The Jacobins were supporters of reforms aimed at. Jacobin dictatorship - the highest stage of the great French revolution

Introduction

RelevanceThe topic of this study is related to the fact that the problems of the Great French Revolution occupies a special place.

After 1917 Jacobinocentrism became one of the most characteristic features national historiography of this topic. But if in the 1930-60s. the controversy unfolded mainly on the issue of the class essence of power in 1793-1794, then today the authoritarianism and terrorist nature of the Jacobin dictatorship have become the object of criticism. Reassessments are of a conceptual nature, based on the recognition of the priority of universal human values over the principles of revolutionary morality and expediency. It seems all the more important today to turn to the experience of other, non-Marxist trends in the study of French history late 18th century

The degree of development of the problem.The interest of researchers in the phenomenon of the Jacobin dictatorship has not weakened for more than two centuries. Historians, specialists in the theory and history of state and law see in them the origins and analogues of many political, philosophical, ethical, etc. problems of our day. IN last years This process has noticeably revived in Russia as well. Various aspects of this problem have found their scientific solution in the works of such scientists as A.G. Airapetov, A.I. Alekseev, V.I. Baskakov, D.Yu. Bovykin, A.V. Vinnik, V.G. Grafsky, A.Z. Manfred, T.V. Pavlova, V.G. Revunenkov, M.M. Utyashev and others.

aimof this work is to identify the characteristic features of the political system of France during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, namely, a description of the structure that developed in the period under review political system, the mechanism of its functioning, the purpose of various institutions.

objectstudies are socio-political relations in France in 1793-1794.

Itemstudies - elements of the political system of France during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasksworks:

) consider the process of coming to power of the Jacobins;

) to determine the main features of the political system of France during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship;

) study the bodies that exercised legislative, judicial and executive power.

methodologicalthe basis of the work is the general scientific dialectical method of cognition of social phenomena, including political and legal ones, in their interconnection, interdependence, integrity and comprehensiveness. Methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, as well as a number of particular scientific methods were used: comparative law, logical, system-structural, historical-legal, classification of political and legal phenomena, reconstruction of ideas and theories.

StructureThe work is determined by the purpose and objectives of the study and includes: an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

1. Jacobin dictatorship - the highest stage of the French Revolution

.1 Rise to power of the Jacobins

In the second half of the XVIII century. absolute monarchy in France was the main brake on social progress. Every year the internal situation of the country worsened, fell into decay Agriculture. Absolutism fettered the development of industry. As a result of the defeat in the Seven Years' War, France's international prestige was severely undermined. In the last third of the XVIII century. a revolutionary situation has developed in the country. In order to replenish the state budget, King Ludwig XVI decided to assemble the States General, which had not been convened for 175 years. He hoped to get approval for new taxes to avoid state bankruptcy. On May 5, 1789, the States General was opened, and on June 17, deputies from the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly. On July 9, 1789, the National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly. The king tried to disperse the deputies, but this only led to the indignation of the Parisians, who on July 14 defeated the symbol of absolutism - the fortress-prison Bastille.

In an atmosphere of general enthusiasm and the beginning of political disagreements, on August 26, 1789, the Constituent Assembly adopted the first constitutional act of the revolution - the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen." In the introductory part of the Declaration, it is written that the cause of the vices of the government and social disasters is the ignorance of people, the neglect of natural, inalienable human rights.

The Declaration proclaimed the equality of people before the law, freedom of religious beliefs. It approved the uniform collection of taxes corresponding to the state of citizens and the right of citizens personally or through representatives to participate in the preparation of the budget. Private property was declared sacred and inviolable.

A number of articles of the Declaration were devoted to the principle of legality. The Declaration proclaimed popular sovereignty, the principle of participation of citizens in the drafting of laws, there are indications that no one can be held accountable if this is not stated in the law, the presumption of innocence is fixed, the rule of proportionality of punishment to the crime. However, the electoral law divided citizens into active and passive. The property qualification deprived many of the electoral rights.

