The course of the French bourgeois revolution. Well, now, the promised jokes

Event: capture of the royal fortress Bastille by the people

King Louis the Sixteenth

Result: beginning of the French Revolution

Event:"Night of Miracles" Meeting of the first people's Constituent Assembly in the history of France.

What political forces were in power: King Louis the Sixteenth

Result: equality of all citizens before the law was declared. The privileges of the clergy and nobles were abolished. Church tithes, which all citizens had previously paid to the church, were abolished. Later, nobility was abolished in general and the first ever democratic “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” was adopted.

Event: people's march to Versailles. The king was forcibly taken from the Palace of Versailles and settled in Paris.

What political forces were in power: formally - the king, but in fact - revolutionaries

Result: The absolute monarchy was replaced by a constitutional one. Now it was not the people who did what the king wanted, but the king who carried out the will of the Constituent Assembly

Event: deposition of King Louis by the Paris Commune

What political forces were in power: Paris Commune of rebel revolutionaries. These are mainly guardsmen, soldiers and ordinary townspeople.

Result: Prussia, defending the king, started a war with France. The king is imprisoned.

Event: declaration of France as a Republic

What political forces were in power: National Convention of France (Girondin Party).

Result: The monarchy in the country was abolished altogether

Event: execution of Louis the Sixteenth in Paris

What political forces were in power: National Convention (Girondists)

Result: France is at war with several European powers defending the monarchy: Prussia, England, Spain.

Event: Jacobin uprising

What political forces were in power: Girondists and Montagnards

Result: a split among the revolutionaries, the rise to power of the Jacobins and Montagnards. The beginning of brutal revolutionary terror of the population. The Girondins were executed. All material goods were taken away from citizens in the interests of revolution and war.

Event: execution of Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis the Sixteenth

What political forces were in power: Jacobin National Convention and Paris Commune

Result: another “enemy of the revolution” destroyed

Event: Thermidorian coup. A split among the leadership of the revolutionaries. The Commune took up arms on the side of Robespierre against the other Jacobins.

What political forces were in power: Paris Commune and National Convention.

Result: Robespierre was defeated and executed along with his supporters. The Paris Commune fell. The revolution weakened, and the Jacobins themselves began to be persecuted.

Event: Coup of the 18th Brumaire

What political forces were in power: Directory

Result: The end of the Great French Revolution. The victory of the military monarchy in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, who proclaimed the power of the Provisional Government in the person of three consuls, one of whom was himself. Later he would take power into his own hands.

The Great French Revolution is known as the largest transformation of the country's political and social systems with the complete abolition of the absolute monarchy. According to historians, it lasted more than ten years (from 1789 to 1799).

Causes

Eighteenth-century France also means complete disorder in the socio-economic sphere. The authorities in their rule relied on the army and bureaucratic centralization. Due to numerous civil and peasant wars in the last century, rulers had to make unfavorable compromises (with peasants, bourgeois, privileged classes). But even despite the concessions made, the masses were increasingly dissatisfied.

The first wave of dissent arose under Louis XV, and reached its peak during the reign of Louis XVI. The philosophical and political works of enlighteners added fuel to the fire (for example, Montesquieu criticized the authorities, calling the king a usurper, and Rousseau championed the rights of the people). Thus, discontent was brewing not only among the lower strata of the population, but also among educated society.

So, the main reasons for the French Revolution:

decline and stagnation of market relations;
disorder in the control system;
corruption and sale of government positions;
unclear tax system;
poorly formulated legislation;
archaic system of privileges for different classes;
lack of trust in authorities;
the need for reforms in the economic and political spheres.

Events

The above reasons for the French Revolution reflect only the internal state of the country. But the first impetus for the coup came from the American War of Independence, when the English colonies rebelled. This served as a signal for all classes to support the ideas of human rights, freedom and equality.

The war required enormous expenditures, treasury funds were exhausted, and there was a shortage. It was decided to convene in order to carry out financial reform. But what was planned by the king and his advisers did not happen. During the meeting at Versailles, the Third Estate stood in opposition and declared itself a National Assembly, demanding the adoption of

From the point of view of historians, the French Revolution itself (its stages will be briefly described) began with the symbol of the monarchy - July 14, 1789.

All events of the ten-year period can be divided into parts:

Constitutional monarchy (until 1792).
Girondin period (until May 1793).
Jacobin period (until 1794).
Thermidorian period (until 1795).
Period of the Directory (until 1799).
Brumaire coup (end of the revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte comes to power in November 1799).

The causes of the French Revolution during this decade were never resolved, but the people had hope for a better future, and Bonaparte became their “savior” and ideal ruler.

Monarchy

The king was deposed on September 21, 1792, after his palace was surrounded by about twenty thousand rebels.

He and his family were locked up in the Temple. The monarch was accused of betraying the nation and state. Louis refused all lawyers; at the trial, relying on the Constitution, he defended himself. By the decision of twenty-four deputies he was found guilty and sentenced to death. On January 21, 1793, the sentence was put into effect. On October 16, 1793, his wife Marie Antoinette was executed.

Afterwards, some countries and French monarchists recognized his young son Louis-Charles as the next king. However, he was not destined to ascend the throne. At the age of ten, the boy died in the Temple, the place of his imprisonment. Formally, the cause of death was listed as tuberculosis.

Thus, of all the children, only Maria Theresa remained alive, who was released from captivity in 1793 in exchange for French prisoners of war. She went abroad. She managed to return to her homeland only in 1814.

Results

The results of the French Revolution are such that the old order collapsed. The country entered new era with a democratic and progressive future.

However, many historians argue that the causes of the French Revolution did not involve such a long and bloody transformation. According to Alexis Tocqueville, what the coup led to would have happened naturally over time and would not have resulted in so many casualties.

Another part of historians highly appreciates the significance of the French Revolution, noting that, based on its example, Latin America was freed from colonization.

France before the revolution was a rich and prosperous power: constituting approximately 1/5 of the population of Europe, it concentrated over a quarter of its wealth. Revolution 1789-1794 was essentially inevitable, since French society, which continued to bear the burden of feudal ideas and institutions, reached a dead end. The absolute monarchy could not prevent the steadily growing economic, social and political crisis. The main obstacle to the further development of France was the absolute monarchy. It had long ceased to express national interests and more and more openly defended medieval class privileges, including exclusive land ownership of the nobility, the guild system, trade monopolies and other attributes of feudalism.

Prerequisites for the Great French Revolution:

growing dissatisfaction with the existing order among broad sections of the population, incl. the bourgeoisie, part of the nobility and clergy;
crop failure, financial crisis caused by immense spending on the maintenance of the army, apparatus and royal court;
oppression of the bureaucracy, arbitrariness in the courts;
extortionate exactions from peasants, guild regulations that hindered the development of manufactures, customs barriers, depravity of the ruling elite.

French enlighteners (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Morreli, J.-J. Rousseau, Diderot, Holbach) played a particularly significant role in preparing the revolution. Religion, understanding of nature, society, public order- everything was subjected to merciless criticism.
The ideas of Montesquieu formed the basis of the Constitution of 1791, the creators of the Constitution of 1793 were guided by the teachings of Rousseau, and the ideas of Adam Smith were the basis of the Civil Code of 1804.

Stages of the Great French Revolution

There are three stages in the history of the French Revolution:

July 14, 1789 - August 10, 1792;
August 10, 1792 - June 2, 1793;
the highest stage of the revolution - June 2, 1793 - July 27/28, 1794.

The first stage of the Great French Revolution

In May 1789, the Estates General was convened (a body of class representation, convened 3 times a year, in which the nobility, clergy and third estate were represented). The king demanded the introduction of new taxes, insisting on voting by estate (each estate - one vote). The Estates General refused to obey. It was determined that decisions should be made by a majority vote at joint meetings of the estates. This majority turned out to be on the side of the opposition forces. The king tried to dissolve the Estates General, which objectively reflected the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility and sought to preserve the monarchy, to lay a solid foundation of constitutionalism under the shaky edifice of the old statehood (in this regard, the leaders of the third estate in the Constituent Assembly were called constitutionalists).

Constitutionalists had as their main and immediate political goal achieving a compromise with the royal power, but at the same time they constantly experienced the “influence of the street” - the revolutionary-minded masses. Thus, The main content of the first period of the revolution was the intense and protracted struggle of the Constituent Assembly with the royal power for a constitution, for the reduction of traditional royal prerogatives, for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

The Estates General proclaimed themselves the National and then the Constituent Assembly, declaring that they were engaged in the reorganization of the state. Troops were brought to Paris. On July 14, 1789, the rebels of Paris with the soldiers who went over to their side took possession of the Bastille. Moderate forces of the revolution came to power - the Feuillants, who advocated a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of feudal remnants.

On August 11, 1789, the Constituent Assembly adopted a decree “On the abolition of feudal rights and privileges,” according to which:

feudal orders were abolished;
personal duties were abolished;
the lands of emigrants were transferred into perpetual possession or were subject to sale;
the sale of positions was prohibited;
seigneurial justice was abolished;
the lands of the clergy were transferred to the disposal of the nation;
internal restrictions on goods and the guild system were abolished;
the territory was divided into 83 departments.

The National Assembly adopted the “Declaration of Human Rights”, which proclaimed:

sacredness and inviolability of natural rights and freedoms;
the principle of national;
principle of legality;
principles of criminal procedure and law.

Legislature was granted to a unicameral legislative assembly. A small part of the population - active citizens (4 out of 26 million people) took part in his election; women were not allowed to participate in the elections. Deputies were elected for two years, enjoyed the right of immunity and were representatives of the entire nation.
Powers of the meeting:

publication of laws;
adoption of the budget (establishment of taxes, determination of government expenditures);
determining the size of the army and navy;
holding ministers accountable;
ratification of treaties with foreign states. The king retained the right of suspensive veto on laws adopted by the Assembly, and the decision to go to war was subject to approval by the king.

In the interests of which the government also did a lot, taking great care of the “national wealth”, that is, the development of the manufacturing industry and trade. However, it turned out to be increasingly difficult to satisfy the desires and demands of both the nobility and the bourgeoisie, who in their mutual struggle sought support from the royal power.

On the other hand, both feudal and capitalist exploitation increasingly armed the masses against themselves, whose most legitimate interests were completely ignored by the state. In the end, the position of royal power in France became extremely difficult: every time it defended old privileges, it met with liberal opposition, which grew stronger - and every time new interests were satisfied, conservative opposition arose, which became more and more sharp.

Royal absolutism was losing credit in the eyes of the clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie, among whom the idea was asserted that absolute royal power was a usurpation in relation to the rights of estates and corporations (point of view) or in relation to the rights of the people (point of view).

General course of events from 1789 to 1799

Background

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to get out of a difficult financial situation, he announced in December that in five years he would convene the government officials of France. When he became a minister for the second time, he insisted that they be convened in 1789. The government, however, did not have any specific program. At court they thought least of all about this, at the same time considering it necessary to make a concession to public opinion.

Estates General

National Assembly

The National Assembly was saved, and Louis XVI again conceded: he even went to Paris, where he appeared to the people, wearing a tricolor national cockade on his hat (red and blue are the colors of the Parisian coat of arms, white is the color of the royal banner).

In France itself, the storming of the Bastille served as a signal for a number of uprisings in the provinces. Peasants were especially worried, refusing to pay feudal duties, church tithes and state taxes. They attacked castles, destroyed them and burned them, and several nobles or their stewards were killed. When alarming news began to arrive at Versailles about what was happening in the provinces, two liberal nobles introduced a proposal to the assembly to abolish feudal rights, some free of charge, others by ransom. Then the famous night meeting took place (q.v.), in which deputies of the upper classes began vying to renounce their privileges, and the meeting adopted decrees that abolished class advantages, feudal rights, serfdom, church tithes, privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations and declaring the equality of all before the law in the payment of state taxes and the right to occupy civil, military and ecclesiastical positions.

Noble emigration began. The emigrants’ threats to the “rebels” and their alliance with foreigners supported and intensified the anxiety among the people; The court and all the nobles remaining in France began to suspect of complicity with the emigrants. Responsibility for much of what subsequently happened in France therefore falls on the emigrants.

Meanwhile, the national assembly took up the new structure of France. A few days before the destruction of the Bastille, it adopted the name of constituent, officially recognizing for itself the right to give the state new institutions. The first task of the meeting was to draw up a declaration of human and civil rights, which was demanded by many. The court still did not want to make concessions and did not lose hope for a military coup. Although Louis XVI, after July 14, promised not to gather troops to Paris, nevertheless, new regiments began to arrive at Versailles. At one officers' banquet, in the presence of the king and his family, the military tore off their tricolor cockades and trampled them under their feet, and the ladies of the court handed them cockades made of white ribbons. This caused the second Parisian uprising and a march of a crowd of one hundred thousand, in which there were especially many women, to Versailles: they broke into the palace, demanding the king move to Paris (-). Louis XVI was forced to fulfill this demand, and after the king and the national assembly moved to Paris, they moved their meetings there, which, as it later turned out, limited his freedom: the extremely excited population more than once dictated its will to representatives of the entire nation.

Political clubs were formed in Paris, which also discussed the issue of the future structure of France. One of these clubs, called the Jacobin club, began to play a particularly influential role, because it had many very popular deputies and many of its members enjoyed authority among the population of Paris. Subsequently, he began to open his branches in all the main cities of France. Extreme opinions began to dominate in the clubs, and they also took over the political press.

