New-York tribune., 1921-03-06
ALExEIEvrrCH KRO-
POTKIN died few days ago

burning candles for him In the
Kremlin to-day, for Russia loved
him. Like .Leonid Andreyev, ne
worked for the overthrow of the old
social order, and, like Andreyev, he
was caught in the maelstrom.
Andreyev, they say, died at forty
two Of a broken heart. Kropotxin,
at seventy-nine, is dead Of starva-
tion.
In the death Of this worn old man
in the chaos Of plague-ridden Mos
row one sees an example of the dis
integration Of Russia's intellectual
structure. Moscow starved to death
scientist of international repute,
a naturalist, a writer and a social
economist. Although he lived in
exile, the Russian people loved him.
Perhaps they loved him because he
had the courage to give up princes
estate and aristocratic position for
his ideals. They loved him, too, be-
cause he was a great naturalist. But
they loved him most Of all for the
daring way he outwitted the dread
ed secret police in his escape from
Nikolaievsk Hospital in July, 1876.
The Stage Properties
kropotkin's whole career hinged
on that single dramatic episode. 1t
was stroke that freed him from
the clutch of the Cars lugubrious
police system and permitted him, in
the refuge of exile in friendly Eng
land, to contribute valuable work to
the literature of science and the
progress Of social justice.
There were twelve conspirators in
the plot that liberated Kropotkin.
They employed such interesting
properties as hatful of ripe cher
ries, louise, small microscope,
music, two opera hats and a droshky
drawn by a black mare. No tunnels
were dug, no iron bars sawed away,
no guards overpowered. Instead,
the conspirators built bridge to
freedom. for their comrade Of such
flimsy materials as psychology,
Schubert's "Serenade," the gestures
of half-intoxicated peasant.
1t was a strategical conspiracy
rather than one of force-a plot of
nicely calculated moves. How well
it succeeded may be gauged by the
fact that every one of the conspira-
tors eluded arrest, and on the night
of the escape Kropotkin dined in the
most fashionable restaurant of
Petrograd while the Cars police
searched all his old haunts and the
homes Of his friends in vain.
Was an Aristocrat
Prince Peter Alexeievitch Kro-
potkin, scion of an old and aristo-
cratic family, was born in 1842. Des-
tined for military career, he was
sent to the School Of Pages, where
the sons of aristocracy were trained
to ride, shoot, fence and assume
authority. Upon graduation he was
commissioned to accompany an ex-
pedition to remote parts of Asia for
the purpose of exploring and map
ping infrequented regions Of the
Cars domain. In civilian areas
Kropotkin and his fellow officers
studied the geology of the country,
its peasant and plant life. In the
prison camps and mines they OBJ
served conditions of penal servitude.
Kropotkin wrote a number of ar
ticles describing what he saw for
semi-scientfic magazines in Petro-
grad.
1t was in this research work
among the prison camps and in the
squalid settlements of remote Siberia
that Kropotkin began to doubt the
justice and wisdom Of Russia's
landed autocracy. His malleable
young mind CROPPED about for the
cause Of all this misery and bond
age; he found it in the social sys-
tenn.
Consequently, upon his return to
Petrograd in 1867 he resigned his
commission in the army and entered
st. Petersburg University. This
angered his father. The older Kro-
potkin had looked forward to seeing
his son assume q place of authority
in the Cars army. That he should
abandon this career for the life Of a
bespectxcled student was unthink-
able.
The old prince threatened and
stormed. Finally he cut off his sons
income and left him on his own
resources, BY writing articles on
geology and plant life he was able
to make his way through the uni
versity. Meanwhile he had Joined
the Tschaykovsky socialistic group
and WORKED actively IN the revolu-
ssonary movement, rejecting the Sec