Kropotkin, Peter Alexeievich

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Kropotkin, Peter Alexeievich (1842–1921) Russian anarchist leader. He was jailed for seditious propaganda in 1874, but escaped into exile in 1876. Living mostly in Britain, he became one of the most important theorists of anarchist socialism, criticizing the centralizing tendencies of Marxism. He argued, in Mutual Aid (1902), that cooperation rather than competition is the natural order of things. See also anarchism