Alexander Kropotckin

Prince Alexander Alexeevich Kropotkin (, 1841–1886) was a Russian mathematician and populariser of astronomy, and was the brother of the anarchist theorist Pyotr Alexeevich Kropotkin.

Biography

Alexander Kropotkin was born in 1841 into the family of Major General Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin (1805–1871).

He was the second youngest boy of four children. His brother Pyotr was a year younger, and another brother, Nicholas, and a sister, Helen, were older. His mother, Ekatarina Sulima, was the daughter of General Nikolai Sulima and a descendant of a Zaporozhian Cossack leader.

His mother died of tuberculosis when he was about six and a half years of age. Kropotkin's father remarried two years later, to Yelizaveta Mar'kovna Korandino. The stepmother was indifferent towards the Kropotkin children and had a streak of jealous vindictiveness, going through great lengths to remove the memory of Kropotkin's mother.

Alexander Kropotkin published articles on astronomy and celestial mechanics in "Russkoye Bogatstvo" and in specialized French and English journals, and was a journalist who wrote for the Siberian press.

On his return from Europe to Russia in 1876, he was arrested by the police. The conclusion of the head of the Third Section on his case stated that he was not guilty as provided for by the law on punishment for political crimes, but he had demonstrated an "extremely harmful" way of thinking, and therefore his case was resolved not by a judicial but by an administrative procedure. He was accused of helping his brother Peter, who had escaped from the Peter and Paul Fortress and was living abroad, for which he was exiled to Tomsk Oblast until 3 September 1886. ( in another source. Kropotkin shot himself with a revolver. One source states that although "after the departure of his family, he began to lead an irregular life, he had no motive to take his own life"

Afterwards, Alexander Kropotkin's ailing widow (who was left with three small children to care for) was nursed back to health by Sophie Kropotkin, her sister-in-law, in London.

Family and children Wife — Vera ('Faith') Sevastyanovna Berynda-Tchaikovsky (1849–1935). Son — Nikolai Alexandrovich Kropotkin (1878–1949). Grandson — Pyotr Nikolaevich Kropotkin (1910–1996).