Pierre Kropotkine et les agents de l'Ohrana [Étude suivie de treize lettres inédites de P. Kropotkine à M. Goldsmith et à un groupe anarchiste russe]

Michael Confino, Peter Kropotkin and the agents of the Okhrana. A study and thirteen unpublished letters of P. Kropotkin to M. Goldsmith and to a Russian anarchist group. This article deals with two sets of closely interrelated subjects. The first includes the attitudes and activities of the Okhrana towards Russian anarchist groups abroad in general, and P. Kropotkin in particular. In this portion of the study are examined the techniques of shadowing ("external surveillance"), letters' interception (perliustraciia) , the reports of the secret agents infiltrated in the anarchist groups ("internal surveillance"), as well as the collaboration between the Okhrana and the police organizations of other European states, whether within the framework of the "Anti-anarchist International," or outside of it. One of the conclusions that emerges from this analysis is the remarkably wide scope of the Okhrana1 s activity in this area, and the impressive amount of information which it was capable to collect on P. Kropotkin and on the anarchist groups. The second part of the article is a discussion of P. Kropotkin's attitude, on the one hand, towards this activity of the Political Police and its use of secret agents ("agents provocateurs") in the revolutionary movement, and, on the other hand, towards the infiltration of informants into the Okhrana by revolutionary organizations. In this context are examined several historical types of events such as degaevščina , azefščina, and bogrovščina, as well as the less notorious cases of N. Kletočnikov, N. Pauli and A. Petrov. Kropotkin had been following directly (as a member of "courts of honor") and indirectly (through his contacts with Vladimir Burcev) these occurrences which were shakening time and again the Russian revolutionary movement. His views on these tactics and techniques give an opportunity for a reassessment of several important aspects of the movement's action, such as political efficiency, revolutionary ethics, and the perennial dilemma of "ends and means." The article is followed by thirteen unpublished letters of P. Kropotkin, which focus on most of the topics discussed.