Video footage of Pyotr Kropotkin's funeral which took place from 10th to 13th February, 1921. It was documented by 'Section of social chronicles of all-Russian cinema and photo publishing'.
A photograph from Pyotr Kropotkin's funeral, 13th February 1921.
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин; 9th December, 1842 – 8th February, 1921).
From 0:33 onwards you may see organising commission for the funeral, which included a number of well known anarchists at the time - Sandomirskyi, Perovskyi, Lebedev, Yarik (0:49), Askarov, Pavlov, Atabekyan (01:00), T. Shapiro, A. Shapiro, Alexey Borovoy, Piro (01:11), Gogelio, Maximov, Markus, Anosov, Chernyi (1:31) and Aleksandr Berkman (01:45).
Following is the funeral procession in Dmitrov, special procession train to Moscow and farewell in the house of the trade unions, where at 6:40 you may see Emma Goldman and Alexandr Berkman. .
Perhaps the most touching moment of the documentary is at 7:40, which is footage of anarchist political prisoners temporarily released in order to attend the funeral. A number of them never had another free day in their lives. Kropotkin's funeral was also to be the last public demonstration of anarchists in Moscow until 1988.
Finally, from 9:36 there is footage of speakers at Novodevichy cemetery on 13th February. These are Sandomirsky on behalf of anarchist organisations, Schteinberg on behalf of left-wing socialist revolutionaries, Pavlov on behalf of anarchists, Mostovenko on behalf of the Communist party (official authorities could not afford to ignore such an event), Ermansky on behalf of the Social democrat mensheviks, Rosmer on behalf of the communist international, Emma Goldman on behalf of American anarchists, Pevin on behalf of Moscow students and Baron on behalf of the Ukrainian anarchist federation 'Alarm'.
http://avtonom.org/en/news/film-about-kropotkins-funeral
[youtube]9KDvxYiwd-8[/youtube]
Comments
Very somber muzik.
Very somber muzik. Interesting video overall.
fascinating film. great to
fascinating film.
great to see the american banner.
From a comrade (crossposted
From a comrade (crossposted with the bio devoted to the sisters http://libcom.org/history/garaseva-anna-1902-1994-tatiana-1901-after-1997)
"Here's a passage from Anna Garaseva's memoirs relevant to the study Russian anarchists:
… in one of my books they discovered a letter Tatiana wrote to me from Moscow – an old letter, which she wrote in February 1921, when she studied in the faculty of social sciences at Moscow State University and attended Kropotkin’s funeral. … In her letter, Tatiana was able to describe the funeral in a lively and vivid fashion in part due to her familiarity with many anarchists from the student milieu. . . . I found her letter interesting and decided to save it.
I don’t know what the GPUers were thinking, but they were absolutely delighted with their find. The letter was written on old postal paper – narrow, long, with a heading on the top, and placed in a long, pre-revolutionary envelope. It’s probably still in our case file, for Tatiana saw it in 1948 when she was arrested for the third time. She was truly amazed that the letter had survived, but her interrogator assured her that such things were always kept, and that police files had top priority in being removed from Moscow to a safe place prior to the German assault in 1941. (pp. 71-72)"