The Great French Revolution is the general name for the processes that swept France in the late 1780s - the first half of the 1790s. Revolutionary changes were radical, they caused:

• breaking the old system
• liquidation of the monarchy
• gradual transition to democracy.

In general, the revolution was bourgeois, directed against the monarchy and feudal remnants.

Chronologically, the revolution covers the period from 1789 to 1794, although some historians believe that it ended in 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power.

Members

The Great French Revolution was based on the opposition of the privileged nobility, which was the backbone of the monarchical system, and the "third estate". The latter was represented by such groups as:

• Peasants;
• Bourgeoisie;
• Manufactory workers;
• Urban poor or plebs.

The uprising was led by representatives of the bourgeoisie, who did not always take into account the needs of other groups of the population.

Background and main causes of the revolution

At the end of the 1780s. in France, a protracted political, economic and social crisis erupted. Changes were demanded by the plebs, the peasants, the bourgeoisie and the workers, who did not want to put up with this state of affairs.

One of the most difficult issues was agrarian, which was constantly becoming more complicated due to the deep crisis of the feudal system. Its remnants prevented the development of market relations, the penetration of capitalist principles into agriculture and industry, the emergence of new professions and production areas.

Among the main causes of the French Revolution, it is worth noting such as:

• Commercial and industrial crisis that began in 1787;
• The bankruptcy of the king and the country's budget deficit;
• Several lean years that led to the peasant uprisings of 1788-1789. In a number of cities - Grenoble, Besançon, Rennes and the suburbs of Paris - there was a series of speeches by the plebs;
• Crisis of the monarchical regime. At the royal court, attempts were made to solve the problems that had arisen, but the methods of overcoming the systemic crisis, which officials resorted to, were hopelessly outdated and did not work. Therefore, King Louis XVI decided to make certain concessions. In particular, notables and the States General were convened, which last met in 1614. Representatives of the third estate were also present at the meeting of the Estates General. The latter created the National Assembly, which soon became Constituent.

The nobility and the privileged strata of French society, including the clergy, spoke out against such equality, and began to prepare to disperse the assembly. In addition, they did not accept the king's proposal to tax them. The peasants, the bourgeoisie, the workers and the plebs began to prepare for a popular uprising. On July 13 and 14, 1789, an attempt to disperse it brought many representatives of the third estate to the streets of Paris. Thus began the French Revolution, which changed France forever.

Stages of the revolution

Subsequent events are usually divided into several periods:

• From July 14, 1789 - to August 10, 1792;
• From August 10, 1792 - to June 3, 1793;
• June 3, 1793 - July 28, 1794;
• July 28, 1794 - November 9, 1799

The first stage began with the capture of the most famous French prison - the Bastille fortress. The following events also belong to this period:

• Replacing old authorities with new ones;
• Creation of the National Guard, subordinate to the bourgeoisie;
• The adoption in the fall of 1789 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen;
• The adoption of a number of decrees concerning the rights of the bourgeoisie and the plebs. In particular, class division was abolished, church property was confiscated, the clergy came under the control of secular authorities, the old administrative division of the country was abolished, and workshops were abolished. The most intense was the abolition of feudal duties, but in the end the rebels managed to achieve this as well;
• The emergence of the so-called Varna crisis in the first half of the summer of 1791. The crisis was connected with the king's attempt to escape abroad. This event is associated with: the execution of a demonstration on the Champ de Mars; the beginning of the confrontation between the poorest segments of the population and the bourgeoisie, who went over to the side of the nobility; as well as the separation from the revolutionary Jacobin club of the moderate political party of the Feuillants;
• Constant contradictions between the main political forces - the Girondins, Feuillants and Jacobins, which made it easier for other European states to penetrate French territory. During 1792-1792. The following declared war on the state torn apart by the revolution: Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, Austria, the Kingdom of Naples, Spain, the Netherlands and some German principalities. The French army was not ready for such a turn of events, especially since most of the generals fled the country. Because of the threat of an attack on the capital, detachments of volunteers began to appear in Paris;
• Activation of the anti-monarchist movement. On August 10, 1792, the final overthrow of the monarchy and the creation of the Paris Commune took place.

The main feature of the second stage of the revolution was the confrontation between the Girondins and the Jacobins. The leaders of the first were Zh.P. Brissot, J.M. Roland and P.V. Vergniaud, who were on the side of the commercial, industrial and agricultural bourgeoisie. This party wanted a speedy end to the revolution and the establishment of political stability. The Jacobins were led by M. Robespierre, J.P. Marat and J.J. Danton, who were representatives of the middle class and the poor bourgeois. They defended the interests of the workers and peasants, and also advocated the further development of the revolution, since their demands remained unheeded.

The main events of the second period of the French Revolution were:

• Struggle between the Jacobin-controlled Paris Commune and the Girondin Legislative Assembly. The result of the confrontation was the creation of the Convention, whose representatives were elected from the entire male population of France over 21 years old on the basis of universal suffrage;
• France declared a republic on September 21, 1792;
• Execution of the last king of the Bourbon dynasty on January 21, 1793;
• Continuation of peasant uprisings caused by poverty, landlessness and hunger. The poor seized the estates of their masters and divided the communal land. The townspeople also rioted, demanding fixed food prices;
• The expulsion of the Girondins from the Convention in late May - early June 1793. This ended the second period of the uprising.

Getting rid of opponents allowed the Jacobins to concentrate all power in their own hands. The third period of the Great French Revolution is known as the Jacobin dictatorship and, first of all, is associated with the name of the head of the Jacobins - Maximilian Robespierre. It was a rather difficult period for the young republic - while internal contradictions were tearing the country apart, the troops of neighboring powers were advancing to the borders of the state. France was involved in the Vendean Wars, which engulfed the southern and northwestern provinces.

The Jacobins, first of all, took up the solution of the agrarian question. All communal lands and lands of the fleeing nobles were transferred to the peasants. Then feudal rights and privileges were abolished, which contributed to the formation of a new class of society - free owners.

The next step was the adoption of a new Constitution, which was distinguished by its democratic character. It was supposed to introduce constitutional government, but a complex socio-political and economic crisis forced the Jacobins to establish a regime of revolutionary democratic dictatorship.

At the end of August 1793, a decree was adopted on the mobilization of the French in the fight against foreign invaders. In response, the opponents of the Jacobins who were inside the country began to massively carry out terrorist acts in all cities of France. As a result of one of these actions, Marat was also killed.

At the end of July 1796, the republican troops defeated the interventionist troops near Fleurus. The last decisions of the Jacobins were the adoption of the Vantoise decrees, which were not destined to come true. Dictatorship, repression and the policy of requisition (expropriation) turned the peasants against the Jacobin regime. As a result, a conspiracy arose to overthrow the government of Robespierre. The so-called Thermidorian coup ended Jacobin rule and brought moderate republicans and the bourgeoisie to power. They created a new governing body - the Directory. The new government carried out a number of transformations in the country:

• Adopted a new Constitution;
• Replaced universal suffrage with census (admission to elections was received only by those citizens who possessed property for a certain amount);
• Established the principle of equality;
• Gave the right to elect and be elected only to those citizens of the republic who are 25 years old;
• She created the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of the Elders, who monitored the political situation in France;
• She waged wars against Prussia and Spain, culminating in the signing of peace treaties. Continued hostilities against England and Austria.

The Board of the Directory ended on November 9, 1799, when another coup took place in the republic. It was led by General of the Army Napoleon Bonaparte, who was very popular among the soldiers. Relying on the military, he managed to seize power in Paris, which was the beginning of a new era in the life of the country.

Outcomes and results of the revolution

• The elimination of the remnants of the feudal system, which contributed to the rapid development of capitalist relations;
• Establishment of a republican system based on democratic principles;
• The final consolidation of the French nation;
• Formation of authorities formed on the basis of suffrage;
• The adoption of the first constitutions, the provisions of which guaranteed citizens equality before the law and the opportunity to enjoy national wealth;
• Solving the agrarian question;
• Liquidation of the monarchy;
• Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

However, positive transformations also contained a number of negative features:

• Introduction of property qualification;
• Ignoring the opinion of the majority of citizens, which led to new unrest;
• The establishment of a complex administrative division, which prevented the formation of an effective management system.

By the end of the XVIII century. in France, all the preconditions for a bourgeois revolution were in place. The capitalist way of life, progressive for that time, has reached a significant development. But the establishment of a new, capitalist mode of production was hindered 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 the nobility, which were the stronghold of the feudal-absolutist system. Making up approximately 99% of the population of France, the third estate was politically powerless, dependent on both privileged classes and on autocratic royal power. At the level of development of capitalism that France had reached by the end of the 18th century, class groups completely heterogeneous in their property and social status were hidden under the single medieval shell of the third estate. 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 imperiously demanded the expansion of the domestic market, and this was impossible without the abolition 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 XVIII century, when the main contradictions of feudal society became deeply aggravated, France was struck by the commercial and industrial crisis of 1787-1789. and a crop failure in 1788. The mass of poor peasants who worked in the villages for capitalist manufactory and buyers lost their earnings because of the crisis in industry. Many otkhodnik peasants, who usually went to large cities in autumn and winter for construction work, also did not find any use for their labor. Begging 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 needs and calamities of the people have reached the limit. The growing wave of peasant and plebeian uprisings testified that the lower classes - the multi-million peasantry, exploited and oppressed by the nobles, the church, local and central authorities, the petty urban bourgeoisie, artisans, workers, crushed by overwork and extreme poverty, and the urban poor - no longer want to live in -old.
After a bad harvest in 1788, popular uprisings engulfed many provinces of the kingdom. The rebellious peasants broke into grain barns and landowners' bins, forced bread merchants to sell it at a lower, or, as they said then, "fair" price.

