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Causes of the Revolution

p In the summer of 1788 there was a particularly bad harvest, after the crops had been ruined in many areas, and this was followed by an unusually hard winter. Peasant uprisings broke out in a number of provinces in the autumn and winter of that year, continuing into 1789. The peasants, driven to desperation by hunger and poverty, broke open granaries, shared out the corn, and forced grain dealers to sell them grain at prices they could afford or at "honest prices”. The bread shortage also caused widespread unrest in the towns. The authorities quelled the uprisings by force, but they kept on breaking out first in one place, then in another.

p What was afoot? Why was France in the grip of such widespread popular strife? After all, it was not the first time the people had been inflicted by bad harvests and natural calamities. Yet previously the authorities had been able to curb popular discontent; in 1788 and 1789 they were not.

p The years 1787-1789 were also marked by an industrial and commercial crisis. Many peasants who had been supplementing their earnings by working at manufactories during the winter or going to the towns to take temporary building or other work were now deprived of these opportunities. The towns and highways were thronged with paupers and tramps.

p Similar setbacks in the manufactories, construction work and trade had occurred before, so why was it that in 1788-1789 a spirit of unrest reigned throughout the land and there was constant talk of the need and indeed imminence of stupendous change?

p Neither the critical situation in industry and commerce, nor the bad harvest of 1788 were the main reasons behind the 352 revolutionary crisis which developed in France at this period. They only served to spark off a crisis which had been a long time in the making. The basic causes of this revolutionary situation had much deeper roots.

p The most important factor which gave rise to nation-wide discontent with the existing order was the fact that the prevailing feudal absolutist social patterns were no longer compatible with the country’s economic, social and political stage of development.

p Approximately 99 per cent of the French population was made up of the so-called third estate while the privileged classes, consisting of the nobility and the clergy, made up the remaining one per cent. Yet it was these numerically insignificant privileged classes that held sway throughout the land. They took no part in production, living off the peasants and lining their pockets from the Exchequer and constituted the main source of support for the monarch.

p The third estate did not represent a homogeneous class. It included both the economically powerful bourgeoisie with aspirations to political power and the peasantry which made up the vast bulk of the population, the hard-pressed slaves of feudal exploitation harassed by endless requisitions which served to line the pockets of the landowners, the clergy and the monarchy. Finally there were the town poor—the impoverished workers and craftsmen deprived of any rights and leading a wretched existence. The interests and goals of these various classes did not coincide in all respects, yet they all had one thing in common which served to rally together representatives of the different classes in their opposition to the privileged classes—namely their complete lack of political rights and their desire to change the existing order. Neither the bourgeoisie, nor the peasantry, nor the urban proletariat was prepared to remain reconciled to the rule of the absolutist monarchs and to feudal social patterns. The existing social structure was incompatible with their class interests and the country’s economic development.

Whether the members of the third estate were aware of it or not, the next step forward in their country’s historical development was at hand, namely the transition from feudalism to capitalism, which at that period represented a more progressive form of society. In the final analysis, it was this transition that all the acute class contradictions of the time were leading up to. It was because these contradictions were so profound and such an inextricable part of the existing social structure that the authorities were not in a position to put an end to or even curb the mounting tide of popular unrest, and revolution in France became historically inevitable.

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The Convocation of the States-General

p While the popular masses of city and countryside were making it clear that they were unable and unwilling to live as they had in the past, the country’s leaders—the monarch and the privileged estates—also showed that they were unable to rule the country as they had hitherto.

p The desperate plight of the state treasury resulting from the exorbitant expenditure indulged in by the court and the first two estates, gave rise to an acute financial crisis. The monarchy now found itself without the wherewithal to meet its immediate needs. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to improve the situation the King found himself obliged to summon the States-General—the assembly of representatives of the three estates—which had not been convened in France for 175 years.

p Against a background of growing popular discontent in many areas of the country in the spring of 1789 and widespread social unrest the States-General at Versailles was opened on May 5th. King Louis XVI and his entourage hoped that with the help of the States-General they would be able to regain public confidence, quell the unrest and obtain the necessary funds to fill the state coffers. The third estate meanwhile hoped for quite different things from the States-General. It saw in its convocation a hope of major political changes in the country.

p From the very outset there was a clash of views in the StatesGeneral between the third estate and the privileged classes over the conduct of the session and the voting procedure. On June 17th the representatives of the third estate declared themselves a National Assembly, inviting the representatives of the other estates to join it in this venture. After this bold resolution the National Assembly became the supreme representative and legislative organ of the French people. However, the King, supported by the nobility, refused to acknowledge this step. On June 20th he gave orders for the entrance to the palace where the Assembly was in progress to be locked. But the deputies to the National Assembly were not prepared to obey the monarch’s orders. They found an almost empty, spacious room which had formerly been used as a tennis court, and reopened their Assembly there, encouraged to hold out by the cheering crowds of the common people.

