Kropotkin matched his defence of the Russian revolutionary movement with a critique of Tsarism and in the course of his exile he established a reputation as a foremost commentator on the abuses of the regime. As well as raising awareness of the corruptions and brutality of Russian autocracy, Kropotkin also promoted anarchist politics in Russia. Working from a distance, he both encouraged anti-Tsarist activism in Western Europe and articulated a radical politics in order to encourage far-reaching change in Russia. As he put it in his Memoirs, he returned to Russia after his first trip to the West in 1872 convinced that ‘conflicts take place, not on the ground of vague aspirations, but upon definite issues; not upon secondary points … but upon broad ideas which inspire men by the grandness of their horizon which they bring into view’. In the 1870s and 1880s Kropotkin's commitments gave rise to three parallel accounts of the state. The first described the iniquities of the Tsarist regime and the social, economic and political problems that Russian revolutionaries were attempting to redress. The second was a general critique that probed ideas of class and slavery and set out the reasons why the constitutional solutions being proposed by radicals in Russia – and elsewhere – would fail to bring about the transformations that were required. The third was an examination of the dynamics of change that drew directly on his understanding of geography.

Against the State: Tsarism

In 1881 and 1882 Kropotkin wrote a series of articles explaining Russian autocracy. Written for a British audience, these articles presented a case study for the theoretical critique he advanced in Le Révolté during the same period. Kropotkin developed his account by examining Russia's recent history, looking especially at the reforming power of the 1861 Emancipation of the serfs. His view was that Alexander II's reform was part of a liberal agenda that was never fully implemented.