At the same time, the top could no longer govern in the old way. The acute financial crisis and the bankruptcy of the state treasury forced the monarchy to urgently seek funds to cover current expenses. However, even at a meeting of "notables", convened in 1787 and consisting of representatives of the highest nobility and officials, King Louis XVI met with strong opposition and a demand for reform. The demand for the convocation 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 convocation and again appointed the head of the financial department, a minister popular among the bourgeoisie, who was dismissed by him 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 convocation of the Estates-General aroused great hopes among the people. Food unrest in the cities became more and more intertwined with the political movement led by the bourgeoisie. The actions of the workers and other plebeian elements of the urban population began to take on a stormy, openly revolutionary character. Major popular unrest took place in 1788 in Rennes, Grenoble, Besançon; at the same time, in Rennes and Besancon, part of the troops sent to suppress the uprising refused to shoot at the people.

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

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 Revellon and another industrialist, Anrio. Detachments of guards and cavalry were moved against the rebels, but the workers put up stubborn resistance, using stones, cobblestones from the pavement, tiles from the roofs. In the ensuing bloody battle, several hundred people were killed and wounded. The uprising was crushed, but the workers recaptured the corpses of their dead comrades from the troops and a few days later saw them off to the cemetery with a majestic and formidable mourning demonstration. The uprising in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine made a great impression on contemporaries. It showed how high the wave of popular anger rises, what enormous forces it conceals in itself.

The tops - the king and the feudal aristocracy - were powerless to stop the growth of popular indignation. The old levers by which the royal authorities kept the people in obedience were now failing. The violence of repression no longer reached its goal.

Contrary to the calculations of the court, the decision to convene the States General did not bring calm, but only contributed to the strengthening of the political activity of the broad masses. The drafting of mandates for deputies, the discussion of these mandates, 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 over all of France.

States General. Turning them into a Constituent Assembly

On May 5, 1789, meetings of the Estates General opened in Versailles. The king and deputies from the nobility and the clergy sought to limit the States 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 turn them into the highest legislative body of the country.
For more than a month, fruitless squabbles about the order of the meetings continued - by estate (which would give an advantage to the nobility and clergy) or jointly (which would provide a leading role for 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 the rest of the deputies to join them. On June 20, in response to the government's attempt to disrupt the next meeting of the National Assembly, the deputies of the third estate, having gathered in the arena building (in the ball game hall), took an oath not to disperse until a constitution was worked out.
Three days later, by order of the king, a meeting of the Estates General was convened, at which the king proposed that the deputies divide according to estates 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 it.

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 were drawn to Paris and Versailles. The royal court was preparing the dispersal of the Assembly. On July 11, Louis XVI resigned Necker and ordered him to leave the capital.

2. The beginning of the revolution. 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 merchants, employees, students filled the squares and streets. The people began to arm themselves; tens of thousands of guns were captured.

But in the hands of the government remained a formidable fortress - the Bastille prison. The eight towers of this fortress, surrounded by two deep ditches, seemed like an invincible 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 overcome; the assault on the fort began. Carpenters and roofers built scaffolding. The artillerymen, who had gone 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 recognized the decisions of the National Assembly.

These days in Paris there was an organ of city self-government - the municipality, composed of representatives of the big bourgeoisie. A bourgeois national guard was formed. Its commander was the Marquis Lafayette, who created popularity for himself by participating in the war of the North American colonies of England 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 spread rapidly throughout the country.

On July 18 an uprising began in Troyes, on the 19th - in Strasbourg, on the 21st - in Cherbourg, on the 24th - in Rouen. In Strasbourg, the rebellious people were for two days the complete master of the city. The workers, armed with axes and hammers, broke down the doors of the city hall, and the people burst into the building and burned all the documents stored there. In Rouen and Cherbourg, local residents who took to the streets shouting: "Bread!", "Death to the buyers!", Forced to sell bread at reduced prices. In Troyes, the rebellious people seized weapons and took possession of the town hall.

In the provincial cities, the old authorities were abolished and elected municipalities were created. Not infrequently, royal officials and old city authorities, in fear of popular unrest, preferred to cede power without resistance to the new, bourgeois municipalities.

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, smashed the landlords' estates, burned the feudal archives, seized and divided the landowners' meadows and forests.

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

The nobles, seized with fear, abandoned their estates and fled to the big cities from the countryside, which was raging with the fire of peasant uprisings.

Peasant uprisings forced the Constituent Assembly to hastily deal with the agrarian question. In the decisions adopted on August 4-11, 1789, the Constituent Assembly declared that "the feudal regime is completely destroyed." However, only the so-called personal duties and church tithes were abolished free of charge. Other feudal obligations arising from the holding of a land plot by a peasant 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 the 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 French cities. The armed force of the revolution - the National Guard - was under its leadership. In the Constituent Assembly, dominance also belonged to 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 of all mankind.

On August 26, 1789, the Constituent Assembly adopted the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" - the most important document of the French Revolution, which had world-historical significance. “People are born and remain free and equal in rights,” the Declaration said. This revolutionary principle was proclaimed at a time when, in most of the world, man was still a slave, a thing, when there were millions of serfs in the Russian Empire and other feudal-absolutist states, 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 freedom of the individual, 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 Citizen played a great progressive role. They made an enormous impression on contemporaries and left a deep imprint on the public consciousness of peoples. However, the Declaration declared the right to property to be the same "sacred" and inviolable right. True, this was then the element of the progressive - the protection of bourgeois property from the encroachments of the feudal-absolutist system. But above all, the right to property was directed against the poor. Its proclamation actually created the best conditions for a new form of exploitation of man by man - for the capitalist exploitation of the working people.

A sharp discrepancy between the humanistic principles, the broad democratic promises of the Declaration and the real policy of the Constituent Assembly was revealed very soon.

The leading role in the Constituent Assembly was played by the constitutionalist party, which expressed the interests of the top bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility. The leaders of this party - the brilliant orator, the flexible and duplicitous political businessman Count Mirabeau, the secretive and dodgy Abbé 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 consolidate the rule 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 had enthusiastically adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, it began debating the 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 a property qualification were declared passive - they were deprived of the right to vote 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 rule and leave the working people politically without rights.

Popular performance 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 elimination of feudal rights. In September, new troops were called to Versailles. On October 1, a counter-revolutionary manifestation of the 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 autumn of 1789, the food situation in Paris again deteriorated sharply. The poor were starving. Discontent grew among the broad masses of the working people of the capital, especially among women who stood in line for hours for bread. It also intensified under the influence of persistent rumors about the counter-revolutionary preparations of the court. On October 5, huge crowds of people moved to Versailles. The people surrounded the royal palace, and at dawn on October 6 broke into it. The king was forced not only to approve all 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 popular masses of Paris, as in the July days, frustrated 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 vigilant supervision of the masses and could no longer openly resist revolutionary changes. The Constituent Assembly was given the opportunity to continue its work without hindrance 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 pillar 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 issuance of so-called assignats - state monetary obligations, the value of which was provided by income from the sale of church lands. Designates were supposed to pay the public debt, but later they turned into ordinary paper money.
In May 1790, the procedure for the sale of "national property" in small plots with payment by installments of up to 12 years was legalized. However, the land split was soon 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 duties by the peasants.

The peasantry openly expressed its dissatisfaction with the policy of the bourgeois Constituent Assembly and again took the path of struggle. In the autumn of 1790, peasant unrest began again, the landowners' estates flared up.

In many places, the 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 land tax and that whoever pays it will be hanged."

The Constituent Assembly sent troops, the National Guard, and emergency commissioners to the provinces covered by the peasant movement. But all attempts to put out 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 the bourgeois social system in France. It abolished class division, hereditary titles of nobility, removed from the clergy the registration of acts of birth, marriage, death, put the church and its ministers under the control of the state. Instead of the former 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 had a historically progressive character, corresponded to the interests of the bourgeoisie and were called upon to provide favorable conditions for the development of its commercial and industrial activities.

At the same time, the Constituent Assembly passed laws specifically directed against workers. So, shortly after the events of October 5-6, 1789, a law was passed allowing the use of military force to suppress popular uprisings.

Labor movement. Le Chapelier's Law

Even more clearly the class essence of the policy of the bourgeois Constituent Assembly was manifested in the persecution of the working-class movement. France at the end of the 18th century there was no large-scale machine industry and, consequently, there was still no factory proletariat. However, there were numerous categories of wage-workers: workers in centralized and scattered manufactories, artisan apprentices and apprentices, construction workers, port workers, laborers, etc. Some groups of workers, especially those from the countryside, were still associated with landed or other property, and their work for hire was often only an auxiliary occupation. But for an increasing number of workers, wage labor became the main source of subsistence. Workers already constituted 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 powerless position and completely dependent on the owners. Wages were low and lagged behind rising prices. The 14-18 hour work day was common even for skilled workers. Unemployment was a scourge for the workers, 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 3,000 tailor shop workers staged a demonstration demanding higher wages; The demonstrators were dispersed by a detachment of the National Guard. Unrest also arose among the unemployed employed in the digging work organized by the municipality. The workers even threatened to burn down the town hall.

In 1790-1791. workers' organizations were created, partly connected by their origin with pre-revolutionary companionships, but mainly representing unions of a new, professional type. The most active at that time were printing workers, more literate and conscious in comparison with other categories of workers. In 1790, the first organization of printers arose in Paris - the "printing meeting", which developed a special "regulation" adopted by the "general meeting of workers' representatives". It provided, in particular, the organization of mutual assistance in case of illness and old age. In the autumn of the same year, a more developed and organized organization of typographical workers, the "Typographical and Philanthropic Club", was founded. 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 sprang up in other cities.

Such developed professional organizations as the Typographic Club were then an exception. But workers of other professions also made attempts to create their own associations. Thus, for example, a “fraternal union” of carpenters arose, which included many thousands of workers.

In the spring of 1791 major strikes took place in Paris. Printing workers and carpenters participated most actively in them, as they were more organized, but workers of other professions also went on strike - blacksmiths, locksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, masons, roofers, in total up to 80 thousand people.