In the national assembly itself, not only were there no organized parties, but it even seemed shameful to belong to any “faction.” Nevertheless, several different political directions emerged in the assembly: some (the higher clergy and nobility) still dreamed of preserving the old order; others (Mounier, Lalli-Tollendal, Clermont-Tonnerre) considered it necessary to provide the king with only executive power and, preserving the primacy of the clergy and nobility, to divide the national assembly into an upper and lower house; still others imagined the future constitution with nothing other than one chamber (, Bailly, ); further, there were figures who wanted to give greater influence to the Parisian population and clubs (Duport, Barnave, the Lamet brothers), and future figures of the republic were already emerging (Gregoire, Pétion, Buzot), who, however, remained monarchists at that time.

Legislative Assembly

Immediately after the constituent assembly ceased to function, its place was taken by a legislative assembly, to which new and inexperienced people were elected. The right side of the meeting room was occupied by constitutional monarchists ( Feuillants); people without sharply defined views took middle places; the left side consisted of two parties - Girondins And Montagnards. The first of these two parties consisted of very capable people and included several brilliant speakers; its most prominent representatives were Vergniaud, and. The Girondins were challenged by the Montagnards for their influence on the assembly and the people. main strength which was in the Jacobin and other clubs. The most influential members of this party were people who were not part of the assembly: , . The rivalry between the Girondins and the Jacobins began in the very first months of the legislative assembly and became one of the main facts of the history of the revolution.

The Legislative Assembly decided to confiscate the property of emigrants, and punish disobedient priests with deprivation of civil rights, deportation, and even prison. Louis XVI did not want to approve the decrees of the assembly on emigrants and unsworn clergy, but this only aroused extreme discontent among the people against himself. The king was increasingly suspected of secret relations with foreign courts. The Girondins, in the assembly, in clubs, and in the press, argued for the need to respond to the defiant behavior of foreign governments with a “war of peoples against kings” and accused ministers of treason. Louis XVI resigned the ministry and appointed a new one from like-minded people of the Gironde. In the spring of the year, the new ministry insisted on declaring war on Austria, where at that time Francis II already reigned; Prussia also entered into an alliance with Austria. This was the beginning that had a great influence on the history of all of Europe.

Soon, however, Louis XVI resigned from the ministry, which caused a popular uprising in Paris (); Crowds of insurgents took possession of the royal palace and, surrounding Louis XVI, demanded that he approve the decrees on emigrants and priests and the return of the Girondin ministers. When the commander-in-chief of the allied Austro-Prussian army, the Duke of Brunswick, issued a manifesto in which he threatened the French with executions, the burning of houses, and the destruction of Paris, a new uprising broke out in the capital (), accompanied by the beating of the guards who guarded the royal palace. Louis XVI and his family found a safe haven in the legislative assembly, but the latter, in his presence, decided to remove him from power and take him into custody, and to convene an emergency meeting called national convention.

National Convention

The system of intimidation, or terror, received more and more development; the Girondins wanted to put an end to it, but sought to strengthen it, relying on the Jacobin club and the lower strata of the Parisian population (the so-called sans-culottes). The Montagnards were only looking for a reason to reprisal the Girondins. In the spring of the year, he fled abroad with the son of the Duke of Orleans (“Philippe Egalité”), whom he wanted, with the help of troops, to place on the French throne (he became king of France only as a result). This was blamed on the Girondins, since Dumouriez was considered their general. The external danger was complicated by internal strife: that same spring, a large popular uprising, led by priests and nobles, broke out in I (northwestern corner of France) against the convention. To save the fatherland, the convention ordered the recruitment of three hundred thousand people and gave the system of terror an entire organization. Executive power, with the most unlimited powers, was entrusted to the Committee of Public Safety, which sent its commissioners from among the members of the convention to the provinces. The main instrument of terror became the revolutionary court, which decided cases quickly and without formalities and sentenced people to death by guillotine, often on the basis of suspicion alone. At the instigation of the Montagnard party, at the end of May and beginning of June, crowds of people twice broke into the convention and demanded that the Girondins be expelled as traitors and brought before a revolutionary court. The Convention yielded to this demand and expelled the most prominent Girondins.

Some of them fled from Paris, others were arrested and tried by the revolutionary court. The terror intensified even more when a fan of the Girondins, a young girl, killed with a dagger, who was distinguished by the greatest bloodthirstiness, and uprisings broke out in Normandy and some large cities (in,), in which the fleeing Girondins also took part. This gave reason to accuse the Girondins of federalism, that is, in an effort to fragment France into several union republics, which would be especially dangerous in view of foreign invasion. The Jacobins, therefore, vigorously advocated a tightly centralized "one and indivisible republic." After the fall of the Girondins, many of whom were executed and some committed suicide, the Jacobin terrorists, led by Robespierre, became masters of the situation. France was governed by the Committee of Public Safety, which controlled the state police (committee of general security) and the convention commissioners in the provinces, who everywhere organized revolutionary committees from the Jacobins. Shortly before their fall, the Girondins drafted a new constitution; the Jacobins reworked it into the constitution of 1793, which was adopted by popular vote. The dominant party decided, however, not to introduce it until all enemies of the republic were eliminated.

After the liquidation of the Girondins, Robespierre's contradictions with Danton and the extreme terrorist came to the fore. In the spring of the year, first Hébert and him, and then Danton, were arrested, tried by a revolutionary court and executed. After these executions, Robespierre no longer had rivals.

One of his first measures was the establishment in France, by decree of the convention, of the veneration of the Supreme Being, according to the idea of “civil religion” by Rousseau. The new cult was solemnly announced during a ceremony arranged by Robespierre, who played the role of high priest of the “civil religion.”

The terror was intensifying: the revolutionary court received the right to try members of the convention itself without the latter’s permission. However, when Robespierre demanded new executions, without naming the names of those against whom he was preparing to act as an accuser, the majority of the terrorists themselves, frightened by this, overthrew Robespierre and his closest assistants. This event is known as the 9th Thermidor (). The next day, Robespierre was executed, and with him his main followers (, etc.).

Bibliographic index

General histories of the revolution- Thiers, Minier, Buchet and Roux (see below), Louis Blanc, Michelet, Quinet, Tocqueville, Chassin, Taine, Cheret, Sorel, Aulard, Jaurès, Laurent (much has been translated into Russian);

popular books by Carnot, Rambaud, Champion (“Esprit de la révolution fr.”, 1887), etc.;
Carlyle, "French revolution" (1837);
Stephens, "History of fr. rev.";
Wachsmuth, "Gesch. Frankreichs im Revolutionszeitalter" (1833-45);
Dahlmann, "Gesch. der fr. Rev." (1845); Arnd, idem (1851-52);
Sybel, "Gesch. der Revolutionszeit" (1853 et seq.);
Häusser, “Gesch. der fr. Rev." (1868);
L. Stein, "Geschichte der socialen Bewegung in Frankreich" (1850);
Blos, "Gesch. der fr. Rev."; in Russian - op. Lyubimov and M. Kovalevsky.
Historical sketches about the French Revolution. In memory of V.M. Dalina (on her 95th birthday) / Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. M., 1998.

Periodicals, specially dedicated to the history of the French Revolution:

"Revue de la révolution", ed. Ch. d'Héricault et G. Bord (published 1883-87);
"La Révolution franç aise" (from 1881, and edited by Aulard from 1887).

Essays on the convening of the States General and about the orders of 1789. In addition to the works of Tocqueville, Chassin, Poncins, Cherest, Guerrier, Kareev and M. Kovalevsky, indicated in respectively. article, see

A. Brette, “Recueil de documents relatifs à la convocation des états généraux de 1789”;
Edme Champion, "La France d'après les cahiers de 1789";
N. Lyubimov, “The Collapse of the Monarchy in France” (cahiers’ demands regarding public education);
A. Onou, “Orders of the Third Estate in France in 1789” (“Journal of the Ministry of Public Education”, 1898-1902);
his, “La comparution des paroisses en 1789”;
Richard, “La bibliographie des cahiers de doléances de 1789”;
V. Khoroshun, “Noble orders in France in 1789.”

Essays on individual episodes French Revolution.

E. et J. de Goncourt, “Histoire de la société française sous la révolution”;
Brette, “Le serment du Jeu de paume”;
Bord, "La prise de la Bastille";
Tournel, "Les hommes du 14 juillet";
Lecocq, "La prise de la Bastille; Flammermont, "Relations inédites sur la prise de la Bastille";
Pitra, "La journée du juillet de 1789"; N. Lyubimov, “The first days of Φ. revolutions according to unpublished sources";
Lambert, “Les fédérations et la fête du 14 juillet 1790”;
J. Pollio et A. Marcel, “Le bataillon du 10 août”;
Dubost, "Danton et les massacres de septembre";
Beaucourt, “Captivité et derniers moments de Louis XVI”;
Ch. Vatel, "Charlotte Corday et les girondins";
Robinet, "Le procès des dantonistes";
Wallon, "Le fédéralisme";
Gaulot, “Un complot sous la terreur”;
Aulard, “Le culte de la raison et le culte de l’Etre Suprème” (presentation in the VI volume of the “Historical Review”);
Claretie, "Les derniers montagnards"
D'Héricault, "La révolution de thermidor";
Thurau-Dangin, “Royalistes et républicains”;
Victor Pierre, “La terreur sous le Directoire”;
his, “Le rétablissement du culte catholique en France en 1795 et 1802”;
H. Welschinger, “Le directoire et le concile national de 1797”;
Victor Advielles, "Histoire de Baboeuf et du babouvisme";
B. Lavigue, “Histoire de l’insurrection royaliste de l’an VII”;
Félix Rocquain, “L"état de la France au 18 brumaire";
Paschal Grousset, “Les origines d'une dynastie; le coup d"état de brumaire de l'an VIII".

Social significance of the French Revolution.

Lorenz Stein, “Geschichte der socialen Bewegung in Frankreich”;
Eugen Jäger, “Die francösische Revolution und die sociale Bewegung”;
Lichtenberger, “Le socialisme et la révol. fr.";
Kautsky, “Die Klassengegensätze von 1789” and others.

Essays on the history of legislation and institutions of the French Revolution.

Chalamel, “Histoire de la liberté de la presse en France depuis 1789”;
Doniol, “La féodalité et la révolution française”;
Ferneuil, “Les principes de 1789 et la science sociale”;
Gomel, “Histoire financière de la constituante”;
A. Desjardins, “Les cahiers de 1789 et la législation criminelle”;
Gazier, “Etudes sur l’histoire religieuse de la révolution française”;
Laferrière, “Histoire des principles, des institutions et des lois pendant la révolution française”; Lavergne, "Economie rurale en France depuis 1789";
Lavasseur, “Histoire de classes ouvrières en France depuis 1789”;
B. Minzes, “Die Nationalgüterveräusserung der franz. Revolution";
Rambaud, "Histoire de la civilization contemporaine";
Richter, “Staats- und Gesellschaftsrecht der francösischen Revolution”;
Sciout, “Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé”;
Valette, “De la durée persistante de l’ensemble du droit civil française pendant et après la révolution”;
Vuitry, “Etudes sur le régime financier de la France sous la révolution”;
Sagnac, “Législation civile de la révol. franc."

Links

The French Revolution. Articles from encyclopedias, chronicles of the revolution, articles and publications. Biographies of political figures. Cards.

When writing this article, material from (1890-1907) was used.

By the end of the 18th century. In France, all the prerequisites for a bourgeois revolution took shape. The capitalist structure, progressive for that time, achieved significant development. But the establishment of a new, capitalist mode of production was hampered by the feudal-absolutist system, feudal relations of production. Only a revolution could destroy this barrier.

1. France on the eve of the revolution

The formation of a revolutionary situation.

Deep contradictions separated the so-called third estate from the privileged estates - the clergy and nobility, which were the stronghold of the feudal-absolutist system. Constituting approximately 99% of the French population, the Third Estate was politically powerless, dependent on both privileged estates and on the autocratic royal power. At the level of development of capitalism that France reached by the end of the 18th century, under the medieval uniform shell of the third estate hid class groups that were completely heterogeneous in their property and social status. Nevertheless, all classes and class groups that were part of the third estate suffered, although not to the same extent, from the feudal-absolutist system and were vitally interested in its destruction.

The development of capitalist relations imperatively required the expansion of the domestic market, and this was impossible without the destruction of feudal oppression in the countryside. Since feudalism was rooted primarily in agriculture, the main issue of the impending revolution was the agrarian question.

In the 80s of the 18th century, when the main contradictions of feudal society became deeply aggravated, France was struck by the commercial and industrial crisis of 1787-1789. and the crop failure of 1788. The mass of poor peasants who worked in the villages for capitalist manufacturing and buyers lost their extra income due to the crisis in industry. Many peasant otkhodniks, who usually went to big cities in the fall and winter for construction work, they also found no use for their labor. Beggary and vagrancy increased to unprecedented proportions; in Paris alone the number of unemployed and beggars amounted to almost a third of the total population. The need and misfortune of the people have reached their limit. The growing wave of peasant and plebeian uprisings indicated that the lower classes - the multimillion-dollar peasantry, exploited and oppressed by the nobles, the church, local and central authorities, the urban petty bourgeoisie, artisans, workers oppressed by overwork and extreme poverty, and the urban poor - no longer wanted to live according to -old.
After the crop failure of 1788, popular uprisings swept many provinces of the kingdom. The rebellious peasants broke into grain barns and landowners' bins, forcing grain traders to sell it at a lower, or, as they said then, “honest” price.

At the same time, the top could no longer govern in the old way. An acute financial crisis and the bankruptcy of the state treasury forced the monarchy to urgently find funds to cover current expenses. However, even at the meeting of "notables", convened in 1787 and consisting of representatives of the highest nobility and officials, King Louis XVI was met with strong opposition and demands for reform. The demand for the convening of the Estates General, which had not met for 175 years, found widespread support. The king was forced in August 1788 to agree to their convening and again appointed as head of the financial department a minister popular among the bourgeoisie, whom he had dismissed in 1781, the banker Necker.

