Names on the buses

 650 Prince Petr Kropotkin

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Petr Kropotkin was born a Russian prince in 1842 and was trained for the Tsar’s court. But he had read the Origin of Species by Darwin and wanted to be a scientist. He quit, joining a Cossack regiment in Siberia where for five years he served as a geographer and naturalist. Kropotkin joined the Imperial Geographical Society in 1868 and could have become its secretary but instead went to Europe to study anarchy. He was interested in the idea that people could organise society by working together in co-operative fashion. After being jailed in more than one country, he settled in England, mainly in Brighton. There he worked as a science writer and also wrote a book called Mutual Aid. This showed how co-operative help was part of all human and animal societies. It had a big influence both in Britain and abroad. He lived for many years at Chesham Street in Kemp Town and wrote some of his books there. Later he moved to Rottingdean. The Prince became a great hero to local Socialists and trades unionists. When he left Brighton to return to Russia they presented him with an illuminated address thanking him for his help to British workers. Kropotkin as an old man was honoured in Russia as a pioneer revolutionary. Although he supported the Russian Revolution at the start, Kropotkin became disillusioned and told Lenin his actions were unworthy of his ideals. Often caricatured purely as an anarchist, he put forward ideas of interaction, not necessarily involving government, which have many adherents today.

650 - Scania Omnidekka carried name since March 2005 on Metro 49. Metro 49 branding removed November 2012. Bus sold in January 2021.