In Russian and French Prisons

Victor Robinson, Peter Kropotkin

Description

First published in 1887, “In Russian and French Prisons” is Peter Kropotkin's detailed critique of French and Russian prisons in the late 19th century. Within it, Kropotkin offers poignant descriptions of the conditions of those who undergo solitary confinement while offering his own panacea to the wealth of problems engendered by the existence of prisons: abolish them entirely. Although written over a century ago, Kropotkin's astute criticisms of the penal system are still very much relevant today. Contents include: “My First acquaintance With Russian Prisons”, “Russian Prisons”, “He Fortress Of St. Peter And St. Paul”, “Outcast Russia”, “The Exile In Siberia”, “The Exile On Sakhali”, “A Foreigner On Russian Prisons”, etc. Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842–1921) was a Russian writer, activist, revolutionary, economist, scientist, sociologist, essayist, historian, researcher, political scientist, geographer, geographer, biologist, philosopher and advocate of anarcho-communism. He was a prolific writer, producing a large number of pamphlets and articles, the most notable being “The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops” and “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution”. This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with an excerpt from “Comrade Kropotkin” by Victor Robinson.

Sujets

• Solitary confinement (disambiguation)
• Rehabilitation
• Solitary confinement

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 26 mai 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528790147
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

IN RUSSIAN AND FRENCH PRISONS
By
PETER KROPOTKIN
WITH AN EXCERPT FROM Comrade Kropotkin BY VICTOR ROBINSON

First published in 1887


This edition published by Read Books Ltd. Copyright © 2019 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library


Contents
IN LATER LIFE By Victor Robinson
THE MAN (1842-1921)
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH RUSSIAN PRISONS
CHAPTER II RUSSIAN PRISONS
CHAPTER III THE FORTRESS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL
CHAPTER IV OUTCAST RUSSIA
CHAPTER V THE EXILE IN SIBERIA
CHAPTER VI THE EXILE ON SAKHALIN
CHAPTER VII A FOREIGNER ON RUSSIAN PRISONS
CHAPTER VIII IN FRENCH PRISONS
CHAPTER IX ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF PRISONS ON PRISONERS
CHAPTER X ARE PRISONS NECESSARY?
APPENDIX A. EXTRACTS FROM THE "ACT OF ACCUSATION"
APPENDIX B. PART PLAYED BY THE EXILES IN THE COLONIZATION OF SIBERIA.
APPENDIX C. EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT
APPENDIX D. ON REFORMATORIES FOR BOYS IN FRANCE.



IN LATER LIFE
By Victor Robinson
" There are at this moment only two great Russians who think for the Russian people, and those thoughts belong to man kind, - Leo Tolstory and Peter Kropotkin "
- Georg Brandes
Such are some of the scenes in the life of Peter Kropotkin- imprisoned by governments, pursued by police, followed by spies, hounded by agents of autocracy.
This peace-loving man whose name is synonym for kindness, this tender soul as modest as Newton, as gentle as Darwin, has been hunted from frontier to border-line. Against none of his persecutors does he utter a single invective. He is the epitome of mildness, the incarnation of humaneness.
Ask anyone who has seen Kropotkin for an hour or has known him for a generation, to describe his most characteristic trait, and the invariable answer will be: simplicity. His is a great spirit- it has cast out flam. "Kropotkin is one of the most sincere and frank of men," says Stepniak. "He always says the truth, pure and simple, without any regard for the amour propre of his hearers, or for any consideration whatever. This of his character. Every word he says may be absolutely believed. His sincerity is such, that sometimes in the ardour of discussion an entirely fresh consideration unexpectedly presents itself to his mind, and sets him thinking. He immediately stops, remains quite absorbed for a moment, and then begins to think aloud, speaking as tho he were an opponent. At other times he carries on this discussion mentally, and after moments of silence, turning to his astonished adversary, smilingly says, 'You are right.' This absolute sincerity renders him the best of friends, and gives especial weight to his praise and blame."
An Excerpt From Comrade Kropotkin



THE MAN
(1842-1921)
Prince Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin, revolutionary and scientist, was descended from the old Russian nobility, but decided, at the age of thirty, to throw in his lot with the social rebels not only of his own country, but of the entire world. He became the intellectual leader of Anarchist-Communism; took part in the labor movement; wrote many books and pamphlets; established Le Révolté in Geneva and Freedom in London; contributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica; was twice imprisoned because of his radical activities; and twice visited America. After the Bolshevist revolution he returned to Russia, kept himself apart from Soviet activities, and died true to his ideals.


