THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, the revolution of the late 18th century, which abolished the "old order". THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION Prerequisites. 1787–1789. The Great French Revolution can, with good reason, be regarded as the beginning of the modern era. At the same time, the revolution in France was itself part of a broad movement that began even before 1789 and affected many European countries, as well as North America.

"Old order" ("ancien r

é gime") was inherently undemocratic. The first two estates, the nobility and the clergy, who had special privileges, strengthened their positions, relying on a system of various kinds of state institutions. The reign of the monarch was based on these privileged classes. "Absolute" monarchs could only carry out such a policy and carry out only such reforms that strengthened the power of these estates.

By the 1770s, the aristocracy felt pressure from two sides at once. On the one hand, “enlightened” reforming monarchs (in France, Sweden and Austria) encroached on her rights; on the other hand, the third, unprivileged, estate sought to eliminate or at least curtail the privileges of the aristocrats and the clergy. By 1789 in France, the strengthening of the position of the king caused a reaction from the first estates, which were able to nullify the monarch's attempt to reform the system of government and strengthen finances.

In this situation, the French king Louis XVI decided to convene the States General - something similar to a national representative body that had long existed in France, but had not been convened since 1614. It was the convening of this assembly that served as the impetus for the revolution, during which the big bourgeoisie first came to power, and then the Third Estate, which plunged France into civil war and violence.

In France, the foundations of the old regime were shaken not only by conflicts between the aristocracy and royal ministers, but also by economic and ideological factors. Since the 1730s, the country has experienced a constant rise in prices caused by the depreciation of the growing mass of metallic money and the expansion of credit benefits - in the absence of an increase in production. Inflation hit the poor the hardest.

At the same time, some representatives of all three estates were influenced by enlightenment ideas. Famous writers Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau suggested introducing an English constitution and judicial system in France, in which they saw guarantees of individual freedoms and effective government. The success of the American War of Independence brought renewed hope to the determined French.

Convocation of the Estates General. The Estates General, convened on May 5, 1789, had the task of resolving the economic, social, and political problems facing France at the end of the 18th century. The king hoped to reach agreement on a new system of taxation and avoid financial ruin. The aristocracy sought to use the Estates General to block any reforms. The Third Estate welcomed the convocation of the States General, seeing the opportunity to present their demands for reform at their meetings.

Preparations for the revolution, during which discussions about the general principles of government and the need for a constitution, continued for 10 months. Lists, the so-called orders, were compiled everywhere. Thanks to the temporary easing of censorship, the country was flooded with pamphlets. It was decided to give the third estate an equal number of seats in the States General with the other two estates. However, the question of whether the estates should vote separately or together with other estates was not resolved, just as the question of the nature of their powers remained open. In the spring of 1789, elections were held for all three estates on the basis of universal male suffrage. As a result, 1201 deputies were elected, of which 610 represented the third estate. May 5, 1789 at Versailles, the king officially opened the first meeting of the Estates General.

The first signs of a revolution. The Estates General, without any clear direction from the king and his ministers, became bogged down in disputes over procedure. Inflamed by political debates taking place in the country, various groups took irreconcilable positions on issues of principle. By the end of May, the second and third estates (the nobility and the bourgeoisie) completely disagreed, and the first (clergy) split and sought to buy time. Between June 10 and 17, the Third Estate took the initiative and declared itself the National Assembly. In doing so, it asserted its right to represent the entire nation and demanded the authority to revise the constitution. In doing so, it disregarded the authority of the king and the demands of the other two classes. The National Assembly decided that if it were dissolved, the provisionally approved system of taxation would be abolished. On June 19, the clergy voted by a narrow majority to join the Third Estate. Groups of liberal-minded nobles also joined them.

The alarmed government decided to seize the initiative and on June 20 attempted to expel members of the National Assembly from the meeting room. The delegates, gathered in a nearby ballroom, then swore an oath not to disperse until the new constitution was enacted. On July 9, the National Assembly proclaimed itself the Constituent Assembly. The pulling of the royal troops to Paris caused unrest among the population. In the first half of July, unrest and unrest began in the capital. To protect the life and property of citizens, the National Guard was created by the municipal authorities.

These riots resulted in an assault on the hated royal fortress of the Bastille, in which the national guardsmen and the people took part. The fall of the Bastille on July 14 was a clear indication of the impotence of royal power and a symbol of the collapse of despotism. However, the assault caused a wave of violence that swept across the country. Residents of villages and small towns burned the houses of the nobility, destroyed their debt obligations. At the same time, the mood of “great fear” was spreading among the common people - panic associated with the spread of rumors about the approach of “bandits”, allegedly bribed by aristocrats. When some prominent aristocrats began to leave the country and periodic army expeditions began from the starving cities to the countryside to requisition food, a wave of mass hysteria swept through the provinces, generating blind violence and destruction.

. On July 11, the reformist banker Jacques Necker was removed from his post. After the fall of the Bastille, the king made concessions, returning Necker and withdrawing troops from Paris. The liberal aristocrat, the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War, was chosen to command the emerging new middle-class National Guard. A new national tricolor flag was adopted, combining the traditional red and blue colors of Paris with the white of the Bourbon dynasty. The municipality of Paris, like the municipalities of many other cities in France, was transformed into a Commune - in fact, an independent revolutionary government that recognized only the authority of the National Assembly. The latter assumed responsibility for the formation of a new government and the adoption of a new constitution.

On August 4, the aristocracy and clergy renounced their rights and privileges. By August 26, the National Assembly approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which proclaimed freedom of the individual, conscience, speech, the right to property, and resistance to oppression. It was emphasized that sovereignty belongs to the whole nation, and the law should be a manifestation of the general will. All citizens must be equal before the law, have the same rights in holding public office, and equal obligations to pay taxes. Declaration

"signed" death sentence for the old regime.

Louis XVI delayed with the approval of the August decrees that abolished church tithes and most feudal dues. On September 15, the Constituent Assembly demanded that the king approve the decrees. In response, he began to draw troops to Versailles, where the assembly met. This had an exciting effect on the townspeople, who saw in the actions of the king a threat of counter-revolution. Living conditions in the capital worsened, food supplies decreased, many were left without work. The Paris Commune, whose sentiments were expressed by the popular press, set the capital up for a fight against the king. On October 5, hundreds of women marched in the rain from Paris to Versailles, demanding bread, the withdrawal of troops, and the king's move to Paris. Louis XVI was forced to sanction the August Decrees and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The next day, the royal family, which had become virtually a hostage to the gloating crowd, moved to Paris under the escort of the National Guard. The Constituent Assembly followed 10 days later.

Position in October 1789. By the end of October 1789, the pieces on the chessboard of the revolution moved to new positions, which was caused both by previous changes and by accidental circumstances. The power of the privileged classes was over. Significantly increased the emigration of representatives of the highest aristocracy. The Church - with the exception of a part of the higher clergy - has tied its fate with the liberal reforms. The Constituent Assembly was dominated by liberal and constitutional reformers in confrontation with the king (they could now consider themselves the voice of the nation).

During this period, much depended on the persons in power. Louis XVI, a well-meaning but indecisive and weak-willed king, lost the initiative and was no longer in control of the situation. Queen Marie Antoinette - "Austrian" - was unpopular because of her extravagance and connections with other royal courts in Europe. The Comte de Mirabeau, the only one of the moderates who possessed the ability of a statesman, was suspected by the Assembly of supporting the court. Lafayette was believed much more than Mirabeau, but he did not have a clear idea of ​​the nature of the forces that were involved in the struggle. The press, freed from censorship and gaining considerable influence, has largely passed into the hands of extreme radicals. Some of them, such as Marat, who published the newspaper "Friend of the People" ("Ami du Peuple"), exerted a vigorous influence on public opinion. Street speakers and agitators at the Palais Royal excited the crowd with their speeches. Taken together, these elements constituted an explosive mixture.

A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY Work of the Constituent Assembly. The experiment with constitutional monarchy, which began in October, has given rise to a number of problems. The royal ministers were not members of the Constituent Assembly. Louis XVI was deprived of the right to postpone meetings or dissolve the meeting, he did not have the right to initiate legislation. The king could delay laws, but had no veto power. The legislature could act independently of the executive and intended to exploit the situation.

The Constituent Assembly limited the electorate to about 4 million French people out of a total population of 26 million, taking as a criterion for an "active" citizen his ability to pay taxes. The assembly reformed local government, dividing France into 83 departments. The Constituent Assembly reformed the judiciary by abolishing the old parliaments and local courts. Torture and the death penalty by hanging were abolished. A network of civil and criminal courts was formed in the new local districts. Less successful were attempts to carry out financial reforms. The taxation system, although reorganized, failed to ensure the solvency of the government. In November 1789, the Constituent Assembly carried out the nationalization of church land holdings in order to find funds to pay salaries to priests, to worship, to educate, and to help the poor. In the months that followed, it issued government bonds secured by nationalized church lands. The famous "asssignats" rapidly depreciated during the year, which spurred inflation.

Civil status of the clergy. The relationship between the congregation and the church caused the next major crisis. Until 1790, the French Roman Catholic Church recognized changes in its rights, status and financial base within the state. But in 1790, the assembly prepared a new decree on the civil status of the clergy, which in fact subordinated the church to the state. Ecclesiastical positions were to be filled through popular elections, and newly elected bishops were prohibited from accepting the jurisdiction of the papacy. In November 1790, all non-monastic clergy were required to take an oath of allegiance to the state. Within 6 months it became clear that at least half of the priests refused to take the oath. Moreover, the pope rejected not only the decree on the civil status of the clergy, but also other social and political reforms of the Assembly. A religious schism was added to the political differences, the church and the state entered into a dispute. In May 1791, the papal nuncio (ambassador) was recalled, and in September the Assembly annexed Avignon and Venessin, papal enclaves in French territory.

June 20, 1791 late at night, the royal family hid from the Tuileries Palace through a secret door. The whole journey in a carriage that could move at a speed of no more than 10 km per hour was a series of failures and miscalculations. Plans to escort and change horses failed, and the group was detained in the town of Varennes. The news of the flight caused panic and a premonition of civil war. The news of the capture of the king forced the Assembly to close the borders and put the army on alert.

The forces of law and order were in such a nervous state that on July 17 the National Guard opened fire on the crowd on the Champ de Mars in Paris. This "massacre" weakened and discredited the moderate constitutionalist party in the Assembly. Differences intensified in the Constituent Assembly between the constitutionalists, who strove to preserve the monarchy and public order, and the radicals, who aimed at overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a democratic republic. The latter strengthened their positions on August 27, when the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Prussia promulgated the Declaration of Pillnitz. Although both monarchs refrained from invading and used rather cautious language in the declaration, it was perceived in France as a call for joint intervention by foreign states. Indeed, it clearly stated that the position of Louis XVI was "the concern of all the sovereigns of Europe."

Constitution of 1791. Meanwhile, the new constitution was adopted on September 3, 1791, and on September 14 was publicly approved by the king. It envisaged the creation of a new Legislative Assembly. The right to vote was granted to a limited number of representatives of the middle strata. Members of the Assembly were not eligible for re-election. Thus, the new Legislative Assembly threw aside the accumulated political and parliamentary experience with one blow and encouraged energetic politicians to be active outside its walls - in the Paris Commune and its branches, as well as in the Jacobin Club. The separation of executive and legislative power created the prerequisites for a deadlock, since few believed that the king and his ministers would cooperate with the Assembly. By itself, the Constitution of 1791 had no chance of embodying its principles in the socio-political situation that developed in France after the flight of the royal family. Queen Marie Antoinette after the capture began to profess extremely reactionary views, resumed intrigues with the Emperor of Austria and did not attempt to return the emigrants.

European monarchs were alarmed by the events in France. Emperor Leopold of Austria, who took the throne after Joseph II in February 1790, as well as Gustav III of Sweden, ended the wars in which they were involved. By the beginning of 1791, only Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress, continued the war with the Turks. Catherine openly declared her support for the King and Queen of France, but her goal was to bring Austria and Prussia into the war with France and to secure a free hand for Russia to continue the war with the Ottoman Empire.

The deepest response to the events in France appeared in 1790 in England - in the book of E. Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France . Over the next few years, this book was read all over Europe. Burke countered the doctrine of the natural rights of man with the wisdom of the ages, and the projects of radical reorganization with a warning about the high cost of revolutionary change. He predicted civil war, anarchy and despotism, and was the first to draw attention to the large-scale conflict of ideologies that had begun. This growing conflict turned the national revolution into a general European war.Legislative Assembly. The new constitution gave rise to irresolvable contradictions, primarily between the king and the Assembly, since the ministers did not enjoy the confidence of either the first or the second, and besides, they were deprived of the right to sit in the Legislative Assembly. In addition, the contradictions between the rival political forces escalated, as the Paris Commune and political clubs (for example, the Jacobins and the Cordeliers) began to express doubts about the power of the Assembly and the central government. Finally, the Assembly became the arena of struggle between the warring political parties - the Feuillants (moderate constitutionalists), who were the first to come to power, and the Brissotins (radical followers of J.-P. Brissot).

Key ministers - Comte Louis de Narbon (illegitimate son of Louis XV), and after him Charles Dumouriez (former diplomat under Louis XV) - pursued an anti-Austrian policy and viewed the war as a means of containing the revolution, as well as restoring order and the monarchy, relying on the army. In carrying out this policy, Narbon and Dumouriez became closer and closer to the Brissotins, later called the Girondins, since many of their leaders came from the Gironde district.

In November 1791, in order to bring down the wave of emigration, which had a negative impact on the financial and commercial life of France, as well as army discipline, the Assembly adopted a decree obliging emigrants to return to the country by January 1, 1792, under the threat of confiscation of property. Another decree from the same month required the clergy to take a new oath of allegiance to the nation, the law, and the king. All priests who refused this new political oath were deprived of their allowance and subjected to imprisonment. In December, Louis XVI vetoed both decrees, which was a further step towards open confrontation between the crown and the radicals. In March 1792, the king removed Narbonne and the Feuillants, who were replaced by the Brissotins. Dumouriez became Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the Austrian emperor Leopold died, and the impulsive Franz II took the throne. Militant leaders rose to power on both sides of the border. April 20, 1792, after an exchange of notes, which subsequently resulted in a series of ultimatums, the Assembly declared war on Austria.