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

The Constituent Assembly went along with the harassment of entrepreneurs and, at the suggestion of the deputy Le Chapelier, issued a decree on June 14, 1791, forbidding workers, under pain of fines and imprisonment, to unite in unions and hold strikes. Two days later, on June 16, the Constituent Assembly decided to close the "charity workshops" organized in 1789 for the unemployed.

The authorities carefully monitored the implementation of Le Chapelier's law. Severe punishments were applied for its violation. Marx wrote that this law squeezed “competition between capital and labor by state police measures 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 declared a constitutional monarchy. The highest executive power was given to the king, the highest legislative power - to the Legislative Assembly. Only the so-called active citizens, who made up less than 20% of the population, could participate in the elections. The constitution did not abolish slavery in the colonies.

Compared with the state-legal system of the feudal-absolutist system, the constitution of 1791 was of a progressive nature. But it clearly revealed the class nature of the victorious bourgeoisie. The drafters of the constitution sought to perpetuate not only the property 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 ever sharper discontent among the people. Peasants, workers, artisans, small proprietors 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 headed by a lawyer from Arras - Maximilian Robespierre (1758-1794), a convinced, adamant supporter of democracy, whose voice was increasingly heeded in the country.

Clubs and folk societies. Democratic movement in 1789-1791

During the years of the revolution, the political activity of the masses of the people increased greatly. In Paris, the most important role was played by the organs of district self-government - the districts, later transformed into sections. They often held meetings that became a genuine political school for the capital's population. The leaders of the bourgeois municipality strove to destroy the continuity of the meetings of the districts and sections and turn them only into electoral assemblies, very rarely convened, but the democratic elements opposed this in every possible way.

Various political clubs sprang up in the capital and in the provincial towns. The club of the Jacobins and the club of the Cordeliers had the greatest influence. They were called so by the name of the monasteries in the premises of which they gathered. The official name of the Jacobin club was the "Society of Friends of the Constitution" and that of the Cordeliers' club was the "Society of Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen".

The composition of the Jacobin club in 1789-1791 was quite colorful; the club united bourgeois politicians of various shades - from Mirabeau to Robespierre.

The Cordelier 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. There were many “passive citizens” in its composition, and women also participated in its meetings. Among the leaders of this club, the brilliant orator Georges Danton (1759-1794) and the talented journalist Camille Desmoulins stood out. Sharp criticism of the anti-democratic policy of the Constituent Assembly and the qualification constitution of 1791 was heard from the rostrum of the Cordeliers Club.

In the "Social Club" and the broad organization "World Federation of Friends of Truth" created by him, social demands were brought to the fore; The club published the Iron Mouth newspaper. The organizers of the "Social Club" were Abbé Claude Fauchet and journalist N. Bonville.
The newspaper Friend of the People, published by Marat, had a huge influence on the revolutionary-democratic movement. Physician and scientist, Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) from the very first days of the revolution devoted himself entirely to the revolutionary struggle. An unshakable 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 figured out before others that the feudal oppression was being replaced by the oppression of the “aristocracy of wealth”. On the pages of his truly people's newspaper and in his militant pamphlets, Marat exposed the counter-revolutionary plans and actions of the court, the anti-popular 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 "confidence" . Marat taught revolutionary determination, urged the people not to stop halfway, to go to the end, to the complete crushing of the enemies of the revolution.

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

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. In Turin, and then in Koblenz, a counter-revolutionary emigration center was established, maintaining close ties with the absolutist governments of Europe. Among the emigrants, plans for the intervention of foreign powers against revolutionary France were discussed. Louis XVI kept in 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 start of the revolution; he pre-sanctioned whatever his commissioners deemed necessary to do to restore his "legitimate authority".

On the morning of June 21, 1791, Paris was awakened by the sound of the alarm. The alarm announced an extraordinary message: the king and queen fled. The people were indignant. In the face of obvious betrayal, fraught with dangerous consequences for the revolution, the masses began to arm themselves.

The flight of the king was part of a plot long prepared and carefully thought out. The king had to flee to the border fortress of Montmedy, where troops were stationed under the command of the ardent monarchist Marquis de Bouillet, and from there, at the head of the counter-revolutionary troops, move to Paris, disperse the Assembly and restore the feudal-absolutist regime. The conspirators also hoped that the flight of the king from Paris would induce 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 postmaster Drouet recognized Louis XVI, disguised as a lackey, and, raising the local population to his feet, rushed after him. In the town of Varennes, the king and queen were arrested and taken into custody by armed peasants. Accompanied by an innumerable crowd of armed people, the king and queen, as prisoners of the people, were returned to Paris.

The betrayal of the king, obvious to all, gave rise to an acute political crisis. The Cordelier 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 advocated, now gained many supporters not only in the capital, but also in the provinces. Such a requirement was put forward 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, the peasants began to create volunteer battalions.

The big bourgeoisie that was in power, however, did not want to liquidate the monarchical regime. In an attempt to save and rehabilitate the monarchy, the Constituent Assembly adopted a decision that supported the false version of the "abduction" 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 part of the club - the constitutionalists - on July 16 left its membership and created a new club - the Feuillants Club, which was called so after the name of the monastery in which its meetings took place.

On July 17, at the call of the Cordelier Club, many thousands of Parisians, mainly workers and artisans, gathered on the Champ de Mars to put their signatures on a petition demanding the king's deposition and 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 dead remained on the Field of Mars.

The execution on July 17, 1791 meant an open transition of the big 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, elected on the basis of a qualification electoral system, opened.

The right side of the Legislative Assembly was made up of feuillants - a party of major 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 adjoining 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 was made up 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 in 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 they switched to republican positions and turned into bourgeois republicans. The most prominent orators of the Girondins were the journalist Brissot and Vergniaud.

In the Jacobin Club, the policy of the Girondins was criticized by Robespierre and other figures representing the interests of the most democratic sections 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 - lamontagne). Over time, the term "Montagnards" began to be identified with the term "Jacobins".

The Girondins and Montagnards at first acted jointly against the counter-revolutionary party of the court and against the ruling party of the Feuillants, but then disagreements began between the Girondins and the Montagnards, which turned into an open struggle.

The political situation in the country at the beginning of 1792

In 1792, the economic situation in France deteriorated. The commercial and industrial crisis, somewhat weakened in 1790-1791, escalated again. Particularly rapidly curtailed industries that previously worked for the court and the aristocracy, as well as for export. The production of luxury goods has almost completely stopped. Unemployment rose. After the uprising of Negro slaves that broke out in August 1791 on the island of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), colonial goods - sugar, coffee, tea - disappeared from the sale. Prices for other foodstuffs have also risen.

In January 1792, major unrest began in Paris on the basis of high prices and food deprivation. In Bordeaux in the spring of 1792 there was a strike of carpenters and bakers. The workers fought for higher wages due to the rising cost of living. The Legislative Assembly received numerous petitions from workers and the poor demanding fixed food prices and curbing speculators. The rural poor were also worried. In some regions of France, armed detachments of starving peasants seized and divided grain among themselves, and by force established the sale of bread and other products at fixed prices.

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

At the same time, the counter-revolutionary forces, fighting for the restoration of the feudal-absolutist system, became more and more active. In the south, the aristocrats, as the supporters of feudalism were then called, tried to raise a counter-revolutionary rebellion. Intensified counter-revolutionary agitation was conducted 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 a decisive blow against the revolution, now placed their main stake on the armed intervention of foreign powers.

3. Beginning of revolutionary wars. The overthrow of the monarchy in France

Preparation of intervention against revolutionary France

The revolution in France contributed to the rise of the anti-feudal struggle in other countries. Not only in London and St. Petersburg, Berlin and Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest, but also across the ocean, progressive social circles eagerly caught news from revolutionary France. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and other documents of the revolution were translated and published in many European countries, in the United States and in Latin America. The slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", proclaimed by the French Revolution, was perceived everywhere as the beginning of a new age, an age 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 was manifested by the European feudal-absolutist states and bourgeois-aristocratic England.

England was the main organizer and inspirer of the counter-revolutionary coalition. The British ruling circles feared that with the fall of feudalism the international position of France would be strengthened, and the radical democratic movement in England itself would be strengthened.

British diplomacy sought to reconcile Austria and Prussia, which were then at odds with each other, and to use their combined forces against France. The efforts of tsarist Russia were also directed to this. In the summer of 1790, at the Reichenbach Conference, with 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 on joint action to help the French king. The Pilnitz 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 in early 1792 to a further sharp aggravation of relations between Austria and Prussia and France.

The beginning of the war with Austria and Prussia

Louis XVI, his associates, most of the officers and generals for their part, sought to hasten the war, believing that France could not withstand the external onslaught and that as soon as the interventionists advanced inland, they would be able to suppress the revolution with their help. Realizing this, Robespierre in the Jacobin club objected to the immediate declaration of war. He demanded a preliminary cleansing of the army commanders from counter-revolutionaries and warned that otherwise the aristocratic generals would open the way for the enemy to Paris. But the Girondins supported the proposal to declare war. Fearing the further growth of the class struggle, they counted on the fact that the war would divert the attention of the masses from internal problems. Closely associated with the bourgeoisie of large trading centers (Bordeaux, Marseilles, etc.), the Girondins also hoped that a successful war would lead to the expansion of France's borders, the strengthening of its economic position, and the weakening of its main rival, England. The question of the war led to a sharp aggravation of the struggle between the Jacobins - supporters of Robespierre and the Girondins.

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, at the head of which continued to be aristocrats or generals who did not understand the peculiarities of a revolutionary war at all, suffered a series of heavy defeats.

The secret conspiracy of the king and aristocrats with foreign interventionists, which had previously only been guessed at, now, after the treacherous actions of the generals, became clear. The Jacobins pointed to 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 weapons in their hands the homeland and the revolution, now inseparable for them from each other. The word "patriot", which spread among the people just at that time, acquired a dual meaning: the defender of the motherland and the revolution.

The vast masses of the peasantry understood that the interventionists brought with them the restoration of the hated feudal-absolutist system. A significant part of the bourgeoisie and wealthy peasants have already managed to acquire landed 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 the interventionists and the possibility of restoring 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 towns and villages; committees were set up to collect donations for their armament. Local democratic clubs and organizations demanded that the Legislative Assembly take emergency measures for the defense of the fatherland and the revolution.

