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.