War outside the country. The French army turned out to be poorly prepared for military operations; only about 130 thousand undisciplined and poorly armed soldiers were under arms. Soon she suffered several defeats, the serious consequences of which immediately affected the country. Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the extreme Jacobin wing of the Girondins, consistently opposed the war, believing that the counter-revolution should first be crushed inside the country, and then fight it outside of it. Now he appeared in the role of a wise people's leader. The king and queen, forced in the course of the war to take openly hostile positions towards Austria, felt the growing danger. The war party's calculations to restore the king's prestige proved completely untenable. Leadership in Paris was seized by the radicals.Fall of the monarchy. On June 13, 1792, the king vetoed the previous decrees of the Assembly, dismissed the Brissotine ministers, and returned the Feuillants to power. This step towards reaction provoked a series of riots in Paris, where again - as in July 1789 - there was an increase in economic difficulties. On July 20, a popular demonstration was planned to celebrate the anniversary of the oath in the ballroom. The people submitted petitions to the Assembly against the removal of ministers and the royal veto. Then the crowd broke into the building of the Tuileries Palace, forced Louis XVI to put on the red cap of freedom and appear before the people. The king's boldness aroused sympathy for him, and the crowd dispersed peacefully. But this respite was short-lived.

The second incident took place in July. On July 11, the Assembly announced that the fatherland was in danger, and called to the service of the nation all the French who were able to bear arms. At the same time, the Paris Commune called on citizens to join the National Guard. So the National Guard suddenly became an instrument of radical democracy. On July 14, approx. 20,000 provincial national guards. Although the celebration of 14 July passed peacefully, it helped to organize the radical forces, which soon came out with demands for the deposition of the king, the election of a new National Convention and the proclamation of a republic. On August 3, the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, the commander of the Austrian and Prussian troops, published a week earlier, became known in Paris, which proclaimed that his army intended to invade French territory to suppress anarchy and restore the power of the king, and the national guardsmen who resisted would be shot . The inhabitants of Marseille arrived in Paris to the marching song of the Army of the Rhine, written by Rouget de Lille.

Marseillaise became the anthem of the revolution, and later the anthem of France.

On August 9, the third incident took place. The delegates of the 48 sections of Paris removed the legal municipal authority and established the revolutionary Commune. The 288-member General Council of the Commune met daily and exerted constant pressure on political decisions. Radical sections controlled the police and the National Guard and began to compete with the Legislative Assembly itself, which by then had lost control of the situation. On August 10, by order of the Commune, the Parisians, supported by detachments of federates, went to the Tuileries and opened fire, destroying approx. 600 Swiss Guards. The king and queen took refuge in the building of the Legislative Assembly, but the entire city was already under the control of the rebels. The assembly deposed the king, appointed a provisional government, and decided to convene a National Convention on the basis of universal male suffrage. The royal family was imprisoned in the Temple fortress.

REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT Convention and War. The elections to the National Convention, held in late August and early September, were held in an atmosphere of great excitement, fear and violence. After Lafayette deserted on August 17, a purge of the army command began. Many suspects were arrested in Paris, including priests. A revolutionary tribunal was created. On August 23, the border fortress of Longwy surrendered to the Prussians without a fight, and rumors of betrayal infuriated the people. Riots broke out in the departments of the Vendée and Brittany. On September 1, reports were received that Verdun would soon fall, and the next day the "September massacre" of prisoners began, which lasted until September 7, in which approx. 1200 people.

On September 20, the Convention met for the first time. His first act of 21 September was the liquidation of the monarchy. From the next day, September 22, 1792, the new revolutionary calendar of the French Republic began counting. Most of the members of the Convention were Girondins, heirs of the former Brissotins. Their main opponents were representatives of the former left wing - the Jacobins, led by Danton, Marat and Robespierre. At first, the Girondin leaders seized all the ministerial posts and secured for themselves the powerful support of the press and public opinion in the provinces. The forces of the Jacobins were concentrated in Paris, where the center of the branched organization of the Jacobin Club was located. After the extremists discredited themselves during the "September massacre", the Girondins strengthened their authority, confirming it with the victory of Dumouriez and François de Kellermann over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy on September 20.

However, during the winter of 1792-1793, the Girondins lost their positions, which opened the way to power for Robespierre. They were mired in personal disputes, speaking first of all (which turned out to be disastrous for them) against Danton, who managed to win the support of the left. The Girondins sought to overthrow the Paris Commune and deprive the support of the Jacobins, who expressed the interests of the capital, not the provinces. They tried to save the king from judgment. However, the Convention actually unanimously found Louis XVI guilty of treason and, by a majority of 70 votes, sentenced him to death. The king was executed on January 21, 1793 (Marie Antoinette was guillotined on October 16, 1793).

The Girondins involved France in the war with almost all of Europe. In November 1792, Dumouriez defeated the Austrians at Jemappes and invaded the territory of the Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium). The French opened the mouth of the river. Scheldts for ships of all countries, thus violating the international agreements of 1648 that navigation on the Scheldt should be controlled exclusively by the Dutch. This signaled the invasion of Holland by Dumouriez, which caused a hostile reaction from the British. On November 19, the Girondin government promised "fraternal help" to all peoples who wanted to achieve freedom. Thus, a challenge was thrown to all European monarchs. At the same time, France annexed Savoy, the possession of the Sardinian king. On January 31, 1793, the doctrine of the "natural borders" of France was proclaimed through the mouth of Danton, which implied claims to the Alps and the Rhineland. This was followed by an order from Dumouriez to occupy Holland. On February 1, France declared war on Great Britain, ushering in the era of "general war".

The national currency of France depreciated sharply due to the fall in the value of banknotes and military spending. British Secretary of War William Pitt the Younger began an economic blockade of France. In Paris and other cities, there was a shortage of the most necessary, especially food, which was accompanied by growing discontent among the people. Furious hatred was caused by military suppliers and speculators. In the Vendée, a rebellion against military mobilization flared up again, which flared throughout the summer. By March 1793, all the signs of a crisis appeared in the rear. On March 18 and 21, Dumouriez's troops were defeated at Neuerwinden and Louvain. The general signed an armistice with the Austrians and tried to turn the army against the Convention, but after the failure of these plans, he and several people from his headquarters went over to the side of the enemy on April 5.

The betrayal of the leading French commander dealt a tangible blow to the Girondins. The radicals in Paris, as well as the Jacobins, led by Robespierre, accused the Girondins of complicity with the traitor. Danton demanded a reorganization of the central executive. On April 6, the Committee of National Defense, set up in January to oversee the ministries, was reorganized into the Committee of Public Safety, which was headed by Danton. The committee concentrated executive power in its hands and became an effective executive body that took over the military command and control of France. The Commune came to the defense of its leader, Jacques Hébert, and Marat, chairman of the Jacobin Club, who were persecuted by the Girondins. During May, the Girondins incited the province to revolt against Paris, depriving themselves of support in the capital. Under the influence of the extremists, the Paris sections established an insurgent committee, which on May 31, 1793, transformed the Commune, taking it under its control. Two days later (June 2), having surrounded the Convention with the forces of the National Guard, the Commune ordered the arrest of 29 Girondin deputies, including two ministers. This marked the beginning of the Jacobin dictatorship, although the reorganization of the executive did not take place until July. In order to put pressure on the Convention, an extremist cabal in Paris fomented the enmity of the provinces against the capital.

Jacobin dictatorship and terror. Now the Convention was obliged to take measures aimed at appeasing the provinces. Politically, a new Jacobin constitution was developed, intended as a model for democratic principles and practice. In economic terms, the Convention supported the peasants and abolished all seigneurial and feudal duties without compensation, and also divided the estates of emigrants into small plots of land so that even poor peasants could buy or rent them. He also carried out the division of communal lands. The new land legislation was intended to become one of the strongest links that connected the peasantry with the revolution. From that moment on, the greatest danger to the peasants was the restoration, which could take away their land, and therefore no subsequent regime tried to annul this decision. By the middle of 1793, the old social and economic system had been abolished: feudal duties were abolished, taxes were abolished, and the nobility and clergy were deprived of power and land. A new administrative system was established in the local districts and rural communes. Only the central government remained fragile, which for many years was subjected to drastic violent changes. The immediate cause of the instability was the ongoing crisis provoked by the war.

By the end of July 1793, the French army was experiencing a series of setbacks, which posed a threat of occupation of the country. The Austrians and Prussians advanced in the north and into Alsace, while the Spaniards, with whom Pitt had made an alliance in May, threatened to invade from the Pyrenees. The revolt spread in the Vendée. These defeats undermined the authority of the Committee of Public Safety under Danton. On July 10, Danton and six of his comrades were deposed. On July 28, Robespierre entered the Committee. Under his leadership, the Committee during the summer ensured a turning point on the military fronts and the victory of the republic. On the same day, July 28, Danton became president of the Convention. The personal enmity between the two Jacobin leaders was mixed with a sharp clash with a new enemy - the Jacobin extremists, who were called "mad". These were the heirs of Marat, who was killed on July 13 by the Girondin Charlotte Corday. Under pressure from the "madmen," the Committee, now recognized as the real government of France, took tougher measures against profiteers and counter-revolutionaries. Although by the beginning of September the "mad" were defeated, many of their ideas, in particular the preaching of violence, were inherited by the left-wing Jacobins, led by Hébert, who occupied significant positions in the Paris Commune and the Jacobin Club. They demanded an increase in terror, as well as tighter government controls on supplies and prices. In mid-August, Lazar Carnot, who soon received the title of "organizer of the victory," joined the Committee of Public Safety, and on August 23, the Convention announced a general mobilization.

In the first week of September 1793 another series of crises erupted. A summer drought led to a shortage of bread in Paris. A plot to free the queen has been uncovered. There were reports of the surrender of the port of Toulon to the British. Hébert's followers in the Commune and the Jacobin Club renewed their powerful pressure on the Convention. They demanded the creation of a "revolutionary army", the arrest of all suspects, tightening price controls, progressive taxation, the trial of the leaders of the Gironde, the reorganization of the revolutionary tribunal to try the enemies of the revolution, and the deployment of mass repression. On September 17, a decree was adopted ordering the arrest of all suspicious persons by the revolutionary committees; at the end of the month, a law was introduced that set marginal prices for basic necessities. The terror continued until July 1794.

Thus, the terror was conditioned by the state of emergency and the pressure of the extremists. The latter used for their own purposes the personal conflicts of the leaders and factional clashes in the Convention and the Commune. On October 10, the constitution drafted by the Jacobins was officially adopted, and the Convention proclaimed that for the duration of the war the Committee of Public Safety would act as a provisional, or "revolutionary" government. The goal of the Committee was declared to be the exercise of rigidly centralized power, aimed at the complete victory of the people in the matter of saving the revolution and defending the country. This body supported the policy of terror, and in October held major political trials of the Girondins. The committee exercised political control over the central food commission, which was set up that same month. The worst manifestations of terror were "unofficial"; were carried out on the personal initiative of fanatics and thugs who settled personal scores. Soon, a bloody wave of terror covered those who held high positions in the past. Naturally, in the course of the terror, emigration intensified. It is estimated that about 129 thousand people fled from France, about 40 thousand died in the days of terror. Most executions took place in rebellious cities and departments, such as the Vendée and Lyon.

Until April 1794, the policy of terror was largely determined by the rivalry between the followers of Danton, Hebert and Robespierre. At first, the Eberists set the tone, they rejected the Christian doctrine and replaced it with the cult of Reason, introduced a new, republican calendar instead of the Gregorian, in which the months were named according to seasonal phenomena and were divided into three "decades". In March, Robespierre did away with the Héberists. Hebert himself and 18 of his followers were executed by guillotine after a speedy trial. The Dantonists, who sought to soften the excesses of terror in the name of national solidarity, were also arrested, and in early April they were convicted and executed. Now Robespierre and the reorganized Committee of Public Safety ruled the country with unlimited power.

The Jacobin dictatorship reached its most terrible expression in the decree of 22 Prairial (June 10, 1794), which accelerated the procedures of the revolutionary tribunal, depriving the accused of the right to defense and turning the death sentence into the only punishment for those who were found guilty. At the same time, the propaganda of the cult of the Supreme Being, put forward by Robespierre as an alternative to both Christianity and the atheism of the Eberists, reached its peak. Tyranny reached fantastic extremes - and this led to the rebellion of the Convention and the coup on 9 Thermidor (July 27), which eliminated the dictatorship. Robespierre, along with his two main assistants - Louis Saint-Just and Georges Couthon - were executed the next evening. Within a few days, 87 members of the Commune were also guillotined.

The highest justification for terror - victory in the war - was also the main reason for its end. By the spring of 1794, the French Republican army numbered approx. 800 thousand soldiers and was the largest and most efficient army in Europe. Thanks to this, she achieved superiority over the fragmented troops of the allies, which became clear in June 1794 at the battle of Fleurus in the Spanish Netherlands. Within 6 months, the revolutionary armies again occupied the Netherlands.

THERMIDORIAN CONVENTION AND DIRECTORATE. JULY 1794 - DECEMBER 1799 Thermidorian reaction. The forms of "revolutionary" government persisted until October 1795, as the Convention continued to provide executive power based on the special committees it created. After the first months of the Thermidorian reaction - the so-called. "White Terror" directed against the Jacobins - the terror began to gradually subside. The Jacobin Club was closed, the powers of the Committee of Public Safety were limited, and the decree of 22 Prairial was annulled. The revolution lost momentum, the population was exhausted by the civil war. During the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the French army achieved impressive victories, invading Holland, the Rhineland and northern Spain. The first coalition of Great Britain, Prussia, Spain and Holland collapsed, and all the countries that were part of it - except Austria and Great Britain - sued for peace. The Vendée was pacified with the help of political and religious concessions, and religious persecution also ceased.

In the last year of the existence of the Convention, which got rid of the Jacobins and royalists, moderate republicans occupied key positions in it. The Convention was strongly supported by peasants who were content with their land, by army contractors and suppliers, by businessmen and speculators who traded land and made capital from it. He was also supported by a whole class of new rich people who wanted to avoid political excesses. The social policy of the Convention was aimed at meeting the needs of these groups. The abolition of price controls led to a resumption of inflation and new disasters for the workers and the poor, who had lost their leaders. Independent riots broke out. The largest of these was the uprising in the capital on the Prairial (May 1795), supported by the Jacobins. The rebels erected barricades on the streets of Paris, captured the Convention, thereby hastening its dissolution. To suppress the uprising in the city (for the first time since 1789) troops were brought in. The rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed, almost 10 thousand of its participants were arrested, imprisoned or deported, the leaders ended their lives on the guillotine.

In May 1795, the revolutionary tribunal was finally abolished, and the emigrants began to look for ways to return to their homeland. There were even royalist attempts to restore something similar to the pre-revolutionary regime, but all of them were brutally suppressed. In the Vendée, the rebels again took up arms. The English fleet landed over a thousand armed royalist emigrants on the Quibron Peninsula on the northeastern coast of France (June 1795). In the cities of Provence in southern France, the royalists made another attempt at rebellion. On October 5 (13 Vendemière), an uprising of monarchists broke out in Paris, but it was quickly suppressed by General Napoleon Bonaparte.

