KROPOTKINE Pierre – Lettre autographe signée sur l’Anarchisme.

Description

Pierre KROPOTKINE (1842.1921)

Lettre autographe signée à Henry John Tozer.

Quatre pages in-12° en anglais.

Villa Bromley. Kent. 24 mars 1898.

Très intéressante lettre de l’anarchiste russe durant son exil britannique.

« … Je crains de vous avoir donné, dimanche dernier, l’impression d’être un très agressif débateur. Nous avons été malheureux du cas Sourtzeff (…) Pas pour la condamnation en elle même, qui fait partie des accidents nécessaire de la vie politique, mais pour l’indifférence de ceux qui ont fait l’Angleterre. Beaucoup d’autres pensent qu’il existe en Angleterre un profond dégout des crimes de ce gouvernement en Russie. Pour moi qui ai vu en France comment Ryssakoff (qui avait lancé une bombe à Alexandre II) fut acclamé par le Président honoraire en 1881, et comment, quelques années plus tard, (…) nos amis les plus radicaux ont refusé d’insérer la moindre note statuant qu’ils avaient tort d’annoncer qu’il n’y avait de prisonniers politiques en Sibérie. Pour moi, il s’agit d’une des choses les plus douloureuses à évoquer… »

Version originale :

« Dear Mr Tozer, Thank you very much for the shell book on Ludia which you so kindly sent me last week. I was so very busy these last few days that I could not write to you sooner. Thanks also for your pencil note. I see that I really had very much exagerated the importance of the Ludian budget as a source of increase for this country. I do not well make out what is the Imperial and Provincial expenditure of about 34,500,000 R., mentionned on p.16, in table XI, but I suppose I must understand that it does not add considerably to that item. I am afraid that last Sunday you must have got of me the impression of a very agressive debater. We felt unhappy at the outset on Sourtzeff case which is, for me, a painful print and I really become excited when I think of it. Not for the condamnation itself, which is only one of the necessary accidents of political life altogether, but for the indifferent of those who made Britain and many others think that there is in Britain a deep disgust of the autocrative governement and of the crimes of that governement in Russia. For me, who saw how in France, Ryssakoff (who flung a bomb to Alexandre II) was acclaimed over the country honorary President at meetings in 1881, and how a few years later, when the Russian alliance began to (…) our best radical friends would refuse to insert a simple note stating that they were wrong in announcing that « there are no political prisonners in Siberia » – for me it is one the most painful things to speak of these matters. I am in London for a few days (…) whenever you thing of having a run in the country, or have an afternoon to loose, be sure that both my wife and myself will be extremly pleased to see you. »