Kropotkin's Two Letters to Lenin

Dmitrov (Moscow province) 21 December, 1920 Respected Vladimir Illich, An announcement has been placed in  Izvestiia  and in  Pravda  which makes known the decision of the Soviet government to seize as hostages SRs [Social Revolutionary party members] from the [Boris] Savinkov and [Viktor] Chernov groups, White Guards of the nationalist and tactical center, and [Pyotr] Wrangel officers; and, in case of an [assassination] attempt on the leaders of the soviets, to "mercilessly exterminate" these hostages. Is there really no one around you to remind your comrades and to persuade them that such measures represent a return to the worst period of the Middle Ages and religious wars, and are undeserving of people who have taken it upon themselves to create a future society on communist principles? Whoever holds dear the future of communism cannot embark upon such measures. It is possible that no one has explained what a hostage really is? A hostage is imprisoned not as punishment for some cr…