Under pressure from the 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

With each passing 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 the severe punishment of traitor generals. At the end of June 1792, the commune (city government) of Marseilles 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 abolished. The Moconsey section, which was home to many workers and artisans, passed 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, the federates, arrived in Paris. The Marseille federations sang the "Song of the Army of the Rhine", written by a 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 submitted petitions to the Legislative Assembly insisting on 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 was published by the Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Prussian army concentrated on the borders of France. In an address to the French population, he frankly 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 manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, cynically revealing the counter-revolutionary goals of the intervention, aroused great indignation in the country and hastened 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 sections of Paris joined in the decision of the section of Mokonsey, demanding the deposition of Louis XVI.

On the night of August 10, the alarm heralded the beginning of a new uprising in the capital. The people gathered in sections, formed detachments. The section commissars proclaimed themselves the revolutionary Commune of Paris and led the uprising. Battalions of the national guard from the working suburbs, as well as detachments of the 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 entered into fraternization with the gunners and, to the cries of "Long live the nation!" dragged them along. The way to the palace was open. The king and queen took refuge in the building of the Legislative Assembly.

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

So the monarchy that had existed in France for about a thousand years was overthrown. The French Revolution has risen to a new stage, has 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 the plebeians were drawn into the revolutionary process. The French bourgeois revolution revealed its popular character more and more clearly.

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 Commune of Paris. The Legislative Assembly declared Louis XVI only temporarily removed from power, but at the urging of the Commune, the king and his family were arrested. A decree was issued convening a National Convention, in which all men over the age of 21 could participate, without any division of citizens into "active" and "passive".

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

After the victorious uprising of August 10, which showed what enormous strength lay hidden in the people, it was impossible to delay considering the demands of the peasantry.
The Legislative Assembly, which until recently had scornfully put off the consideration of hundreds of peasant petitions, now, with a haste that betrayed its fear of the formidable force of popular wrath, 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 lease in small plots from 2 to 4 arpans (approximately from 0.5 to 1 ha) for perpetual possession for an annual rent or to transfer to full ownership with payment in cash. The next day, a decree was passed to stop all prosecutions in cases related to former feudal rights. On August 25, the Legislative Assembly decided to cancel without redemption the feudal rights of those owners who could not legally prove them with the relevant 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 hostilities. On August 19, the Prussian army crossed the border of France and, developing the offensive, soon penetrated deep into the country. On August 23, the Prussian troops took the fortress of Longvi, surrendered to the enemy by the traitor commandant without a fight. On September 2, Verdun fell, the last fortress that covered the approaches to the capital. The invaders 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 vacillation, weakness and cowardice, showed tremendous revolutionary energy. They raised the entire democratic population of Paris to their feet. Men and women, children, the elderly - all sought to contribute to the common cause of the fight against the hated enemy. “The alarm is buzzing, but this is not an alarm, but a threat to the enemies of the fatherland. To defeat them, you need courage, once again courage, always courage, and France will be saved, ”said Danton.

Rumors spread in Paris about the preparation of a rebellion by counter-revolutionaries imprisoned. The people and the 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 untrained, poorly armed volunteers. The Prussian officers with swaggering self-confidence foreshadowed a quick and decisive victory over the "revolutionary rabble." But they triumphed early. With the singing of the Marseillaise, with the 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 of the battle, perspicaciously noted that the Battle of Valmy marked the beginning of a new era in world history. Valmy was the first victory of revolutionary France over the feudal-monarchist states of Europe.

Soon the French went on the offensive along the entire front, expelled the interventionists 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 the French troops occupied all of Belgium and the Rhineland.

4. Convention. Fight between Girondins and Jacobins

Opening of the Convention. Proclamation of the Republic

On the day of the victory at Valmy, the meetings of the National Convention, elected on the basis of universal suffrage, opened in Paris. The Convention had 750 deputies. 165 of them belonged to the Girondins, about 100 - to the Jacobins. Paris elected only the Jacobins as its deputies, including Robespierre, Marat and Danton. The rest of the deputies did not join any party - they were ironically nicknamed "plain" or "swamp".

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

From the very first days, both in 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 they also assumed the leading role in the Convention.

The Girondins represented those sections 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 revolution to develop further, tried to stop it, slow it down, 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 people in town and country, strove to develop the revolution further. The strength of the Jacobins - these advanced bourgeois revolutionaries - consisted in the fact that they did not fear the people, but relied on it and boldly led its struggle to further deepen the revolution. As V. I. Lenin pointed out, during the French Revolution of the late 18th century. “petty bourgeois could still be great revolutionaries.”

The Gironde tried to stop the revolution; Gora, relying on the masses of the people, sought to move the revolution forward. This was the essence of the struggle of the Mountain with the Gironde, from which all their differences flowed.

Execution of Louis XVI

Among the many political questions that served as the subject of a dispute and struggle between the Girondins and the Jacobins, at the end of 1792 the question of the fate of the former king acquired the greatest urgency. The popular masses have long demanded that the deposed king be put on trial. 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. It was obvious to both the Girondins and the Jacobins that the question of the fate of the former king was not a personal one, but a political one. To execute the king meant boldly advancing along the revolutionary path, to save his life 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 the motherland ... and you will ensure the good of the people by removing the head from the tyrant," Marat said in his speech at the Convention. The majority of the deputies spoke in favor of the death penalty and for the immediate execution of the sentence. 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 monarchist 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 lands showed towards them. The French Republican army entered the territory of foreign states with a bright revolutionary slogan: "Peace to huts, war to palaces!" The implementation of this slogan aroused the fury of the feudal-aristocratic circles and the enthusiastic sympathy of the masses. In Belgium, in the Rhine provinces of Germany, the French Republican soldiers were greeted as liberators. The ruling classes of the European monarchies became all the more implacable.

The advance of French troops into Belgium and the spread of revolutionary sentiment in England itself caused great alarm in the English ruling circles and prompted them to go over 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 by 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 after the execution of Louis XVI a decree on the termination of the trade agreement with France, on the prohibition of letting French ships into Russian ports and French citizens into the empire. But Tsarist Russia still did not enter into an open war with revolutionary France: if in previous years the Turkish war prevented this, now the government of Catherine II was busy with Polish affairs.

The deterioration of the economic situation and the aggravation of the political struggle

The war, which required the strain of all the forces of the country, sharply worsened the economic situation of France. The conduct of military operations on a large scale and the maintenance of large armies caused huge expenses. This circumstance, as well as the disruption of ordinary 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 issuance 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 result, to a rapid rise in prices for goods, especially food. Prosperous peasants and large wholesalers who bought up grain held back grain, did not let it out on the market, hoping to cash in on a further increase in prices. As a result, bread, and after it other consumer products, began to completely disappear from sale or were sold under the counter, at speculative prices.

On the basis of hunger and deprivation, the discontent of workers, small artisans, rural and urban poor grew. From the autumn of 1792, a mass movement unfolded in Paris, in provincial towns and rural areas. Workers staged strikes, demanding better working conditions and the introduction of fixed prices (maximum) for food. In Tours and some other cities, the poor forced their way to the establishment of 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 - street protests, attacks on shops and food warehouses, clashes with authorities and merchants.

The expressions of the sentiments of the plebeian masses were the sections of Paris, especially the sections of the plebeian quarters, which repeatedly appeared before the Convention with petitions for the establishment of fixed prices for foodstuffs. This demand was most clearly formulated by one of the prominent figures of the Cordeliers club, the former priest Jacques Roux, who in the early years of the revolution was close to Marat and hid him from persecution. Together with Jacques Roux, his supporters Theophile Leclerc, Varlet and others spoke among the masses. The Girondins, who hated Jacques Roux and other popular agitators, gave them the nickname "madmen", which was once used in Florence to christen the most ardent adherents of Savonarola. Along with the maximum for all foodstuffs, the “mad” demanded a decisive curbing of speculation and excitement. They condemned large property and property inequality.

The Jacobins at first spoke out against the maximum and reacted negatively to the agitation of the "mad", but, realizing the need for decisive revolutionary measures and the active participation of the masses in the struggle against counter-revolution and intervention, from April 1793. changed their position and began to advocate the establishment of fixed prices. At the same time, they proposed to introduce an emergency tax on large proprietors in the form of a forced loan to cover the growing military expenses.

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

The Girondins also carried out an anti-popular policy in the agrarian question. As early as the autumn of 1792, they achieved the actual abolition of the August decrees on the sale of emigrant lands, which were beneficial to the rural poor. Thus, one of the most important gains was taken away from the peasantry. In April 1793, the Girondins passed a decree on the procedure for the sale of "national property" in the Convention, directed against the poor and middle peasantry. The decree, in particular, forbade temporary agreements practiced in many places by poor peasants for the joint purchase of a land plot from the “national property” fund with its subsequent division among the owners.

In response to this policy of the Girondins, which grossly infringed upon the interests of the middle and poorest 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 the counter-revolution

In March 1793, the French troops in Belgium, commanded by General Dumouriez, who was closely associated with the Girondins, were defeated at the Battle of Neuerwinden, after which Dumouriez, having entered into negotiations
with the Austrians, he tried to move his army on a counter-revolutionary campaign against Paris. Failing 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 war in a revolutionary way, was the retreat of French troops from Belgium and Germany. The war was again transferred to the territory of France.

In March 1793, a counter-revolutionary uprising broke out in the Vendée, which also spread to Brittany. Local peasants, who were under the strong influence of the Catholic Church and were 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 situation of the republic again became threatening. But the popular masses displayed remarkable revolutionary energy and initiative. Volunteers joined the army by the thousands. Realizing that without meeting the main demands of the people it is 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 on the introduction of fixed prices for grain throughout France, and on May 20 - a decision to issue a compulsory loan.

