A life around. Autobiography of a prince-revolutionary. Under this title, the translation of the first part of the book at hand was published in Greek in 1930. This book by Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was first published in English in 1899. Three years later, it was translated into Russian but published in London due to tsarist censorship.

In the preface to the Russian edition of 1902, the author writes: “I began to write my book naturally in Russian. The first part, Childhood, had already been written when I went to America in the autumn of 1897. In America, I met the very likable Walter Page who published the magazine Atlantic Monthly. He convinced me to continue writing, to complete the book, and to publish it in installments in his magazine.”

Kropotkin wrote the chapters in English to be published in the magazine, but he also wrote each piece in Russian to have the text intact in both languages. However, this required time that he did not have available, and thus he only completed the English text. After the book was published in English, Kropotkin began adding notes in Russian - for the Russian edition of his book. But when he died in 1921, he had managed to complete only two chapters and scattered pieces.

As Kropotkin himself recommended, the English and Russian texts should not be combined. Therefore, this edition is a translation of the English; the pieces added from the Russian edition are published as notes. Kropotkin’s book represents the social history of an entire era. The author narrates how a prince and adjutant to the tsar became a revolutionary and anarchist.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]