At the beginning of 1790, secularization of church lands was carried out, and the right to register marriages, births and other acts of civil status was also taken away from the church. A new administrative division was introduced: the country began to be divided into departments, districts, cantons and communes. The class division of society and the guild structure were abolished. The final stage in the work of the Constituent Assembly was the adoption of the Constitution of 1791. Its first part was the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen", the second was devoted to supreme authorities authorities. According to the forms of government, the French state was approved in the form of a constitutional monarchy.

The Constitution of 1791 introduced the principle of separation of powers. The supreme legislative power was vested in a unicameral legislative body. Voters were divided into active and passive. The French were active from the age of 25, who lived in the area for at least a year, paid taxes, were not in the service and were listed by the National Guard. Passive were excluded from participation in elections. The legislature had very broad powers. The king could veto the adopted laws, but this was only suspensive. The executive power represented by the king and the ministers was accountable to the legislature.

The king could demand obedience only by virtue of the law. He was the commander in chief, he was entrusted with the subordination of the protection of public order.

Judicial power was exercised by elected and, in principle, irremovable judges.

The constitution of 1791 did not suit Louis XVI and he fled the capital, but was identified and arrested.

In August 1791, an uprising began in Paris, as a result of which the monarchy was destroyed. On October 1, 1791, a new Legislative Corps began to work on the basis of the Constitution of 1791. In accordance with its decision, the division of communal lands and the confiscation of lands of emigrants began. Ownership of land was canceled for those who could not submit documents confirming the legality of ownership. However, in the National Convention (legislative body) a struggle broke out between the Mountain (Jacobins) and the Girondins. On January 21, by decision of the National Convention, Louis XVI was executed, and the first republic was established in France. However, her position was very difficult: the economy was falling apart, the French armies were defeated by the interventionists, the country was engulfed in a network of rebellions.

The Jacobins formed the Committee of the Insurrection. The General Council of the Commune joined the movement. On May 31, 1793, the alarm again called the Parisians to arms. The convention had to listen to 14 demands of the rebels and among them the arrest of 22 Girondins - the leaders of the party.

June 1793 The National Guard and the armed people again surrounded the Convention. The convention surrendered. 31 Girondins had to leave its walls; for some time (before the trial) they were under house arrest. The Jacobins came to power. The French bourgeois revolution rose to the third, as is commonly believed, the highest and last stage of development - the stage of the Jacobin dictatorship.

Their victory on a national scale was preceded by their victory over their opponents in the Jacobin Club; therefore the regime they established was called the Jacobin dictatorship. IN modern science disagreements arose over the name: either the Jacobin Republic or the Jacobin Dictatorship. This term is twofold: the republic is the external form of the organization of the Jacobin power, the dictatorship is the essence of the form of organization of the Jacobin power.

Behind the Jacobins stood a broad bloc of revolutionary-democratic forces (the petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, the rural and especially the urban poor). The leading role in this bloc was played by the so-called Montagnards (Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, and others), whose speeches and actions primarily reflected the prevailing rebellious and egalitarian moods of the masses. It should be noted that the Jacobin party included the right wing, led by Danton, the center, headed by Robespierre, and the left wing, led by Marat (and after his death in the summer of 1793, Hébert and Chaumette).

At the Jacobin stage of the revolution, the participation of various sections of the population in the political struggle reaches its culmination. Thanks to this, the remnants of the feudal system were uprooted in France at that time, radical political transformations were carried out, the threat of intervention by the troops of the coalition of European powers and the restoration of the monarchy was averted. The revolutionary-democratic regime that took shape under the Jacobins ensured the final victory in France of the new social and political system.

.2 Jacobin Constitution of 1793. adoption of decrees

jacobin constitution revolutionary dictatorship

The Jacobins came to power at a very difficult moment for France. They were carried out by a wave of popular protest against the power of the Girondins, who could not and did not want to act quickly and decisively in the interests of the masses, in the interests of saving and developing the revolution. But the bourgeois democrats, the Jacobins, did not immediately take the necessary steps in this direction. This required shifts in the alignment of class forces in the country, a merging (albeit temporary and not complete) of various streams of the popular movement, a significant change in the views of the Jacobins themselves.