INTRODUCTORY
In our busy life, preoccupied as we are with the numberless petty affairs of everyday existence, we are all too much inclined to pass by, many great evils which affect Society without giving them the attention they really deserve. If sensational "revelations" about some dark side of our life occasionally find their way into the daily Press; if they succeed in shaking our indifference and awaken public attention, we may have in the papers, for a month or two, excellent articles and letters on the subject. Many well-meant things may then be said, the most humane feelings expressed. But the agitation soon subsides; and, after having asked for some new regulations or laws, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of regulations and laws already in force; after having made some microscopic attempts at combating by a few individual efforts a deep-rooted evil which ought to be combated by the combined efforts of Society at large, we soon return to our daily occupations without caring much about what has been done. It is good enough if, after all the noise, things have not gone from bad to worse.
If this remark is true with regard to so many features of our public life, it is especially so with regard to prisons and prisoners.' To use Miss Linda Gilbert's—the American Mrs. Fry's—words, "After a man has been confined to a felon's cell, Society loses all interest in and care for him." Provided be has "bread to eat, water to drink, and plenty of work to do," Society considers itself as having fulfilled all its duties towards him. From time to time, somebody acquainted with prisons starts an agitation against the bad state of our jails and lock-ups. Society recognizes that something ought to be done to remedy the evil. But the efforts of the reformers are broken by the inertia of the organized system; they have to fight against the widely-spread prejudices against all those who have fallen under the ban of the law; and soon they are left to themselves in their struggle against an immense evil. Such was the fate of John Howard, and of how many others? A few kindhearted and energetic men and women continue, of course, amidst the general indifference, to do their work of improving the condition of prisoners, or rather of mitigating the bad effects of prisons on their inmates. But, guided as they are merely by philanthropic feeling, they seldom venture to criticize the principles of penal institutions; still less do they search for the causes which every year bring millions of human beings within the enclosure of prison walls. They try to mitigate the evil; they seldom attempt to grapple with it at its source.
Every year something like a hundred thousand men, women, and children are locked up in the jails of Great Britain alone—very nearly one million in those of the whole of Europe. Nearly 1,200,000 £ . of public money are spent every year, in this country alone, for convict and local prisons; very nearly ten millions in Europe—not to speak of the expenses involved by the maintenance of the huge machinery which supplies prisons with inmates. But, apart from a few philanthropists and professional men, who cares about the results achieved at so heavy an expenditure? Are our prisons worth the enormous outlay in human labour yearly devoted to them? Do they Guarantee Society against the recurrence of the evils which they are supposed to combat?
Having had in my life several opportunities of giving more than a passing attention to these great questions, I have thought that it would be useful to put together the observations which I have been enabled to make on prisons and the reflections they have suggested.
My first acquaintance with prisons and exile was made in Siberia, in connection with a committee for the reform of the Russian penal system. There I had the opportunity of learning the state of things with regard both to exile in Siberia and to prisons in Russia, and then my attention was attracted first to the great question of crime and punishment. Later on, in 1874 to 1876, 1 was kept, awaiting trial, nearly two years in the fortress of Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg, and could appreciate the terrible effects of protracted cellular confinement upon my fellow-prisoners. Thence I was transferred to the newly-opened House of Detention, which is considered as a model prison for Russia, and thence again to a military prison at the St. Petersburg Military Hospital.
When in this country, I was called upon, in 1881, to describe the treatment of political prisoners in Russia, in order to tell the truth in the face of the systematic misrepresentation of the matter by an admirer of the Russian Government. I did so in a paper on the Russian Revolutionary Party, which appeared in the Fortnightly Review, June, 1831. None of the facts revealed in this paper have been contradicted by the Russian agents. Attempts were, however, made to circulate in the English press accounts of Russian prisons, representing them under a somewhat smiling aspect. I was thus compelled to give a general description of prisons and exile in Russia and Siberia, and did so in a series of four papers, which appeared in the Nineteenth Century . Refraining as much as possible from complaints of the treatment undergone by our political friends in Russia, I preferred to give an idea of the general state of Russian prisons, of exile to Siberia, and of its results; and told the unutterable sufferings which scores of thousands of common-law prisoners are enduring in the jails throughout Russia, on their way to Siberia, and in the immense penal colony of the Russian Empire. In order to complete my own experience, which might have been out of date, I consulted the bulky Russian literature which has been devoted of late to the subject. The perusal of this literature convinced me that things have remained in very nearly the same state as they were five-and-twen