In its struggle against the privileged classes, the bourgeoisie needed the support of the popular masses. The news of the convening of the Estates General aroused great hopes among the people. Food unrest in the cities became increasingly intertwined with the political movement led by the bourgeoisie. The protests of workers and other plebeian elements of the urban population began to take on a violent, openly revolutionary character. Major popular unrest occurred in 1788 in Rennes, Grenoble, and Besançon; At the same time, in Rennes and Besançon, part of the troops sent to suppress the uprising refused to shoot at the people.

In the fall of 1788, winter and spring of 1789, workers and the urban poor in many cities, including such large ones as Marseille, Toulon, and Orleans, attacked the houses of officials, seized grain in warehouses, and set fixed, reduced prices for bread. and for other food products.

At the end of April 1789, an uprising broke out in the Saint-Antoine suburb of Paris. The rebels destroyed the houses of the hated owner of the wallpaper manufactory Reveillon and another industrialist, Henriot. Detachments of guards and cavalry were sent against the rebels, but the workers put up staunch resistance, using stones, cobblestones from the pavement, and tiles from the roofs. In the bloody battle that ensued, several hundred people were killed and wounded. The uprising was suppressed, but the workers recaptured the corpses of their slain comrades from the troops and a few days later they were escorted to the cemetery in a majestic and menacing funeral demonstration. The uprising in the Saint-Antoine suburb made a great impression on his contemporaries. It showed how high the wave of popular anger rises, what enormous forces it conceals within itself.

The leaders - the king and the feudal aristocracy - turned out to be powerless to stop the growth of popular indignation. The old levers with which the royal authorities kept the people in obedience were now failing. Violent repression no longer achieved its goal.

Contrary to the calculations of the court, the decision to convene the Estates General did not bring peace, but only contributed to the strengthening of the political activity of the broad masses. The drawing up of orders for deputies, the discussion of these orders, the very elections of deputies of the third estate - all this heated up the political atmosphere for a long time. In the spring of 1789, public excitement swept across France.

Estates General. Transforming them into the Constituent Assembly

On May 5, 1789, meetings of the Estates General opened in Versailles. The king and deputies from the nobility and clergy sought to limit the Estates General to the functions of an advisory body, designed, in their opinion, to resolve only a private issue - the financial difficulties of the treasury. On the contrary, the deputies of the third estate insisted on expanding the rights of the Generals; states, sought to transform them into the highest legislative body of the country.
For more than a month, fruitless arguments continued about the order of holding meetings - estate by estate (which would give an advantage to the nobility and clergy) or jointly (which would provide a leadership role to the deputies of the third estate, who had half of all mandates).

On June 17, the meeting of deputies of the third estate decided on a bold act: it proclaimed itself the National Assembly, inviting other deputies to join them. On June 20, in response to the government’s attempt to disrupt the next meeting of the National Assembly, deputies of the third estate, having gathered in the building of the arena (in the ballroom), took an oath not to disperse until a constitution was developed.
Three days later, by order of the king, a meeting of the Estates General was convened, at which the king invited the deputies to divide into classes and sit separately. But the deputies of the third estate did not obey this order, continued their meetings and attracted to their side some of the deputies of other estates, including a group of influential representatives of the liberal nobility. On July 9, the National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly - the highest representative and legislative body of the French people, designed to develop basic laws for them.

The king and the adherents of the feudal-absolutist system who supported him did not want to put up with the decisions of the National Assembly. Troops loyal to the king gathered in Paris and Versailles. The royal court was preparing to disperse the Assembly. On July 11, Louis XVI resigned Necker and ordered him to leave the capital.

2. The beginning of the revolution. The Fall of Absolutism

Storming of the Bastille

On July 12, the first clashes between the people and the troops took place. On July 13, the alarm sounded over the capital. Workers, artisans, small traders, office workers, and students filled the squares and streets. The people began to arm themselves; Tens of thousands of guns were captured.

But a formidable fortress remained in the hands of the government - the Bastille prison. The eight towers of this fortress, surrounded by two deep ditches, seemed like an indestructible stronghold of absolutism. On the morning of July 14, crowds of people rushed to the walls of the Bastille. The commandant of the fortress gave the order to open fire. Despite the casualties, the people continued to advance. The ditches were crossed; the assault on the fortress began. Carpenters and roofers built the scaffolding. The artillerymen, who went over to the side of the people, opened fire and broke the chains of one of the drawbridges with cannonballs. The people broke into the fortress and took possession of the Bastille.

The victorious uprising on July 14, 1789 was the beginning of the revolution. The king and the feudal party had to make concessions under pressure from the masses. Necker was returned to power. The king accepted the decisions of the National Assembly.

During these days, a city government body arose in Paris - a municipality composed of representatives of the big bourgeoisie. A bourgeois national guard was formed. Its commander was the Marquis Lafayette, who gained his popularity by participating in the war of England's North American colonies for independence.
The fall of the Bastille made a huge impression not only in France, but also far beyond its borders. In Russia, in England, in the German and Italian states, all progressive people enthusiastically welcomed the revolutionary events in Paris.

"Municipal revolution" and peasant uprisings

The revolution quickly spread throughout the country.

On July 18, an uprising began in Troyes, on the 19th in Strasbourg, on the 21st in Cherbourg, and on the 24th in Rouen. In Strasbourg, the rebel people were complete masters of the city for two days. Workers armed with axes and hammers broke down the doors of the city hall, and the people rushed into the building and burned all the documents stored there. In Rouen and Cherbourg, local residents who took to the streets shouting: “Bread!” and “Death to the buyers!” forced the sale of bread at reduced prices. In Troyes, the rebel people seized weapons and took possession of the town hall.

In provincial cities, old government bodies were abolished and elected municipalities were created. Often, royal officials and old city authorities, in fear of popular unrest, preferred to cede power to new, bourgeois municipalities without resistance.

The news of the uprising in Paris and the fall of the formidable Bastille gave a powerful impetus to the peasant movement. The peasants armed themselves with pitchforks, sickles and flails, destroyed the landowners' estates, burned feudal archives, seized and divided the landowners' meadows and forests.

The Russian writer Karamzin, who passed through Alsace in August 1789, wrote: “Excitement is noticeable everywhere in Alsace. Entire villages are arming themselves.” The same was observed in other provinces. Peasant uprisings that began in the center of the country, Ile-de-France, spread in an irresistible stream and at the end of July and August covered almost the entire country. In the province of Dauphiné, out of every five noble castles, three were burned or destroyed. Forty castles were destroyed in Franche-Comte. In Limousin, peasants erected a gallows in front of the castle of one marquis with the inscription: “Here will be hanged anyone who decides to pay rent to the landowner, as well as the landowner himself, if he decides to make such a demand.”

Fear-stricken nobles abandoned their estates and fled to big cities from the countryside raging with the fire of peasant uprisings.

Peasant uprisings forced the Constituent Assembly to hastily address the agrarian question. In decisions taken on August 4-11, 1789, the Constituent Assembly declared that “the feudal regime is completely destroyed.” However, only so-called personal duties and church tithes were abolished free of charge. Other feudal obligations arising from the peasant's holding of a plot of land were subject to redemption. The ransom was established in the interests of not only the nobility, but also that part of the big bourgeoisie, which intensively bought up lands that belonged to the nobility, and along with them acquired feudal rights.

"Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen"

Peasant uprisings and the “municipal revolution” in the cities expanded and consolidated the victory won by the people of Paris on July 14, 1789. Power in the country actually passed into the hands of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie dominated the municipalities of Paris and other cities of France. The armed force of the revolution - the National Guard - was under her leadership. The Constituent Assembly was also dominated by the bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility that joined it.

The bourgeoisie was then a revolutionary class. She fought against the feudal-absolutist system and sought to destroy it. The ideologists of the bourgeoisie, who headed the third estate, identified the social ideals of their class with the interests of the entire French nation and even all of humanity.

On August 26, 1789, the Constituent Assembly adopted the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” - the most important document French Revolution, which had world-historical significance. “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights,” said the Declaration. This revolutionary principle was proclaimed at a time when in most of the world man remained a slave, a thing, when in the Russian Empire and in other feudal-absolutist states there were millions of serfs, and in the colonies of bourgeois-aristocratic England and in the United States of America flourished slave trade. The principles proclaimed by the Declaration were a bold, revolutionary challenge to the old, feudal world. The Declaration declared personal freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, and the right to resist oppression as natural, sacred, inalienable rights of man and citizen.
In an era when the feudal-absolutist order still dominated almost all of Europe, the bourgeois-democratic, anti-feudal principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen played a great progressive role. They made a huge impression on their contemporaries and left a deep imprint on the public consciousness of peoples. However, the Declaration declared the right of property to be the same “sacred” and inviolable right. True, this then also contained an element of progressive - the protection of bourgeois property from the attacks of the feudal-absolutist system. But above all, property rights were turned against the poor. His proclamation in fact created the best conditions for a new form of exploitation of man by man - the capitalist exploitation of the working people.

The sharp discrepancy between the humanistic principles, the broad democratic promises of the Declaration and the real policies of the Constituent Assembly quickly became apparent.

In the Constituent Assembly, the leading role was played by the constitutionalist party, which expressed the interests of the elite of the bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility. The leaders of this party - the brilliant orator, the flexible and two-faced political businessman Count Mirabeau, the secretive and resourceful Abbot Sieyes and others - enjoyed great influence and popularity in the Constituent Assembly. They were supporters of a constitutional monarchy and limited reforms that were supposed to strengthen the dominance of the big bourgeoisie. Having risen to power on the crest of a popular uprising, the big bourgeoisie immediately revealed its desire to prevent deep democratic changes.

Five days after the Constituent Assembly enthusiastically adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, it began discussing a bill on the electoral system. According to the law approved by the Assembly, citizens were divided into active and passive. Citizens who did not have property qualifications were declared passive - they were deprived of the right to choose and be elected. Citizens who had the established qualifications were considered active; they were granted voting rights. In direct contradiction to the principle of equality proclaimed in the Declaration, the bourgeoisie tried to legitimize its dominance and leave the working people politically powerless.

People's performance on October 5-6

The king and the court party were by no means inclined to put up with the gains of the revolution and were actively preparing for a counter-revolutionary coup. The king did not approve the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the August decrees on the abolition of feudal rights. In September, new troops were called to Versailles. On October 1, a counter-revolutionary demonstration of reactionary officers took place in the royal palace. All this testified to the intention of the king and his entourage to disperse the Constituent Assembly and suppress the revolution with the help of military force.
In the fall of 1789, the food situation in Paris again deteriorated sharply. The poor were starving. Discontent grew among the broad masses of the capital's working people, especially among women who stood in lines for bread for hours. It also intensified under the influence of persistent rumors about counter-revolutionary preparations at the court. On October 5, huge crowds of people moved to Versailles. The people surrounded the royal palace, and at dawn on October 6, they broke into it. The king was forced not only to approve all the decisions of the Constituent Assembly, but also, at the request of the people, to move with his family to Paris. Following the king, the Constituent Assembly also moved its meetings there.

This new revolutionary uprising of the people of Paris, as in the July days, thwarted the counter-revolutionary plans of the court and prevented the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly. After moving to the capital, the king found himself under the watchful supervision of the masses and could no longer openly resist revolutionary changes. The Constituent Assembly was able to continue its work unhindered and carry out further bourgeois reforms.

Confiscation of church lands. Bourgeois legislation of the Constituent Assembly

In November 1789, the Constituent Assembly, in order to eliminate the financial crisis and break the power of the church, which was an important support of the feudal system, decided to confiscate church lands, declare them “national property” and put them on sale. At the same time, a resolution was adopted on the issue of so-called assignats - state monetary obligations, the value of which was secured by income from the sale of church lands. Designata were supposed to pay off the national debt, but later they turned into ordinary paper money.
In May 1790, the procedure for selling “national property” in small plots with installment payments of up to 12 years was legalized. However, soon the fragmentation of land plots was canceled, and the installment plan was reduced to four years. Under such conditions, only wealthy peasants had the opportunity to acquire church lands. At the same time, by laws adopted in March and May 1790, the Constituent Assembly established very difficult conditions for the redemption of feudal dues by peasants.

The peasantry openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the policies of the bourgeois Constituent Assembly and again took the path of struggle. In the autumn of 1790, peasant unrest began again, and the landowners' estates began to burn.

In many places, peasants, attacking castles and estates, burned all archival documents and stopped feudal payments. Often the peasants of adjacent villages agreed among themselves that “no one should pay the land tax and that whoever paid it would be hanged.”

The Constituent Assembly sent troops, the national guard, and extraordinary commissioners to the provinces affected by the peasant movement. But all attempts to extinguish the fire of peasant uprisings were in vain.

In 1789-1791 The Constituent Assembly carried out a number of other reforms that established the foundations of bourgeois society in France. social order. It abolished the class division, hereditary titles of nobility, removed the registration of births, marriages, and deaths from the jurisdiction of the clergy, and placed the church and its servants under the control of the state. Instead of the previous medieval administrative structure, a uniform division of France into 83 departments was introduced, workshops were abolished, government regulation of industrial production was abolished, internal customs duties and other restrictions that impeded the development of industry and trade were abolished.

All these transformations, which were historically progressive, corresponded to the interests of the bourgeoisie and were designed to provide favorable conditions for the development of its commercial and industrial activities.

At the same time, the Constituent Assembly passed laws specifically aimed at working people. Thus, soon after the events of October 5-6, 1789, a law was passed that allowed the use of military force to suppress popular uprisings.

