
(07:18):
in the open field, and there we had to make
the cross sections of a bastion or of a bridge head,
nailing poles and batons together in exactly the same way
as railway engineers do in tracing a railway. When it
came to embrasers and barbettes, we had to calculate a
great deal to obtain the inclinations of the different plains,
and after that geometry in the space ceased to be
(07:40):
difficult to understand. We delighted in such work, and once
in town, finding in our garden a heap of clay
and gravel, we at once began to build a real
fortification on a reduced scale, with well calculated straight and
oblique embrasures and barbettes. All was done very neatly, and
(08:01):
our ambition now was to obtain some planks for making
the platforms for the guns, and to place upon them
the model guns which we had in our class rooms.
But alas our trousers wore an alarming aspect. What are
you doing here? Our captain exclaimed, Look at yourselves, You
look like navvies. That was exactly what we were proud
(08:21):
of what if the Grand Duke comes and finds you
in such a state, we will show him our fortifications
and ask him to get his tools and boards for
the platforms. All protests were vain. A dozen workers was
sent next day to cart away our beautiful work as
if it were a mere heap of mud. I mention
(08:42):
this to show how children and youths long for real
applications of what they learn at school in abstract and
how stupid are the educators who are unable to see
what a powerful aid they could find in concrete applications
for helping their pupils to grasp the real sense of
the things they learn in our school. All was directed
towards training us for warfare. But we should have worked
(09:05):
with the same enthusiasm at tracing a railway, at building
a log house, or at cultivating a garden or a field.
But all this longing of the children and youths for
real work is wasted simply because our idea of the
school is still the medieval scholasticism, the medieval monastery. End
(09:26):
of the Cores of Patis, Chapter seven
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