In Russian and French Prisons

Hans B. Neumann is a history lecturer at Scarborough College, University
of Toronto.

Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) became perhaps the
second-most-renowned advocate—after Mikhail Bakunin—of that body of
ideas represented by anarchism, that terror of the nineteenth-century
bourgeoisie. This greatly—then as now—misunderstood ideology and
philosophy continued to have a considerable following among European
intellectuals and members of the working class as late as the Spanish
Civil War in the 1930s. Even less well-known about Kropotkin is that he
was also a respected geographer of the Russian Empire’s more remote
regions and a crusader for prison reform.

This book, a reprint of the 1906 edition, appears as the sixth volume
of the projected paperback edition of Kropotkin’s collected works. As
its title indicates, Kropotkin had the dubious distinction of serving
time in both Russian (1874-86) and French (1882-5) prisons, thanks to
his espousal of the doctrines so dreaded by all manner of political
authorities across Europe.

Kropotkin’s reflections on his experiences in jail form the basis for
this book. The text’s 10 chapters are well served by project editor
George Woodcock’s informative introduction.

Kropotkin relates his experiences and those of others, incorporating
many references to contemporary authorities in the field of penology.
His enlightened, humane approach to all these matters still bears
careful consideration in the light of our own society’s problems with
crime and punishment. Despite many changes in prison systems, one of the
statements Kropotkin wrote then still applies: “The man who is shut up
in a prison is so far from being bettered by the change, that he comes
out more resolutely the foe of society than when he went in.” One need
only consider the continuing high rates of recidivism to acknowledge the
accuracy of this point.

What Kropotkin stresses above all else (especially in Chapter 10, the
only chapter with an overt political content) is “preventive
medicine.” He places a strong emphasis on the social and economic
origins of criminal behavior. Without a willingness to consider such
factors, societies might well contribute toward creating the kinds of
conditions many identify with people like Kropotkin.