Labor movement. Le Chapelier's Law

The class essence of the policy of the bourgeois Constituent Assembly was revealed even more clearly in the persecution of the labor movement. In France at the end of the 18th century. there was no large-scale machine industry and, therefore, there was still no factory proletariat. However, there were numerous categories of hired workers: workers of centralized and dispersed manufactories, artisan apprentices and apprentices, construction workers, port workers, laborers, etc. Some groups of workers, especially those from the village, were still associated with land or other property, and for In them, hired work was often just an auxiliary occupation. But for everything more For workers, wage labor became the main source of subsistence. Workers already made up a significant part of the population of large cities. In Paris at the time of the revolution there were up to 300 thousand workers with their families.

The workers were in a position without rights and were completely dependent on the owners. Wages were low and lagged behind price increases. A 14-18 hour working day was common even for skilled workers. The scourge for workers was unemployment, which especially intensified on the eve of the revolution as a result of the commercial and industrial crisis.

Labor unrest continued in Paris. In August 1789, about 3 thousand tailoring workers staged a demonstration demanding higher wages; the demonstrators were dispersed by a detachment of the National Guard. There was also unrest among the unemployed employed in excavation work organized by the municipality. The workers even threatened to burn down the town hall.

In 1790-1791 workers' organizations were created, partly related in origin to pre-revolutionary partnerships, but mostly representing unions of a new, professional type. The most active at that time were the printing workers, who were more literate and conscientious than other categories of workers. In 1790, the first organization of typographers arose in Paris - the “typographic assembly”, which developed special “regulations” adopted by the “general meeting of workers’ representatives”. It provided, in particular, for the organization of mutual assistance in case of illness and old age. In the autumn of the same year, a more developed and formalized organization of printing workers was founded - the “Typographic and Philanthropic Club”. This club began to publish its own printed organ. He organized a cause of mutual aid among the workers and led their struggle against the employers. Similar associations of printing workers arose in other cities.

So developed professional organizations, like the Typographical Club, were then an exception. But workers of other professions also attempted to create their own associations. For example, the “Brotherly Union” of carpenters arose, which included many thousands of workers.

In the spring of 1791, major strikes occurred in Paris. The most active participants in them were printing workers and carpenters, as they were more organized, but workers of other professions also went on strike - blacksmiths, mechanics, carpenters, shoemakers, masons, roofers, up to 80 thousand people in total.

The strike movement, led by workers' organizations (Typographic Club, Fraternal Union of Carpenters, etc.), caused great concern among the owners. They hastened to appeal first to the Paris municipality, and then directly to the Constituent Assembly, demanding that decisive measures be taken against the strikers.

The Constituent Assembly met the harassment of entrepreneurs halfway and, at the suggestion of deputy Le Chapelier, issued a decree on June 14, 1791, prohibiting workers, under pain of fines and imprisonment, from uniting into unions and conducting strikes. Two days later, on June 16, the Constituent Assembly decided to close the “charitable workshops” organized in 1789 for the unemployed.

The authorities carefully monitored the implementation of Le Chapelier's law. Severe penalties were applied for violation of it. Marx wrote that this law squeezed “by state police measures the competition between capital and labor into a framework convenient for capital...” (K. Marx, Capital, vol. 1, M. 1955, p. 745.)

Constitution of 1791

In 1791, the Constituent Assembly completed the drafting of the constitution. France was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy. The highest executive power was granted to the king, the highest legislative power to the Legislative Assembly. Only so-called active citizens, who made up less than 20% of the population, could participate in elections. The Constitution did not abolish slavery that existed in the colonies.

Compared to the state-legal system of the feudal-absolutist system, the constitution of 1791 was progressive in nature. But it clearly revealed the class nature of the victorious bourgeoisie. The drafters of the constitution sought to perpetuate not only the material inequality of people, but also, in direct contradiction to the Declaration of 1789, the political inequality of citizens.

The anti-democratic policy of the Constituent Assembly caused increasingly sharp discontent among the people. Peasants, workers, artisans, small owners remained unsatisfied in their social and political demands; the revolution did not give them what they expected from it.

In the Constituent Assembly, the interests of democratic circles were represented by a group of deputies led by a lawyer from Arras, Maximilian Robespierre (1758-1794), a convinced, unshakable supporter of democracy, whose voice was increasingly listened to in the country.

Clubs and folk societies. Democratic movement in 1789-1791.

During the years of the revolution, the political activity of the masses increased greatly. In Paris, the most important role was played by the bodies of regional self-government - districts, later transformed into sections. Meetings often took place there, which became a true political school for the capital's population. The leaders of the bourgeois municipality sought to destroy the continuity of meetings of districts and sections and turn them only into electoral meetings, very rarely convened, but the democratic elements resisted this in every possible way.

Various political clubs arose in the capital and provincial cities. The most influential were the Jacobin Club and the Cordelier Club. They were called so by the name of the monasteries in whose premises they met. The official name of the Jacobin club was the “Society of Friends of the Constitution”, and the Cordelier Club was the “Society of Friends of the Rights of Man and Citizen”.

Composition of the Jacobin club in 1789-1791. was quite colorful; the club united bourgeois political figures of various shades - from Mirabeau to Robespierre.

The Cordeliers Club, which arose in April 1790, served as a political center for ordinary people who took an active part in the events of the revolution. It included many “passive citizens”; women also participated in its meetings. Among the figures of this club, the brilliant orator Georges Danton (1759-1794) and the talented journalist Camille Desmoulins stood out. From the rostrum of the Cordeliers Club there was sharp criticism of the anti-democratic policy of the Constituent Assembly and the qualification constitution of 1791.

In the Social Club and the broad organization it created, the World Federation of Friends of Truth, social demands were brought to the fore; The club published the newspaper "Iron Mouth". The organizers of the “Social Club” were Abbot Claude Faucher and journalist N. Bonville.
The newspaper “Friend of the People,” published by Marat, had a huge influence on the revolutionary democratic movement. Doctor and scientist, Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) from the very first days of the revolution devoted himself entirely to the revolutionary struggle. An unwavering defender of the interests and rights of the people, a friend of the poor, a revolutionary democrat, a courageous fighter for freedom. Marat passionately hated tyranny and oppression. He was the first to realize that feudal oppression was being replaced by the oppression of the “aristocracy of wealth.” On the pages of his truly popular newspaper and in his combat pamphlets, Marat exposed the counter-revolutionary plans and actions of the court, the anti-people policy of Necker, the tendency to treason of the leaders of the constitutionalist party - Mirabeau, Lafayette and others, who lulled the vigilance of the people with phrases about “brotherhood”, about “trust” . Marat taught revolutionary determination, called on the people not to stop halfway, to go to the end, until the enemies of the revolution are completely crushed.

The court, the nobility, and the big bourgeoisie hated Marat, persecuted and persecuted him. The sympathy and support of the people allowed Marat to continue the struggle for the cause of revolutionary democracy from underground, where he often had to hide.

Varenna crisis

The king and his entourage, unable to act openly, secretly prepared a counter-revolutionary coup.

From the first days of the revolution, the flight of the French aristocracy abroad began. A center of counter-revolutionary emigration was created in Turin, and then in Koblenz, which maintained close ties with the absolutist governments of Europe. Among the emigrants, plans for intervention by foreign powers against revolutionary France were discussed. Louis XVI maintained contact with emigrants and European courts through secret agents. In secret letters addressed to the Spanish king and other European monarchs, he renounced everything that he was forced to do after the outbreak of the revolution; he sanctioned in advance whatever his delegates deemed necessary to undertake to restore his “legitimate authority.”

On the morning of June 21, 1791, Paris was awakened by the sound of the alarm. The alarm sounded extraordinary news: the king and queen had fled. Indignation gripped the people. In the face of obvious treason, fraught with dangerous consequences for the revolution, the masses began to arm themselves.

The king's flight was part of a long-prepared and carefully thought-out conspiracy. The king was supposed to flee to the border fortress of Montmédy, where troops were stationed under the command of the ardent monarchist Marquis de Bouillet, and from there, at the head of counter-revolutionary troops, move to Paris, disperse the Assembly and restore the feudal-absolutist regime. The conspirators also hoped that the king's flight from Paris would prompt foreign powers to intervene in order to restore the old order in France.
However, when the king's carriage was already close to the border, the postal caretaker Drouet recognized Louis XVI, disguised as a footman, and, raising the local population to their feet, rushed after him. In the town of Varennes, the king and queen were detained and taken into custody by armed peasants. Accompanied by a countless crowd of armed people, the king and queen, as prisoners of the people, were returned to Paris.

The betrayal of the king, obvious to everyone, gave rise to an acute political crisis. The Cordeliers Club led the movement of the masses who insisted on the removal of the traitor king from power. The demand for a republic, which the Cordeliers had previously voiced, now gained many supporters not only in the capital, but also in the provinces. This demand was made by local clubs in Strasbourg, Clermont-Ferrand and a number of other cities. In the countryside, the struggle of the peasantry against the feudal order intensified again. In the border departments, peasants began to create volunteer battalions.

The big bourgeoisie in power, however, did not want to eliminate the monarchical regime. Trying to save and rehabilitate the monarchy, the Constituent Council made a decision that supported the false version of the “kidnapping” of the king. The Cordeliers launched an agitation against this policy of the Assembly. The Jacobin Club split. The revolutionary-democratic part of it supported the Cordeliers. The right side of the club - the constitutionalists - left its membership on July 16 and created a new club - the Feuillants Club, which was named after the monastery in which its meetings took place.

On July 17, at the call of the Cordeliers Club, many thousands of Parisians, mainly workers and artisans, gathered on the Champ de Mars to sign a petition demanding the deposition of the king and his trial. The National Guard under the command of Lafayette was moved against the peaceful popular demonstration. The National Guard opened fire. Several hundred wounded and many killed remained on the Champ de Mars.

The execution on July 17, 1791 meant the open transition of the large monarchist bourgeoisie to counter-revolutionary positions.

Legislative Assembly

At the end of September 1791, having exhausted its powers, the constituent assembly dispersed. On October 1 of the same year, the Legislative Assembly was opened, elected on the basis of a qualification electoral system.

The right side of the Legislative Assembly was made up of the Feuillants - a party of large financiers and merchants, shipowners, slave traders and planters, mine owners and large landowners, industrialists associated with the production of luxury goods. This part of the big bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility adjacent to it were interested in preserving the monarchy and the constitution of 1791. Relying on a large group of deputies from the center, the Feuillants at first played a leading role in the Legislative Assembly.

The left side of the meeting consisted of deputies associated with the Jacobin club. They soon split into two groups. One of them was called the Girondins (the most prominent deputies of this party were elected in the Gironde department).

The Girondins represented the commercial, industrial and new landowning bourgeoisie, mainly from the southern, southwestern and southeastern departments, interested in a radical bourgeois reorganization of society. They were more radical than the Feuillants. At first, they also supported the constitution of 1791, but later switched to republican positions and turned into bourgeois republicans. The most prominent speakers of the Girondins were the journalist Brissot and Vergniaud.

At the Jacobin Club, the policies of the Girondins were criticized by Robespierre and other figures representing the interests of the most democratic strata of France at that time. They were supported by a far-left group of deputies in the Legislative Assembly. These deputies were called Montagnards because in the Legislative Assembly, and later in the Convention, they occupied seats on the highest benches in the meeting room, on the “mountain” (in French, mountain is lamontagne). Over time, the term "Montagnards" began to be identified with the term "Jacobins".

The Girondins and Montagnards initially acted together against the counter-revolutionary party of the court and against the ruling Feuillant party, but then disagreements began between the Girondins and the Montagnards, which turned into open struggle.

Political situation in the country at the beginning of 1792

In 1792, France's economic situation worsened. The commercial and industrial crisis, which had somewhat weakened in 1790-1791, worsened again. Industries that had previously worked for the court and aristocracy, as well as for export, collapsed at a particularly rapid pace. The production of luxury goods ceased almost completely. Unemployment was growing. After the uprising of black slaves that broke out in August 1791 on the island of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), colonial goods disappeared from sale - sugar, coffee, tea. Prices for other food products have also increased.

In January 1792, major unrest began in Paris due to high prices and food deprivation. In Bordeaux in the spring of 1792 there was a strike of carpenters and bakers. Workers fought for higher wages due to rising costs. The Legislative Council received numerous petitions from workers and the poor demanding the establishment of fixed prices for food and curb speculators. The rural poor were also worried. In some regions of France, armed groups of starving peasants seized and divided grain among themselves, and forced the sale of bread and other products at fixed prices.

The main issue of the revolution, the agrarian one, still remained unresolved. The peasants sought to achieve the abolition of all feudal duties without ransom. From the end of 1791, agrarian unrest intensified again.

At the same time, counter-revolutionary forces fighting for the restoration of the feudal-absolutist system became increasingly active. In the south, aristocrats, as the supporters of feudalism were then called, tried to raise a counter-revolutionary rebellion. Intensified counter-revolutionary agitation was carried out by the Catholic clergy, a significant part of which refused to swear allegiance to the new constitution and recognize the new order.

The royal court and other counter-revolutionary forces, preparing for the decisive blow against the revolution, now placed their main bet on the armed intervention of foreign powers.

3. The beginning of revolutionary wars. Overthrow of the monarchy in France

Preparations for intervention against revolutionary France

The revolution in France contributed to the rise of anti-feudal struggle in other countries. Not only in London and St. Petersburg, Berlin and Vienna, in Warsaw and Budapest, but also overseas, progressive social circles eagerly caught news from revolutionary France. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and other documents of the revolution were translated and published in many countries in Europe, the United States and Latin America. The slogan “Liberty, equality, fraternity,” proclaimed by the French Revolution, was perceived everywhere as the beginning of a new century, the century of freedom.