Directory. The moderate republicans, having strengthened their power and the Girondins, having restored their positions, developed a new form of government - the Directory. It was based on the so-called constitution III year, which officially approved the French Republic, which began its existence on October 28, 1795.

The Directory relied on suffrage, limited by property qualification, and on indirect elections. The principle of separation of powers between the legislative power, represented by two assemblies (the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders), and the executive power, vested in the Directory of 5 people (one of which had to leave his post annually) was approved. Two-thirds of the new legislators were elected from the members of the Convention. The irresolvable contradictions that arose in relations between the legislative and executive authorities, apparently, could only be resolved by force. Thus, from the very beginning, the seeds of the coming military coups fell on fertile ground. The new system was maintained for 4 years. Its prelude was the revolt of the royalists, specially timed to coincide with October 5, swept away by Bonaparte with a "volley of buckshot." It was not difficult to assume that the general would put an end to the existing regime, resorting to the same means of forceful pressure, which happened during the “coup of 18 Brumaire” (November 9

1799). The four years of the Directory were a time of corrupt government inside France and brilliant conquests abroad. These two factors in their interaction determined the fate of the country. The need to continue the war was now dictated less by revolutionary idealism and more by nationalist aggression. In the agreements with Prussia and Spain, concluded in 1795 in Basel, Carnot sought to keep France practically within its old borders. But the aggressive nationalist doctrine of reaching "natural frontiers" spurred the government to lay claim to the left bank of the Rhine. Since the European states could not but react to such a noticeable expansion of the borders of the French state, the war did not stop. For the Directory, it became both an economic and political constant, a source of profit and a means of asserting the prestige necessary to maintain power. In domestic politics, the Directory, which represented the republican majority of the middle class, had to suppress all resistance from both the left and the right in order to preserve itself, since the return of Jacobinism or royalism threatened its power.

As a result, the internal policy of the Directory was characterized by a struggle along these two lines. In 1796, the "Conspiracy of Equals" was uncovered - an ultra-Jacobin and pro-communist secret society led by Gracchus Babeuf. Its leaders were executed. The trial of Babeuf and his associates created a new republican myth, which after some time acquired great attraction among the adherents of underground and secret societies in Europe. The conspirators supported the ideas of social and economic revolution - as opposed to the reactionary social policy of the Directory. In 1797, the Fructidor coup took place (September 4), when the royalists won the elections, and the army was used to annul their results in 49 departments. This was followed by the Floreal coup (May 11, 1798), during which the results of the election victory of the Jacobins were arbitrarily canceled in 37 departments. They were followed by the Prairial coup (June 18, 1799) - both extreme political groups strengthened in the elections at the expense of the center, and as a result, three members of the Directory lost power.

The Directory's rule was unprincipled and immoral. Paris and other major cities have earned a reputation as hotbeds of licentiousness and vulgarity. However, the decline in morals was not universal and ubiquitous. Some members of the Directory, primarily Carnot, were active and patriotic people. But it was not they who created the reputation of the Directory, but people like the corrupt and cynic Count Barras. In October 1795, he enlisted the young artillery general Napoleon Bonaparte to crush the rebellion, and then rewarded him by giving him his former mistress Josephine de Beauharnais as his wife. However, Bonaparte encouraged Carnot much more generously, entrusting him with the command of an expedition to Italy, which brought him military glory.

Rise of Bonaparte. The strategic plan of Carnot in the war against Austria assumed the concentration of three French armies near Vienna - two moving from the north of the Alps, under the command of generals J. B. Jourdan and J.-V. Moreau, and one from Italy, under the command of Bonaparte. The young Corsican defeated the king of Sardinia, imposed the terms of the peace agreement on the pope, defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Lodi (May 10, 1796) and entered Milan on May 14. Jourdan was defeated, Moreau was forced to retreat. The Austrians sent one army after another against Bonaparte. All of them were destroyed one by one. Having captured Venice, Bonaparte turned it into an object of bargaining with the Austrians and in October 1797 made peace with Austria at Campo Formio. Austria handed over the Austrian Netherlands to France and, under a secret clause of the agreement, promised to cede the left bank of the Rhine. Venice remained with Austria, which recognized the Cisalpine Republic created by France in Lombardy. After this agreement, only Great Britain remained at war with France.

Bonaparte decided to strike at the British Empire, cutting off access to the Middle East. In June 1798 he captured the island of Malta, in July he took Alexandria and moved troops against Syria. However, the British naval forces blockaded his land army, and the expedition to Syria failed. Napoleon's fleet was sunk by Admiral Nelson in the Battle of Aboukir (August 1, 1798).

Meanwhile, the Directory was in agony due to defeats on the fronts and growing discontent within the country. A second anti-French coalition was formed against France, in which England managed to attract Russia, which had been neutral until that time, as an ally. Austria, the Kingdom of Naples, Portugal and the Ottoman Empire also joined the alliance. The Austrians and Russians drove the French out of Italy, and the British landed in Holland. However, in September 1799, the British troops were defeated near Bergen, and they had to leave Holland, while the Russians were defeated near Zurich. The formidable combination of Austria and Russia fell apart after Russia withdrew from the coalition.

In August, Bonaparte left Alexandria, avoiding a meeting with the English fleet guarding him, and landed in France. Despite huge losses and defeat in the Middle East, Napoleon was the only person who managed to inspire confidence in a country where power was close to bankruptcy. As a result of the elections in May 1799, many active opponents of the Directory entered the Legislative Assembly, which led to its reorganization. Barras, as always, remained, but now he has teamed up with the Abbé Sieyes

. In July, the Directory appointed Joseph Fouche as Minister of Police. A former Jacobin terrorist, cunning and unscrupulous in his means, he began the persecution of his former comrades-in-arms, which prompted the Jacobins to actively resist. On the 28th fructidor (September 14) they made an attempt to force the Council of Five Hundred to proclaim the slogan "the fatherland is in danger" and to set up a commission in the spirit of Jacobin traditions. This initiative was prevented by Lucien Bonaparte, the most intelligent and educated of all Napoleon's brothers, who managed to postpone the discussion of this issue.

On October 16, Napoleon arrived in Paris. Everywhere he was met and hailed as a hero and savior of the country. Bonaparte became a symbol of revolutionary hopes and glory, the prototype of the ideal republican soldier, the guarantor of public order and security. On October 21, the Council of Five Hundred, sharing the enthusiasm of the people, elected Lucien Bonaparte as its chairman. The cunning Sieyes decided to involve him in a conspiracy he had long hatched to overthrow the regime and revise the constitution. Napoleon and Lucien saw Sieyes as a tool with which to clear the way to power.

The coup of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) can be said to have been an "internal affair" of the Directory, since two of its members (Sieyes and Roger Ducos) led the conspiracy, which was supported by the majority of the Council of Elders and part of the Council of Five Hundred. The Council of Elders voted to move the meeting of both assemblies to the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud, and entrusted the command of the troops to Bonaparte. According to the plan of the conspirators, the meetings, terrified by the troops, would be forced to vote for a revision of the constitution and the creation of a provisional government. After that, three consuls would have received power, who were instructed to prepare a new Constitution and approve it in a plebiscite.

The first stage of the conspiracy went according to plan. The congregations moved to Saint-Cloud, and the Council of Elders was accommodating on the issue of revising the constitution. But the Council of Five Hundred showed a clearly hostile attitude towards Napoleon, and his appearance in the chamber of meetings caused a storm of indignation. This almost thwarted the plans of the conspirators. If not for the resourcefulness of the chairman of the Council of Five Hundred, Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon could immediately be outlawed. Lucien told the grenadiers guarding the palace that the deputies were threatening to kill the general. He put a drawn sword to his brother's chest and swore to kill him with his own hand if he violated the foundations of freedom. The grenadiers, convinced that they, in the person of the zealous Republican General Bonaparte, were saving France, entered the chamber of the Council of Five Hundred. After that, Lucien hurried to the Council of Elders, where he told about the conspiracy that the deputies were plotting against the republic. The elders formed a commission and adopted a decree on temporary consuls - Bonaparte, Sieyes and Ducos. Then the commission, reinforced by the remaining deputies of the Council of Five Hundred, announced the abolition of the Directory and proclaimed the consuls a provisional government. The meeting of the Legislative Assembly was postponed to February 1800

. Despite gross miscalculations and confusion, the coup of the 18th Brumaire was a complete success.

The main reason for the success of the coup, which was greeted with joy in Paris and throughout most of the country, was that the people were extremely tired of the rule of the Directory. The revolutionary pressure finally dried up, and France was ready to recognize a strong ruler capable of ensuring order in the country.

Consulate. France was ruled by three consuls. Each of them had equal power, they exercised leadership in turn. However, from the very beginning, Bonaparte's voice was undoubtedly decisive. The Brumaire Decrees were a transitional constitution. In essence, it was a Directory, reduced to the power of three. At the same time, Fouche remained Minister of Police, and Talleyrand became Minister of Foreign Affairs. The commissions of the two previous assemblies were preserved and worked out new laws at the behest of the consuls. On November 12, the consuls took an oath "to be loyal to the Republic, one and indivisible, based on equality, liberty and representative government." But the Jacobin leaders were arrested or expelled while the new system was being consolidated. Gaudin, who was entrusted with the important task of organizing the chaotic finances, achieved impressive results due to his honesty, competence and ingenuity. In the Vendée, a truce broke out with the royalist rebels. Work on the creation of a new basic law, called the Constitution VIII year, passed into the jurisdiction of Sieyes. He supported the doctrine that "trust must come from below and power from above."

Bonaparte had far-reaching plans. On the sidelines of the coup, it was decided that he himself, J.-J. de Cambaceres and Ch.-F. Lebrun become consuls. It was assumed that Sieyes and Ducos would head the lists of future senators. By December 13, the new constitution was completed. The electoral system was formally based on universal suffrage, but at the same time a complex system of indirect elections was established, excluding democratic control. 4 meetings were established: the Senate, the Legislative Assembly, the Tribunate and the State Council, whose members were appointed from above. The executive power was transferred to three consuls, but Bonaparte, as the first consul, towered over the other two, who were content with just an advisory vote. The constitution did not provide for any counterbalances to the absolute power of the first consul. It was approved by plebiscite in an open vote. Bonaparte forced the course of events. On December 23, he issued a decree according to which the new constitution was to come into force on Christmas Day. The new institutions began to operate even before the announcement of the results of the plebiscite. This put pressure on the voting results: 3 million votes in favor and only 1,562 against. The consulate opened a new era in the history of France.

The legacy of the revolutionary years. The main result of the activities of the Directory was the creation outside of France of a ring of satellite republics, completely artificial in terms of the system of government and in relations with France: in Holland - the Batavian, in Switzerland - the Helvetian, in Italy - the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Roman and Parthenopean republics. France annexed the Austrian Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine. In this way she enlarged her territory and surrounded herself with six satellite states modeled after the French Republic.

Ten years of revolution left an indelible mark on the state structure of France, as well as in the minds and hearts of the French. Napoleon was able to complete the revolution, but he failed to erase its consequences from memory. The aristocracy and the church were no longer able to restore their pre-revolutionary status, although Napoleon created a new nobility and concluded a new concordat with the church. The revolution gave birth not only to the ideals of freedom, equality, fraternity, popular sovereignty, but also to conservatism, fear of revolution and reactionary sentiments.

LITERATURE Great French Revolution and Russia . M., 1989
Freedom. Equality. Brotherhood. The French Revolution . M., 1989
Smirnov V.P., Poskonin V.S.Traditions of the French Revolution . M., 1991
Furet F. Comprehension of the French Revolution . M., 1998
Historical sketches on the French Revolution . M., 1998

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 to the deputies of the third estate, who had half of all mandates).

On June 17, the meeting of deputies of the third estate decided on a bold act: it proclaimed itself the National Assembly, inviting 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 open 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 landlords' 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 swept 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 taken 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 quirky 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 agreed to the harassment of the 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, who had disguised himself 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 Cordeliers Club led the movement of the masses, who insisted on the removal of the traitor king from power. The demand for a republic, which the Cordeliers had previously 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 withdrew from 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 uppermost 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 displayed 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 with 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, old people - 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 strata of the commercial-industrial and landowning bourgeoisie who had already succeeded in achieving the realization 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 the 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 masses of the plebeians expressed the sentiments of the Parisian sections, 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 first 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 fierce 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 the 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 whole 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 combat the counter-revolution, Marat, the revolutionary democrat most beloved by the people, who exposed the hypocrisy 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 was afraid of the people, proved 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 internal counter-revolution, the advanced bourgeois Jacobin revolutionaries boldly relied on the broadest masses of the people, on the support of the masses of the peasantry 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, a 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 "universal 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 unbending 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 many enemies and overcome their onslaught in a relatively short time.

Revolutionary terror was directed not only against political, but also against economic counter-revolution: it was widely used against speculators, buyers and all those who, by violating the law on the "maximum" and disorganizing the supply of cities and the army with food, thereby played into the hands of the enemies of the revolution. and interventions.
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 popular 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. The 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 threw 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 by 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 to strict state regulation the sale and distribution of food and other goods, 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 thunder of 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, the prosperous and even the 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 background, 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 caused by the new social and political situation that had taken shape 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, Couton 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 on 9 Thermidor overthrew the revolutionary-democratic Jacobin dictatorship and thereby effectively put an end to the revolution. Historical Significance of the French Revolution

French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. 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 Great French Revolution (fr. Révolution française) - in France, starting from the spring-summer of 1789, the largest transformation of the social and political systems of the state, which led to the destruction of the old order and the monarchy in the country, and the proclamation of the republic de jure (September 1792) of free and equal citizens under the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

The beginning of the revolutionary actions was the capture of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, and historians consider the end to be November 9, 1799 (coup of 18 Brumaire).

Causes of the revolution

France in the 18th century was a monarchy based on bureaucratic centralization and a regular army. The socio-economic and political regime that existed in the country was formed as a result of complex compromises worked out in the course of a long political confrontation and civil wars of the 14th-16th centuries. One of these compromises existed between the royal power and the privileged estates - for the renunciation of political rights, the state power protected the social privileges of these two estates with all the means at its disposal. Another compromise existed in relation to the peasantry - during a long series of peasant wars of the XIV-XVI centuries. the peasants achieved the abolition of the vast majority of monetary taxes and the transition to natural relations in agriculture. The third compromise existed in relation to the bourgeoisie (which at that time was the middle class, in whose interests the government also did a lot, preserving a number of privileges of the bourgeoisie in relation to the bulk of the population (peasantry) and supporting the existence of tens of thousands of small enterprises, the owners of which constituted a layer of French bourgeois). However, the regime that developed as a result of these complex compromises did not ensure the normal development of France, which in the 18th century. began to lag behind its neighbors, primarily from England. In addition, excessive exploitation increasingly armed against itself the masses of the people, whose most legitimate interests were completely ignored by the state.