The Girondins fiercely opposed these and all other measures necessary for the defense of the revolution and the defense of the country, and, taking advantage of the external and internal difficulties of the republic, intensified the struggle against the revolutionary masses of Paris and the Jacobins. Back in April, they achieved the submission to the Revolutionary Tribunal, established by the Convention to fight the counter-revolution, Marat, the revolutionary democrat most beloved by the people, who exposed the duplicity and betrayal of the Girondins. But the Revolutionary Tribunal acquitted the "friend of the people", and Marat returned in triumph to the Convention.

Despite this failure, the Girondins did not give up their intention to crush 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 the 12", which was to lead the struggle 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 fallen into counter-revolution and national treason, made a new popular uprising inevitable. On May 31, 1793, the sections of Paris, which formed an insurgent committee from their representatives, moved to the building of the Convention. Together with the sans-culottes ("Sans-culottes"), the democratic strata of the population were then called: the sans-culottes wore long trousers, and not "culottes" (short trousers), like aristocrats.) There were also units of the national guard, command over which was transferred Jacobin Henrio.

Appearing at the Convention, representatives of the sections and the Commune of Paris demanded the abolition of the "commission of 12" and the arrest of a number of Girondin deputies. Robespierre made an accusatory speech against the Gironde and supported the demand of the Paris sections. The convention decided to dissolve the "commission of 12", but did not agree to the arrest of the Girondin deputies.
Thus, the performance of May 31 did not produce a decisive result. The fight continued. On June 1, Marat, in an impassioned speech, called on the "sovereign people" to rise in defense of the revolution. On the morning of June 2, 80,000 national guardsmen and armed citizens surrounded the building of the Convention, on which, by order of Anriot, the muzzles of cannons were directed. The convention was forced to obey the demands of the people and adopt a decree on the exclusion of 29 Girondin 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 big proprietors and feared the people, turned out to be incapable of taking the revolutionary measures necessary to solve the problems of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and to successfully combat external and internal counter-revolution. The Girondins, like the Feuillants before, became a hindrance to the cause of the revolution and turned into a counter-revolutionary force. The rule of the Gironde was broken, power passed to the Jacobins.
The French bourgeois revolution has risen to a higher 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 from all sides. In the Vendée, Brittany, Normandy, a monarchist revolt grew. The Girondins revolted 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 carried out terrorist attacks on revolutionary leaders. On July 13, 1793, a fearless revolutionary, "friend of the people" Marat, was treacherously killed by the noblewoman Charlotte Corday.

To save the republic from what seemed to be inevitable destruction, the greatest exertion of the forces of the people, revolutionary courage and determination were needed.

In organizing the struggle against foreign intervention and domestic counter-revolution, the advanced bourgeois revolutionaries-Jacobins boldly relied on the broad masses of the people, on the support of the millions of peasants and the lordly 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, Counter-revolution going on the offensive, Works, vol. 24, p. 495.)

Agrarian legislation of the Jacobins

Immediately upon coming to power, the Jacobins went to meet the demands of the peasantry. By a decree on June 3, the Convention established a preferential procedure for the sale of confiscated lands of emigrants to poor peasants - small plots with payment by 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 community's inhabitants. Finally, on July 17, in fulfillment of the main demand of the peasantry, the Convention adopted a resolution on the complete, final and gratuitous destruction of all feudal rights, duties and requisitions. Feudal acts and documents were subject to burning, and their storage was punished by hard labor.

It was “a truly revolutionary reprisal against obsolete feudalism ...” (V. I. Lenin, The Threatening Catastrophe and How to Fight It, Soch., vol. 25, p. 335), as V. I. Lenin wrote. Although only the lands of the emigrants were confiscated, and not all the landowners, and the peasantry, especially the poorest, did not receive land in the amount it aspired to, nevertheless it completely got rid of the feudal dependence that had enslaved it 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 now fought for his vital interests, which merged into one with the great tasks of the revolution. These new economic and social conditions were, in the end, the source of the remarkable courage and bravery of the armies of the Republic, the heroism that amazed contemporaries and remained forever memorable in the minds of the peoples.

Constitution of 1793

With the same revolutionary decisiveness and speed, the Jacobin Convention adopted and submitted for the approval of the people a new constitution. The Jacobin constitution of 1793 was a great step forward from that of 1791. It was the most democratic of the bourgeois constitutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It reflected the ideas of Rousseau, which the Jacobins were so fond of.

The Constitution of 1793 established a republican system in France. The highest legislative power belonged to the Legislative Assembly, elected by all citizens (men) over the age of 21; the most important bills were subject to approval by the people at the primary meetings of voters. The highest executive power was given to the Executive Council of 24 people; half of the members of this Council were subject to renewal annually. The new Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the Convention, declared freedom, equality, security and property to be human rights, and the goal of society was “general happiness”. Freedom of the individual, religion, the press, petitioning, legislative initiative, the right to education, 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 put to the approval of the people - primary assemblies of voters - and approved by a majority vote.

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 updated the Committee of Public Safety, which had been created earlier. Danton, who had previously played a leading role in the Committee and was increasingly showing a conciliatory attitude towards the Girondins, was removed. At various times, Robespierre, who showed an inflexible will to suppress the counter-revolution, and Saint-Just and Couthon, full of revolutionary energy and courage, were elected to the Committee at different times. An outstanding organizational talent in creating the armed forces of the republic was shown by a prominent mathematician and engineer Carnot elected to the Committee.

Robespierre became the actual head of the Committee of Public Safety. Raised on the ideas of Rousseau, a man of strong will and a penetrating mind, undaunted in the fight against the enemies of the revolution, far from any personal selfish calculations, Robespierre - "Incorruptible", as he was called, gained enormous authority and influence, became in fact 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 state institutions and the army were subordinate to him; he owned the leadership of domestic and foreign policy, the defense of the country. The reorganized Committee of Public Security, which was entrusted with the task of fighting internal counter-revolution, also played an important role.

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 did a great job, took care of supplying the troops with everything necessary, controlled the activities of the command staff, ruthlessly cracked down on traitors, led 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 commissioners of the Convention in the implementation of their tasks.

A prominent role during the period of the revolutionary democratic dictatorship was played by the Jacobin club 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.

General maximum. Revolutionary terror

In the summer of 1793, the food situation in the republic worsened. The urban lower classes experienced unbearable need. Representatives of the plebeians, in particular the "mad ones", criticized the policy 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 phantom when one class can starve another class with impunity.” The "lunatics" demanded the introduction of a "general maximum", the death penalty for speculators, and the intensification of revolutionary terror.

The Jacobins responded to criticism of the "madmen" with repression: in early September, Jacques Roux and other leaders of the "madmen" were arrested. In these repressions against representatives of the people, the bourgeois nature of even such bold revolutionaries as the Jacobins showed itself.

But the plebeians remained the most important fighting force of the revolution. On September 4-5, major street performances took place in Paris. The main demands of the people, including the workers who actively participated in these demonstrations, were: "general maximum", revolutionary terror, help to 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 resolution was adopted on the organization of a special "revolutionary army" to "enforce, wherever necessary, the revolutionary laws and measures of public safety decreed by the Convention." The tasks of the revolutionary army included, in particular, to contribute to the supply of food to Paris and to combat speculation and the 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. In order to supply Paris, other cities and the army with food, since the autumn of 1793, requisitions 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 the supply business and exercise control over the implementation of the maximum. The requisition of bread in the villages, along with the local authorities, was also carried out by detachments of the "revolutionary army", which consisted of the Parisian sans-culottes. In order to streamline the supply of the population at fixed prices with bread and other necessary products, ration cards for bread, meat, sugar, butter, salt, and soap were introduced in Paris and many other cities. By a special decree of the Convention, it was allowed to bake and sell bread of only one variety - “bread of equality”. For speculation and hiding food, the death penalty was established.

Under pressure from the lower ranks of the people, the Convention also decided to "put terror on the order of the day." On September 17, a 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 and executed by the Revolutionary Tribunal. The commissars of the Convention also began to use revolutionary terror in various forms to suppress the counter-revolutionary movement in provincial cities and departments, especially where counter-revolutionary uprisings had taken place. Revolutionary terror was that effective means which enabled the revolution to actively defend itself against its numerous 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 disorganizing the supply of cities and the army with food, thereby played into the hands of the enemies of the revolution. and interventionists.
The historical significance of the Jacobin terror of 1793-1794 A. I. Herzen later remarked remarkably: “The terror of 93 was majestic in its gloomy ruthlessness; all of Europe rushed to France to punish the revolution; The country was indeed in danger. The convention temporarily hung up the statue of liberty and put up a guillotine, the guardians of "human rights." Europe looked with horror at this volcano and retreated before its wild almighty energy ... "

Defense of the country


The war fought by France 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 driven out of the territory of the Republic, all Frenchmen are declared in a state of constant mobilization." The people warmly approved this decree. In a short time, a new replenishment of 420 thousand fighters joined the army. By the beginning of 1794, over 600 thousand soldiers were under arms.

The army was reorganized. Parts of the former regular army merged with detachments of volunteers and conscripts. As a result, a new republican army emerged.

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

On 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 instruction to the local municipality: “10,000 soldiers walk barefoot; put on 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 the workshops in which it was possible to establish the production of weapons and ammunition worked exclusively for the needs of defense. Many new workshops have been created. There were 258 open-air forges in Paris. Weapon workshops were set up in the premises of the 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, the production of gunpowder at this plant rose to 30,000 pounds a day. Up to 700 guns were made daily in Paris. The workers of military factories and workshops, despite the hardships they experienced, worked with extraordinary enthusiasm, realizing that they, in the winged expression of that time, "forge lightning against tyrants."

