"In Russian and French prisons is a 1887 essay by Piotr Kropotkin. It is more than a crude and detailed description of the Russian prison system and its comparison to Western European jails. It is also a very personal document by the famous Anarchist Prince, a description of hell rooted in his own experience. Finally, it is one of the first criminology essays ever written. At a time when prison was mainly a means of control of the undomesticated poor, Kropotkin shows prison is a natural outcome of an unjust social system. Discover this edition enriched with original preface and biography.
Peter Kropotkin's magnum opus "Memoirs of a Revolutionist" serves the role of an astounding historical narrative of Russian politics in the second half of the 19th century. A perfect example of early anarchist writing, the book is emblematic of the origin of many anarchist movements all across Europe. The honesty and truthfulness of the narrative follows Kroopotkin's prison and exile escapades, his admiration for women, and all the revolutionary incidents surrounding that enigmatic figure.
Peter Kropotkin was a versatile Russian literary figure, whose occupation ranged from scientist and writer to a revolutionary and an advocate of anarchism. Kropotkin's major influence was evident from his manifold philosophical stance - from a harsh critique on capitalist society to that of boosting local goods production. A political exile and an avid traveler, Kropotkin's background found its place in his writing style. Among some of his best works are "The Conquest of Bread", "Memoirs of a Revolutionist", and "The State: Its Historic Role".
Please note: This audiobook has been created using AI voice.
Peter Kropotkin initially published the chapters of Mutual Aid as individual essays in the intellectual periodical The Nineteenth Century over the course of six years. In 1902 the essays were published as a book.
In it, Kropotkin explores the role of mutuallybeneficial cooperation across both animal and human societies. He begins by outlining how animals, both within and across species, thrive not through individual fitness, but rather through mutual cooperation. He then extends the breadth of his study to ancient human societies across generations and nations, until arriving at modern society, which he suggests has largely dispensed with the ancient benefits of mutual aid in favor of private property, capitalism, and social Darwinism.
Though more of a philosophical work than a scientific work, many of Kropotkin's observations of the animal kingdom are considered to be scientifically accurate today, with Douglas H. Boucher calling Mutual Aid a precursor to the theory of biological altruism.
As a philosophical work Mutual Aid, along with his other work The Conquest of Bread, is recognized as a foundational text of the anarchocommunist political philosophy.
Communism is a left-wing to far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society. Communist society also involves the absence of private property, social classes, money, and the state. Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a more libertarian approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more vanguardist or Communist party-driven approach through the development of a constitutional socialist state followed by the withering away of the state. As one of the main ideologies on the political spectrum, communism is placed on the left-wing alongside socialism, and communist parties and movements have been described as radical left or far left.
Contents:
Karl Marx
Manifesto of the Communist Party
The Class Struggles in France
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
Friedrich Engels
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Peter Kropotkin
The Conquest of Bread
Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution
Vladimir Lenin
State and Revolution
What Is to Be Done?
Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Joseph Stalin
The Foundations of Leninism
Anarchism or Socialism?
Marxism and the National Question
Organization of a Russian Federal Republic
The October Revolution and the National Question
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Marxism and Problems of Linguistics
Leon Trotsky
History of the Russian Revolution
My Life
The Revolution Betrayed
Our Revolution Essays on Working-Class and International Revolution, 1904-1917
Dictatorship vs. Democracy
From October to Brest-Litovsk
Lenin
Results and Prospects
The Permanent Revolution
Literature and Revolution
The Bolsheviki and World Peace