The more obvious the sympathy for the French Revolution and its progressive ideas became on the part of the progressive public of all countries, the greater the hatred for revolutionary France that the European feudal-absolutist states and bourgeois-aristocratic England showed.

The main organizer and inspirer of the counter-revolutionary coalition was England. The English ruling circles feared that with the fall of feudalism, France's international position would strengthen, as well as the radical democratic movement in England itself would strengthen.

English diplomacy sought to reconcile Austria and Prussia, which were then at war with each other, and to use their combined forces against France. The efforts of Tsarist Russia were also aimed at this. In the summer of 1790, at the Reichenbach Conference, through the mediation of England, it was possible to resolve the main differences between Prussia and Austria. In August 1791, at Pillnitz Castle, the Austrian Emperor and the Prussian King signed a declaration of joint action to assist the French King. The Pillnitz Declaration meant a conspiracy to intervene against France.

The conflict that arose between France and the German princes, whom the revolution had deprived of their possessions in Alsace, led at the beginning of 1792 to a further sharp deterioration in relations between Austria and Prussia and France.

Beginning of the war with Austria and Prussia

Louis XVI, his entourage, most of the officers and generals, for their part, sought to speed up the war, believing that France would not withstand the external onslaught and that as soon as the interventionists advanced into the interior of the country, with their help it would be possible to suppress the revolution. Realizing this, Robespierre in the Jacobin Club objected to the immediate declaration of war. He demanded the preliminary purification of the army command staff from counter-revolutionaries and warned that otherwise the aristocratic generals would open the way to Paris to the enemy. But the Girondins supported the proposal to declare war. Fearing further growth class struggle, they hoped that the war would distract the attention of the masses from internal problems. Closely associated with the bourgeoisie of large trading centers (Bordeaux, Marseille, etc.), the Girondins also hoped that a successful war would lead to the expansion of the borders of France, the strengthening of its economic position, and the weakening of its main rival, England. The issue of war led to a sharp escalation of the struggle between the Jacobins - supporters of Robespierre and the Girondins.

On April 20, 1792, France declared war on Austria. Soon Austria's ally, Prussia, also entered the war against France.

Robespierre's predictions came true. In the very first weeks of the war, the French army, which continued to be led by aristocrats or generals who did not understand the peculiarities of the revolutionary war, suffered a number of heavy defeats.

The secret conspiracy of the king and aristocrats with foreign invaders, which had previously only been guessed at, now, after the treasonous actions of the generals, became obvious. The Jacobins pointed out this in their speeches and pamphlets and called on the masses to fight against both external and internal counter-revolution. The people saw that the time had come to defend with arms in hand the homeland and the revolution, which were now inseparable from each other for them. The word “patriot,” which spread among the people just at this time, acquired a dual meaning: defender of the homeland and the revolution.

Millions of the peasantry understood that the interventionists were bringing with them the restoration of the hated feudal-absolutist system. A significant part of the bourgeoisie and wealthy peasants had already managed to acquire land property, mainly at the expense of church property. By the end of 1791, more than one and a half billion livres worth of church lands had been sold. The invasion of interventionists and the possibility of restoration of the pre-revolutionary regime created a direct threat to this new property and its owners.

In the face of the almost open betrayal of the government and many generals, the weakness and inactivity of the Legislative Assembly, the masses of their own initiative came to the defense of revolutionary France. Volunteer battalions were hastily formed in cities and villages; committees were created to collect donations for their armament. Local democratic clubs and organizations demanded that the Legislative Assembly take emergency measures to defend the fatherland and the revolution.

Under pressure from the popular masses, the Legislative Assembly on July 11, 1792 adopted a decree declaring “the fatherland in danger.” According to this decree, all men fit for military service were subject to conscription into the army.

Popular uprising August 10, 1792 Overthrow of the monarchy

Every day it became more and more obvious that victory over the external counter-revolution was impossible without the defeat of the internal counter-revolution. The people persistently demanded the deposition of the king and severe punishment of the traitor generals. The Commune (city government) of Marseille at the end of June 1792 accepted a petition demanding the abolition of royal power. The same requirement was put forward in a number of other departments. In July, in some sections of Paris, the division of citizens into “active” and “passive” was explicitly abolished. The Moconsay section, in which many workers and artisans lived, adopted a resolution stating that the section “no longer recognizes Louis XVI as King of the French.”
During July, armed detachments of volunteers from the provinces - federates - arrived in Paris. The Marseille federates sang the “Song of the Army of the Rhine,” written by the young officer Rouget de Lisle. This song, called the Marseillaise, became the battle anthem of the French people.

The federates established close contact with the Jacobins and created their own body - the Central Committee. Reflecting the revolutionary determination of the broad masses of the province, the federates presented petitions to the Legislative Assembly urging the removal of the king from power and the convening of a democratically elected National Convention to revise the constitution.

At the very time when a powerful revolutionary upsurge was growing in the country, a manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Prussian army concentrated near the borders of France, was published. In an address to the French population, he openly stated that the purpose of the campaign was to restore the power of the king in France, and threatened the “rebels” with merciless reprisals. The Duke of Brunswick's manifesto, which cynically revealed the counter-revolutionary goals of the intervention, caused enormous indignation in the country and accelerated the overthrow of the monarchy.

The popular masses of Paris, under the leadership of the Jacobins, began to openly prepare for an uprising. Two-thirds of the Parisian sections joined the resolution of the Moconceil section, which demanded the deposition of Louis XVI.

On the night of August 10, the alarm signaled the beginning of a new uprising in the capital. People gathered in sections and formed detachments. The section commissars proclaimed themselves the revolutionary Commune of Paris and led the uprising. Battalions of the National Guard from the working-class suburbs, as well as detachments of federates who arrived from the departments, moved to the Tuileries Palace - the residence of the king. This palace was a fortified castle; Artillery was concentrated on the approaches to the palace. But a detachment of Marseille volunteers began to fraternize with the artillerymen and, amid cries of “Long live the nation!” carried them along with him. The path to the palace was open. The king and queen took refuge in the building of the Legislative Assembly.

It seemed that the popular uprising had achieved a bloodless victory. But at the moment when the rebel troops burst into the courtyard of the Tuileries Castle, the Swiss mercenaries and monarchist officers who had settled there opened fire. The people at first fled, leaving dozens of dead and wounded, but within a few minutes a fierce battle broke out. Residents of the capital, as well as detachments of federates, rushed to storm the palace. Some of its defenders were killed, the rest capitulated. In this bloody battle, the people lost about 500 people killed and wounded.

Thus, the monarchy that had existed in France for about a thousand years was overthrown. The French Revolution has risen to a new level and entered a new period. The development of the revolution along an ascending line was explained by the fact that the broadest masses of the peasantry, workers, and plebeians were drawn into the revolutionary process. The French bourgeois revolution more and more clearly revealed its popular character.

New agricultural legislation

As a result of the uprising on August 10, 1792, power in the capital actually passed into the hands of the revolutionary Paris Commune. The Legislative Assembly declared Louis XVI only temporarily removed from power, but at the insistence of the Commune, the king and his family were arrested. A decree was issued convening the National Convention, in which all men over 21 years of age could participate, without any division of citizens into “active” and “passive.”

The Legislative Assembly appointed a new government - the Provisional Executive Council, consisting of Girondins: the only Jacobin on the council was Danton.

After the victorious uprising of August 10, which showed what enormous forces lay hidden in the people, it was impossible to delay in considering the demands of the peasantry.
The Legislative Assembly, which until recently had disdainfully postponed the consideration of hundreds of peasant petitions, now, with a haste that betrayed its fear of the formidable power of popular anger, took up the agrarian question.

On August 14, the Legislative Assembly adopted a decree on the division of communal lands. The confiscated lands of emigrants were allowed to be handed over in small plots of 2 to 4 arpans (approximately 0.5 to 1 hectares) for perpetual ownership for an annual rent or transferred to full ownership with payment in cash. The next day, a resolution was passed to cease all prosecutions in cases related to former feudal rights. On August 25, the Legislative Assembly decided to cancel without ransom the feudal rights of those owners who could not legally prove them with appropriate documents.

The agrarian legislation of August 1752, which satisfied part of the demands of the peasantry, was a direct result of the overthrow of the monarchy.

Victory at Valmy

The immediate consequence of the victorious popular uprising on August 10 was a turning point in the course of military operations. On August 19, the Prussian army crossed the border of France and, developing an offensive, soon penetrated into the interior of the country. On August 23, Prussian troops took the Longwy fortress, which had been surrendered to the enemy by the traitor commandant without a fight. On September 2, Verdun fell, the last fortress covering the approaches to the capital. The interventionists marched on Paris, confident of an easy victory.

In these days of mortal danger hanging over revolutionary France, the Jacobins, in contrast to the Girondins, who showed hesitation, weakness and cowardice, showed enormous revolutionary energy. They raised the entire democratic population of Paris to their feet. Men and women, children, old people - everyone sought to contribute to the common cause of the fight against the hated enemy. “The alarm is sounding, but this is not an alarm, but a threat to the enemies of the fatherland. To defeat them, you need courage, courage again, always courage, and France will be saved,” said Danton.

In Paris, rumors spread that imprisoned counter-revolutionaries were preparing a rebellion. The people and volunteers leaving for the front broke into the prisons on the evening of September 2. From September 2 to 5, over a thousand counter-revolutionaries were executed in prisons. It was a spontaneous act of self-defense of the revolution at the moment of its greatest danger.

On September 20, 1792, a decisive battle took place near the village of Valmy. The well-trained, well-armed troops of the interventionists were opposed by the troops of revolutionary France, a significant part of which were untrained and unfired, poorly armed volunteers. Prussian officers with arrogant self-confidence foreshadowed a quick and decisive victory over the “revolutionary rabble.” But they triumphed early. With the singing of the Marseillaise, with cries of “Long live the nation!” French soldiers steadfastly repulsed the enemy's double attack and forced him to retreat.

The great German poet Goethe, an eyewitness to the battle, perspicaciously noted that the Battle of Valmy marked the beginning new era in world history. Valmy was the first victory of revolutionary France over the feudal-monarchical states of Europe.

Soon the French went on the offensive along the entire front, expelled the invaders from France and entered the territory of neighboring countries. On November 6, 1792, a major victory was won over the Austrians at Jemappe, after which French troops occupied all of Belgium and the Rhineland.

4. Convention. The struggle between the Girondins and the Jacobins

Opening of the Convention. Proclamation of the Republic

On the day of the victory at Valmy, meetings of the National Convention, elected on the basis of universal suffrage, opened in Paris. There were 750 deputies in the Convention. 165 of them belonged to the Girondins, about 100 to the Jacobins. Paris elected only Jacobins as its deputies, including Robespierre, Marat and Danton. The remaining deputies did not belong to any party - they were ironically nicknamed “plains” or “swamps”.

The first acts of the Convention were decrees on the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic in France, which were received by the people with the greatest satisfaction.

From the very first days, both within the Convention itself and outside it, a struggle ensued between the Girondins and the Jacobins. Although the Girondins did not participate in the uprising of August 10 and the popular uprising won in spite of them, they now became the ruling party. The Provisional Executive Council was in their hands, and at first the leadership role in the Convention passed to them.

The Girondins represented those layers of the commercial, industrial and landowning bourgeoisie who had already managed to achieve the implementation of their basic economic and political demands. The Girondins were afraid of the masses, did not want the further development of the revolution, tried to stop, slow it down, and limit it to the limits reached.
The Jacobins, on the other hand, reflected the interests of the revolutionary-democratic, mainly petty, bourgeoisie, which, in a bloc with the broad masses of the city and countryside, sought to develop the revolution further. The strength of the Jacobins - these advanced bourgeois revolutionaries - lay in the fact that they were not afraid of the people, but relied on them and boldly led their struggle for the further deepening of the revolution. As V.I. Lenin pointed out, during the French Revolution late XVIII V. “The petty bourgeoisie could still be great revolutionaries.” (V.I. Lenin, On the food tax, Works, vol. 32, p. 338.)

The Gironde tried to stop the revolution; The mountain, relying on the masses, sought to move the revolution forward. This was the essence of the struggle between the Mountain and the Gironde, and all their differences stemmed from this.

Execution of Louis XVI

Among the many political issues that were the subject of dispute and struggle between the Girondins and Jacobins, at the end of 1792 the question of the fate of the former king became the most pressing. The masses have long demanded that the deposed king be brought to justice. The Jacobins supported this just demand of the people. When the trial of the king began in the Convention, the Girondins began to make every effort to save his life. For both the Girondins and the Jacobins, it was obvious that the question of the fate of the former king was not a personal, but a political question. To execute the king meant to boldly go forward along the revolutionary path, to save his life - it meant to delay the revolution at the achieved level and make concessions to internal and external counter-revolution.

All the efforts of the Girondins to save the life of Louis XVI or at least delay the execution failed. At the request of Marat, a roll-call vote of the deputies of the Convention was held on the question of the fate of Louis XVI. “... You will save your homeland... and you will ensure the welfare of the people by removing the head from the tyrant,” Marat said in his speech at the Convention. The majority of deputies spoke in favor of the death penalty and for immediate execution of the sentence. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was executed.

Creation of the first coalition against revolutionary France

The governments of England, Spain, Holland and other states used the execution of the former French king as a pretext for breaking with France and joining the counter-revolutionary coalition.