At that memorable meeting in the tennis court on June 20th the deputies to the National Assembly solemnly swore that they would not disperse or on any account interrupt their work until a constitution had been drawn up and ratified.

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The Storming of the Bastille

p On July 9th the National Assembly proclaimed itself a Constituent Assembly, thus underlining its duty to introduce a new social order and draw up its constitutional foundation. The King, against his better judgement, was obliged to accept this resolution of the National Assembly, with which in reality he had no wish to reconcile himself. Troops loyal to the King started rallying in Versailles and Paris, while the people and the deputies followed with alarm the actions of the King and his supporters, interpreting them rightly enough as a threat to the National Assembly. When on July 12th it was made public that the King had dismissed Necker, reputed to be the only champion of reform in the government, and the people also learnt that troops were being concentrated in Paris they saw in this news proof of a decision of the counter-revolutionary forces to embark on an offensive.

p The streets and squares of the city were soon seething with people. Skirmishes with the King’s troops broke out in various places and the shots that rang out served to fan popular indignation. The people of Paris spontaneously rose to battle.

p Early on the morning of Julv 13th the alarm was sounded and the Paris poor came out into the streets armed with axes, pistols and cobble-stones. The advance of the insurgents led the troops to abandon one district after another and the insurgent army grew from hour to hour. The people soon captured the arms shops and military arsenals and seized tens of thousands of guns.

p By the morning of July 14th most of the capital was already in the hands of the insurgents but the eight towers of the fortified Bastille prison still loomed imperturbable over the city. The revolutionary ardour which had seized hold of the people led them on to storm this formidable fortress. To capture the Bastille with its moats, drawbridges, large garrison and cannon seemed an impossible task. Yet for the people in revolt there was nothing impossible. The artillerymen who came over to their side opened fire and broke the chains of one of the drawbridges. The people marched bravely forward and soon broke their way in. The commander of the garrison was killed and his men surrendered. The Bastille had fallen.

p The capture of the Bastille on July 14th was a great triumph of the people in revolt. This momentous date marked the beginning of the French Revolution. From that day onwards the decisive revolutionary force, the people, entered battle with their former masters, and it was their role in the ensuing months that made victory possible.

p The King was obliged to step down in face of this great wave of popular fury and on July 17th together with Constituent 355 Assembly members he came to Paris to give formal recognition to this revolutionary triumph. Events in Paris were followed by revolutionary outbreaks in cities throughout France. All over the country, government officials were deprived of their former offices and new city councils were elected. A revolutionary army came into being—the National Guard.

The peasantry took up arms as well. After hearing of the storming of the Bastille they broke their way into the residences of their hated masters and destroyed them. In some areas the peasants seized their masters’ fields and woods and divided them up among themselves. There were frequent cases of refusal to pay taxes and perform the customary labour services. Peasant uprisings and violence in protest against the exploitation and oppression to which their noble masters subjected them were to spread over the length and breadth of France.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man

p The initial victories of the revolution were so remarkable and the first decisive blows against the absolute monarchy were dealt out so effectively because the whole of the third estate—that is 356 both the people and the bourgeoisie that led it—at this stage were united and pursuing common aims. The bourgeoisie was a young and progressive element intent on combating feudal absolutism. It did not yet fear the people and marched forward with it shoulder to shoulder.

p This unity and the tremendous wave of revolutionary fervour that gripped the whole nation was reflected in "The Declaration of the Rights of Man" (de I’homme et du citoyeri) which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on August 26, 1789. This momentous document was to lay down the fundamental principles of the new social order ushered in by the Revolution.

p The Declaration consisted of 17 articles, the first of which proclaimed: "Men are born free and entitled to equal rights and remain so throughout their lives.” In an era when in the majority of countries throughout the world feudal absolutism was still the order of the day and all those who did not belong to the nobility or the Church were deprived of any rights whatsoever, when serfdom and slavery were common practices, this proclamation of freedom and equal rights was stunningly revolutionary.

p The Declaration of the Rights also proclaimed such hallowed and inalienable rights of the individual citizen as personal freedom, freedom of speech and conscience, inviolability of person and the need to resist all forms of oppression. The right to private property was also proclaimed as another of these hallowed and inalienable rights, which showed not merely that bourgeois and peasant property were being protected from infringements on the part of landowners (in this lay its progressive aspect) but also testified to an attempt to perpetuate the right for all time. This pointed to the bourgeois limitations of the Declaration, since it meant that the freedom it proclaimed was of a purely formal variety, as it perpetuated inequality based on property.