At the head of the Ministry of War was Colonel Bushott, distinguished by his courage and devotion to the revolution. Bouchotte completely renewed the apparatus of the War Office and recruited the most prominent leaders of the revolutionary sections of Paris to work there. The Committee of Public Safety paid special attention to strengthening the commanding staff of the army. The commissars of the Convention, while purging the army of counter-revolutionary elements, boldly promoted talented revolutionary youth to leading positions. The armies of the republic were led by young military leaders who came out of the people. Former groom Lazar Gosh, who began his service as a soldier who participated in the storming of the Bastille, at the age of 25 became a divisional general and army commander. 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 as a simple scribe. General Kleber, a talented commander of the revolutionary army, was the son of a bricklayer, General Lann was a peasant by birth. The goldsmith Rossignol, a participant 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 built on the speed and swiftness of the strike, mobility and maneuverability, the concentration of superior forces in a decisive sector, the initiative of military units and individual fighters. “We need to attack suddenly, swiftly, without looking back. It is necessary 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. Next to the men were fighting women, teenagers. Nineteen-year-old Rosa Baro, who called herself Liberty Baro, after her husband was wounded, took the cartridges that were in her husband's bandolier and participated in the attack against the enemy to the very end.

There were many such examples of heroism. “Defeated feudalism, consolidated 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 a revolutionary phrase, Soch., vol. 27, p. 4. ), - wrote V. I. Lenin, revealing the sources of the victories of the republican army, incomprehensible to contemporaries.

Science and art in the service of the revolution

Proceeding from the interests of the revolution, the Jacobins, with their inherent energy, imperiously interfered in the solution of questions of public education, science, and art. On August 1, 1793, the Convention adopted a decree on the introduction in France of a new system of 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 of not only France, but was widely used outside of it.

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 - from the day the French Republic was proclaimed.

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 greatest scientists of that time - Berthollet, Monge, Lagrange and many others - by their active participation in the organization of the cause of defense brought a lot of new things to metallurgical production, to chemical science and to 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 Chappe - 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 creativity found its fullest expression in revolutionary battle songs - such as "Carmagnola" and many others, sung in the streets and squares.
Composers Gossec, Cherubini created revolutionary hymns, the great artist David painted patriotic paintings, theaters staged revolutionary plays written by Marie-Joseph Chenier and other playwrights who gave their pen to the service of the revolution. Outstanding artists and composers took an active part in the organization and decoration of the people's revolutionary festivities.

Victory over internal counter-revolution and intervention

Powerful blows of revolutionary terror, vigilance and selflessness of the masses broke the internal counter-revolution. In the autumn 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 drove back the troops of the interventionists. In December, the troops of the Convention took Toulon, a large naval port, previously surrendered by the counter-revolutionaries to the British.

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 troops of the republic waged offensive battles on enemy territory.

On June 26, 1794, in a fierce battle at Fleurus, the French army under the command of General Jourdan utterly defeated the troops of the interventionists. In this battle, the French first used a balloon, which caused confusion in the enemy troops. The victory at Fleurus was decisive. She not only eliminated the threat to France, but also opened the way for the French army to Belgium, Holland and the Rhineland.
In the course of one year, the Jacobin dictatorship accomplished what it had not been able to achieve in the previous four years of the revolution - it crushed feudalism, solved the main tasks of the bourgeois revolution and broke the resistance of its internal and external enemies. It was able to fulfill these enormous tasks only by working for the broadest masses of the people, by adopting from the people the plebeian methods of struggle and using them against the enemies of the revolution. During the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the French bourgeois revolution more vividly than ever acted as a people's revolution. .“Historians of the bourgeoisie see the fall in Jacobinism ... Historians of the proletariat see in Jacobinism one of the highest rises of the oppressed class in the struggle for liberation” (V.I. Lenin Is it possible to intimidate the working class with “Jacobinism”? Works, vol. .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 were able to awaken the dormant forces of the people, to breathe into it 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 foundation of the Jacobin dictatorship, as in the policy 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 revolutionary democrats of the eighteenth century. But by crushing and uprooting feudalism, by sweeping out, in Marx's words, with a "gigantic broom" all the old, medieval, feudal rubbish 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 the replacement of one form of exploitation by another: feudal exploitation - capitalist.

The Jacobin revolutionary-democratic dictatorship subjected the sale and distribution of food and other goods to strict state regulation, sent speculators and violators of the 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 by executions of individual, few “chosen ones” and thundering 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 mode 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 landownership 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, in spite of the restrictive measures of the Jacobins, favorable conditions for the enrichment of clever businessmen. From all the cracks, from all the pores of a society freed from feudal fetters, an enterprising, daring, greedy new bourgeoisie grew up, whose ranks were constantly replenished by 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, the sale and resale of land plots, huge supplies for the army and the military department, accompanied by all sorts of frauds and machinations - all this served as a source of rapid, almost fabulous enrichment for the new bourgeoisie. The repressive policy 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, irresistibly rushed to profit and knew how to get around 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 the danger of feudal restoration waned, thanks to the victories of the republican armies, the bourgeoisie strove more and more resolutely to get rid of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship.

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

Meanwhile, the Jacobins continued unswervingly to 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 owners. On 8 and 13 ventoses (end of February - beginning of March), the Convention, following the report of Saint-Just, adopted important decrees of great fundamental importance. According to these so-called Vantoise decrees, the property of persons declared enemies of the revolution was subject to confiscation and distribution free of charge 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, Feuillian and Girondins, and the new bourgeoisie, in particular speculators who violated the maximum law. The Vantoise decrees reflected the leveling aspirations of the Jacobin disciples and followers of Rousseau. If the Ventose decrees could be put into effect, this would mean a significant increase in the number of small proprietors, primarily from the ranks of the poor. However, proprietary elements opposed the implementation of the Ventose decrees.

At the same time, the internal inconsistency of the policy of the Jacobins led to the fact that discontent grew 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 material situation of the plebeians. Having established, under the pressure of the popular masses, a maximum for foodstuffs, the Jacobins extended it to the wages of the workers, causing them no small harm. They upheld Le Chapelier's anti-worker law. Hired workers, devoted fighters of the revolution, selflessly working for the defense of the republic, taking an active part in political life, in the lower bodies of the revolutionary democratic dictatorship - revolutionary committees, revolutionary clubs and popular societies, also became more and more dissatisfied with the policy of the Jacobins.

The Jacobin dictatorship did not fulfill the aspirations of the rural poor either. The sale of national property was mainly used by the wealthy elite of the peasantry, who bought up most of the land. During these years, the differentiation of the peasantry intensified unceasingly. The poor sought to limit the size of "farms", the possessions of wealthy peasants, to seize their surplus land and divide it among the poor, but the Jacobins did not dare to support these demands. Local governments usually took the side of rich peasants in their conflicts with agricultural workers. All this caused dissatisfaction with the Jacobin policy among the poor strata of the countryside.

Struggle in the ranks of 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. From the autumn of 1793, two opposition groups began to take shape among the Jacobins. The first of these 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, was very popular among the people, Danton already showed hesitation in the decisive days of the struggle against the Girondins. In the words of Marx, 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 against the Girondins, K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., vol. III, p. 609.). After being forced to leave the Committee of Public Safety, Danton retired for a while, but, 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 "Eglantin and others. With a few exceptions, all these were persons directly or indirectly associated with the rapidly growing new bourgeoisie.

The Dantonist grouping was soon defined as an openly right direction, representing the new bourgeoisie that had grown rich during the years of the revolution. On the pages of the Old Cordelier newspaper edited by Desmoulins, in their speeches and articles, the Dantonists acted as supporters of the policy of moderation, putting the brakes on the revolution. The Dantonists, more or less frankly, demanded the abandonment of the policy of terror and the gradual liquidation of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship. In matters of foreign policy, they strove for an agreement with England and other members of the counter-revolutionary coalition in order to achieve peace as soon as possible at any cost.

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

The most influential left-wing grouping in Paris after the defeat of the "mad" became the supporters of Chaumette and Hebert - the left Jacobins (or Hebertists, as historians later called them), who accepted a number of demands of the "mad". The degree of cohesion and homogeneity of the Hebertists was not great. Hébert (1757-1794), who was an usher in the theater before the revolution, came to the fore 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 for his newspaper Père Duchenne, which was popular in the popular quarters of Paris.

In the autumn of 1793, between the Hebertists, whose influence was then strong in the Paris Commune, and the Robespierres, serious differences were revealed on questions of religious policy. In Paris and in some places in the provinces, the Hebertists began to implement a policy of "de-Christianization", accompanied by the closing of churches, the compulsion of the clergy to renounce their priesthood, etc. These measures, carried out mainly by administrative measures, ran into the resistance of the masses of the people, especially the peasantry. Robespierre strongly condemned the forced "de-Christianization" and it was stopped. But the struggle between the Hebertists and the Robespierres continued.

In the spring of 1794, in connection with the deteriorating food situation in the capital, the Ebertists intensified their criticism of the activities of the Committee of Public Safety. The Cordeliers club led by them was preparing to provoke 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 24 March.

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

By defeating the Dantonists, the revolutionary government eliminated a force that had become harmful and dangerous to the revolution. But, striking with one hand a blow at the enemies of the revolution, the Jacobin leaders with the other hand struck a blow at its defenders. Bouchott was removed from the War Office and soon arrested. Although Hébert's call for rebellion was not supported by Chaumette and the Paris Commune, however, Chaumette was also executed. From the Paris Commune, the revolutionary police, the sections, all those suspected of sympathizing with the Hebertists were expelled. In order 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 Robespierres cut off part of the forces that supported the Jacobin dictatorship.

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

In reality, the Jacobin dictatorship was going through an acute crisis due to the new socio-political situation that had developed in the country after the victory over the feudal-monarchist counter-revolution. Meanwhile, the Jacobins, meeting with ever-increasing hostility from the urban and rural bourgeoisie and at the same time losing support among the masses of the people, 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” was held in Paris, during which Robespierre acted as a kind of high priest. But this event only damaged the revolutionary government and Robespierre.

