A nickname given to anarchocommunist activist, philosopher, and revolutionary Pyotr (Peter) Kropotkin (Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин) (1842 – 1921), largely in part due to his appearance: a jolly, balding
man with a large, white, bushy beard and glasses. These features combined make Kropotkin look strikingly like Santa Claus. The "
bread" part comes from Kropotkin'
s most popular and distinguished
work, "The Conquest of
Bread", in which among other things, he criticizes capitalism by outlining core issues including class struggle, poverty and scarcity.