Nevertheless, taken all in all the Declaration of the Rights represented a document of tremendous revolutionary significance. The famous slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" taken from its pages was to resound throughout the world sounding the knell of feudal reaction and absolutism.

The Wealthy Bourgeois Come to Power

p However, the fruits of victory were not to be enjoyed by the whole of the third estate or even the whole of the bourgeoisie. Power was soon virtually in the hands of the big bourgeoisie or the "bourgeois aristocracy" as it came to be called. In the Constituent Assembly, in the Paris and provincial city councils and the National Guard the decisive voice was soon to become that 357 of the richest and economically most powerful section of the bourgeoisie.

p Count Honore de Mirabeau, a gifted parliamentary orator, was a political leader who was prepared to go to any lengths to accomplish his ends: in his speeches he subjected the absolutist state to withering criticism and in the early days was one of the most authoritative political leaders in the Constituent Assembly, although later he engaged in secret dealings with the court. It was the Marquis de La Fayette, a rich noble who had made a name for himself during the American War of Independence, who took command of the National Guard, which consisted in the main of bourgeois elements. All those who wished to join it had to come complete with an expensive dress uniform quite beyond the means of the poor.

p In order to consolidate (he power of the big bourgeoisie at the end of 1789 representatives of this social group in the Constituent Assembly introduced laws stipulating a system of electoral qualifications which served to divide the country’s citizens into two groups with different rights. Those citizens (only male, of course) who had the right to vote and be elected were referred to as "active citizens”, who possessed the required property qualifications and who were obliged to pay direct taxes on a differential scale. Those citizens who did not possess the required property qualifications were not able to vote or be elected and were referred to as "passive citizens”. Of the total population of 26 million, only about 4,300,000 or a sixth part acquired political rights. One of the political journalists who was to win fame in the course of the revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, wrote in his newspaper Friend of the People that these laws created a new aristocracy, an aristocracy based on wealth.

p The big bourgeoisie set itself apart from the rest of the third estate and was soon to give its actual power legal formulation.

p It should be noted meanwhile that despite the sway of the big bourgeoisie interested purely in transforming France along bourgeois lines, the Constituent Assembly adopted a number of laws of major progressive significance. For example in 1789-1790 France’s administrative apparatus was restructured: the mediaeval administrative units—provinces, generalities, ballages, etc.—were replaced by 83 departments of more or less equal size. The Constituent Assembly did away with the former class divisions into three estates and abolished all aristocratic titles. In a decree of November 2, 1789, the Constituent Assembly ordered that all Church property and lands should be put at the disposal of the nation. The confiscated Church lands which were to be referred to as "national property" were put up for sale. The Church was also deprived of various of its former functions (for 358 example, registration of births, marriages and deaths) which were entrusted to the state. Various other laws were also introduced which did away with all those restrictions which had been obstructing commercial and industrial initiative.

p The bourgeois laws introduced by the Constituent Assembly were in keeping with the interests of all those classes which made up the former third estate, including of course the bourgeoisie 359 which had been the driving force behind them. For this section of society, however, the introduction of these laws represented the completion of the tasks to be carried out by the bourgeois revolution. After coming to power and putting through all those revolutionary changes necessary to promote its own particular interests the big bourgeoisie was soon to degenerate into a conservative force opposed to any further revolutionary advance.

p Meanwhile the common people and the democratic sections of the bourgeoisie saw in these measures merely a beginning. The further progress of the revolution was of direct concern to them. The peasantry, which constituted the vast majority of the population, demanded that all feudal practices and labour services be abolished and that they be given land. In the week of August 4th-llth, 1789, the Constituent Assembly abolished serfdom, but this was more a reform on paper than in practice since in actual fact only a few of the aspects of serfdom concerning the peasants’ personal liberty were affected; the central problem, that of the agrarian system as a whole, still remained unsolved.

p In 1790 there was a new wave of peasant unrest after the peasants refused to pay the former requisitions and taxes to their masters: in a number of departments open rebellion was even reported.

p The urban poor were also far from content, since they were still deprived of any rights and were now faced by still more desperate poverty than before. A large part of the nobility had emigrated and orders for luxury goods had almost ceased coming, thus bringing about a serious lull in local commerce. In addition there were serious food shortages in Paris and other towns.