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

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

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 Hebertists, entered into secret relations in order to eliminate 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 people who were afraid of severe punishment for their crimes: unprincipled, stained himself with theft and lawlessness when he was commissioner in Bordeaux Tallien; the same extortionist and bribe-taker Freron; former aristocrat, depraved cynic and money-grubber Barras: deceitful, dexterous, dodgy Fouche, recalled from Lyon for complicity in criminal cruelties and dark deeds. Not only many members of the Convention, including the deputies of the "marsh", but also some members of the Committee of Public Safety (for example, close to the Hébertists Collot d "Herbois and Billo-Varenne) and the Committee of Public Safety were drawn into the conspiracy. Subjective moods and intentions of individual The persons involved in the conspiracy were different, but objectively this conspiracy was of a counter-revolutionary nature.

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

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

The Paris Commune rose to the defense of the revolutionary government. By her order, the arrested were released and taken to the town hall. The Commune proclaimed an uprising 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 turned to the sections with a demand to assist the Convention in suppressing the "mutiny".
Half of the Parisian sections, and above all the central sections populated by the bourgeoisie, took the side of the Convention. Many other sections took a neutral stance or split. But a number of plebeian sections joined the movement against the Convention.

Meanwhile, the Commune showed indecision 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 reached the town hall almost unhindered and broke into it. Together with the members of the Commune, Robespierre and his associates were again arrested.

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

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

French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. was of great progressive importance. It consisted primarily in the fact that this revolution put an end to feudalism and absolutism more decisively than any other bourgeois revolution.

The French Revolution was led by the bourgeois class. But the tasks that confronted this revolution could only be accomplished thanks to the fact that its main driving force was the masses of the people - the peasantry and the urban plebeians. The French Revolution was a people's revolution, and therein lay its strength. The active, decisive participation of the masses of the people gave the revolution the breadth and scope that it differed from. other bourgeois revolutions. French Revolution at the end of the 18th century remained a classic example of the most completed 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 of bourgeois relations in other European countries; under its direct influence a bourgeois revolutionary movement arose in Latin America as well.

Describing the historical significance of the French bourgeois revolution, Lenin wrote: “Take the great French revolution. It is not for nothing that it 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 mankind, passed under the sign of the French Revolution. In all parts of the world, he only did what he carried out, carried out in parts, completed what the great French revolutionaries of the bourgeoisie created ... and equality, May 19, Works, vol. 29, p. 342.)

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

The last decade of the 18th century was marked by an event that not only changed the existing order in a single European country, but also influenced the entire course of world history. The French Revolution of 1789-1799 became the preachers of the class struggle of several succeeding generations. Its dramatic events brought heroes out of the shadows and exposed anti-heroes, destroying the habitual attitude of millions of inhabitants of monarchical states. The main prerequisites and the French Revolution of 1789 itself are briefly described below.

What led to the revolution?

The causes of the French Revolution of 1789-1799 have been repeatedly rewritten from one history textbook to another and boil down to the thesis that the patience of that large part of the French population, which, in conditions of hard daily work and extreme poverty, was forced to provide a luxurious existence for representatives of the privileged classes.

Grounds for the revolution in France at the end of the 18th century:

• huge external debt of the country;
• unlimited power of the monarch;
• bureaucracy of officials and lawlessness of high-ranking officials;
• heavy tax burden;
• harsh exploitation of the peasants;
• exorbitant demands of the ruling elite.

More about the causes of the revolution

Louis XVI of the Bourbon dynasty headed the French monarchy at the end of the 18th century. The power of his crowned majesty was unlimited. It was believed that she was given to him by God by chrismation during the coronation. In making a decision, the monarch relied on the support of the smallest, but the most senior and wealthy residents of the country - the nobility and representatives of the clergy. By that time, the state's external debts had grown to monstrous proportions and became an unbearable burden not only for the mercilessly exploited peasants, but also for the bourgeoisie, whose industrial and commercial activities were subject to exorbitant taxes.

The main reasons for the French Revolution of 1789 are the discontent and gradual impoverishment of the bourgeoisie, which until recently put up with absolutism, which patronized the development of industrial production in the interests of national welfare. However, it became more and more difficult to satisfy the demands of the upper classes and the big bourgeoisie. There was a need to reform the archaic system of government and the national economy, choking on bureaucracy and corruption of government officials. At the same time, the enlightened part of French society was infected with the ideas of philosopher writers of that time - Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Montesquieu, who insisted that an absolute monarchy infringes on the rights of the main population of the country.

Also, the reasons for the French bourgeois revolution of 1789-1799 can be attributed to the natural disasters preceding it, which worsened the already difficult living conditions of the peasants and reduced the income of a few industrial productions.

The first stage of the French Revolution 1789-1799

Let us consider in detail all the stages of the French Revolution of 1789-1799.

The first stage began on January 24, 1789, with the convocation of the Estates General at the behest of the French monarch. This event was out of the ordinary, since the last time a meeting of the highest class-representative body of France took place at the beginning of the 16th century. However, the situation, in which the government had to be dismissed and a new chief financial officer in the person of Jacques Necker urgently elected, was an emergency and required drastic measures. Representatives of the upper classes set the goal of the meeting to find funds to replenish the state treasury, while the whole country expected total reforms. Disagreements began between the estates, which led to the formation of the National Assembly on June 17, 1789. It included delegates from the third estate and two dozen deputies from the clergy who joined them.

Formation of the Constituent National Assembly

Soon after the meeting, the king made a unilateral decision to cancel all the decisions adopted at it, and already at the next meeting the deputies were placed according to their class affiliation. A few days later, 47 more deputies joined the majority, and Louis XVI, forced to make a compromise, ordered the remaining representatives to join the ranks of the assembly. Later, on July 9, 1789, the abolished States General were reorganized into the Constituent National Assembly.

The position of the newly formed representative body was extremely shaky due to the unwillingness of the royal court to put up with defeat. The news that the royal troops were put on alert to disperse the Constituent Assembly stirred up a wave of popular discontent, which led to dramatic events that decided the fate of the French Revolution of 1789-1799. Necker was removed from office, and it seemed that the short life of the Constituent Assembly was drawing to a close.

Storming of the Bastille

In response to events in Parliament, an uprising broke out in Paris, which began on July 12, reached its climax the next day and was marked by the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The capture of this fortress, which was in the minds of the people a symbol of absolutism and despotic power of the state, entered the history of France forever as the first victory of the insurgent people, forcing the king to admit that the French Revolution of 1789 had begun.

Declaration of Human Rights

Riots and unrest swept the whole country. Large-scale peasant uprisings secured the victory of the French Revolution. In August of the same year, the Constituent Assembly approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen - a landmark document that marked the beginning of the construction of democracy throughout the world. However, not all representatives of the lower class had a chance to taste the fruits of the revolution. The assembly abolished only indirect taxes, leaving direct ones in force, and after a while, when the fog of romantic illusions dissipated, numerous townspeople and peasants realized that the big bourgeoisie had removed them from making state decisions, providing themselves with financial well-being and legal protection.

Hike to Versailles. reforms

The food crisis that broke out in Paris in early October 1789 provoked another wave of discontent, culminating in a campaign against Versailles. Under pressure from the crowd that broke into the palace, the king agreed to sanction the Declaration and other decrees adopted in August 1789.

The state headed for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. This meant that the king exercised his rule within the framework of existing legislation. The changes affected the structure of the government, which lost the royal councils and secretaries of state. The administrative division of France was greatly simplified, and instead of a multi-stage complex structure, 83 departments of equal size appeared.

The reforms affected the judiciary, which lost its corrupt positions and acquired a new structure.

The clergy, part of which did not recognize the new civil status of France, was in the grip of a split.

Next stage

The Great French Revolution of 1789 was only the beginning in a chain of events, including the attempted escape of Louis XVI and the subsequent fall of the monarchy, military conflicts with the leading European powers that did not recognize the new state structure of France, and the subsequent proclamation of the French Republic. In December 1792, a trial took place over the king, who found him guilty. Louis XVI was beheaded on January 21, 1793.

Thus began the second stage of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, marked by a struggle between the moderate party of the Girondins, seeking to stop the further development of the revolution, and the more radical Jacobins, who insisted on expanding its activities.

Final stage

The deterioration of the economic situation in the country as a result of the political crisis and hostilities aggravated the class struggle. Peasant uprisings broke out again, leading to the unauthorized division of communal lands. The Girondins, who colluded with the counter-revolutionary forces, were expelled from the Convention, the highest legislative body of the First French Republic, and the Jacobins came to power alone.

In the following years, the Jacobin dictatorship culminated in an uprising of the National Guard, which ended with the transfer of power to the Directory at the end of 1795. Her further actions were aimed at suppressing pockets of extremist resistance. Thus ended the ten-year French bourgeois revolution of 1789 - a period of socio-economic upheaval, which was brought to an end by a coup d'état that took place on November 9, 1799.

History of the new time. Crib Alekseev Viktor Sergeevich

28. RESULTS OF THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION

French Revolution 1789–1794 was indeed a great revolution. It did away with the feudal system, with the remnants of the Middle Ages, and paved the way for the development of a new, progressive system for that time - capitalism. The Great French Revolution also put an end to the monarchy, established a new order that promotes the development of both the economy and social thought, art, science - all areas of the material and spiritual life of French society.

Over the next century, revolutionary movements in Europe and America used the experience of the French Revolution - its slogans of freedom, equality and fraternity, its practical actions to establish bourgeois democracy and order.

The French Revolution took place almost a century and a half later than the English. If in England the bourgeoisie opposed the royal power in alliance with the new nobility, then in France it opposed the king and the nobility, relying on the broad plebeian masses of the city and the peasantry.

The participation of the popular masses left its mark on all the outstanding events of the revolution; it was at their request and under their direct pressure that the most important revolutionary acts and measures were carried out. The revolution developed along an ascending line, and it achieved its boldest and most effective results in 1793 during the Jacobin dictatorship, when the influence of the popular masses was strongest. Based on this experience, the founder of scientific communism, K. Marx, in the middle of the 19th century, developed a theory about the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat in making a socialist revolution.