The reactionary monarchical governments of Europe were extremely concerned about the successes of the French revolutionary armies and the sympathy that the democratic sections of the population of Belgium and the Western German states showed towards them. The French Republican Army entered the territory of foreign states with a bright revolutionary slogan: “Peace to the huts, war to the palaces!” The implementation of this slogan aroused the ire of feudal-aristocratic circles and the enthusiastic sympathy of the masses. In Belgium, in the Rhine provinces of Germany, French republican soldiers were greeted as liberators. The ruling classes of European monarchies became all the more irreconcilable.

The advance of French troops into Belgium and the spread of revolutionary sentiments in England itself caused great alarm in the English ruling circles and prompted them to go to open war against revolutionary France.
In January 1793, the French ambassador was expelled from England. On February 1, the Convention declared war on England.

England led the first coalition of reactionary European states, which finally took shape in the spring of 1793. It included England, Austria, Prussia, Holland, Spain, Sardinia, Naples, and many small German states.

The Russian Empress Catherine II, who had previously broken off diplomatic relations with France and provided all possible assistance to the noble emigration, issued a decree after the execution of Louis XVI to terminate the trade agreement with France, prohibiting the entry of French ships into Russian ports and French citizens into the empire. But in open war with revolutionary France royal Russia still did not enter: if in previous years this was prevented by the Turkish war, now the government of Catherine II was busy with Polish affairs.

Worsening economic situation and intensifying political struggle

The war, which required the exertion of all the country's forces, sharply worsened the economic situation of France. Conducting large-scale military operations and maintaining large armies caused enormous expenses. This circumstance, as well as the disruption of normal economic ties and the curtailment of a number of industries, gave rise to an acute economic crisis.

The Girondin government tried to cover the costs of the war by increasing the issue of paper money. The number of banknotes put into circulation turned out to be very large. This led to their sharp depreciation and, as a consequence, to a rapid rise in prices for goods, especially food. Wealthy peasants and large wholesale traders who bought grain held back grain and did not release it on the market, hoping to profit from a further increase in prices. As a result, bread, and after it other consumer products, began to disappear from sale altogether or were sold under the counter at speculative prices.

Due to hunger and deprivation, discontent among workers, small artisans, and the rural and urban poor grew. Since the autumn of 1792 in Paris, in provincial cities and rural areas a mass movement developed. Workers staged strikes, demanding improved working conditions and the introduction of fixed prices (maximum) for food products. In Tours and some other cities, the poor forced themselves to establish fixed prices for bread.

By the beginning of 1793, the demand for a maximum had become the general demand of the plebeian masses. It was supported by numerous petitions addressed to the Convention and active mass actions - demonstrations in the streets, attacks on shops and food warehouses, clashes with authorities and merchants.

Representatives of the sentiments of the plebeian masses were the Parisian sections, especially the sections of the plebeian quarters, which repeatedly presented petitions to the Convention for the establishment of fixed prices for food items. This demand was formulated most clearly by one of the prominent figures of the Cordeliers Club, the former priest Jacques Roux, who in the first years of the revolution was close to Marat and hid him from persecution. Together with Jacques Roux, his supporters Théophile Leclerc, Varlet and others spoke among the masses. The Girondins, who hated Jacques Roux and other popular agitators, gave them the nickname “mad”, which was once dubbed the most ardent adherents of Savonarola in Florence. Along with the maximum for all food products, the “mad” demanded a decisive curb on speculation and hype. They condemned large property and wealth inequality.

The Jacobins initially spoke out against the maximum and had a negative attitude towards the agitation of the “mad”, but, understanding the need for decisive revolutionary measures and the active participation of the masses in the fight against counter-revolution and intervention, from April 1793. changed their position and began to advocate for the establishment of fixed prices. At the same time, they proposed introducing an emergency tax on large owners in the form of a forced loan to cover growing military expenses.

The Girondins, zealously defending the selfish interests of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and large landowners, resolutely rejected these demands, seeing in them an attack on the “sacred right of property” and “freedom of trade.”

The Girondins also pursued an anti-people policy on the agrarian issue. Back in the fall of 1792, they achieved the actual abolition of the August decrees on the procedure for selling emigrant lands, which were beneficial for the rural poor. Thus, one of its most important gains was taken away from the peasantry. In April 1793, the Girondins passed a decree in the Convention on the procedure for the sale of “national property”, directed against the poor and middle peasantry. The decree, in particular, prohibited the temporary agreements of low-income peasants, practiced in many places, for the joint purchase of a plot of land from the fund of “national property” with its subsequent division between the owners.

In response to this policy of the Girondins, which grossly infringed upon the interests of the middle and poor peasantry, new peasant uprisings took place in the departments of Gard, Lot, Seine-et-Oise, Marne and some others. The enormous social force of the revolution - the peasantry - was still waiting for the fulfillment of its fundamental demands.

Girondins - accomplices of counter-revolution

In March 1793, French troops in Belgium, commanded by General Dumouriez, who was closely associated with the Girondins, were defeated at the Battle of Neerwinden, after which Dumouriez entered into negotiations
with the Austrians, tried to move his army on a counter-revolutionary campaign against Paris. Having failed in this treacherous attempt, Dumouriez fled to the enemy camp. The immediate consequence of Dumouriez's betrayal, as well as the entire policy of the Girondins, who did not want to wage the war in a revolutionary manner, was the retreat of French troops from Belgium and Germany. The war was again transferred to French territory.

In March 1793, a counter-revolutionary uprising broke out in the Vendee, which spread to Brittany. Local peasants, who were strongly influenced by the Catholic Church and dissatisfied with the general mobilization announced by the Convention, took an active part in the rebellion. Soon the uprising was led by emigrant nobles who received help from England.

The position of the republic again became threatening. But the masses showed remarkable revolutionary energy and initiative. Thousands of volunteers joined the army. Realizing that without satisfying the main demands of the people it was impossible to achieve victory over the enemy, the Jacobins, despite the fierce resistance of the Girondins, achieved the adoption by the Convention on May 4, 1793 of a decree introducing fixed grain prices throughout France, and on May 20 - a decision to issue a forced loan.

The Girondins fiercely opposed these and all other measures necessary to defend the revolution and the defense of the country, and, taking advantage of the external and internal difficulties of the republic, they intensified the struggle against the revolutionary masses of Paris and the Jacobins. Back in April, they ensured that Marat, the most beloved democratic revolutionary by the people, who exposed the double-mindedness and betrayal of the Girondins, was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, established by the Convention to fight the counter-revolution. But the Revolutionary Tribunal acquitted the “friend of the people,” and Marat returned to the Convention in triumph.

Despite this failure, the Girondins did not abandon their intention to destroy the Paris Commune and other revolutionary democratic bodies. To this end, they insisted on the creation of a special commission of the Convention, the so-called “commission of 12,” which was to lead the fight against the revolutionary democratic movement in Paris. The Girondins organized a counter-revolutionary coup in Lyon and tried to seize power in a number of other cities.

The policy of the Girondins, who had slipped into counter-revolution and national treason, made a new popular uprising inevitable. On May 31, 1793, the sections of Paris, which created a rebel committee from their representatives, moved towards the Convention building. Together with the sans-culottes (“Sans-culottes” (“sans-culottes”) were then called the democratic strata of the population: sans-culottes wore long trousers, and not “culottes” (short trousers), like aristocrats.) there were also detachments of the National Guard, command over which was transferred Jacobin Henriot.

Appearing at the Convention, representatives of the sections and the Paris Commune demanded the abolition of the “commission of 12” and the arrest of a number of Girondin deputies. Robespierre delivered an indictment against the Gironde and supported the demand of the Parisian sections. The Convention decided to dissolve the “commission of 12”, but did not agree to the arrest of the Girondin deputies.
Thus, the performance on May 31 did not produce a decisive result. The fight continued. On June 1, Marat, in a passionate speech, called on the “sovereign people” to rise in defense of the revolution. On the morning of June 2, 80 thousand national guardsmen and armed citizens surrounded the Convention building, at which, by order of Henriot, the muzzles of the cannons were aimed. The Convention was forced to submit to the demands of the people and adopt a decree expelling 29 Girondist deputies from its membership.

The popular uprising of May 31 - June 2 dealt the final blow to the political dominance of the big bourgeoisie. Not only the bourgeois-monarchist party of the Feuillants, but also the bourgeois-republican party of the Girondins, which also defended the interests of large property owners and feared the people, turned out to be unable to take the revolutionary measures necessary to solve the problems of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and to successfully fight against external and internal counter-revolution. The Girondins, like the Feuillants before, became an obstacle to the cause of the revolution and turned into a counter-revolutionary force. The dominance of the Gironde was broken, power passed to the Jacobins.
The French bourgeois revolution has risen to its highest stage. As a result of the uprising of May 31 - June 2, 1793, a Jacobin revolutionary-democratic dictatorship was established in France.

5. Jacobin revolutionary democratic dictatorship

The Jacobins came to power at one of the most critical moments of the French Revolution. The superior forces of the European counter-revolutionary coalition pressed the retreating French troops on all sides. In Vendee, Brittany, and Normandy, a monarchical rebellion grew. The Girondins rebelled in the south and southwest of France. The English fleet blockaded the French coast; England supplied the rebels with money and weapons. The enemies of the revolution committed terrorist attacks on revolutionary figures. On July 13, 1793, the intrepid revolutionary, “friend of the people” Marat, was treacherously killed by the noblewoman Charlotte Corday.

To save the republic from what seemed like an inevitable death, the greatest effort of the people, revolutionary courage and determination were needed.

Organizing the struggle against foreign intervention and internal counter-revolution, the advanced bourgeois Jacobin revolutionaries boldly relied on the broad masses of the people, on the support of the multimillion-dollar masses of the peasantry and the gentry plebeians.

“The historical greatness of the real Jacobins, the Jacobins of 1793,” wrote V. I. Lenin, “consisted in the fact that they were “Jacobins with the people,” with the revolutionary majority of the people, with the revolutionary advanced classes of their time” (V. I. Lenin, The transition of the counter-revolution to the offensive, Works, vol. 24, p. 495.)

Agrarian legislation of the Jacobins

Immediately after coming to power, the Jacobins met the demands of the peasantry halfway. By decree of June 3, the Convention established a preferential procedure for the sale of confiscated lands of emigrants to low-income peasants - in small plots with payment in installments for 10 years. A few days later, the Convention decreed the return to the peasants of all communal lands taken away by the landowners and the procedure for dividing communal lands equally per capita at the request of a third of the residents of the community. Finally, on July 17, fulfilling the main demand of the peasantry, the Convention adopted a resolution on the complete, final and gratuitous destruction of all feudal rights, duties and taxes. Feudal acts and documents were subject to burning, and their storage was punishable by hard labor.

It was “a truly revolutionary reprisal against outdated feudalism...” (V.I. Lenin, The Impending Catastrophe and How to Deal with It, Works, vol. 25, p. 335), as V.I. Lenin wrote. Although only the lands of emigrants were confiscated, and not all landowners, and the peasantry, especially the poorest, did not receive land in the amount for which they aspired, they were still completely freed from the feudal dependence that had enslaved them for centuries.

After the new agrarian laws, the peasantry decisively went over to the side of the Jacobin revolutionary government. The peasant soldier of the republican army was now fighting for his vital interests, which merged with the great tasks of the revolution. These new economic and social conditions were ultimately the source of the remarkable courage and courage of the armies of the Republic, heroism that amazed contemporaries and remained forever memorable in the minds of the people.

Constitution of 1793

With the same revolutionary decisiveness and speed, the Jacobin Convention adopted and submitted a new constitution to the people for approval. The Jacobin Constitution of 1793 made a big step forward compared to the Constitution of 1791. It was the most democratic of the bourgeois constitutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. It reflected the ideas of Rousseau, which the Jacobins were so keen on.

The Constitution of 1793 established a republican system in France. The highest legislative power belonged to the Legislative Assembly, elected by all citizens (men) who had reached the age of 21; the most important bills were subject to approval by the people at primary meetings of voters. Supreme executive power was vested in the 24-member Executive Council; half of the members of this Council were subject to renewal annually. The new Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen adopted by the Convention declared freedom, equality, security and property to be human rights, and the goal of society to be “universal happiness.” Freedom of personality, religion, press, petition, legislative initiative, the right to education, to public assistance in case of disability, the right to resist oppression - these were the democratic principles proclaimed by the constitution of 1793.

The Constitution was submitted to the approval of the people - the primary meetings of voters - and was approved by a majority of votes.

Revolutionary government

The fierce class struggle, however, forced the Jacobins to abandon the practical implementation of the constitution of 1793. The extreme tension of the external and internal situation of the republic, which fought against numerous and irreconcilable enemies, the need to organize and arm the army, mobilize the entire people, break the internal counter-revolution and eradicate treason - all this required strong centralized leadership.
Back in July, the Convention renewed the previously created Committee of Public Safety. Danton, who had previously played a leading role in the Committee and was increasingly showing a conciliatory attitude towards the Girondins, was removed. Member of the Committee in different time Robespierre, who showed an unyielding will to suppress the counter-revolution, and Saint-Just and Couthon, full of revolutionary energy and courage, were chosen. The prominent mathematician and engineer Carnot, who was elected to the Committee, showed outstanding organizational talent in creating the armed forces of the republic.

Robespierre became the de facto leader of the Committee of Public Safety. Brought up on the ideas of Rousseau, a man of strong will and insightful mind, undaunted in the fight against the enemies of the revolution, far from any personal selfish calculations, Robespierre - “The Incorruptible”, as he was nicknamed, acquired enormous authority and influence, and in fact became the leader of the revolutionary government.

