Evening star., 1926-04-17
SHRINE OF ANARCHY.
HOUSED IN MOSCOW.
Home of Kropotkin, Presided
Over by His Widow, Filled
With Mementoes.
BY JUNIUS Il. WOOD.
Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Daily News,

BY JUNIUS Il. WOOD.
Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Daily News.
MOSCOW, L. S. S. r., March 28.
trim little one.story house with
Greek columned veranda along it's
front, Shrubbery under the deep snow
behind the high iron fence. on a quiet
street In the once aristocratic Kha-
movnik quarters of Moscow--26 kro.
potkin pereulok! That is the world
shrine of anarchism.
To one who pictures bombs, subter-
ranean plots, long-haired zealots and
pandemonium as the invariable ac-
compartments of anarchism this quiet
home seems unreal.
Red letters behind q glass sign tell
that this Is the house where Peter
Aleksievich kropotkin was born, No
vember 27. 1912. A sign on the gate
post announces that this Is the mu-
scum of the eminent" Kropotkin.
Inside IL kindly faced woman, not
many threads of white in her smoothly
brushed black hair, Sophie Kropotkin,
the widow, lives with the keepsakes
and treasures of the past.
Hereditary Prince Of Ancient Time.
Kropotkin, a hereditary prince of
Russia. traced his ancestry to Rurik.
who came from Sweden in $40 A. u.
TO be crowned in Kiev as Russia's
first king. Many said that the evan
gel of anarchism was more entitled
to the Cars throne-which he helped
to overthrow-than were any of the
Romanovs.
Except as obstacles thrones and
courts did not enter into the scheme
Of life of that tireless genius. His
achievements in many lines would
have given him place in history.
life Of endeavOr inspiring to any
youth. But his reputation is built on
his social philosophy.
This is the chair in which he al
ways sat-" the widow explained in
a room that is u duplicate OF his
study. THE table is the one he used
Always piled with books and papers
but he could lay his hand on anything
He had such good memory.
And that Is his work bench" she
I'VE brought it from Eng.
land. He made his own book shelves
We moved so often that they had to
be packed in cases as well. The H.
brary was not handsome, but it was
large-bOoks in many languages. This
is just as it was. l brought "a cases
of books and letters back TO Russia.
1t seems as if he corresponded with
somebody In every part of the world"
Gets Financial Aid From L. S.
In all corners of the library were
piled books and papers to be arranged.
Volunteer helpers are few. The finan-
cial support comes from friends in
the United States and England
I'VE want to collect his letters for
his complete works in "a volumes
five of letters alone" the widow said
There is SO much to do. And the
time is short-I am past 20.
I'VE get no aid from the state"
she explained. I'VE have not asked
IT.; probably would not accept it if
offered. Religion, social work, revo-
ton should be supported by the peo-
pie who believe in them, not by gov
ernments."
The house which was originally the
Kropotkin winter home--the family
estates being in Kaluga district south
of Moscow-had passed to another
owner when it was nationaliZed by
the Soviet government Kropotkin
returned TO Russia in 1917, after the
first revolution, from his Al years
exile. After his death, February 8,
1921, memorial committee was
formed among his friends and fol-
lowers. The house was put in their
charge.
The order signed by Car Alexan-
der ii appointing young Kropotkin a
court page is in the room in which
he was born. His first books are
there. On the walls is a chart of the
family tree, photographs of him
among the royal pages, his tutor, the
Dekabrists and others. including Mix
hail Bakunin, whose influence nodded
Kropotkin's later life. In 1862, in
stead of joining the imperial guard,
as his father wished, he elected to
become a Cossack officer, as it af-
forded opportunity to go to Siberia.
He was in Siberia four years, follow
ing the Amur. and Lena to their
mouths and making geological studies
which changed the then existing maj
Life Devoted to Sociology.
His first sketched maps and those
printed by the Royal Geographic So
ciety, as we'll as his later studies in
lower Finland, are in another room.
It was during his trampings in Fin
land that he decided to devote his life
to sociology instead of science. He
became O. member of Chikovsky'S
revolutionary circle, which was en-
couraging education among workmen.
BY 1874 he was q prisoner In Petro
PavlOVSky fortress In 81. PetefSDurg.
In a case of prison mementos is
the silver watch in which was snug
gled the note telling him when to make
his dash for freedom. That dash was
made at the crowded noon hour, the
prison yard full of prisoners and
guards, to a closed carriage outside,
which carried him to the revolution
aries underground railroad and to the
home in Brighton, England, where he
passed the greater part of his life.
A visit to France nearly 10 years
later brought three and one-half years
Of Imprisonment there at the request
of Car Alexander III. Kropotkin
never paused in his work-sketches,
manuscript letters.
On one wall in a large room are
paintings sent by the Butersky pris-
oners after the 1905 revolution. Copies
of his magazines-F'reedom, published
In England, and Les Temps Noveaux,
in France-notices of meetings in his
honor, a photograph of the organizers
of the first International and endless
pamphlets and books. A little of al
most everything from his busy life Is
there.
(Copyright. 1926. by Chicago Daily News CO..
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