Before Pyotr Kropotkin became synonymous with the anarchist movement, the Russian aristocrat was a cartographer, working for the Russian Geographical Society. In 1872, influenced by the rising wave of revolutionary activity (in particular, the Paris Commune) he decided to put his studies aside and investigate the workers’ movement himself. He set out for a three-month trip to Europe.

The Switzerland leg of his journey was pivotal. A succession of small towns in the hills of the Jura Mountains were home to the first-ever International Anarchist Congress in 1872. In those mountainous valleys, Kropotkin spent time with revolutionary workers, members of the anarchist Jura Federation. They were largely employed in the watchmaking trade, and Kropotkin theorized that the organization of the delicate work created a high level of intellectual development among the workers. These anarchists were not mere followers of one leader or another: as he wrote in a reflection on this visit, “there was not a question upon which every member of the federation would not strive to form his own independent opinion.”