The Committee of Public Safety, accountable to the Convention, became under the leadership of Robespierre the main organ of the Jacobin dictatorship; All government agencies and the army were subordinate to him; he owned the leadership of the internal and foreign policy, the matter of national defense. A major role was also played by the reorganized Committee of Public Security, which was entrusted with the task of fighting internal counter-revolution.

The Convention and the Committee of Public Safety exercised their power through commissars from among the deputies of the Convention, who were sent to places with extremely broad powers to suppress the counter-revolution and implement the measures of the revolutionary government. Commissars of the Convention were also appointed to the army, where they carried out a tremendous amount of work, took care of supplying the troops with everything necessary, controlled the activities of the command staff, mercilessly dealt with traitors, led the agitation, etc.

Local revolutionary committees were of great importance in the system of revolutionary democratic dictatorship. They monitored the implementation of the directives of the Committee of Public Safety, fought against counter-revolutionary elements, and helped the Commissars of the Convention in carrying out the tasks assigned to them.

During the period of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship, the Jacobin club played a prominent role with its extensive network of branches - provincial clubs and popular societies. The Paris Commune and the committees of the 48 sections of Paris also enjoyed great influence.

Thus, strong centralized power in the hands of the Jacobins was combined with broad popular initiative from below. The powerful movement of the popular masses, directed against the counter-revolution, was led by the Jacobin revolutionary-democratic dictatorship.

Total maximum. Revolutionary terror

In the summer of 1793, the food situation in the republic worsened. The urban lower classes were in unbearable need. Representatives of the plebeians, in particular the “mad” ones, criticized the policies of the Jacobin government, as well as the constitution of 1793, believing that it did not ensure the interests of the poor.

“Freedom,” said Jacques Roux, “is an empty ghost when one class can starve another class with impunity.” The “mad” demanded the introduction of a “universal maximum”, the death penalty for speculators, and intensification of revolutionary terror.

The Jacobins responded to the criticism of the “rabies” with reprisals: in early September, Jacques Roux and other leaders of the “rabies” were arrested. These repressions against representatives of the people reflected the bourgeois nature of even such brave revolutionaries as the Jacobins.

But the plebeians remained the most important fighting force of the revolution. On September 4-5, major street protests took place in Paris. The main demands of the people, including workers who actively participated in these protests, were: “universal maximum”, revolutionary terror, help for the poor. In an effort to maintain an alliance not only with the peasantry, but also with the urban plebeians, the Jacobins met the demands of the sans-culottes. On September 5, a decree was adopted on the organization of a special “revolutionary army” to “enforce, wherever necessary, revolutionary laws and measures of public salvation decreed by the Convention.” The tasks of the revolutionary army included, in particular, facilitating the supply of food to Paris and combating profiteering and concealment of goods.

On September 29, the Convention decreed the establishment of fixed prices for basic foodstuffs and consumer goods - the so-called universal maximum. To supply Paris, other cities and the army with food, in the autumn of 1793, requisitioning of grain and other food products began to be widely practiced. At the end of October, the Central Food Commission was created, which was supposed to be in charge of supply and monitor the implementation of the maximum. Along with the local authorities, the requisition of grain in the villages was also carried out by detachments of the “revolutionary army”, consisting of the Parisian sans-culottes. In order to streamline the supply of bread and other necessary products to the population at fixed prices, cards for bread, meat, sugar, butter, salt, and soap were introduced in Paris and many other cities. A special resolution of the Convention allowed the baking and sale of only one type of bread - “bread of equality.” The death penalty was established for speculation and concealment of food.

Under pressure from the grassroots, the Convention also decided to “put terror on the order of the day.” On September 17, the law on “suspicious” was adopted, expanding the rights of revolutionary bodies in the fight against counter-revolutionary elements. Thus, in response to the terror of the counter-revolutionaries, revolutionary terror was intensified.

Soon the former queen Marie Antoinette and many counter-revolutionaries, including some Girondins, were tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed. Revolutionary terror in the most various forms Commissars of the Convention also began to use it to suppress the counter-revolutionary movement in provincial cities and departments, especially where counter-revolutionary uprisings had occurred. Revolutionary terror was the effective means that gave the revolution the opportunity to actively defend itself against its many enemies and overcome their onslaught in a relatively short time.

Revolutionary terror was directed not only against political, but also against economic counter-revolution: it was widely used against speculators, buyers and all those who, by violating the law on the “maximum” and disrupting the supply of food to cities and the army, thereby played into the hands of the enemies of the revolution and interventionists.
Historical significance of the Jacobin terror of 1793-1794. A. I. Herzen later wonderfully characterized it: “The terror of 93 was majestic in its gloomy mercilessness; all of Europe was rushing to France to punish the revolution; the fatherland was truly in danger. The Convention temporarily hung up the Statue of Liberty and installed the guillotine, guardians of “human rights.” Europe looked at this volcano with horror and retreated before its wild, omnipotent energy...”

National defense

The war that France fought was a just, defensive war. Revolutionary France defended itself against reactionary-monarchist Europe. All the living forces of the people, all the resources of the republic were mobilized by the Jacobin government to achieve victory over the enemy.

On August 23, 1793, the Convention adopted a decree that read: “From now until the enemies are expelled from the territory of the republic, all Frenchmen are declared to be in a state of constant mobilization.” The people warmly approved this decree. In a short time, new reinforcements of 420 thousand soldiers joined the army. By the beginning of 1794, there were over 600 thousand soldiers under arms.

The army was reorganized. Units of the former regular army merged with volunteer units and conscripts. The result was a new Republican army.

The revolutionary government took extraordinary measures to supply the rapidly growing army contingent with everything they needed. By a special decree of the Convention, shoemakers were mobilized to make shoes for the army. Under the supervision of government commissioners, the sewing of uniforms was established in private workshops. Tens of thousands of women took part in sewing clothes for soldiers.

At the fronts, the Commissars of the Convention resorted to decisive revolutionary measures to supply the army with uniforms. Saint-Just in Strasbourg gave the following instructions to the local municipality: “10 thousand soldiers walk barefoot; undress all the aristocrats of Strasbourg, and tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the morning 10 thousand pairs of boots should be delivered to the main apartment.”

All workshops in which it was possible to establish the production of weapons and ammunition worked exclusively for defense needs. Many new workshops were created. In Paris, 258 forges worked in the open air. Weapons workshops were set up in former monasteries. Some churches and houses of emigrants were adapted for the purification of saltpeter, the production of which increased almost 10 times. Near Paris, on the Grenelle field, a gunpowder factory was created in a short time. Thanks to the efforts of workers and specialists, gunpowder production at this plant increased to 30 thousand pounds per day. In Paris, up to 700 guns were manufactured daily. The workers of military factories and workshops, despite the hardships they experienced, worked with extraordinary enthusiasm, realizing that they, in the popular expression of the time, were “forging lightning against tyrants.”

At the head of the War Ministry was Colonel Bouchotte, distinguished by his courage and devotion to the revolution. Bouchotte completely renovated the apparatus of the War Ministry and recruited the most prominent figures from the revolutionary sections of Paris to work there. The Committee of Public Safety paid special attention to strengthening the command staff of the army. The Commissars of the Convention, clearing the army of counter-revolutionary elements, boldly promoted talented revolutionary youth to leadership positions. The armies of the republic were led by young military leaders who came from the people. Former groom Lazar Ghosh, who began his service as a soldier participating in the storming of the Bastille, became a division general and army commander at the age of 25. He was the embodiment of an offensive impulse: “If the sword is short, you just need to take an extra step,” he said. General Marceau, who died at the age of 27, was called “the lion of the French army” for his courage in the order of the Committee of Public Safety, and began his life’s journey as a simple scribe. General Kleber, a talented commander of the revolutionary army, was the son of a mason, General Lannes was a peasant by birth. The jeweler Rossignol, who took part in the storming of the Bastille, was appointed general and placed at the head of the army in the Vendée.

The new commanders of the Republican army boldly applied revolutionary tactics based on the speed and swiftness of the strike, mobility and maneuverability, the concentration of superior forces in a decisive area, the initiative of military units and individual fighters. “You need to attack suddenly, quickly, without looking back. You need to blind like lightning and strike with lightning speed,” - this is how Carnot defined the general nature of the new tactics.

The soldiers were inspired by the fighting revolutionary spirit. Women and teenagers fought next to the men. Nineteen-year-old Rosa Baro, who called herself Liberty Baro, after her husband was wounded, took the cartridges that were in her husband's bandoleer and participated in the attack against the enemy until the very end.

There were many such examples of heroism. “Defeated feudalism, strengthened bourgeois freedom, a well-fed peasant against feudal countries - this is the economic basis of the “miracles” of 1792-1793 in the military field” (V. I. Lenin, On the revolutionary phrase, Works, vol. 27, p. 4. ), - wrote V.I. Lenin, revealing the sources of victories of the republican army, incomprehensible to contemporaries.

Science and art in the service of the revolution

Based on the interests of the revolution, the Jacobins, with their characteristic energy, imperiously intervened in resolving issues of public education, science, and art. On August 1, 1793, the Convention adopted a decree on the introduction of new system measures and weights of the metric system. Developed and prepared by French scientists under the leadership of the revolutionary authorities, the metric system became the property not only of France, but also became widespread beyond its borders.

The Convention abolished the old calendar, based on the Christian chronology, and introduced a new, revolutionary calendar, according to which the chronology began on September 22, 1792, the day of the proclamation of the French Republic.

The revolutionary government, while promoting the development of science, at the same time demanded assistance from scientists in organizing military production and in solving other problems facing the country. The largest scientists of that time - Berthollet, Monge, Lagrange and many others - through their active participation in the organization of defense affairs, introduced a lot of new things into metallurgical production, chemical science and other branches of science and technology. Giton-Morvo's experiments on the use of balloons for military purposes were of great importance. The Convention supported and practically implemented the invention proposed by Shapp - the optical telegraph. A message from Lille to Paris was transmitted in 1794 in one hour.

The Revolution transformed art and literature in France; she brought them closer to the people. Folk art found its fullest expression in revolutionary battle songs - such as “Carmagnola” and many others, sung in the streets and squares.
Composers Gossec and Cherubini created revolutionary hymns, the great artist David painted pictures on patriotic themes, theaters staged plays with revolutionary content, written by Marie-Joseph Chenier and other playwrights who dedicated their pens to the service of the revolution. Prominent artists and composers took an active part in the organization and design of popular revolutionary festivals.

Victory over internal counter-revolution and intervention

The powerful blows of revolutionary terror, the vigilance and dedication of the masses broke the internal counter-revolution. In the fall of 1793, the Girondin rebellion in the south was suppressed. The Vendean rebels were also defeated. At the same time, the Republican armies with heroic resistance stopped and threw back the interventionist troops. In December, the troops of the Convention captured Toulon, a large naval port that had previously been surrendered to the British by the counter-revolutionaries.

By the spring of 1794, the military situation of the republic had improved significantly. The French army, having seized the initiative, firmly held it in its hands. Having expelled the interventionists from France, the republic's troops fought offensive battles on enemy territory.

On June 26, 1794, in the fierce Battle of Fleurus, the French army under the command of General Jourdan completely defeated the interventionist troops. In this battle, the French used a hot air balloon for the first time, which caused confusion among the enemy troops. The victory at Fleurus was decisive. It not only eliminated the threat to France, but also opened the way for the French army to Belgium, Holland and the Rhineland.
Within one year, the Jacobin dictatorship accomplished what it had failed to achieve in the previous four years of the revolution - it crushed feudalism, resolved the main tasks of the bourgeois revolution and broke the resistance of its internal and external enemies. She was able to accomplish these enormous tasks only by working for the broadest masses of the people, adopting plebeian methods of struggle from the people and using them against the enemies of the revolution. During the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the French bourgeois revolution appeared more clearly than ever as a popular revolution. “Historians of the bourgeoisie see in Jacobinism a decline... Historians of the proletariat see in Jacobinism one of the highest upsurges of the oppressed class in the struggle for liberation” (V.I. Lenin Is it possible to intimidate the working class with “Jacobinism”? Works, vol. 25, p. .120), wrote V.I. Lenin.

Crisis of the Jacobin dictatorship

The short period of the Jacobin dictatorship was the greatest time of the revolution. The Jacobins managed to awaken the dormant forces of the people, to breathe into them the indomitable energy of courage, boldness, readiness for self-sacrifice, fearlessness, daring. But for all its enduring greatness, for all its historical progressiveness, the Jacobin dictatorship still did not overcome the limitations inherent in any bourgeois revolution.

At the very basis of the Jacobin dictatorship, as well as in the policies pursued by the Jacobins, lay deep internal contradictions. The Jacobins fought for the complete triumph of freedom, democracy, equality in the form in which these ideas were presented to the great bourgeois democratic revolutionaries of the 18th century. But by crushing and uprooting feudalism, sweeping away, in Marx’s words, with a “giant broom” all the old, medieval, feudal garbage and all those who tried to preserve it, the Jacobins thereby cleared the ground for the development of bourgeois, capitalist relations. They ultimately created the conditions for replacing one form of exploitation with another: feudal exploitation - capitalist.

The Jacobin revolutionary-democratic dictatorship subjected the sale and distribution of food and other goods to strict state regulation and sent speculators and violators of maximum laws to the guillotine. As V.I. Lenin noted, “... the French petty bourgeois, the brightest and most sincere revolutionaries, were still excusable for the desire to defeat the speculator with the executions of individual, few “chosen” and thunderous declarations...” V.I. Lenin, O food tax, Soch., vol. 32, p. 310.

However, since state intervention was carried out only in the sphere of distribution, without affecting the method of production, all the repressive policies of the Jacobin government and all its efforts in the field of state regulation could not weaken the economic power of the bourgeoisie.