p On October 5th-6th, 1789, the poor people of Paris, and especially working women and the wives of craftsmen and petty traders, set out on a march to Versailles in protest at the bread shortage and its exorbitant price. They surrounded the palace and even forced their way into the apartments of Queen Marie Antoinette. Twice Louis XVI went out onto the balcony to calm the crowd. At the people’s demand the King and later the Constituent Assembly moved from Versailles to Paris.

p Alarmed by the people’s action, on October 21, 1789, the Constituent Assembly adopted a law allowing for the use of armed force to counter popular demonstrations. Later, on June 14, 1791, Le Chapelier’s law was passed prohibiting the forming of workers’ unions and strikes. Despite these harsh measures and repressions the big bourgeoisie which now had the upper hand in the Constituent Assembly was unable to check the mounting tide of popular discontent.

p Two defenders of the people’s interests Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), a deputy to the Assembly, and Jean-Paul Marat, 360 editor of the newspaper Friend of the People, boldly exposed the self-interested anti-democratic nature of the policy pursued by the party of the big bourgeoisie in the Assembly and pointed out the consequences, which would prove fatal to the revolution.

The fears of these bold revolutionaries were not without foundation. The counter-revolutionary group which maintained secret links with the court had by no means resigned itself to defeat. Marie Antoinette kept up a secret correspondence via emigres with various European monarchs, urging them to embark on an armed intervention against France.

The Varennes Crisis

p In June 1791 the King and Queen attempted to flee abroad and join the enemies of the revolution. Having disguised themselves in simple servants’ attire they succeeded in escaping from Paris. However not far from the border in the small town of Varennes they were recognised and their carriage was halted and then brought back to Paris with a popular escort.

p The King’s treacherous flight to join the enemies of the revolution had an electrifying effect on the minds of the people. Hitherto the majority of Frenchmen, while deeply devoted to the revolutionary cause, also believed in the King’s good intentions; the simple folk assumed the King was a good man and that it was his ministers who were to blame for everything. After the incident at Varennes more and more people began to support the idea of a republic.

p Meanwhile the conservative majority in the Constituent Assembly proceeded to defend the King. While in possession of incontestable proof of his treachery, the Assembly put out a falsified version of the incident to the effect that he had been kidnapped, and restored to Louis his former powers. This caused violent indignation among democratic circles in Paris. In a number of political clubs (which at that period provided the nearest existing equivalent to the modern party) serious agitation for a republic began.

p On July 17th a large peaceful demonstration against the monarchy took place on the Champ-de-Mars. The Assembly gave orders for detachments of the National Guard under the command of La Fayette to be sent to the scene and disperse the crowd. They opened fire and a large number of people were killed and wounded. This massacre was the signal for an open split in the ranks of the third estate. The big bourgeoisie started to defend itself by foice of arms against the people. Conservative elements in the Assembly were now engaging in open counterrevolutionary action.

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p On the eve of the massacre on the Champ-de-Mars there occurred a split in the most influential political club, that of the Jacobins. The Right wing grouped around La Fayette and other leaders of the big bourgeoisie walked out of the club and set up a new exclusive one with prohibitive subscriptions—that of the Feuillants.

p The leadership of the Jacobins then passed into the hands of those in favour of carrying the revolution to its logical conclusion, headed by Robespierre and Brissot.

On September 13th, the King signed a constitution drafted by the Assembly which provided for a constitutional monarchy and instituted anti-democratic electoral qualifications. On September 30th the Constituent Assembly was disbanded.

The Overthrow of the Monarchy

p On October 1, 1791, a new Legislative Assembly came into office. It had been elected exclusively by "active citizens”, i.e., well-to-do people. In this Assembly it was the Feuillants who held sway, although this state of affairs did not correspond in the least to the prevailing mood in the country.

p On April 20, 1792, France declared war on Austria. This war had long been prepared for by the monarchs of Europe, who planned to quell the revolution in France by force. Louis XVI and a group of his courtiers had also been working towards this end, in the hope that foreign intervention would bolster the tottering French monarchy. For this very reason Robespierre, Marat and their supporters protested against involving France in this war, pointing out that it was vital to crush counter-revolution at home before turning to deal with counter-revolution elsewhere.

p Brissot and his supporters on the other hand—who were referred to first as Brissotins and then as Girondins—were in favour of an immediate declaration of war. This led to a clash between Robespierre’s supporters and the Girondins which was to become increasingly acute.

p In March 1792 the King instructed the Girondins to take over the ministries. After taking upon themselves this role of an officially accepted government the Girondins made use of their new power to bring war nearer, hoping for speedy and easy victories. But as Robespierre and Marat had foreseen, the war began with a French defeat. The King dismissed the Girondin ministers and once again the Feuillants were in charge.