Gradually during the XVIII century. at the top of French society, an understanding has matured that the old order, with its underdevelopment of market relations, chaos in the management system, corrupt system for the sale of public posts, lack of clear legislation, the “Byzantine” taxation system and the archaic system of class privileges, needs to be reformed. In addition, the royal power was losing confidence in the eyes of the clergy, the nobility and the bourgeoisie, among which the idea was asserted that the power of the king is a usurpation in relation to the rights of estates and corporations (Montesquieu's point of view) or in relation to the rights of the people (Rousseau's point of view). Thanks to the activities of the enlighteners, of whom the physiocrats and encyclopedists are especially important, a revolution took place in the minds of the educated part of French society. Finally, under Louis XV, and to an even greater extent under Louis XVI, reforms were launched in the political and economic fields, which were bound to lead to the collapse of the Old Order.

Absolute monarchy

In the pre-revolutionary years, France was struck by a number of natural disasters. The drought of 1785 caused a fodder shortage. In 1787 there was a shortage of silk cocoons. This entailed a reduction in Lyon silk weaving production. At the end of 1788, there were 20,000 to 25,000 unemployed in Lyon alone. A strong hailstorm in July 1788 destroyed the grain crops in many provinces. The extremely severe winter of 1788/89 destroyed many vineyards and part of the harvest. Food prices have risen. The supply of markets with bread and other products has deteriorated sharply. To crown it all, an industrial crisis began, the impetus for which was the Anglo-French trade treaty of 1786. Under this treaty, both sides significantly lowered customs duties. The treaty proved fatal to French manufacturing, which could not compete with cheaper English goods flooding into France.

Pre-revolutionary crisis

The pre-revolutionary crisis has its origins in France's participation in the American War of Independence. The revolt of the English colonies can be seen as the main and immediate cause of the French Revolution, both because the ideas of human rights found a strong response in France and echoed the ideas of the Enlightenment, and because Louis XVI received his finances in a very bad state. Necker financed the war with loans. After the conclusion of peace in 1783, the deficit of the royal treasury was more than 20 percent. In 1788, expenses amounted to 629 million livres, while taxes brought in only 503 million. It was impossible to raise traditional taxes, which were mainly paid by peasants, in the conditions of the economic recession of the 80s. Contemporaries blamed the extravagance of the court. Public opinion of all classes unanimously believed that the approval of taxes should be the prerogative of the Estates General and elected representatives.

For some time, Necker's successor Calonne continued the practice of borrowing. When the sources of loans began to dry up, on August 20, 1786, Calonne notified the king that financial reform was necessary. To cover the deficit (Fr. Precis d "un plan d" amelioration des finances), it was proposed to replace the twenty, which was actually paid only by the third estate, with a new land tax that would fall on all lands in the kingdom, including the lands of the nobility and clergy . To overcome the crisis, it was necessary that everyone pay taxes. To revive trade, it was proposed to introduce freedom of the grain trade and to abolish internal customs duties. Calonne also returned to the plans of Turgot and Necker for local self-government. It was proposed to create district, provincial and community meetings, in which all owners with an annual income of at least 600 livres would participate.

Realizing that such a program would not find support from parliaments, Calonne advised the king to convene notables, each of whom was personally invited by the king and whose loyalty could be counted on. Thus the government turned to the aristocracy - to save the finances of the monarchy and the foundations of the old regime, to save most of its privileges, sacrificing only a part. But at the same time, this was the first concession of absolutism: the king consulted with his aristocracy, and did not notify them of his will.

Aristocratic Fronde

Notables gathered at Versailles on February 22, 1787. Among them were princes of the blood, dukes, marshals, bishops and archbishops, presidents of parliaments, quartermasters, deputies of the provincial states, mayors of the main cities - a total of 144 persons. Reflecting the prevailing opinion of the privileged estates, the notables expressed their indignation at the reform proposals to elect provincial assemblies without class distinction, as well as the attacks on the rights of the clergy. As expected, they denounced the direct land tax and demanded that the report of the Treasury be studied first. Struck by the state of finances they heard in the report, they declared Calonne himself to be the main culprit of the deficit. As a result, Louis XVI had to resign Calonne on April 8, 1787.

Calonne's successor, on the recommendation of Queen Marie Antoinette, was Lomeny de Brienne, who received a loan of 67 million livres from the notables, which made it possible to plug some holes in the budget. But the notables refused to approve the land tax, which fell on all classes, citing their incompetence. This meant that they were sending the king to the Estates General. Lomeny de Brienne was forced to carry out the policy outlined by his predecessor. One after another, edicts of the king appear on the freedom of grain trade, on the replacement of road corvee with a cash tax, on stamp and other taxes, on the return of civil rights to Protestants, on the creation of provincial assemblies in which the third estate had a representation equal to the representation of the two privileged estates taken together. , finally, about the land tax, which falls on all classes. But the Parisian and other parliaments refuse to register these edicts. On August 6, 1787, a meeting is held with the presence of the king (fr. Lit de justice), and the controversial edicts are entered into the books of the Paris Parliament. But the next day, Parliament cancels as illegal the decrees adopted the day before by order of the king. The King sends the Parlement of Paris to Troyes, but this provokes such a storm of protest that Louis XVI soon grants amnesty to the recalcitrant Parlement, which now also demands the convocation of the Estates General.

The movement for the restoration of the rights of parliaments, begun by the judicial aristocracy, grew more and more into a movement for the convocation of the Estates General. The privileged estates now took care only that the States General should be convened in the old forms and that the third estate should receive only one third of the seats, and that voting should be carried out by estate. This gave the majority to the privileged estates in the States General and the right to dictate their political will to the king on the ruins of absolutism. Many historians call this period the "aristocratic revolution", and the conflict between the aristocracy and the monarchy becomes nationwide with the advent of the third estate.

Convocation of the Estates General

At the end of August 1788, the ministry of Lomeny de Brienne was resigned and Necker was again called to power (with the title of director general of finance). Necker again began to regulate the grain trade. He forbade the export of bread and ordered the purchase of bread abroad. They also restored the obligation to sell grain and flour only in the markets. Local authorities were allowed to keep records of grain and flour and force the owners to take their stocks to the markets. But Necker failed to stop the rise in prices for bread and other products. The Royal Regulations on January 24, 1789 decided to convene the Estates General and indicated the purpose of the future meeting "to establish a permanent and unchanging order in all parts of government relating to the happiness of subjects and the welfare of the kingdom, the fastest possible healing of diseases of the state and the destruction of all abuses." The right to vote was given to all French males who had reached the age of twenty-five, who had a permanent place of residence and were included in the tax lists. The elections were two-stage (and sometimes three-stage), that is, first representatives of the population (electors) were elected, who determined the deputies of the assembly.

At the same time, the king expressed the desire that "both on the extreme limits of his kingdom and in the least known villages, everyone should be provided with the opportunity to bring his desires and his complaints to his attention." These orders (French cahiers de doleances), "list of complaints", reflected the moods and demands of various sections of the population. Orders from the third estate demanded that all noble and ecclesiastical lands, without exception, be taxed in the same amount as the lands of the unprivileged, demanded not only the periodic convocation of the Estates General, but also that they represent not the estates, but the nation and that the ministers were responsible to the nation represented in the Estates General. Peasant orders demanded the abolition of all feudal rights of lords, all feudal payments, tithes, the exclusive right for the nobles to hunt, fish, and return communal lands seized by lords. The bourgeoisie demanded the abolition of all restrictions on trade and industry. All orders condemned judicial arbitrariness (French lettres de cachet), demanded trial by jury, freedom of speech and press.

The elections to the States General caused an unprecedented rise in political activity and were accompanied by the publication of numerous pamphlets and pamphlets, the authors of which expounded their views on the problems of the day and formulated the most diverse socio-economic and political demands. Abbé Sieyes' pamphlet What is the Third Estate? was a great success. Its author argued that only the third estate constitutes a nation, and the privileged are alien to the nation, a burden that lies on the nation. It was in this pamphlet that the famous aphorism was formulated: “What is the third estate? Everything. What has it been until now politically? Nothing. What does it require? Become something." The center of the opposition or "patriotic party" was the Committee of Thirty, which arose in Paris. It included the hero of the American War of Independence, the Marquis Lafayette, the Abbé Sieyès, the Bishop of Talleyrand, the Count of Mirabeau, the Councilor of the Duport Parliament. The Committee launched an active agitation in support of the demand to double the representation of the third estate and to introduce the universal (French par tête) voting of deputies.

The question of how the States work has caused sharp controversy. The states general were convened for the last time in 1614. Then, traditionally, all estates had equal representation, and voting took place by estates (fr. par ordre): the clergy had one vote, the nobility had one, and the third estate had one. At the same time, the provincial assemblies created by Lomeny de Brienne in 1787 had a double representation of the third estate, and this was what the vast majority of the country's population wanted. Necker wanted the same, realizing that he needed a wider support in carrying out the necessary reforms and overcoming the opposition of the privileged classes. On December 27, 1788, it was announced that the third estate in the Estates General would receive dual representation. The question of the order of voting remained unresolved.

Opening of the States General

Proclamation of the National Assembly

May 5, 1789 in the hall of the palace "Small Fun" (fr. Menus plaisirs) of Versailles, the grand opening of the Estates General took place. The deputies were seated by estate: the clergy sat to the right of the king's chair, the nobility to the left, and the third estate opposite. The meeting was opened by the king, who warned the deputies against "dangerous innovations" (fr. innovations dangereuses) and made it clear that he sees the task of the States General only in finding funds to replenish the state treasury. Meanwhile, the country was waiting for reforms from the Estates General. The conflict between the estates in the States General began already on May 6, when the deputies of the clergy and the nobility gathered for separate meetings to begin checking the powers of the deputies. The deputies of the third estate refused to be constituted into a special chamber and invited deputies from the clergy and nobility to jointly test their credentials. Long negotiations began between the estates.

In the end, in the ranks of deputies, first from the clergy, and then from the nobility, there was a split. On June 10, Abbé Sieyes proposed to appeal to the privileged estates with the last invitation, and on June 12, the roll-call of the deputies of all three estates began according to the ballad lists. In the following days, about 20 deputies from the clergy joined the deputies of the third estate, and on June 17, a majority of 490 votes against 90 proclaimed itself the National Assembly (French Assemblee nationale). Two days later, the deputies from the clergy, after a heated debate, decided to join the Third Estate. Louis XVI and his entourage were extremely dissatisfied and the king ordered the closing of the "Small Amusements" hall under the pretext of repairs.

On the morning of June 20, the deputies of the third estate found the meeting room locked. Then they gathered in the Ball Game Hall (Fr. Jeu de paume) and, at the suggestion of Munier, they swore an oath not to disperse until a constitution was worked out. On June 23, a “royal meeting” (fr. Lit de justice) was held for the Estates General in the hall of the “Small Amusements”. The deputies were seated by estate, as on May 5. Versailles was overrun with troops. The king announced that he was canceling the decrees adopted on June 17 and would not allow any restriction of his power or violation of the traditional rights of the nobility and clergy, and ordered the deputies to disperse.

Confident that his orders would be carried out immediately, the king withdrew. Most of the clergy and almost all the nobles left with him. But the deputies of the third estate remained in their seats. When the master of ceremonies reminded chairman Bailly of the king's command, Bailly replied, "The assembled nation is not ordered." Then Mirabeau got up and said: “Go and tell your master that we are here by the will of the people and we will leave our places, only yielding to the power of the bayonets!” The king ordered the Life Guards to disperse the disobedient deputies. But when the guards tried to enter the hall of "Small Fun", the Marquis Lafayette and a few other noble nobles blocked their way with swords in their hands. At the same meeting, at the suggestion of Mirabeau, the assembly declared the immunity of the members of the National Assembly, and that anyone who encroaches on their immunity is subject to criminal liability.

The next day, most of the clergy, and a day later 47 deputies from the nobility, joined the National Assembly. And on June 27, the king ordered the rest of the deputies from the nobility and clergy to join. Thus was accomplished the transformation of the Estates General into the National Assembly, which on July 9 declared itself the Constituent National Assembly (French Assemblee nationale constituante) as a sign that it considered its main task to draft a constitution. On the same day, it heard Munier about the foundations of the future constitution, and on July 11, Lafayette presented a draft Declaration of the Rights of Man, which he considered necessary to preface the constitution.

But the position of the Assembly was precarious. The king and his entourage did not want to accept defeat and prepared to disperse the Assembly. On June 26, the king ordered the concentration in Paris and its environs of an army of 20,000, mostly mercenary German and Swiss regiments. The troops were stationed at Saint-Denis, Saint-Cloud, Sèvres and the Champ de Mars. The arrival of the troops immediately heated up the atmosphere in Paris. Rallies sprang up spontaneously in the garden of the Palais Royal, at which calls were made to repulse "foreign mercenaries." On July 8, the National Assembly addressed the King with an address, asking him to withdraw the troops from Paris. The king replied that he had called for troops to guard the Assembly, but if the presence of troops in Paris disturbed the Assembly, then he was ready to transfer the place of its meetings to Noyon or Soissons. This showed that the king was preparing to disperse the Assembly.

On July 11, Louis XVI resigned Necker and reformed the ministry, placing Baron Breteuil at its head, who proposed taking the most extreme measures against Paris. “If we have to burn Paris, we will burn Paris,” he said. The post of Minister of War in the new cabinet was taken by Marshal Broglie. It was the ministry of the coup d'état. It seemed that the cause of the National Assembly was defeated.

It was saved by a national revolution.

Oath in the ballroom

Storming of the Bastille

Necker's resignation produced an immediate reaction. The movements of government troops confirmed the suspicions of an “aristocratic conspiracy,” and the resignation caused panic among the wealthy, because it was in him that they saw a person who could prevent the bankruptcy of the state.