Moreover, during the years of the revolution, the economic power of the bourgeoisie as a class increased significantly as a result of the elimination of feudal land ownership and the sale of national property. The war, which disrupted normal economic ties and placed enormous demands on all areas of economic life, also created, despite the restrictive measures of the Jacobins, favorable conditions for the enrichment of clever businessmen. From all the cracks, from all the pores of society, freed from feudal shackles, an enterprising, daring, greedy new bourgeoisie grew, the ranks of which were constantly replenished with people from the petty-bourgeois strata of the city and the wealthy peasantry. Speculation on scarce goods, playing on the changing exchange rate of money, sale and resale of land, huge supplies for the army and military department, accompanied by all kinds of fraud and machinations - all this served as a source of rapid, almost fabulous enrichment for the new bourgeoisie. The policy of repression of the Jacobin government could neither stop nor even weaken this process. At the risk of laying their heads on the chopping block, all these rich people who had grown up during the years of the revolution, intoxicated by the opportunity to create a huge fortune in the shortest possible time, were uncontrollably eager to make a profit and knew how to bypass the laws on the maximum, on the prohibition of speculation and other restrictive measures of the revolutionary government.

Until the outcome of the struggle against the external and internal feudal counter-revolution was decided, the property-owning elements were forced to put up with the revolutionary regime. But as, thanks to the victories of the republican armies, the danger of feudal restoration weakened, the bourgeoisie increasingly sought to get rid of the revolutionary democratic dictatorship.

Like the urban bourgeoisie, a wealthy and even middle peasantry evolved, supporting the Jacobins only until the first decisive victories. Like the bourgeoisie, the propertied layers of the countryside were hostile to the maximum policy, sought the abolition of fixed prices, and sought to immediately and completely, without any restrictions, prohibitions, or requisitions, take advantage of what they had acquired during the years of the revolution.

Meanwhile, the Jacobins continued to steadily pursue their policy of terror and maximum. At the beginning of 1794, they made an attempt to implement new socio-economic measures to the detriment of large property owners. On the 8th and 13th of Vantose (late February - early March), the Convention, following the report of Saint-Just, adopted important decrees that were of great fundamental importance. According to these so-called Ventoise decrees, the property of persons recognized as enemies of the revolution was subject to confiscation and free distribution among the poor. The enemies of the revolution at that time were considered not only former aristocrats, but also numerous representatives of both the old, Feuillant and Girondist, and the new bourgeoisie, in particular speculators who violated the law on the maximum. The egalitarian aspirations of the Jacobin disciples and followers of Rousseau were reflected in the Ventose decrees. If the Ventose decrees could be implemented, this would mean a significant increase in the number of small owners, primarily from the ranks of the poor. However, the proprietary elements opposed the implementation of the Ventoise decrees.

At the same time, the internal inconsistency of the Jacobins' policies led to growing discontent at the other pole - in the ranks of the plebeian defenders of the revolution.

The Jacobins did not provide the conditions for a real improvement in the financial situation of the plebeians. Having established, under pressure from the popular masses, a maximum on food products, the Jacobins extended it to the wages of workers, thereby causing them considerable harm. They left Le Chapelier's anti-labor law in force. Hired workers, devoted fighters of the revolution, who selflessly worked for the defense of the republic, who took an active part in political life, in the lower bodies of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship - revolutionary committees, revolutionary clubs and popular societies, also became increasingly dissatisfied with the policies of the Jacobins.

The Jacobin dictatorship did not even fulfill the aspirations of the rural poor. The sale of national property was used mainly by the wealthy elite of the peasantry, who bought up most of the land. During these years, the differentiation of the peasantry increased continuously. The poor sought to limit the size of “farms”, the possessions of wealthy peasants, to confiscate their surplus land and distribute it among the poor, but the Jacobins did not dare to support these demands. Local governments typically sided with wealthy peasants in their conflicts with farm workers. All this caused dissatisfaction with Jacobin policies among the poorer strata of the village.

Fighting among the Jacobins

The aggravation of internal contradictions in the country and the crisis of the revolutionary dictatorship led to a struggle in the ranks of the Jacobins. In the autumn of 1793, two opposition groups began to take shape among the Jacobins. The first of them developed around Danton. One of the most influential leaders of the revolution in its previous stages, who at one time, along with Robespierre and Marat, enjoyed enormous popularity among the people, Danton already showed hesitation in the decisive days of the fight against the Girondins. As Marx put it, Danton, “despite the fact that he was on the top of the Mountain... to a certain extent was the leader of the Swamp” (K. Marx, The struggle of the Jacobins with the Girondins, K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. III, p. 609.). After his forced resignation from the Committee of Public Safety, Danton retired from business for a while, but while remaining in the shadows, he became an attractive center around which prominent figures of the Convention and the Jacobin Club were grouped: Camille Desmoulins, Fabre d'Eglantine and others. With some exceptions, all of these were persons directly or indirectly associated with the rapidly growing new bourgeoisie.

The Dantonist group soon became defined as an openly right-wing movement, representing the new bourgeoisie that had become rich during the years of the revolution. On the pages of the newspaper “Old Cordelier”, edited by Desmoulins, in their speeches and articles, the Dantonists spoke as supporters of a policy of moderation, putting the brakes on the revolution. The Dantonists more or less openly demanded the abandonment of the policy of terror and the gradual elimination of the revolutionary democratic dictatorship. In questions foreign policy they sought to reach an agreement with England and other participants in the counter-revolutionary coalition in order to quickly achieve peace at any cost.

But the policy of the Robespierrist Committee of Public Safety met with opposition from the left. The Paris Commune and sections reflected this discontent. They were looking for ways to alleviate the needs of the poor, insisted on pursuing a policy of severe repression against speculators, violators of the maximum law, etc. However, they did not have a clear and definite program of action.

The most influential left-wing group in Paris after the defeat of the “mad” became the supporters of Chaumette and Hébert - left-wing Jacobins (or Hébertists, as historians later began to call them), who accepted a number of demands of the “mad.” The degree of cohesion and homogeneity of the Ebertists was small. Hébert (1757-1794), who was a theater usher before the revolution, emerged as one of the active figures in the Cordeliers Club. In the autumn of 1793, when Chaumette, the most prominent representative of the Jacobin left, became prosecutor of the Commune, Hébert was appointed his deputy. A capable journalist, Hébert gained fame with his newspaper “Père Duchesne,” which was popular in the popular quarters of Paris.

In the autumn of 1793, serious differences emerged between the Hébertists, whose influence was then strong in the Paris Commune, and the Robespierrists on issues of religious policy. In Paris and in some places in the provinces, the Hébertists began to implement a policy of “de-Christianization,” accompanied by the closing of churches, forcing the clergy to abdicate, etc. These measures, carried out mainly by administrative measures, encountered resistance from the popular masses, especially the peasantry. Robespierre strongly condemned the forced "de-Christianization" and it was stopped. But the struggle between the Hébertists and the Robespierrists continued.

In the spring of 1794, the Hébertists, in connection with the deterioration of the food situation in the capital, intensified their criticism of the activities of the Committee of Public Safety. The Cordelier Club, led by them, was preparing to cause a new popular movement, this time directed against the Committee. However, Hébert and his supporters were arrested, convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed on March 24.

A week later, the government struck a blow against the Dantonists. On April 2, Danton, Desmoulins and others were handed over to the Revolutionary Tribunal and on April 5, they were guillotined.

By defeating the Dantonists, the revolutionary government eliminated a force that had become harmful and dangerous to the revolution. But, striking with one hand at the enemies of the revolution, the Jacobin leaders struck with the other hand at its defenders. Bouchotte was removed from the War Ministry and soon arrested. Although Hébert's call for an uprising was not supported by Chaumette and the Paris Commune, Chaumette was also executed. From the Paris Commune, the revolutionary police, and sections, everyone suspected of sympathizing with the Hébertists was expelled. To curtail the independence of the Paris Commune, a “national agent” appointed by the government was placed at its head. All these events caused discontent in the revolutionary capital. The Robespierrists cut off part of the forces that supported the Jacobin dictatorship.

The position of the revolutionary government seemed to be strengthened outwardly. Every open expression of discontent, every form of vocal opposition to the revolutionary government ceased. But this external impression of the strength and durability of the Jacobin dictatorship was deceptive.

In reality, the Jacobin dictatorship was experiencing an acute crisis caused by the new socio-political situation that had developed in the country after the victory over the feudal-monarchist counter-revolution. Meanwhile, the Jacobins, encountering increasing hostility from the urban and rural bourgeoisie and at the same time losing their support among the masses, did not know and could not find ways to overcome this crisis.

The leaders of the revolutionary government, Robespierre and his supporters, tried to strengthen the Jacobin dictatorship by establishing a new state religion - the cult of the “supreme being,” the idea of which was borrowed from Rousseau. On June 8, 1794, a solemn celebration dedicated to the “supreme being” took place in Paris, during which Robespierre acted as a kind of high priest. But this event only harmed the revolutionary government and Robespierre.

On June 10, 1794, the Convention, at the insistence of Robespierre, adopted a new law that significantly increased the terror. Within six weeks of the publication of this law, the Revolutionary Tribunal handed down up to 50 death sentences daily.

The victory at Fleurus strengthened the intention of broad sections of the bourgeoisie and peasant owners, extremely dissatisfied with the intensification of terror, to get rid of the regime of the revolutionary democratic dictatorship that was weighing them down.

Counter-revolutionary coup of 9 Thermidor

The Dantonists who escaped punishment and the deputies of the Convention close to them, as well as people close to the Hébertists, entered into secret connections with the aim of eliminating Robespierre and other leaders of the Committee of Public Safety. By July 1794, a new conspiracy against the revolutionary government had emerged deep underground. Its main organizers were individuals who were afraid of severe punishment for their crimes: the unprincipled Tallien, who had stained himself with embezzlement and lawlessness when he was a commissar in Bordeaux; the same extortionist and bribe-taker Freron; former aristocrat, depraved cynic and money-grubber Barras: deceitful, cunning, resourceful Fouche, recalled from Lyon for complicity in criminal cruelties and dark deeds. Not only many members of the Convention, including deputies of the “swamp”, were drawn into the conspiracy, but also some members of the Committee of Public Safety (for example, those close to the Hébertists Collot d'Herbois and Billot-Varenne) and the Committee of Public Safety. Subjective moods and intentions of individuals The persons participating in the conspiracy were different, but objectively this conspiracy was counter-revolutionary in nature.

Robespierre and other leaders of the revolutionary government guessed about the impending coup, but no longer had the strength to prevent it.

On July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor of the 2nd year according to the revolutionary calendar), the conspirators openly spoke at a meeting of the Convention against Robespierre, did not allow him to speak and demanded his arrest. Robespierre, his younger brother Augustin and his closest associates - Saint-Just, Couthon and Lebas - were immediately arrested.

The Paris Commune rose to defend the revolutionary government. By her order, the arrested were released and taken to the town hall. The Commune declared an insurrection against the counter-revolutionary majority of the Convention and appealed to the Parisian sections to send their armed forces at its disposal. The Convention, for its part, outlawed Robespierre and other persons arrested with him, as well as the leaders of the Commune, and appealed to the sections with a demand to assist the Convention in suppressing the “rebellion.”
Half of the Parisian sections, and above all the central sections inhabited by the bourgeoisie, took the side of the Convention. Many other sections took a neutral position or split. But a number of plebeian sections joined the movement against the Convention.

Meanwhile, the Commune showed indecisiveness and did not take active action against the Convention. The armed detachments, which, at the call of the Commune, had gathered in the square in front of the town hall, began to disperse. At two o'clock in the morning the armed forces of the Convention almost unhindered reached the town hall and broke into it. Robespierre and his associates were again arrested along with members of the Commune.

On July 28 (10 Thermidor), the leaders of the Jacobin government and the Commune, outlawed, were guillotined without trial. The executions of supporters of the revolutionary government continued over the next two days.

The coup of 9 Thermidor overthrew the revolutionary-democratic Jacobin dictatorship and thereby effectively put an end to the revolution. Historical significance of the French Revolution

French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. had the greatest progressive significance. It consisted, first of all, in the fact that this revolution put an end to feudalism and absolutism as decisively as any other bourgeois revolution.

The Great French Revolution was led by the bourgeois class. But the tasks facing this revolution could only be accomplished due to the fact that its main driving force was the masses - the peasantry and urban plebeians. The French Revolution was a people's revolution, and this was its strength. The active, decisive participation of the popular masses gave the revolution the breadth and scope with which it differed from. other bourgeois revolutions. French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. remained a classic example of the most complete bourgeois-democratic revolution.

The Great French bourgeois revolution predetermined the subsequent development along the capitalist path not only of France itself; it shook the foundations of the feudal-absolutist order and accelerated the development bourgeois relations in other European countries; under her direct influence, a bourgeois revolutionary movement arose in Latin America.

Describing the historical significance of the French bourgeois revolution, Lenin wrote: “Take the great French revolution. It is not without reason that she is called great. For her class, for which she worked, for the bourgeoisie, she did so much that the entire 19th century, the century that gave civilization and culture to all humanity, passed under the sign of the French Revolution. In all parts of the world he did only what he carried out, carried out in parts, completed what the great French revolutionaries of the bourgeoisie had created...” (V.I. Lenin, I All-Russian Congress on Extra-School Education. It’s about deceiving the people with slogans of freedom and equality. May 19, Soch., vol. 29, p. 342.)

However, the historical progressiveness of the French bourgeois revolution, like any other bourgeois revolution, was limited. She freed the people from the chains of feudalism and absolutism, but imposed new chains on them - the chains of capitalism.