p Those in command of the army—La Fayette and other generals—were strongly opposed to the idea of any victories by the revolutionary army. Queen Marie Antoinette contrived to send 362 secret dispatches to Vienna with information regarding the plans of the French army. This enabled the armies of Austria and Prussia (who by this time had also joined the war) to achieve ubiquitous success at very little cost to themselves, chasing out the retreating and demoralised French troops.

p At this crucial hour the people arose to defend their revolutionary homeland. Since war was already a fait accompli, it was vital to conduct it in a revolutionary way, declared Robespierre, Marat and Danton (1759-1794) who by this time had gained considerable influence among his countrymen. The Jacobins now provided the main organisational force of the popular movement. They justly pointed out that it was impossible to make any headway at the front without securing the situation in the rear and ruling out the risk of treachery at home.

p Thousands of volunteers joined the battalions set up to reinforce the army. On June llth, under popular pressure the Legislative Assembly adopted a decree declaring a state of emergency in the country. All able-bodied men were to be enlisted. This decree met with whole-hearted approval, since the people was eager to bar the way to the interventionists. It was at this period that the battle-hymn, the Marseillaise, came into being and soon won wide popularity: with this song on their lips the volunteer battalions hurried forward to meet the enemy.

p Against this background of popular revolutionary fervour the incapacity of the Legislative Assembly and the government to channel this popular enthusiasm and suppress treachery became clearer still. The source of all the conspiracies and criminal intrigue was the court and the revolutionary instinct of the masses led them to this hive of treachery. From July onwards the demand for the overthrow of Louis XVI was to resound louder and louder both in Paris and the provinces. On the night of August 9th, once again the bells rang out over Paris, interspersed with cannon salvoes. Early the next morning armed detachments marched on the Tuileries. The Swiss guard opened fire and a short but desperate fight ensued, after which the people forced their way into the palace.

The popular uprising of August 10th, 1792, marked the downfall of the French monarchy which had a history of over a thousand years. Louis XVI was overthrown and imprisoned in the Temple and his ministers were dismissed. A new government—the Provisional Executive Council—was set up, which consisted mainly of Girondins. The distinction between “active” and “passive” citizens was abolished and new elections for a National Convention were announced in which all adult males had the right to vote.

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The Struggle Between the Jacobins and the Girondins

p The popular uprising of August 10th, 1792, ushered in a new, more advanced stage of the revolution. However, the immediate consequence of the uprising was the transfer of power to the Girondins. Both in the government and the Legislative Assembly the Feuillants were obliged to stand down and make room for the Girondins, who took over the leadership.

p The Girondins and their leaders Brissot, Roland, Vergniaud and others represented first and foremost the commercial, industrial and landowning bourgeoisie from the provinces. At the outset this group put up bold opposition to the defenders of feudal absolutism. Yet once they came to power as a result of the successful popular uprising in which they had actually taken no part, thev took the view that the principal tasks of the revolution had already been implemented and they soon came to represent a conservative force.

p Meanwhile the Jacobins or Montagnards did not as yet represent a united body. The Jacobins were a bloc made up of the democratic (middle and petty) bourgeoisie, the peasantry and the urban poor, or in other words almost all those sections of the population whose main demands had not yet been satisfied. While the various classes and class groups which made up this bloc did not all have the same objectives they were united by a firm resolve to defend the revolution and further its advance until all their demands had been finally satisfied.

p The Girondins on the other hand sought to check the revolutionary tide, quite content with the results that had already been achieved. Such was the profound divergence of aims between them and the Jacobins.

p The opening session of the Convention was held on September 21, 1792, in the midst of triumphant jubilation after the Prussian defeat and withdrawal the day before at the battle of Valmy—the first victory of the revolutionary France over the counterrevolutionary coalition of European powers. The deputies to the Convention were inspired by this first victory and amidst loud cheers a decree abolishing the monarchy was adopted and September 21st was proclaimed the first day of the "republican era"—the Year IV of Freedom, the Year I of the Republic. The founding of the republic was greeted enthusiastically throughout the country in the jubilant mood that followed the victory at Valmy.

p However, soon after the days of exultation the political scene was once again dominated by the struggle between the Girondins and the Jacobins. The question of the King’s fate had to be decided, and while the Jacobins demanded his execution the 364 Girondins pressed for a milder alternative, understanding full well that the King’s execution would pave the way for a further advance of the revolution. The King was brought before the Convention for trial, and the trial which was to last until January 1793 soon became nothing more than an arena for the struggle between the Girondins and the Jacobins. Despite all the efforts of the Girondins to save the King, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. On January 21, 1793 Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine.

p Meanwhile the war dragged on involving more and more European nations. In 1793 England, Spain and Holland and a number of German and Italian states joined the counter-revolutionary coalition. The Russian Empire under Catherine II also supported the anti-French coalition, and revolutionary France thus found herself up against practically the whole of Europe.

