Russian naturalist and anarchist philosopher P. Kropotkin published a collection of anthropological essays titled Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution in 1902. The essays examine the significance of reciprocal, mutually beneficial collaboration and support (also known as "mutual aid") in both historical and contemporary animal and human civilizations. They were first published in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century between 1890 and 1896. It is a critique of social Darwinism ideas that place a strong emphasis on competition and the survival of the fittest, as well as on romantic notions of cooperation espoused by authors like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Instead, Kropotkin contends that cooperation has evolved through natural selection along with the conscience and has practical benefits for the survival of human and animal populations. In anarchist communism, Mutual Aid is regarded as a core text. As an alternative to the historical materialism of the Marxists, it offers a scientific foundation for communism. Considered by Kropotkin are the animal kingdom, indigenous and early European communities, the medieval free cities (particularly through the guilds), the late 19th-century village, the labor movement, and poor people. All of these cultures have relied on mutual aid to thrive and survive.
Peter Kropotkin, a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, physicist, philosopher, and activist who promoted anarcho-communism, lived from 9 December 1842 to 8 February 1921. Kropotkin, who came from a wealthy land-owning family, went to a military academy and then served as an officer in Siberia, where he took part in a number of geological investigations. For his activism, he was sent to prison in 1874, but he was able to escape two years later. The following 41 years were spent in exile for him in England, Switzerland, and France, where he was imprisoned for nearly four years. He lectured and wrote a lot about geography and anarchism while he was exiled. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Kropotkin went back to Russia, but the Bolshevik government let him down. Kropotkin advocated for a decentralised communist society devoid of a centralised authority and based on voluntary alliances of autonomous villages and worker-run businesses. He produced a large number of books, pamphlets, and essays, the most notable of which were The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories, and Workshops. His main contribution to science was Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.