Paris learned of the resignation in the afternoon of 12 July. It was Sunday. Crowds of people poured into the streets. Busts of Necker were carried throughout the city. At the Palais Royal, a young lawyer, Camille Desmoulins, issued the cry: "To arms!" Soon the cry was all over the place. The French Guard (fr. Gardes françaises), among which were the future generals of the republic Lefebvre, Gulen, Elie, Lazar Gosh, almost completely went over to the side of the people. Skirmishes began with the troops. The dragoons of the German regiment (Fr. Royal-Allemand) attacked the crowd at the Tuileries Garden, but retreated under a hail of stones. Baron de Bezenval, the commandant of Paris, ordered government troops to retreat from the city to the Champ-de-Mars (fr. Champ-de-Mars).

The next day, July 13, the uprising grew even more. From early morning, the alarm was blaring. At about 8 o'clock in the morning, the Parisian electors gathered in the town hall (fr. Hôtel de ville). A new municipal authority, the Standing Committee, was created to lead and control the movement at the same time. At the very first meeting, a decision is made to create a "civil militia" in Paris. This was the birth of the Parisian revolutionary Commune and the National Guard.

They were waiting for an attack from government troops. They began to erect barricades, but there were not enough weapons to protect them. A search for weapons began throughout the city. They broke into gun shops, grabbing whatever they could find. On the morning of July 14, the mob seized 32,000 guns and cannons at Les Invalides, but there was not enough gunpowder. Then we went to the Bastille. This fortress-prison symbolized the repressive power of the state in the public mind. In reality, there were seven prisoners and a little more than a hundred soldiers of the garrison, mostly disabled. After several hours of siege, Commandant de Launay capitulated. The garrison lost only one man killed, and the Parisians 98 killed and 73 wounded. After the surrender, seven of the garrison, including the commandant himself, were torn to pieces by the crowd.

Storming of the Bastille

A constitutional monarchy

Municipal and peasant revolutions

The king was forced to recognize the existence of the Constituent Assembly. Twice dismissed Necker was again called to power, and on July 17, Louis XVI, accompanied by a delegation of the National Assembly, arrived in Paris and received from the hands of Mayor Bailly a tricolor cockade, symbolizing the victory of the revolution and the accession of the king to it (red and blue are the colors of the Paris coat of arms, white - the color of the royal banner). The first wave of emigration began; the implacable high aristocracy began to leave France, including the king's brother, the Count d'Artois.

Even before Necker's resignation, many cities sent addresses in support of the National Assembly, up to 40 before July 14. A "municipal revolution" began, accelerating after Necker's resignation and engulfing the whole country after 14 July. Bordeaux, Caen, Angers, Amiens, Vernon, Dijon, Lyon and many other cities were engulfed in uprisings. Quartermasters, governors, military commandants in the field either fled or lost real power. Following the example of Paris, communes and a national guard began to form. City communes began to form federal associations. Within a few weeks, the royal government lost all power over the country, the provinces now recognized only the National Assembly.

The economic crisis and famine led to the emergence of many vagrants, homeless people and marauding gangs in the countryside. The alarming situation, the hopes of the peasants for tax relief, expressed in orders, the approach of the harvest of a new crop, all this gave rise to a myriad of rumors and fears in the countryside. In the second half of July, the "Great Fear" (French: Grande peur) broke out, setting off a chain reaction throughout the country. 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.

During the meeting of the “night of miracles” (French La Nuit des Miracles) on August 4 and by decrees on August 4-11, the Constituent Assembly responded to the revolution of the peasants and abolished personal feudal duties, seigneurial courts, church tithes, privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations and announced equality of all before the law in the payment of state taxes and in the right to hold civil, military and ecclesiastical offices. 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.

On August 26, 1789, the Constituent Assembly adopted the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" - one of the first documents of democratic constitutionalism. The “old regime”, based on estate privileges and the arbitrariness of the authorities, was opposed to the equality of all before the law, the inalienability of “natural” human rights, popular sovereignty, freedom of opinion, the principle “everything that is not prohibited by law” and other democratic principles of revolutionary enlightenment, which have now become the requirements of law and current legislation. Article 1 of the Declaration read: "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights." Article 2 guaranteed "the natural and inalienable rights of man", which meant "freedom, property, security, and resistance to oppression." The “nation” was declared the source of supreme power (sovereignty), and the law was the expression of “universal will”.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Hike to Versailles

Louis XVI refused to sanction the Declaration and the decrees of 5-11 August. In Paris, the situation was tense. The harvest in 1789 was good, but the supply of grain to Paris did not increase. There were long lines at the bakeries.

At the same time, officers, nobles, knights of the Order of St. Louis flocked to Versailles. On October 1, the King's Life Guards held a banquet in honor of the newly arrived Flanders Regiment. The participants of the banquet, excited by wine and music, enthusiastically shouted: "Long live the king!" First, the Life Guards, and then other officers, tore off their tricolor cockades and trampled them underfoot, attaching the white and black cockades of the king and queen. In Paris, this caused a new explosion of fear of an "aristocratic conspiracy" and demands to move the king to Paris.

On the morning of October 5, huge crowds of women, who stood in vain all night in lines at bakeries, filled the Place Greve and surrounded the town hall (fr. Hôtel-de-Ville). Many believed that food would be better if the king was in Paris. Shouts were heard: “Bread! To Versailles! Then they hit the alarm. Around noon, 6-7 thousand people, mostly women, with rifles, pikes, pistols and two cannons moved to Versailles. A few hours later, by decision of the Commune, Lafayette led the National Guard to Versailles.

Around 11 p.m., the king announced his agreement to approve the Declaration of Rights and other decrees. However, during the night, a mob broke into the palace, killing two of the king's guards. Only the intervention of Lafayette prevented further bloodshed. On the advice of Lafayette, the King went out onto the balcony with the Queen and the Dauphin. The people greeted him with shouts: “King to Paris! King to Paris!

On October 6, a remarkable procession headed from Versailles to Paris. The National Guard went ahead; on the bayonets of the guards was stuck on the bread. Then came the women, some seated on cannons, others in carriages, others on foot, and finally the carriage with the royal family. The women danced and sang: “We are bringing a baker, a baker and a little baker!” Following the royal family, the National Assembly also moved to Paris.

Revolutionary-minded Parisians go to Versailles

Reconstruction of France

The Constituent Assembly set the course for the creation of a constitutional monarchy in France. By decrees of October 8 and 10, 1789, the traditional title of the French kings was changed: from "by the grace of God, the king of France and Navarre", Louis XVI became "by the grace of God and by virtue of the constitutional law of the state, the king of the French." The king remained head of state and executive power, but he could rule only on the basis of the law. Legislative power belonged to the National Assembly, which actually became the highest authority in the country. The king retained the right to appoint ministers. The king could no longer draw indefinitely from the state treasury. The right to declare war and make peace passed to the National Assembly. A decree of June 19, 1790, abolished the institution of hereditary nobility and all titles associated with it. It was forbidden to call oneself a marquis, count, etc. Citizens could only bear the surname of the head of the family.

The central administration was reorganized. The royal councils and secretaries of state disappeared. From now on, six ministers were appointed: internal affairs, justice, finance, foreign affairs, military, navy. Under the municipal law of December 14-22, 1789, the cities and provinces were granted the widest possible self-government. All local agents of the central government were abolished. The positions of quartermasters and their sub-delegates were abolished. By a decree of January 15, 1790, the Assembly established a new administrative structure for the country. The system of dividing France into provinces, governorships, generalites, bailages, seneschals ceased to exist. The country was divided into 83 departments, roughly equal in area. Departments were subdivided into districts (districts). The districts were divided into cantons. The lowest administrative unit was the commune (community). The communes of large cities were divided into sections (districts, sections). Paris was divided into 48 sections (instead of the previously existing 60 arrondissements).

The judicial reform was carried out on the same basis as the administrative reform. All the old judicial institutions, including parliaments, were liquidated. The sale of judicial posts, like any other, was cancelled. In every canton a magistrate's court was established, in every district a district court, in every major city of a department a criminal court. A single for the whole country Court of Cassation was also created, which had the right to annul the verdicts of courts of other instances and send cases for a new trial, and the National Supreme Court, whose competence was subject to offenses by ministers and senior officials, as well as crimes against the security of the state. Courts of all instances were elected (on the basis of a property qualification and other restrictions) and judged with the participation of a jury.

All privileges and other forms of state regulation of economic activity—shops, corporations, monopolies, and so on—were abolished. Customs inside the country were liquidated at the borders of various regions. Instead of numerous previous taxes, three new ones were introduced - on landed property, movable property and commercial and industrial activities. The Constituent Assembly placed "under the protection of the nation" a gigantic public debt. On October 10, Talleyrand proposed using church property to pay off the state debt, which was to be transferred to the disposal of the nation and sold. By decrees adopted in June-November 1790, it carried out the so-called "civil organization of the clergy", that is, it carried out a reform of the church, which deprived it of its former privileged position in society and turned the church into an organ of the state. Registration of births, deaths, marriages, which were transferred to state bodies, was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the church. Only civil marriage was recognized as legal. All church titles were abolished, except for the bishop and curé (parish priest). Bishops and parish priests were elected by electors, the former by departmental electors, the latter by parish electors. The confirmation of bishops by the pope (as the head of the universal Catholic Church) was canceled: from now on, the French bishops only informed the pope of their election. All clergy were required to take a special oath to the "civil system of the clergy" under threat of resignation.

The church reform caused a split among the French clergy. After the pope did not recognize the "civil organization" of the church in France, all French bishops, with the exception of 7, refused to take the civil oath. Their example was followed by about half of the lower clergy. A sharp struggle arose between the jury (fr. assermente), or constitutional, and the non-sworn (fr. refractaires) clergy, which greatly complicated the political situation in the country. In the future, "non-sworn" priests, who retained influence on significant masses of believers, become one of the most important forces of the counter-revolution.

By this time, there was a split among the deputies of the Constituent Assembly. On the wave of public support, the new left began to emerge: Pétion, Grégoire, Robespierre. In addition, clubs and organizations sprang up all over the country. In Paris, the club of Jacobins and Cordeliers became the centers of radicalism. The constitutionalists in the person of Mirabeau, and after his sudden death in April 1791, the "triumvirate" Barnave, Duport and Lamet believed that the events went beyond the principles of 1789 and sought to halt the development of the revolution by raising the electoral qualification, limiting the freedom of the press and the activity of clubs. To do this, they needed to remain in power and enjoy the full support of the king. Suddenly the ground opened up beneath them. Louis XVI fled.

Arrest of Louis XVI

Varenna Crisis

The king's escape attempt is one of the most important events of the revolution. Internally, this was a clear proof of the incompatibility of the monarchy and revolutionary France and destroyed the attempt to establish a constitutional monarchy. Outwardly, this accelerated the approach of a military conflict with monarchist Europe.

Around midnight on June 20, 1791, the king, disguised as a servant, tried to escape, but was recognized at the border in Varenna by a postal clerk on the night of June 21-22. The royal family was brought back to Paris on the evening of June 25 amid the dead silence of the Parisians and the national guards holding their guns pointing down.

The country took the news of the escape as a shock, as a declaration of war, in which its king is in the camp of the enemy. From this moment begins the radicalization of the revolution. Who, then, can be trusted if the king himself turned out to be a traitor? For the first time since the beginning of the Revolution, the press began to openly discuss the possibility of establishing a republic. However, the constitutionalist deputies, not wanting to deepen the crisis and question the fruits of almost two years of work on the Constitution, took the king under protection and declared that he had been kidnapped. The Cordeliers urged the townspeople to collect signatures on the Champ de Mars on July 17 demanding the abdication of the king. The city authorities banned the demonstration. Mayor Bailly and Lafayette arrived at the Champ de Mars with a detachment of the National Guard. The National Guard opened fire, killing several dozen people. This was the first split of the third estate itself.

On September 3, 1791, the National Assembly adopted the 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. The king swore allegiance to the new constitution and was restored to his functions, but not the confidence of the whole country in him.

Shooting on the Field of Mars

In Europe, the king's escape caused a strong emotional reaction. On August 27, 1791, the Austrian Emperor Leopold II and the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II signed the Declaration of Pillnitz, threatening revolutionary France with armed intervention. From that moment on, war seemed inevitable. As early as July 14, 1789, the emigration of the aristocracy began. The center of emigration was in Koblenz, very close to the French border. Military intervention was the last hope of the aristocracy. At the same time, the "revolutionary propaganda" of the left part of the Legislative Assembly began with the aim of delivering a decisive blow to monarchist Europe and canceling out any hopes of the court for restoration. The war, in the opinion of the Girondins, would bring them to power and put an end to the double game of the king. On April 20, 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared war on the King of Hungary and Bohemia.

Fall of the monarchy

The war started badly for the French troops. The French army was in a state of chaos and many officers, mostly nobles, emigrated or defected to the enemy. The generals blamed the indiscipline of the troops and the War Office. The Legislative Assembly passed the decrees necessary for national defense, including the establishment of a military camp for "federates" (French fédérés) near Paris. The king, hoping for the speedy arrival of Austrian troops, vetoed the decrees and removed the Gironde ministry.

On June 20, 1792, a demonstration was organized to put pressure on the king. In a palace filled with demonstrators, the king was forced to put on the Phrygian cap of sans-culottes and drink to the health of the nation, but refused to approve the decrees and return the ministers.

On August 1, news came of the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick with the threat of "military execution" of Paris in case of violence against the king. The manifesto had the opposite effect and aroused republican feelings and demands for the deposition of the king. After the entry into the war of Prussia (July 6), on July 11, 1792, the Legislative Assembly proclaims "The Fatherland is in danger" (fr. La patrie est en danger), but refuses to consider the demands for the deposition of the king.

On the night of August 9-10, an insurgent Commune was formed from representatives of 28 sections of Paris. On August 10, 1792, about 20 thousand national guards, federates and sans-culottes surrounded the royal palace. The assault was short-lived, but bloody. King Louis XVI took refuge with his family in the Legislative Assembly and was deposed. The Legislative Assembly voted to convene a National Convention on the basis of universal suffrage, which would decide on the future organization of the State.

At the end of August, the Prussian army launched an offensive against Paris and on September 2, 1792, took Verdun. The Paris Commune shut down the opposition press and began raiding the entire capital, arresting a number of unsworn priests, nobles and aristocrats. On August 11, the Legislative Assembly gave municipalities the power to arrest "suspects". Volunteers were preparing to leave for the front, and rumors quickly spread that their dispatch would be the signal for the prisoners to start an uprising. A wave of executions in prisons followed, later called the "September Murders", during which up to 2,000 people were killed, 1,100 - 1,400 in Paris alone.

First Republic

On September 21, 1792, the National Convention opened its meetings in Paris. On September 22, the Convention abolished the monarchy and proclaimed France a republic. Quantitatively, the Convention consisted of 160 Girondins, 200 Montagnards and 389 deputies of the Plain (fr. La Plaine ou le Marais), a total of 749 deputies. A third of the deputies participated in previous meetings and brought with them all the previous disagreements and conflicts.