After the victory at Valmy, the French troops embarked on a counter-offensive. The interventionists were soon driven out of French territory and this feat was followed by a French advance into Belgium. In March 1793 General Dumouriez conspired with the Girondins, betrayed France and went over to the enemy camp. After this the French troops started to retreat and by the late spring of that year the position showed a marked deterioration. Once again the interventionists invaded France.

The Uprising of May 31-June 2, 1793

p The long desperate war involving vast material damage and loss of life, France’s complete isolation and the disruption of the country’s economy all gave rise to an acute food shortage. Food prices soared and there was a desperate bread shortage in the towns, which struck hardest at the urban and rural poor. Hunger and the mounting tide of poverty led them to demand decisive measures: the introduction of "the maximum" (government limitation of prices) and a clamping down on speculation. The interests of the urban poor were voiced by popular agitators such as Jacques Roux, Varlet, referred to as “sans-culottes” by the Girondins.

p In the villages, the peasantry which had still not been freed from all kinds of feudal duties and taxes also came out in open protest against its grievances.

p The Girondins held themselves aloof from the people’s plight. Cut off from the people and isolated within their own narrow clique, their energies were concentrated exclusively on their struggle with the Jacobins and they did not pay sufficient attention to the people’s suffering or the situation at the front.

The Jacobins hand in hand with the “sans-culottes” organised 365 an armed revolt against the Girondins. From May 31 to June 2, 1793, Paris was once more in the grip of a popular uprising. The mob succeeded in driving 29 Girondin deputies out of the Convention and in depriving them of the leading government posts. Power was at last in the hands of the Jacobins.

The Revolutionary Democratic Dictatorship
of the Jacobins

The Jacobins came to power at a critical stage of the revolution. The exhausted, poorly equipped French forces were being hard pressed by five foreign powers. A counter-revolutionary royalist revolt which had originally broken out in Vendee was gaining ground rapidly in the west of the country. In the south and the south-west the Girondins after escaping from house-arrest started 366 to organise a counter-revolutionary uprising. One by one the departments where the Girondins held sway took up arms against Paris. By the middle of June, 60 of the 83 departments were in the throes of revolt. The Convention managed to retain control over a starving Paris and the immediately surrounding territory encircled by enemy armies which were gradually closing in on the city. It seemed as if the collapse of the Republic was at hand. Yet in this hour of fatal danger the Jacobins were to display indefatigable energy and courage that allowed of no compromise or defeat. In his notes written during the uprising of May 31-June 2, 1793, Robespierre outlined the tasks of the revolution in the following words: "United will is required.... The danger from within comes from the bourgeoisie; in order to defeat the bourgeoisie the people must be united. . .. The people and the Convention must act as one, the Convention must join forces with the people....”

The Solution of the Agrarian Problem

p Within an extremely short space of time the Jacobins were to solve the most important among the outstanding problems of the revolution. The main demands of the peasants were satisfied by the laws of June 3 and July 10 and 17. The lands of those nobles who had emigrated were confiscated, divided up into small plots and sold on the basis of a ten-year credit. Communal lands were divided up among the peasants with equal portions of land for each citizen. All feudal practices were abolished once and for all, and the peasants were henceforth freed from the obligation to perform labour services for the nobles. The Jacobins accomplished in the course of two weeks what other revolutionary governments had failed to accomplish in the course of four years.

This bold revolutionary act of meeting the basic demands of the peasantry—which amounted to a complete abolition of feudal patterns in agriculture—won the Jacobin Convention the support of the peasantry which made up the bulk of the population. While formerly they had hesitated as to whether to support the Girondins or the Jacobins now the peasantry en masse sided with the Jacobin republic. The peasants enlisted in the republican army now saw themselves as defenders not merely of revolutionary ideas but their own interests as well.

The Constitution of 1793

p Within three weeks the Jacobins had drafted and ratified a new constitution. The constitution of 1793 was the most democratic France had ever known. Each of its articles was permeated with unshakable faith in the people’s victory.

