[Prince Peter Kropotkin.] Proofs of an apparently unpublished article, intended for 'The Nineteenth Century and After', titled 'The White Terror in Russia', with many autograph corrections by him.

Author: 
Peter Kropotkin [Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin] (1842-1921), Russian polymath and anarchist [Sir James Knowles, editor, 'The Nineteenth Century and After'; Tsarist Russia; communism; anarchism]
Publication details: 
With label of 'The Nineteenth Century and After', London,.1906.
£3,500.00
SKU: 13948

On ten 8vo leaves, and paginated 1-20. Worn and aged, with closed tear to the first leaf. Gathered with a brass stud. The recto of each leaf carries the printed date 1906, and each verso has as running title the name of the magazine. Pasted at the head of the first page is a green label reading: 'The Nineteenth Century and After. Please return this proof, when corrected, to Sir James Knowles, care of Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd, New-street Square, London, E.C.' Beside this Kropotkin has written in pencil 'Send 4 revises'. A highly-significant and apparently-unknown document, withdrawn for reasons which are unclear, and not to be confused with Kropotkin's book 'The Terror in Russia', which was published by Methuen three years later. Kropotkin is the undoubted author of this piece: he was a frequent contributor to the magazine, and on the first page of the present item he refers to his article 'The Revolution in Russia', with the words 'as I have already said' and the footnote 'Nineteenth Century and After, December 1905.' The proofs of the article would have been sent in batches, and the text reproduces the first five sections, breaking off abruptly towards the beginning of section 6: 'But then, at the police station, every policeman was beating her with his fists in the face and his boots in the body; everyone insulted her, after having torn to pieces all her dress, while the officers burned her face with [...]'. Beneath this, at the foot of p.20, is footnote 10: 'Five officers and three priests have been nominated by the Governor to teach at the Omsk Gymnasium.' There are numerous pencil and ink corrections and emendations by Kropotkin throughout the text. Among these, on p.3, in describing Prince Mescherky, he adds the words 'an old man, an Ultra-Conservative'. On p.10 he writes in the margin: 'On their return to St Petersburg, the Semonovsk regiment received an order expressing the heartiest thanks of the Emperor.' And on p.13 he adds: 'This is printed in full in a semi-official paper published at Riga.' At the foot of p.15: 'As to Warsaw, Professor Baudouin-de [sic] Courtenay wrote lately [last word deleted]'. In the margin of p.18, in faded pencil: 'And now, both the

St Petersburg papers & the Correspondendents of the London papers say that M. Savitch'. And in the margin of p.19, again in faded pencil: 'The name of which & the full address were given on the proclamations All the St Petersburg spoke of it a few days'.