than Czar Alexander II. The
fascinating story of his life is told in the "Memoirs of a
Revolutionist," but modesty forbade him to say that no one since
Bakounin has exercised so great an influence as himself over the
principles and tactics of anarchism. Kropotkin first visited Switzerland
in 1872, when he came in close contact with the men of the Jura
Federation. A week's stay with the Bakouninists converted him, he says,
to anarchism.[2] He then returned to St. Petersburg, and shortly after
entered the famous circle of Tchaykovsky, and, as a result of his
revolutionary activity, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Fortress
of St. Peter and St. Paul. After his thrilling escape from prison, in
1876, Kropotkin returned to Switzerland, and for several years gave
himself up entirely to the cause of anarchism. These four young men, all
far removed by training and position from the working class, after the
death of Bakounin, devised the Propaganda of the Deed, a method of
agitation that was destined to become famous throughout the world.

Hitherto the Bakouninists had all been firmly convinced that the masses
were ready to rise at a moment's notice in order to tear down the
existing governments. They were obsessed with the idea that only a spark
was needed to set the whole world into a general conflagration. But
repeated failures taught them that the masses were inclined to make very
little sacrifice for the sake of communism and that stupendous efforts
were needed to create a revolution. It appeared to them, therefore, that
the propaganda of words and of theories was of little avail.
Consequently, these four youths, with their friends, set out to spread
knowledge by acts of violence. Of course, they had not entirely given
up the hope that a minority could, by a series of well-planned assaults,
gradually sweep in after them the masses. But even should they fail in
that, they felt that they must strike at the enemy, though they stood
alone. Whatever happened, they argued, the acts themselves would prove
of great propaganda value. Even the trials would enable them to use the
courts as a tribune, and the bourgeois press itself would print their
words and spread throughout the world their doctrines.

In the _Bulletin_ of the Jura Federation, December 3, 1876, Cafiero and
Malatesta wrote: "The great majority of Italian socialists are grouped
about the program of the Italian Federation--a program which is
anarchist, collectivist