On September 22, news of the Battle of Valmy arrived. The military situation changed: after Valmy, the Prussian troops retreated, and in November the French troops occupied the left bank of the Rhine. The Austrians besieging Lille were defeated by Dumouriez at the Battle of Jemappe on November 6 and evacuated the Austrian Netherlands. Nice was occupied, and Savoy proclaimed an alliance with France.

The leaders of the Gironde again return to revolutionary propaganda, declaring "peace to huts, war to palaces" (fr. paix aux chaumières, guerre aux châteaux). At the same time, the concept of "natural borders" of France with the border along the Rhine appears. The French offensive in Belgium threatened British interests in Holland, leading to the creation of the first coalition. A decisive break occurred after the execution of the king, and on March 7, France declared war on England, and then on Spain. In March 1793, the Vendée rebellion began. To save the revolution, on April 6, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was created, of which Danton became the most influential member.

Trial of the King in the Convention

Trial of Louis XVI

After the uprising on August 10, 1792, Louis XVI was deposed and placed under heavy guard in the Temple. The discovery of a secret safe in the Tuileries on November 20, 1792 made the trial of the king inevitable. The documents found in it, beyond any doubt, proved the betrayal of the king.

The trial began on December 10. Louis XVI was classified as an enemy and a "usurper" alien to the body of the nation. Voting began on January 14, 1793. The vote for the guilt of the king was unanimous. On the result of the vote, the President of the Convention, Vergniaud, announced: "In the name of the French people, the National Convention has declared Louis Capet guilty of an offense against the freedom of the nation and the general security of the state."

The vote on punishment began on January 16 and continued until the morning of the next day. Of the 721 deputies present, 387 were in favor of the death penalty. By order of the Convention, the entire National Guard of Paris was lined up on both sides of the road to the scaffold. On the morning of January 21, Louis XVI was beheaded in the Place de la Révolution.

Fall of the Gironde

The economic situation at the beginning of 1793 was getting worse and unrest began in large cities. The sectional activists of Paris began to demand the "maximum" for basic foodstuffs. The riots and agitation continue throughout the spring of 1793, and the Convention creates a Commission of the Twelve to investigate them, which included only the Girondins. By order of the commission, several sectional agitators were arrested and on May 25 the Commune demanded their release; at the same time, the general meetings of the sections of Paris drew up a list of 22 prominent Girondins and demanded their arrest. In the Convention, in response to this, Maximin Inard declared that Paris would be destroyed if the Parisian sections opposed the provincial deputies.

The Jacobins declared themselves in a state of insurrection, and on May 29 delegates representing thirty-three Parisian sections formed an insurgent committee. On June 2, 80,000 armed sans-culottes surrounded the Convention. After the deputies tried to leave in a demonstrative procession and, having come across armed national guards, the deputies submitted to pressure and announced the arrest of 29 leading Girondins.

The Federalist insurgency began before the 31 May-2 June uprising. In Lyon, the head of the local Jacobins, Challier, was arrested on May 29 and executed on July 16. Many Girondins fled from house arrest in Paris, and the news of the forced expulsion of Girondin deputies from the Convention provoked a protest movement in the provinces and engulfed the large cities of the south - Bordeaux, Marseille, Nimes. On July 13, Charlotte Corday killed the sans-culottes idol Jean-Paul Marat. She was in contact with the Girondins in Normandy and they are believed to have used her as their agent. In addition to all this, news came of an unprecedented betrayal: Toulon and the squadron stationed there were surrendered to the enemy.

jacobin convention

The Montagnards who came to power faced dramatic circumstances - a federalist rebellion, the war in the Vendée, military setbacks, and a worsening economic situation. Despite everything, a civil war could not be avoided. By the middle of June, about sixty departments were in more or less open revolt. Fortunately, the frontier regions of the country remained loyal to the Convention.

July and August were unimportant months on the frontiers. Mainz, the symbol of the previous year's victory, capitulated to the Prussian forces, while the Austrians captured the fortresses of Condé and Valenciennes and invaded northern France. Spanish troops crossed the Pyrenees and launched an attack on Perpignan. Piedmont took advantage of the uprising in Lyon and invaded France from the east. In Corsica, Paoli revolted and, with British help, drove the French from the island. English troops began the siege of Dunkirk in August and in October the Allies invaded Alsace. The military situation became desperate.

Throughout June, the Montagnards took a wait-and-see attitude, waiting for a reaction to the uprising in Paris. However, they did not forget about the peasants. The peasants made up the largest part of France and in such a situation it was important to satisfy their demands. It was to them that the uprising of May 31 (as well as July 14 and August 10) brought significant and permanent benefits. On June 3, laws were passed on the sale of property of emigrants in small parts with the condition of payment within 10 years; On June 10, an additional division of communal lands was proclaimed; and on July 17, a law abolishing seigneurial duties and feudal rights without any compensation.

The convention adopted a new constitution in the hope of shielding itself from the charge of dictatorship and appeasing the departments. The Declaration of Rights, which preceded the text of the Constitution, solemnly reaffirmed the indivisibility of the state and freedom of speech, equality, and the right to resist oppression. This went far beyond the Declaration of 1789, adding the right to social assistance, work, education, and rebellion. All political and social tyranny was abolished. National sovereignty was extended through the institution of a referendum - the Constitution had to be ratified by the people, as well as laws in certain, precisely defined circumstances. The constitution was submitted for universal ratification and passed by a huge majority of 1,801,918 in favor and 17,610 against. The results of the plebiscite were made public on August 10, 1793, but the application of the Constitution, the text of which was placed in the "sacred ark" in the meeting room of the Convention, was postponed until the conclusion of peace.

Marseillaise

revolutionary government

The convention updated the composition of the Committee of Public Safety (fr. Comité du salut public): Danton was expelled from it on July 10. Couton, Saint-Just, Jeanbon Saint-André, and Prieur of the Marne formed the core of the new committee. To them were added Barère and Lende, on July 27 Robespierre, and then on August 14 Carnot and Prieur from the Côte-d'Or department; Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenna - 6 September. First of all, the committee had to assert itself and choose those demands of the people that were most suitable for achieving the goals of the assembly: crush the enemies of the Republic and destroy the last hopes of the aristocracy for restoration. To govern in the name of the Convention and at the same time to control it, to keep the sans-culottes in check without dampening their enthusiasm - this was the necessary balance of a revolutionary government.

Under the double banner of price-fixing and terror, the pressure of the sans-culottes reached its peak in the summer of 1793. The crisis in the food supply remained the main cause of the sans-culottes' discontent; the leaders of the "madmen" demand that the Convention establish a "maximum". In August, a series of decrees gave the committee the power to control the circulation of grain, as well as harsh penalties for violating them. In each district, "repositories of abundance" were created. On August 23, the decree on mass mobilization (French levée en masse) declared the entire adult population of the republic "in a state of permanent requisition".

On September 5, the Parisians tried to repeat the uprising of June 2. The armed sections again surrounded the Convention, demanding the creation of an internal revolutionary army, the arrest of the "suspicious" and the purge of the committees. This was probably a key day in the formation of a revolutionary government: the Convention succumbed to pressure but retained control of events. This put terror on the agenda - September 5, the 9th the creation of a revolutionary army, the 11th - the decree on the "maximum" on bread (general control of prices and wages - September 29), the 14th the reorganization of the Revolutionary Tribunal, the 17th the "suspicious" law, and on the 20th a decree gave local revolutionary committees the task of compiling lists.

This sum of institutions, measures and procedures was enshrined in a decree of the 14th Frimer (December 4, 1793), which determined this gradual development of a centralized dictatorship based on terror. At the center was the Convention, whose executive power was the Committee of Public Safety, endowed with enormous powers: it interpreted the decrees of the Convention and determined the methods of their application; under his direct supervision were all state bodies and employees; he determined military and diplomatic activities, appointed generals and members of other committees, subject to ratification by the Convention. He was responsible for the conduct of the war, public order, provision and supply of the population. The Paris Commune, a famous bastion of the sans-culottes, was also neutralized by falling under his control.

The National Guard of Paris goes to the front

Victory organization

The blockade forced France into autarchy; in order to save the Republic, the government mobilized all productive forces and accepted the need for a controlled economy, which was introduced impromptu as the situation demanded. It was necessary to develop military production, revive foreign trade and find new resources in France itself, and time was short. Circumstances gradually forced the government to take charge of the economy of the whole country.

All material resources became the subject of requisition. Farmers handed over grain, fodder, wool, flax, hemp, and artisans and merchants handed over their products. Raw materials were carefully searched for - metal of all kinds, church bells, old paper, rags and parchment, herbs, brushwood and even ashes for the production of potash salts and chestnuts for their distillation. All enterprises were placed at the disposal of the nation - forests, mines, quarries, furnaces, forges, tanneries, paper and fabric factories, shoe-making workshops. Labor and the value of what was produced were subject to price regulation. No one had the right to speculate while the Fatherland was in danger. Armament was of great concern. Already in September 1793, an impetus was given to the creation of national manufactories for the military industry - the creation of a factory in Paris for the production of guns and personal weapons, the Grenelle gunpowder factory. A special treatment was made by scientists. Monge, Vandermonde, Berthollet, Darcet, Fourcroix improved metallurgy and weapons production. Experiments in aeronautics were carried out at Meudon. During the battle of Fleurus, the balloon was raised over the same places as in the future war of 1914. And nothing less than a “miracle” for contemporaries was the receipt by the Chappe semaphore in Montmartre within an hour of the news of the fall of Le Quenois, located 120 miles from Paris.

Summer recruitment (French: Levée en masse) was completed, and by July the total strength of the army had reached 650,000. The difficulties were enormous. Production for the needs of the war began only in September. The army was in a state of reorganization. In the spring of 1794, the "amalgam" system was undertaken, the merging of volunteer battalions with the army of the line. Two battalions of volunteers joined with one battalion of the army of the line, forming a semi-brigade or regiment. At the same time, unity of command and discipline was restored. The purge of the army excluded most of the nobles. In order to educate new officer cadres, the College of Mars (Fr. Ecole de Mars) was founded by decree on 13 Prairial (June 1, 1794) - each district sent six young men there. The commanders of the armies were approved by the Convention.

Gradually, a military command arose, incomparable in quality: Marceau, Gauche, Jourdan, Bonaparte, Kléber, Massena, as well as officers, excellent not only in military qualities, but also in a sense of civic responsibility.

Terror

Although the terror was organized in September 1793, it was not actually used until October, and only as a result of pressure from the sans-culottes. Large political processes began in October. Queen Marie Antoinette was guillotined on 16 October. By special decree, the protection of 21 Girondins was limited, and they died on the 31st, including Vergniaud and Brissot.

At the apex of the apparatus of terror was the Committee of Public Safety, the second organ of the state, composed of twelve members elected every month in accordance with the rules of the Convention, and endowed with the functions of public security, surveillance and police, both civil and military. He employed a large staff of officials, led a network of local revolutionary committees, and enforced the "suspect" law by sifting through thousands of local denunciations and arrests, which he then had to submit to the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Terror was applied to the enemies of the Republic wherever they were, was socially indiscriminate and directed politically. His victims belonged to all classes that hated the revolution or lived in those regions where the threat of rebellion was most serious. "The severity of repressive measures in the provinces" - writes Mathiez - "was in direct proportion to the danger of rebellion."

In the same way, the deputies sent by the Convention as "representatives in mission" (French: les représentants en mission) were armed with broad powers and acted according to the situation and their own temperament: in July, Robert Lendet pacified the Girondin uprising in the west without a single death sentence ; in Lyon, a few months later, Collot d'Herbois and Joseph Fouche relied on frequent summary executions, using mass shootings because the guillotine was not working fast enough.

Victory began to be determined in the autumn of 1793. The end of the federalist rebellion was marked by the capture of Lyon on October 9 and Toulon on December 19. On October 17, the Vendean uprising was crushed at Cholet and on December 14 at Le Mans after fierce street fighting. Cities along the borders were liberated. Dunkirk - after the victory at Ondschot (September 8), Maubeuge - after the victory at Wattigny (October 6), Landau - after the victory at Wissembourg (October 30). Kellermann pushed the Spaniards back to Bidasoa and Savoy was liberated. Gauche and Pichegru inflicted a series of defeats on the Prussians and Austrians in Alsace.

Faction fight

As early as September 1793, two wings could be clearly identified among the revolutionaries. One was what was later called the Hébertists—although Hébert himself was never a faction leader—and they preached war to the death, partly adopting the "lunatics" program favored by the sans-culottes. They agreed with the Montagnards, hoping through them to put pressure on the Convention. They dominated the Cordeliers club, filled the Bouchotte war ministry, and could drag the Commune with them. Another wing arose in response to the growing centralization of the revolutionary government and the dictatorship of the committees, the Dantonists; around the deputies of the Convention: Danton, Delacroix, Desmoulins, as the most prominent among them.

The religious conflict that had been going on since 1790 was the basis of the "de-Christianization" campaign undertaken by the Hebertists. The federalist rebellion intensified the counter-revolutionary agitation of the "unsworn" priests. The adoption by the Convention on October 5 of a new, revolutionary calendar, designed to replace the old one associated with Christianity, "ultras" was used as an excuse to launch a campaign against the Catholic faith. In Paris this movement was led by the Commune. Catholic churches were closed, priests were forced to renounce their priesthood, and Christian shrines were mocked. Instead of Catholicism, they tried to plant the "cult of Reason." The movement brought even more unrest in the departments and compromised the revolution in the eyes of a deeply religious country. The majority of the Convention reacted extremely negatively to this initiative and led to even greater polarization between the factions. In late November - early December, Robespierre and Danton strongly opposed the "de-Christianization", putting an end to it.

In prioritizing national defense over all other considerations, the Committee of Public Safety tried to maintain an intermediate position between modernism and extremism. The revolutionary government did not intend to give in to the Hebertists at the expense of revolutionary unity, while the demands of the moderates undermined the controlled economy necessary for warfare and the terror that ensured universal obedience. But at the end of the winter of 1793, food shortages took a sharp turn for the worse. The Hebertists began demanding crackdowns, and at first the Committee was conciliatory. The convention voted 10 million to alleviate the crisis, on 3 ventose Barère, on behalf of the public safety committee, introduced a new general “maximum” and on the 8th a decree on the confiscation of the property of “suspicious” and its distribution among the needy - ventose decrees (fr. Loi de ventôse an II) . The Cordeliers believed that if they increased the pressure, they would prevail once and for all. There were calls for an uprising, although this was probably as a new demonstration, as in September 1793.