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p However after adopting this extremely democratic constitution the Convention was not yet in a position to set about implementing it. The tense situation at the front where the final outcome of the war was now being decided, the mounting tide of civil war which divided the country into two irreconcilable camps, the wave of murders, assassinations and conspiracy—all called for quite different methods of government from those that had been employed hitherto.

In this connection the Jacobins and their leaders had no clearcut theories and plans. They had not even foreseen that such a situation might arise, but the very course of events obliged them to adopt a new path.

Establishment
of the Revolutionary Democratic Dictatorship.
The Reign of Terror

p On July 13th, Marat was murdered. He was stabbed by a young girl Charlotte Corday, who gained entry into his house disguised as a petitioner after being prompted to perform this heinous crime by the Girondins. This fearless friend of the people who had always upheld the revolutionary cause and been a champion of the poor was extremely popular among the people and his death was a shattering blow to all Parisians. Three days later a local Jacobin leader in Lyons by the name of Chalier was also murdered. The Girondin counter-revolutionaries had clearly taken up terrorist tactics.

p The Jacobins were obliged to answer this wave of counterrevolutionary terror with revolutionary terror. Some time earlier the Committee for Public Safety which had been set up by the Convention in April 1793 had been empowered to arrest suspect persons, and the revolutionary tribunal now enhanced its powers. The former Queen, Marie Antoinette, was handed over to the tribunal’s judges for trial and sentenced to the guillotine. The property of enemies of the Republic was made liable to confiscation.

p On September 4th-5th, 1793, the Paris poor demanded of the Convention that they intensify the terror against counter-revolutionary elements and that fixed prices (maximum) for food be introduced. The Jacobins heeded the voice of the people and the terror was duly intensified. Fixed prices for almost all types of food were introduced and also a maximum wage for workers. The latter decision testified to the ambivalence of Jacobin policy.

p On August 23rd, the Convention adopted a decree which virtually enlisted the whole nation. Mass recruitment was carried 368 out within a very short space of time and soon a million-strong army was mustered. This enormous army now had to be equipped with arms and ammunition. Both the army and the starving towns in the rear had to be fed; counter-revolutionary revolts had to be quelled and conspiracies forestalled. Finally, there remained the titanic task of beating back and then defeating once and for all the vast armies of the counter-revolutionary coalition.

p In order to accomplish these formidable objectives a strong centralised revolutionary government was required. But this in itself was not enough—such a government had to command unfailing popular support, express the people’s will and make timely use of popular initiative and the creative revolutionary activity of the masses.

The actual course of events indicated to the Jacobins those methods which were necessary to carry out these tasks. These involved temporary abandonment of a broadly democratic constitutional government and the elaboration of fitting forms of a revolutionary democratic dictatorship in keeping with the given situation.

The Revolutionary Government

The very logic of the revolutionary struggle dictated that the Convention should become the supreme legislative and executive organ thus combining both functions in one and the same body. The commissaires of the Convention who were sent to the provinces and to work in the army were granted wide powers. The revolutionary government was embodied in the Committee for Public Safety. It was this Committee which directly supervised all aspects of the Republic’s state administration, ranging from questions of defence to practical decisions connected with food supplies and military equipment. The Committee for Public Safety was headed by the fearless revolutionary and outstanding statesman Maximilien Robespierre, known among the people as "the Incorruptible”, the ardent young champion of the people SaintJust (only 22 when the revolution broke out) and the astute politician Georges Couthon. Questions of defence were made the province of the mathematician and capable organiser Lazare Carnot. All state organs were responsible to the Committee for Public Safety and its commands had to be carried out without question.

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The Revolutionary Committees
and the Jacobin Club

The revolutionary government’s main source of strength lay not so much in the firm centralised power as in the solid support it was accorded by the people. All the main organs of the Jacobin dictatorship from the Convention down maintained constant contact with the people. The Committee for Public Safety and the Convention were also supported by numerous local revolutionary committees which had been set up all over the country. These consisted of 12 members elected from among the most politically aware citizens of each rural commune or urban district. These committees made possible wide participation of the masses in the state structure and the formulation of revolutionary policies. The Jacobin Club with its hundreds of branches scattered throughout the country also played a major role in the political life of the Republic. Political measures, both those under discussion or those about to be implemented by the Convention and other state organs were subjected to preliminary discussion at club meetings in the provinces. At these meetings all members were equal: there were no ministers, commissaires or generals.