The bourgeois-democratic content of the Great French Revolution was to "cleanse" the social relations (orders, institutions) of the country from the Middle Ages, from serfdom, from feudalism. The successes of this revolution led to the rapid growth of capitalism and at the same time contributed to the formation and growth of the proletariat. The French Revolution, despite its enormous progressive role and revolutionary influence on most countries and peoples, was bourgeois-limited in its results. It did not abolish the exploitation of man by man, but only replaced feudal forms of oppression with capitalist ones.

Under the influence of the events of the French Revolution, the Third Republic in the XIX century. made the Marseillaise her anthem and the tricolor flag her banner. At the Sorbonne (University of Paris), the teaching of the course of the French Revolution was introduced, a special scientific journal was founded, and the publication of archival documents from the time of the revolution of 1789-1794 began with state subsidies. Since that time, researchers have begun to rely on a wide scientific material, and it is not by chance that arose in the 80s. 19th century the school of the history of the French Revolution was called "scientific". The first work in France that paid due attention to the socio-economic history of the Great French Revolution was the Socialist History by J. Jaurès. This book was based on the use of a huge archival material on the revolution of 1789-1794. and was written by J. Zhores for ordinary workers and peasants.

The Great French Revolution "gave birth" to a great figure, the future Emperor of France - Napoleon Bonaparte, the creator of a huge empire at the beginning of the 19th century. in Europe. Napoleon's comrades-in-arms were people from among the common people who went through the harsh school of the revolution of 1789-1794, they were also his support in advancing to power. Thus, the Great French Revolution was an important and main prerequisite for the creation of the Napoleonic Empire.

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Among non-Marxist historians, two views on the nature of the Great French Revolution prevail, which do not contradict each other. The traditional view that arose in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries. (Sieyes, Barnave, Guizot), considers the revolution as a popular uprising against the aristocracy, its privileges and its methods of oppression of the masses, whence the revolutionary terror against the privileged classes, the desire of the revolutionaries to destroy everything associated with the Old Order and build a new free and democratic society . From these aspirations flowed the main slogans of the revolution - freedom, equality, fraternity.

According to the second view, which is shared by a large number of modern historians (including V. Tomsinov, I. Wallerstein, P. Huber, A. Cobbo, D. Guerin, E. Leroy Ladurie, B. Moore, Huneke, and others), the revolution was anti-capitalist in nature and was an explosion of mass protest against capitalism or against those methods of its dissemination that were used by the ruling elite.

There are other opinions about the nature of the revolution. For example, historians F. Furet and D. Richet consider the revolution to a large extent as a struggle for power between various groups that replaced each other several times during 1789-1799. . There is a view of the revolution as the liberation of the bulk of the population (peasants) from a monstrous system of oppression or some kind of slavery, whence the main slogan of the revolution - freedom, equality, brotherhood. However, there is evidence that the vast majority of the French peasantry at the time of the revolution were personally free, and state taxes and feudal requisitions were not at all high. The reasons for the revolution are seen in the fact that it was a peasant revolution caused by the last filling of the reservoir. From this point of view, the French Revolution was systemic and belonged to the same type of revolution as the Dutch Revolution, the English Revolution, or the Russian Revolution. .

Convocation of the Estates General

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to get out of a difficult financial situation, Louis XVI announced in December 1787 that he would convene the government officials of France to a meeting of the States General in five years. When Jacques Necker became a parliamentarian for the second time, he insisted that the Estates-General be convened as early as 1789; the government, however, had no definite program.

The rebellious peasants burned the castles of the lords, seizing their lands. In some provinces, about half of the landowners' estates were burned or destroyed; these events of 1789 were called The Great Fear.

Revocation of class privileges

By decrees of August 4-11, the Constituent Assembly abolished personal feudal duties, seigneurial courts, ecclesiastical tithes, the privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations, and declared the equality of all before the law in paying state taxes and in the right to hold civil, military and church posts. But at the same time, it announced the elimination of only “indirect” duties (the so-called banalities): the “real” duties of the peasants were left, in particular, land and poll taxes.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Activities of the Constituent Assembly

Was held administrative reform: the provinces were united into 83 departments with a single judiciary.

Following the principle of civil equality, the assembly abolished class privileges, abolished the institution of hereditary nobility, noble titles and coats of arms.

Policy has been established economic liberalism: the lifting of all restrictions on trade was announced; Medieval guilds and state regulation of business were liquidated, but at the same time, strikes and workers' organizations - companions - were prohibited under the Le Chapelier law.

In July 1790, the Constituent Assembly completed church reform: bishops were appointed in all 83 departments of the country; all ministers of the church began to receive salaries from the state. The Constituent Assembly required the clergy to swear allegiance not to the Pope, but to the French state. Only half of the priests and only 7 bishops decided to take this step. The Pope responded by condemning the French Revolution, all the reforms of the Constituent Assembly, and especially the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen".

adoption of the constitution

Arrest of Louis XVI

On June 20, 1791, the king tried to escape the country, but was recognized at the border in Varennes by a postal employee, returned to Paris, where he actually ended up in custody in his own palace (the so-called "Varenne Crisis").

On September 3, 1791, the National Assembly proclaimed the fourth in the history of Europe (after the Constitution of Pylyp Orlik, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of May 3, and the Constitution of San Marino) and the fifth in the world (the US Constitution of 1787) constitution. According to it, it was proposed to convene the Legislative Assembly - a unicameral parliament based on a high property qualification. There were only 4.3 million "active" citizens who received the right to vote under the constitution, and only 50 thousand electors who elected deputies. Deputies of the National Assembly could not be elected to the new parliament. The Legislative Assembly opened on October 1, 1791. This fact testified to the establishment of a limited monarchy in the country.

At meetings of the Legislative Assembly, the issue of unleashing a war in Europe was raised, first of all, as a means of solving internal problems. On April 20, 1792, the King of France, under pressure from the Legislative Assembly, declared war on the Holy Roman Empire. On April 28, 1792, the National Guard launched an offensive against the positions of Belgium, which ended in complete failure.

From the Storming of the Tuileries to the Execution of the King

On August 10, 1792, about 20 thousand rebels (the so-called sans-culottes) surrounded the royal palace. His assault was short-lived, but bloody. The attackers were resisted by several thousand soldiers of the Swiss Guard, almost all of them fell at the Tuileries or were killed in prisons during the "September murders". One of the results of this assault was the actual removal of Louis XVI from power and the emigration of Lafayette.

From that moment on, for several months, the highest revolutionary bodies - the National Assembly and the Convention - were under strong influence and pressure from the popular masses (sans-culottes) and in a number of cases were forced to fulfill the direct demands of the crowd of rebels who surrounded the building of the National Assembly. These demands included curtailing previous trade liberalization, freezing prices and wages, and cracking down on speculators. These measures were taken and lasted until the arrest of Robespierre in July 1794. All this took place against the backdrop of a growing mass terror, which, although directed mainly against the aristocracy, led to the execution and murder of tens of thousands of people from all walks of life.

At the end of August, the Prussian army launched an offensive against Paris and took Verdun on 2 September 1792. The confusion that arose in society and the fear of the return of the old order led to the "September murders" of aristocrats and former soldiers of the king's Swiss guard, who were imprisoned in Paris and a number of other cities, in early September, during which more than 5 thousand people were killed.

Accusations and attacks on the Girondins

Trial of Marie Antoinette

The revolution took a huge toll. According to estimates, from 1789 to 1815. only from revolutionary terror in France, up to 2 million civilians died, and even up to 2 million soldiers and officers died in wars. Thus, only in revolutionary battles and wars, 7.5% of the population of France died (in the city the population was 27,282,000), not counting those who died during these years from famine and epidemics. By the end of the Napoleonic era, there were almost no grown men left in France capable of fighting.

At the same time, a number of authors point out that the revolution brought the people of France liberation from heavy oppression, which could not have been achieved in any other way. A "balanced" view of the revolution sees it as a great tragedy in the history of France, but at the same time inevitable, arising from the severity of class contradictions and the accumulated economic and political problems.

Most historians believe that the Great French Revolution was of great international importance, contributed to the spread of progressive ideas throughout the world, influenced a series of revolutions in Latin America, as a result of which the latter was freed from colonial dependence, and a number of other events of the first half of the 19th century.

Songs of Revolutionary France

A revolution in philately

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see also

Notes

1. Wallerstein I. The Modern World-System III. The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s. San Diego, 1989, pp. 40-49; Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 265
2. See, for example: Goubert P. L'Ancien Regime. Paris, Vol. 1, 1969, p. 235
3. The imposition of market relations began in 1763-1771. under Louis XV and continued in subsequent years, until 1789 (see Old order). The leading role in this was played by liberal economists (physiocrats), who were almost all representatives of the aristocracy (including the head of the government, the physiocrat Turgot), and kings Louis XV and Louis XVI were active supporters of these ideas. See Kaplan S. Bread, Politics and Political Economy in the reign of Louis XV. Hague, 1976
4. See old order. One such example is the uprising of October 1795 (shot from cannons by Napoleon), in which 24,000 armed bourgeois - residents of the central districts of Paris - took part. World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1997-1999, v. 16, p. 86-90. Another example is the uprising of the sans-culottes on August 10, 1792, which for the most part represented the petty bourgeoisie (small business, artisans, etc.), who opposed big business - the aristocracy. Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 109
5. Goubert P. L'Ancien Regime. Paris, Vol. 2, 1973, p. 247
6. Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 255
7. Wallerstein I. The Modern World-System III. The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s. San Diego, 1989, pp. 40-49
8. Furet F. et Richet D. La revolution francaise. Paris, 1973, pp. 213, 217
9. Goubert P. L'Ancien Regime. Paris, T. 1, 1969; Kuzovkov Yu. World history of corruption. M., 2010, chapter XIII
10. Aleksakha A. G. Introduction to progressology. Moscow, 2004 p. 208-233 alexakha.ucoz.com/vvedenie_v_progressologiju.doc
11. World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1998, v. 16, p. 7-9
12. World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1998, v. 16, p. fourteen
13. Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 71
14. Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 111, 118
15. World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1998, v. 16, p. 37-38