But on 22 vantoses of the 2nd year (March 12, 1794), the Committee decided to put an end to the Hébertists. Foreigners Proly, Kloots and Pereira were added to Hebert, Ronsin, Vincent and Momoro in order to present them as participants in a "foreign conspiracy". All were executed on 4 Germinal (March 24, 1794). The Committee then turned to the Dantonists, some of whom were involved in financial fraud. April 5 Danton, Delacroix, Desmoulins, Filippo were executed.

The drama of Germinal completely changed the political situation. The sans-culottes were stunned by the execution of the Hébertists. All their positions of influence were lost: the revolutionary army was disbanded, the inspectors were dismissed, Bouchotte lost the war ministry, the Cordeliers club was suppressed and intimidated, and 39 revolutionary committees were closed under government pressure. The Commune was purged and filled with Committee nominees. With the execution of the Dantonists, the majority of the assembly was for the first time horrified by the government it had created.

The committee played the role of an intermediary between the meeting and the sections. By destroying the leaders of the sections, the committees broke with the sans-culottes, the source of the power of the government, whose pressure the Convention had so feared since the uprising of 31 May. Having destroyed the Dantonists, it sowed fear among the members of the assembly, which could easily turn into a riot. The government seemed to have the support of the majority of the assembly. It was wrong. Having freed the Convention from the pressure of sections, it remained at the mercy of the assembly. All that remained was an internal split in the government to destroy it.

Thermidorian coup

The main efforts of the government were aimed at military victory and the mobilization of all resources began to bear fruit. By the summer of 1794, the republic had created 14 armies and 8 Messidors. For 2 years (June 26, 1794), a decisive victory was won at Fleurus. Belgium was opened to French troops. On July 10, Pichegru occupied Brussels and linked up with the Sambre-Meuse army of Jourdan. Revolutionary expansion has begun. But the victories in the war began to question the meaning of the continuation of the terror.

The centralization of the revolutionary government, the terror and executions of opponents from the right and the left led the solution of all sorts of political differences into the field of conspiracies and intrigues. Centralization led to the concentration of revolutionary justice in Paris. Local representatives were recalled and many of them, such as Tallien in Bordeaux, Fouche in Lyon, Carrier in Nantes, felt under immediate threat for the excesses of terror in the province during the suppression of the federalist uprising and the war in the Vendée. Now these excesses seemed to be a compromise of the revolution, and Robespierre did not fail to express this, for example, Fouche. Disagreements intensified within the Committee of Public Safety, leading to a split in the government.

After the execution of the Hébertists and Dantonists and the celebration of the festival of the Supreme Being, the figure of Robespierre acquired an exaggerated importance in the eyes of revolutionary France. In turn, he did not take into account the sensitivity of his colleagues, which could seem like calculation or lust for power. In his last speech in the Convention, on 8 Thermidor, he accused his opponents of intrigue and brought the issue of schism to the judgment of the Convention. Robespierre was demanded that he give the names of the accused, however, he refused. This failure destroyed him, as the deputies suggested he was demanding carte blanche. That night an uneasy coalition was formed between the Radicals and the Moderates in the Assembly, between the deputies who were in immediate danger, the members of the committees, and the deputies of the plain. The next day, 9 Thermidor, Robespierre and his supporters were not allowed to speak, and an accusatory decree was issued against them.

The Paris Commune called for an uprising, released the arrested deputies and mobilized 2-3 thousand national guards. The night of 9-10 Thermidor was one of the most chaotic in Paris, with the Commune and the Convention competing for the support of the sections. The convention outlawed the rebels; Barras was given the task of mobilizing the armed forces of the Convention, and the sections of Paris, demoralized by the execution of the Hébertists and the economic policies of the Commune, supported the Convention after some hesitation. The national guardsmen and artillerymen, gathered by the Commune at the town hall, were left without instructions and dispersed. At about two o'clock in the morning, a column of the Gravilliers section, led by Leonard Bourdon, broke into the town hall (fr. Hôtel de Ville) and arrested the rebels.

On the evening of 10 Thermidor (July 28, 1794), Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couton and nineteen of their supporters were executed without trial or investigation. The following day, seventy-one functionaries of the insurgent Commune were executed, the largest mass execution in the history of the revolution.

Execution of Robespierre

Thermidorian reaction

The Committee of Public Safety was the executive power and, in the conditions of the war with the first coalition, the internal civil war, was endowed with broad prerogatives. The convention confirmed and elected its composition every month, ensuring the centralization and permanent composition of the executive branch. Now, after the military victories and the fall of the Robespierists, the Convention refused to confirm such broad powers, especially since the threat of uprisings from the sans-culottes had been eliminated. It was decided that no member of the steering committees should hold office for more than four months and that its composition should be renewed by a third monthly. The committee was limited only to the area of ​​warfare and diplomacy. There will now be a total of sixteen committees with equal rights. Realizing the danger of fragmentation, the Thermidorians, taught by experience, were even more afraid of the monopolization of power. Within a few weeks the revolutionary government was dismantled.

The weakening of power led to the weakening of terror, the subjugation of which ensured a nationwide mobilization. After the 9th Thermidor, the Jacobin Club was closed, and the surviving Girondins returned to the Convention. At the end of August, the Paris Commune was abolished and replaced by an "administrative police commission" (French commission administrative de police). In June 1795 the very word "revolutionary", the symbolic word of the entire Jacobin period, was banned. The Thermidorians abolished measures of state intervention in the economy, liquidated the "maximum" in December 1794. The result was a rise in prices, inflation, disruption of the food supply. The disasters of the lower classes and the middle class were opposed by the wealth of the nouveau riche: they feverishly profited, greedily used wealth, unceremoniously advertising it. In 1795, driven to starvation, the population of Paris twice raised uprisings (12 Germinal and 1 Prairial) demanding "bread and the constitution of 1793", but the Convention suppressed the uprisings with military force.

The Thermidorians destroyed the revolutionary government, but nevertheless reaped the benefits of national defense. In the autumn Holland was occupied and in January 1795 the Batavian Republic was proclaimed. At the same time, the collapse of the first coalition began. On April 5, 1795, the Treaty of Basel was concluded with Prussia and on July 22, peace with Spain. The republic now claimed the left bank of the Rhine as its "natural frontier" and annexed Belgium. Austria refused to recognize the Rhine as the eastern border of France and the war resumed.

On August 22, 1795, the Convention adopted a new constitution. Legislative power was entrusted to two chambers - the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders, a significant electoral qualification was introduced. Executive power was placed in the hands of the Directory - five directors elected by the Council of Elders from candidates presented by the Council of Five Hundred. Fearing that elections to new legislative councils would give a majority to the opponents of the Republic, the Convention decided that two-thirds of the "five hundred" and "elders" would be necessarily taken from the members of the Convention for the first time.

When this measure was announced, the royalists in Paris itself launched an uprising on the 13th Vendemière (October 5, 1795), in which the main part belonged to the central sections of the city, who believed that the Convention had violated the "sovereignty of the people." Most of the capital was in rebel hands; a central rebel committee was formed and the Convention was besieged. Barras attracted the young general Napoleon Bonaparte, a former Robespierre, as well as other generals - Carto, Brun, Loison, Dupont. Murat seized the cannons from the camp at Sablon, and the rebels, lacking artillery, were driven back and dispersed.

On October 26, 1795, the Convention dissolved itself, giving way to the councils of five hundred and elders and the Directory.

Directory

Having defeated their opponents on the right and on the left, the Thermidorians hoped to return to the principles of 1789 and give stability to the republic on the basis of a new constitution - "the middle between monarchy and anarchy" - in the words of Antoine Thibodeau. The Directory suffered a difficult economic and financial situation, exacerbated by the ongoing war on the continent. Events since 1789 have split the country politically, ideologically and religiously. Excluding the people and the aristocracy, the regime depended on a narrow circle of electors, provided by the qualification of the constitution of the III year, and they moved more and more to the right.

An attempt at stabilization

In the winter of 1795 the economic crisis reached its peak. Paper money was printed every night for use the next day. On 30 Pluviosis IV (February 19, 1796), the issue of banknotes was discontinued. The government decided to return to specie again. The result was a waste of most of the remaining national wealth in the interests of speculators. In the countryside, banditry has spread so much that even the mobile columns of the National Guard and the threat of the death penalty did not lead to an improvement. In Paris, many would have died of starvation if the Directory had not continued the distribution of food.

This led to the renewal of the Jacobin agitation. But this time, the Jacobins resorted to conspiracies and Gracchus Babeuf leads the "secret insurgent directory" of the Conjuration of Equals (fr. Conjuration des Égaux). In the winter of 1795-96, an alliance of former Jacobins was formed with the aim of overthrowing the Directory. The movement "for equality" was organized in a series of concentric levels; an internal rebel committee was formed. The plan was original and the poverty of the Parisian suburbs horrendous, but the sans-culottes, demoralized and intimidated after the Prairial, did not respond to the calls of the Babouvists. The conspirators were betrayed by a police spy. One hundred and thirty-one people were arrested and thirty were shot on the spot; Babeuf's associates were brought to trial; Babeuf and Darte were guillotined a year later.

The war on the continent continued. The republic was not in a position to strike at England, it remained to break Austria. On April 9, 1796, General Bonaparte led his army into Italy. A dazzling campaign was followed by a series of victories - Lodi (May 10, 1796), Castiglione (August 15), Arcole (November 15-17), Rivoli (January 14, 1797). On October 17, peace was concluded with Austria at Campo Formio, ending the war of the first coalition, from which France emerged victorious, although Great Britain continued to fight.

According to the constitution, the first election of a third of the deputies, including the "eternal" ones, in the germinal of the fifth year (March-April 1797), proved to be a success for the monarchists. The Republican majority of Thermidorians disappeared. In the councils of five hundred and elders, the majority belonged to the opponents of the Directory. The right in the soviets decided to emasculate the power of the Directory by depriving it of its financial powers. In the absence of instructions in the Constitution of the III year on the issue of the emergence of such a conflict, the Directory, with the support of Bonaparte and Gauche, decided to resort to force. On 18 Fructidor V (September 4, 1797), Paris was placed under martial law. The Decree of the Directory declared that all who called for the restoration of the monarchy would be shot on the spot. In 49 departments, the elections were annulled, 177 deputies were deprived of their powers, and 65 were sentenced to "dry guillotine" - deportation to Guiana. Emigrants who returned voluntarily were asked to leave France within two weeks under threat of death.

Crisis of 1799

The coup of the 18th fructidor is a turning point in the history of the regime established by the Thermidorians - it put an end to the constitutional and liberal experiment. A crushing blow was dealt to the monarchists, but at the same time, the influence of the army was greatly increased.

After the Treaty of Campo Formio, only Great Britain opposed France. Instead of focusing on the remaining enemy and maintaining peace on the continent, the Directory began a policy of continental expansion that destroyed all possibilities of stabilization in Europe. The Egyptian campaign followed, which added to the glory of Bonaparte. France surrounded itself with "daughter" republics, satellites, politically dependent and economically exploited: the Batavian Republic, the Helvetic Republic in Switzerland, the Cisalpine, Roman and Partenopean (Naples) in Italy.

In the spring of 1799 the war becomes general. The second coalition united Britain, Austria, Naples and Sweden. The Egyptian campaign brought Turkey and Russia into its ranks. Hostilities began for the Directory extremely unsuccessfully. Soon Italy and part of Switzerland were lost and the republic had to defend its "natural borders". As in 1792-93. France was in danger of being invaded. The danger awakened the national energy and the last revolutionary effort. On the 30th Prairial of Year 7 (June 18, 1799), the councils re-elected the members of the Directory, bringing the "real" Republicans to power, and passed measures somewhat reminiscent of those of Year II. At the suggestion of General Jourdan, a conscription of five ages was announced. A forced loan of 100 million francs was introduced. On July 12, a law was passed on hostages from among the former nobles.

Military failures led to royalist uprisings in the south and the resumption of civil war in the Vendée. At the same time, the fear of the return of the shadow of Jacobinism led to the decision to do away once and for all with the possibility of a repetition of the times of the Republic of 1793.

General Bonaparte in the Council of Five Hundred

18 brumaire

By this time the military situation had changed. The very success of the coalition in Italy led to a change in plans. It was decided to transfer Austrian troops from Switzerland to Belgium and replace them with Russian troops with the aim of invading France. The transfer was so badly done that it allowed the French troops to re-occupy Switzerland and break the opponents piece by piece.

In this unsettling environment, the Brumérians are planning another, more decisive coup. Once again, as in fructidor, an army must be called in to purge the assembly. The conspirators needed a "saber". They turned to the Republican generals. First choice, General Joubert was killed at Novi. At that moment the news came that Bonaparte had arrived in France. From Fréjus to Paris, Bonaparte was hailed as a savior. Arriving in Paris on October 16, 1799, he immediately found himself at the center of political intrigue. The Brumerians turned to him as someone who suited them well for his popularity, military reputation, ambition, and even his Jacobin background.

Playing on the fears of a "terrorist" conspiracy, the Brumérians persuaded the councils to meet on November 10, 1799 in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud; to suppress the "conspiracy" Bonaparte was appointed commander of the 17th division, located in the Department of the Seine. Two directors, Sieyès and Ducos, themselves conspirators, resigned, and the third, Barras, was forced to resign. In Saint-Cloud, Napoleon announced to the Council of Elders that the Directory had dissolved itself and that a commission had been set up for a new constitution. The Council of Five Hundred was difficult to convince so easily, and when Bonaparte entered the chamber uninvited, there were cries of "Outlaw!" Napoleon lost his temper, but his brother Lucien saved the day by calling the guards into the meeting room. The Council of Five Hundred was expelled from the chamber, the Directory dissolved, and all powers were assigned to a provisional government of three consuls - Sieyes, Roger Ducos and Bonaparte.

The rumors that came from Saint-Cloud on the evening of the 19th Brumaire did not surprise Paris at all. Military failures that could only be dealt with at the last moment, the economic crisis, the return of civil war - all this spoke of the failure of the entire period of stabilization under the Directory.

The coup of 18 Brumaire is considered the end of the French Revolution.

The results of the revolution

The revolution led to the collapse of the old order and the establishment in France of a new, more "democratic and progressive" society. However, speaking about the goals achieved and the victims of the revolution, many historians tend to conclude that the same goals could have been achieved without such a huge number of victims. As the American historian R. Palmer points out, the point of view is widespread that “half a century after 1789 ... the conditions in France would have been the same even if no revolution had occurred.” Alexis Tocqueville wrote that the collapse of the Old Order would have occurred without any revolution, but only gradually. Pierre Hubert noted that many remnants of the Old Order remained after the revolution and flourished again under the rule of the Bourbons, which was established from 1815.