The Turning Point in the War

Indefatigable efforts on the part of the people led by the Jacobin government reaped their first fruit in the winter of 1793. By this time the counter-revolutionary unrest within the country had been finally put down. The coalition armies were now faced by 14 Republican armies which by the autumn had halted the enemy’s advance. Soon afterwards there followed a rapid series of French victories and the Republican armies were able to launch a major counter-offensive. New commanders of humble origin were to prove outstanding commanders. Former sergeant Lazare Gauche, entrusted with a whole army at the age of 25, inspired his men with tremendous will to victory. By the spring of 1794 the soldiers of the Republic had driven the interventionists beyond the borders of France and the theatre of war was transferred to enemy territory.

The Crisis of the Jacobin Dictatorship

p In an extremely short period the Jacobin dictatorship succeeded in attaining the revolution’s main objectives: feudal social patterns had been abolished; counter-revolution at home was crushed and the armies of intervention had been beaten back beyond the 370 Republic’s borders. This the Jacobins were able to accomplish because the people stood united behind them and because in their policies they furthered the interests of the urban poor and the popular masses.

p While there still existed a real threat of a restoration of the pre-revolutionary order at the hands of the foreign interventionists, the bourgeoisie and propertied strata of the rural and urban population were all prepared to accept the strict restrictions of the Jacobin dictatorship, the fixed prices, the penalties for speculation and requisitions.

p However, once the danger had passed and the Jacobin armies had finally defeated the enemy at the battle of Fleurus on June 26, 1794, the bourgeoisie started to seek ways and means of avoiding the heavy hand of Jacobin rule. Soon the prosperous and even the middle peasantry followed suit and moved further to the right. The revolution had liberated the peasants from feudal oppression and given them land but the restrictions imposed by the Jacobin regime rendered it impossible for the propertied strata of the countryside to make the most of their newly-gained advantages. This gave rise to opposition to the Jacobin dictatorship which but yesterday had been accorded undivided support.

p Meanwhile the Jacobin government was also no longer sure of the firm support of the poorest section of society—the rural and urban poor. Its policy vis-a-vis these groups was of a contradictory character. While fixed food prices were very much in their interests, fixed limits for wages, labour requisitions and various other measures gave rise to a certain amount of antagonism.

Without being fully aware of the course they were following, the Jacobins were defending the interests of the bourgeoisie. Historical conditions at that time were not yet ripe for the transition to any other, superior social structure. This meant that all efforts on the part of Jacobin leaders such as Robespierre and Saint-Just to achieve a society that would bring men happiness and justice were doomed to failure; it was the bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie alone who would enjoy the fruits of their heroic struggle.

Struggle Within the Jacobin Ranks

p All these factors paved the way for a crisis in the Jacobin dictatorship.

p This crisis was reflected first of all in a split in the ranks of the Jacobin party itself. First of all the Jacobins all joined forces to do away with the “sans-culottes”. Then serious controversy arose in their own ranks. The revolutionary government led by 371 Robespierre was attacked from the right by Danton and his supporters and from the left by the journalist Hebert who had a large following in the Paris commune and the club of the Cordeliers.

The revolutionary government under Robespierre was to make short work of both these groups. In March the revolutionary tribunal sentenced the Hebertists to the guillotine and in April the same fate awaited Danton and his followers. For a time it looked as if all the enemies of the Jacobins had been destroyed.

The Counter-Revolutionary Coup of 9 Thermidor

p But no more than two or three months were to elapse before another movement against the revolutionary government raised its head within the Jacobin party. This time, however, it was not a question of any open opposition but a conspiracy which was kept a well-guarded secret. In this conspiracy the remaining Dantonists, Hebertists and other antagonists of Robespierre’s took part. The conspirators succeeded in winning the support of the “marais” in the Convention and they also had their men in the Committee for Public Safety.

p On 9 Thermidor (July 27th) 1794 the conspirators managed to interrupt the speeches delivered by Saint-Just and Robespierre and announce their arrest, which was then duly ratified. "The Republic has perished, the rule of the robbers is at hand,” were Robespierre’s last words.

p Meanwhile the people of Paris rose to defend the Jacobin leaders, realising full well that in defending Robespierre and his friends they were defending the revolution. Robespierre, SaintJust and Couthon were released from prison and taken to the Hotel de Ville.

p But by this time it was too late. The conspirators in the name of the Convention rallied to their aid all bourgeois counterrevolutionary elements and sent troops out against the Commune. At three o’clock in the morning one of the columns of counterrevolutionary troops succeeded in breaking its way into the Hotel de Ville. On the next morning, 10 Thermidor, Robespierre, SaintJust, Couthon and their closest followers were guillotined without trial on Place de Greves.

This counter-revolutionary coup marked the end of the Jacobin dictatorship. After the death of Robespierre bourgeois reaction was to triumph.