Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/414

388 with Bělinskii's later judgment. "Gogol was not a deep thinker, but was a great artist Art in Gogol's conception is a torch-bearer Gogol was the first to introduce the social element into Russian literature."

Among the writers on philosophy and politics, those who, besides Černyševskii, exercised most influence upon Kropotkin were Bělinskii, Dobroljubov, and above all Pisarev. Kropotkin speaks of Bělinskii as "a teacher and an educator of Russian society, not only in art, but also in politics, in social questions, and in humanitarian aspirations." Mihailovskii was congenial to Kropotkin as adversary of Darwin and as critic.

Kropotkin is a narodnik in his high esteem for the Russian folk. Herein he agrees with the more progressive among the slavophils. In the mir, he discerns the social principle of federation. Prior to the Tatar dominion, Russia was not an absolutist state but a federation of distinct folk-communes. After the introduction of Mongolian tsarism, and after the establishment of the official church, these folk-communes remained the asylum of popular rights (in contradistinction to the right of the state and to the laws imposed by the state) and of the federative idea.

Therewith is connected, too, Kropotkin's aversion to the intellectuals. He extols Čehov and Hvoščinskaja because these two writers have depicted and analysed the complete mental and moral bankruptcy of the intellectuals. He sympathises with Gor'kii's rebel tramp, looking upon this figure, not as a Nietzschean superman, but as a strong and unselfish hero of the people, who is in revolt against society.

When we turn to the European influences that have affected Kropotkin, we have in the first place to speak of positivism. If Kropotkin be especially inclined to adopt Guyau's formulations, this is merely because Kropotkin has already directly and indirectly assimilated Comte's positivism from his Russian teachers. Kropotkin learned much from English thinkers, and notably from Bentham, Mill, and Spencer; Darwin's views underwent modification at his hands; in conformity with Marx, he definitely rejected the doctrines of Malthus. Kropotkin has spent the greater part of his life in England, and the English influence upon his mind is especially marked.

German philosophy had little direct effect upon Kropotkin. Nietzsche was akin to him as an evolutionist; he shared with