At the same time, a number of authors point out that the revolution brought liberation from heavy oppression to the people of France, 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 acuteness 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.

Historiography

Character

Marxist historians (as well as a number of non-Marxist ones) argue that the Great French Revolution was “bourgeois” in nature, consisted in the replacement of the feudal system by the capitalist one, and the leading role in this process was played by the “bourgeoisie class”, which overthrew the “feudal aristocracy” during the revolution. Many historians disagree, pointing out that:

1. Feudalism in France disappeared a few centuries before the revolution. At the same time, it should be noted that the absence of "feudalism" is not an argument against the "bourgeois" character of the Great French Revolution. With the corresponding absence of "feudalism" of the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. were bourgeois in character;

2. Capitalism in France was sufficiently developed even before the revolution, and industry was well developed. At the same time, during the years of the revolution, the industry fell into a severe decline - i.e. instead of giving impetus to the development of capitalism, the revolution actually retarded its development.

3. The French aristocracy actually included not only large landowners, but also large capitalists. Supporters of this view do not see the division of estates in the France of Louis XVI. The abolition of all estate privileges, including taxation, was the essence of the conflict between the estates in the Estates General in 1789 and was enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Meanwhile, as R. Mandru points out, the bourgeoisie for many decades preceding the revolution bought aristocratic titles (which were officially sold), which led to the washing out of the old hereditary aristocracy; for example, in the Parlement of Paris in the 18th century, out of 590 of its members, only 6% belonged to the descendants of the old aristocracy that existed before 1500, and 94% of the members of parliament belonged to families who received a title of nobility during the 16th-18th centuries. This "washing out" of the old aristocracy is evidence of the rising influence of the bourgeoisie. It only remained to formalize it politically; however, this required the expulsion from the country or the physical destruction of that part of the bourgeoisie that had previously become part of the aristocracy and, in fact, constituted the majority of the latter.

4. It was the French aristocracy that imposed capitalist (market) relations during the 25-30 years preceding 1789; "Again, however, there are serious flaws in such an argument." writes Lewis Gwine. “It must be remembered that the aristocracy owned most of the land, under which there were coal, iron ore and other mineral deposits; their participation is often seen as just another way to increase the income from their land holdings. Only an aristocratic minority managed industrial enterprises directly. Recent studies show a difference in "economic behavior". While the "bourgeois" of the third estate invested huge sums in mines, for example, concentrated production in a few main places, introduced new methods of coal mining, the aristocrat, having "feudal" control over the land where the most productive mines were located, worked through his agents and managers who constantly advised him not to involve himself too deeply in modern industrial enterprise (les entreprises en grand). Ownership here, in terms of land or shares, is not the key issue; it is more a question of "how" investments, technical innovations and "management" of industrial enterprises took place.

5. at the end of the existence of the Old Order and further during the revolution, there were mass uprisings of peasants and townspeople against the methods of economic liberalism (free trade) used in France, against large private enterprises in cities (at the same time, workers and sans-culottes, representing part of the then bourgeoisie); and against enclosures, the construction of irrigation systems and modernization in the village.

6. In the course of the revolution, it was not at all the "bourgeoisie" that Marxist historians mean - by no means merchants, entrepreneurs and financiers, but mostly officials and representatives of free professions, which is recognized by a number of "neutral" historians.

Among non-Marxist historians, there are different views on the nature of the French Revolution. The traditional view that arose in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries. (Sieyes, Barnave, Guizot) and supported by some modern historians (P. Huber), 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 that was associated with 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, the revolution as a whole (A. Kobben) or in terms of the main character of the protest movements (V. Tomsinov, B. Moore, F. Furet) was of an anti-capitalist nature, or was an explosion of mass protest against the spread of free market relations and large enterprises (I. Wallerstein, W. Huneke, A. Milward, S. Saul).According to G. Rude, this is a representation of radical and left-radical views.At the same time, the Marxist view of the French Revolution is widespread among left-wing politicians such as Louis Blanc, Karl Marx, Jean Jaures, Pyotr Kropotkin, who developed this view in their writings.Thus, one of the authors adjoining the Marxist trend, Daniel Guerin, a French anarchist, in "La lutte des classes sous la Première République, 1793-1797" expressed the neo-Trotskyist view - "The French revolution had a dual character, bourgeois and permanent, and carried in itself the rudiments of a proletarian revolution", "anti-capitalist" - summarizes the views of Guerin Wallerstein[, and adds that "Guerin managed to unite both Sobul and Furet against himself", i.e. representatives of both the "classical" and "revisionist" trends - "They both reject such an" implicit "(implicit) representation of history," writes Wallerstein. At the same time, among the supporters of the "anti-Marxist" view, there are mainly professional historians and sociologists (A. Cobben, B. Moore, F. Furet, A. Milward, S. Saul, I. Wallerstein, V. Tomsinov). F. Furet, D. Riche, A. Milvard, S. Saul believe that, by its nature or reasons, the Great French Revolution had much in common with the 1917 revolution in Russia.

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, which led to a change in the political system, but did not lead to significant changes in social and economic system. There is a view of the revolution as an explosion of social antagonism between the poor and the rich.

Songs of Revolutionary France

"Marseillaise"

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. Guérin, 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, church tithes, privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations and declared 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 abolished, 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, primarily 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 liberation from heavy oppression to the people of France, 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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• Miniet F. History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814. M., 2006.
• Olar A. Political history of the French Revolution. M., 1938. Part 1, Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
• The first explosion of the French Revolution. From the reports of the Russian envoy in Paris I. M. Simolin to Vice-Chancellor A. I. Osterman// Russian archive, 1875. - Prince. 2. - Issue. 8. - S. 410-413.
• Popov Yu.V. Publicists of the French Revolution. M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2001.
• Revunenkov V. G. Essays on the history of the French Revolution. L., 1989.
• Revunenkov V. G. Parisian sans-culottes of the French Revolution. L., 1971.
• Sobul A. From the history of the Great Bourgeois Revolution of 1789-1794. and the revolution of 1848 in France. M., 1960.
• Sobul A. The problem of the nation in the course of the social struggle during the French bourgeois revolution of the 18th century. New and Modern History, 1963, No. 6. P.43-58.
• Tarle E.V. Working class in France during the Revolution
• Tocqueville A. Old order and revolution. Per. from fr. M. Fedorova. M.: Mosk. philosophical fund, 1997.
• Tyrsenko A.V. Feuillants: at the origins of French liberalism. M., 1993.
• Frikadel G.S. Danton. M. 1965.
• Yure F. Comprehension of the French Revolution. SPb., 1998.
• Hobsbaum E. Echo of the Marseillaise. M., "Inter-Verso", 1991.
• Chudinov A.V. The French Revolution: History and Myths. M.: Nauka, 2006.
• Chudinov A.V. Scholars and the French Revolution

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

The great French bourgeois revolution of 1789-1794, in contrast to the more local, bourgeois revolutions in England and Holland, which happened almost a century and a half earlier, shook the foundations of the world, because it took place in the largest, most authoritative and most culturally developed state of Christian civilization and contributed to the final victory of the new socio-economic formation - capitalism - over the old - feudalism

The Great French Revolution is truly popular. All sections of French society took part in it: the urban mob, artisans, intelligentsia, petty and big bourgeoisie, peasants

Causes of the French Revolution

objective

• The inconsistency of the capitalist way of doing business with the feudal order
  - internal customs fees
  - guild organization of handicrafts
  - a variety of systems of measures and weights: each province has its own
  - restriction on the sale of land
  - protectionism
  - arbitrariness of the authorities
• obscurantism of the church

subjective

• flashy luxury of the aristocracy against the backdrop of popular poverty
• unresolved peasant question
• loss of royal authority:
  - uncharismatic king
  - extravagance, stupidity of the queen
  - "The Case of the Necklace"
• mediocre personnel policy: capable administrators Turgot, Necker, Calonne were not allowed to implement economic reforms
• unsuccessful trade treaty with England in 1786, which reduced duties on English goods, and thereby caused
• production cuts and unemployment in France
• crop failure in 1788, which led to a rise in the price of products
• an example of the revolutionary struggle for the independence of the North American states and the "Declaration of Independence" proclaimed by the US Congress
• the activities of the so-called "philosophers-enlighteners", whose philosophical, economic treatises, works of art, pamphlets denounced the existing order, called for their change
  - Montesquieu (1689-1755)
  - Voltaire (1694-1778)
  - Quesnay (1694-1774)
  - Diderot (1713-1784)
  - Helvetius (1715-1771)
  - La Mettrie (1709-1751)
  - Rousseau (1712-1778)
  - Mably (1709-1785)
  - Raynal (1713-1796)

In 1789, Abbé Sieyès' pamphlet What is the Third Estate? To the question "What is the third estate?" he answered "Everything", to the question "What has it been until now in political life?" followed by the answer "Nothing". "What does it require?" "Become something." The author argued that the third estate is "the whole nation, but being in chains and under oppression." The brochure had a huge resonance among the people

In the late 1780s, France's economic situation worsened. The public debt reached 4.5 billion livres. Getting new loans became impossible. In 1787, the king convened a meeting of the so-called notables - appointed representatives of the three estates - to approve new taxes, including on the aristocracy. But the notables rejected the proposal. The king had to convene the Estates General - the highest estate-representative institution, which had not met since 1614.

course of the French Revolution. Briefly

• 1789, May 5 - Convocation of the Estates General
• 1789, June 17 - The transformation of the States General into the National Constituent Assembly
• 1789, July 14 - Parisian uprising. Storming of the Bastille
• 1789, August 4 - Elimination of absolutism. Approval of the constitutional monarchy
• 1789, August 24 - Approval by the Constituent Assembly of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
  Article 1 of the Declaration read: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be based on common good." Article 2 stated: “The aim of every political union is the preservation of the natural and inalienable rights of man. These rights are: liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” Article 3 declared that the source of all sovereignty "is in the nation." Article 6 stated that "the law is the expression of the general will", that all citizens are equal before the law and "should be equally admitted to all occupations, places and public offices". Articles 7, 9, 10, 11 affirmed freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and the press. Article 15 proclaimed the right of citizens to demand an account from every official. The last article 17 declared that "property is an inviolable and sacred right"
• 1789, June - Creation of the Jacobin Club and in 1790 - the Cordillera Club
• 1791, September 3 - Approval by the king of the constitution, developed back in 1789
• 1791, October 1 - Opening of the National Legislative Assembly
• 1789-1792 - Unrest throughout the country: peasant uprisings, riots, counter-revolutionary conspiracies - some were not satisfied with the half-heartedness of reforms, others - their radicalism. The threat of intervention by European monarchies seeking to return the throne to the Bourbons
• 1792, February 7 - Creation of an anti-French coalition of Austria and Prussia.
• 1792, July 11 - Announcement by the Legislative Assembly "The Fatherland is in danger." Beginning of revolutionary wars
• 1792, August 10 - Another Parisian popular uprising. The overthrow of the monarchy. "Marseillaise"

"La Marseillaise", which became the anthem first of the French Revolution, and then of France, was written in Strasbourg in June 1791 by the officer Rouger de Lille. It was called "The Song of the Army of the Rhine". It was brought to Paris by a battalion of federates from Marseille, who took part in the overthrow of the monarchy.

• 1792, August 25 - The Legislative Assembly partially abolished feudal duties
• 1892, September 20 - the victory of the revolutionary troops over the Prussian army at Valmy
• 1792, September 22 - Introduction of a new calendar. 1789 was called the First Year of Liberty. The republican calendar officially began to operate from 1 vendémière II year of freedom
• 1792, October 6 - the victory of the revolutionary troops over the Austrian army, the annexation of Savoy, Nice, the left bank of the Rhine, part of Belgium to France
• September 22, 1792 - France declared a republic

Slogans of the French Revolution

- Freedom equality Brotherhood
- Peace to huts - war to palaces

• 1793, January 21 - the execution of King Louis XVI
• 1793, February 1 - declaration of war on England
• 1793, spring - the defeat of the French troops in battles with the armies of the coalition, the deterioration of the economic situation of the people
• 1793, April 6 - the Committee of Public Safety was created, headed by Danton
• 1793, June 2 - Jacobins came to power
• 1793, June 24 - The Jacobin Convention adopted a new constitution, preceded by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Equality, freedom, security, property were declared natural human rights. Provided for freedom of speech, press, general education, religious worship, the creation of popular societies, the inviolability of private property, freedom of entrepreneurship. The will of the people was declared the source of supreme power. Proclaimed the right of the people to revolt against oppression

• 1793, July 17 - Decree on the complete and gratuitous abolition of all feudal payments and duties
• 1793, July 27 - Robespierre entered the Committee of Public Salvation re-elected on June 10
• 1793, end of July - The invasion of the troops of the anti-French coalition into France, the occupation of Toulon by the British
• 1793, August 1 - Introduction of the metric system of measures
• 1793, August 23 - Mobilization. All single men from 18 to 25 years old were subject to the draft.
• 1793, September 5 - A huge demonstration of the Parisian lower classes demanding "put terror on the agenda"
• 1793, September 17 - A law on suspicious persons was adopted, according to which all persons who did not have a civil certificate (aristocrats, relatives of emigrants, and others) were subject to arrest.
• 1793, September 22 - The Republican calendar officially came into effect
• October 10, 1793 - The Committee of Public Safety demanded emergency powers and proclaimed itself a revolutionary government.
• 1793, October 16 - Execution of Queen Marie Antoinette
• 1793, December 18 - decree on compulsory free primary education
• 1793, December 18 - Revolutionary troops liberated Toulon. Napoleon took part in the battle as an artillery captain
• 1794, January - The territory of France is cleared of coalition troops
• 1794, May 7 - Decree on the "New Cult", the introduction of a new moral cult of the "Supreme Being"
• 1794, June 10 - Decree on the simplification of legal proceedings, the abolition of preliminary interrogation, the abolition of defense in cases of the revolutionary tribunal.

• July 27, 1794 - Thermidorian coup, which returned the big bourgeoisie to power. The French Revolution is over
• 1794, July 28 - Jacobin leaders Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, 22 more people became victims of terror
• 1794, July 29 - Another 70 members of the Commune of Paris were executed

Significance of the French Revolution

• Hastened the development of capitalism and the collapse of feudalism
• Influenced the entire subsequent struggle of peoples for the principles of democracy
• Became a lesson, an example and a warning to the reformers of life in other countries
• Contributed to the development of national self-consciousness of European peoples