Immediately upon coming to power, the Jacobins went to meet the demands of the peasantry. By decree of June 3, 1793, 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 years later, the Convention decreed the return to the peasants of all communal lands taken by the landowners and the procedure for dividing communal lands equally per capita at the request of a third of the community's inhabitants.

On June 11, 1793, the Decree on communal lands was adopted, which fixed the transfer of communal lands to the peasants; the shares inherited during the division could not be alienated within 10 years (after the promulgation of the law); the division of communal lands is not obligatory (by voting - the consent of 1/3 of the members is necessary for the division).

Finally, on July 17, 1793, the main demands of the peasantry were implemented: 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.

The decisions made were immediately put into practice. As a result, a significant part of the peasants turned into free small landowners. This did not mean that large-scale landownership had disappeared (the lands of emigrants, churches, counter-revolutionaries, and not all landowners were confiscated; a lot of land was bought up by the urban and rural bourgeoisie). The landless peasantry also survived.

After the new agrarian laws, the peasantry decisively went over to the side of the Jacobin revolutionary power. The peasant soldier of the republican army now fought for his vital interests, which merged into one with the great tasks of the revolution. It was in these new economic and social conditions that, in the final analysis, lay the source of the remarkable courage and courage of the armies of the Republic, the heroism that amazed contemporaries and remained forever memorable in the minds of the peoples.

With the same revolutionary decisiveness and speed, the Jacobin Convention submitted for the approval of the people and adopted (June 24, 1793) a new Constitution.

The Jacobin Constitution of 1793 made a big step forward compared to the Constitution of 1791 (a new system created in accordance with the Constitution of 1791 government agencies France reflected the temporary balance of opposing political forces). The Constitution of 1793 is the most democratic of the bourgeois constitutions of the 18th-19th centuries. It reflected the ideas of Rousseau, which the Jacobins were so carried away with. The Constitution of 1793 established a republican system in France. The highest legislative power belonged to the Legislative Assembly (unicameral legislative body), elected by all citizens (men) over 21 years old; the most important bills were subject to approval by the people at the primary meetings of voters. If projects were approved by 1/10 of the primary meetings of most departments of the country within 40 days, they acquired the force of laws. Direct equal elections of deputies were introduced.

The highest executive power under the Constitution of 1793 was granted to the Executive Council (the highest administrative body) of 24 people; half of the members of this Council were subject to renewal annually. The Executive Council carried out the day-to-day administration of the country on the basis of laws.

Thus, the Constitution of the Jacobins provided for a simple and seemingly democratic state structure for those times. In contrast to the plans for the regionalization of France that emerged during the years of the revolution, Art. 1 emphasized that "the French Republic is one and indivisible."

The new Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the Convention, declared freedom, equality, security and property as human rights, and the goal of society was universal happiness. Declaration of 1793 in art. 16 defined the right to property in a traditionally broad and individualistic sense as the ability to "use and dispose at will of one's property, one's income, the fruits of one's labor and industry." But in approaches to resolving other issues, in particular those related to the sphere of personal and property rights of citizens, the Jacobins made a significant step forward compared to previous constitutional documents.

According to Art. 122 of the Constitution of 1793, every Frenchman was guaranteed a universal education, state provision, unlimited freedom of the press, the right to petition, the right to form popular societies and other human rights. Article 7 of the Declaration of 1793 included in the number of personal rights of citizens the right to assemble with "observance of tranquility", the right to freely practice religious rites.

In the Jacobin Declaration, special attention was paid to guarantees against despotism and arbitrariness on the part of state authorities. According to Art. 9, "the law must protect public and individual freedom against oppression by those in power." Any person against whom an unlawful act, i.e. arbitrary and tyrannical act, had the right to resist by force.

Since resistance to oppression was seen as a consequence of other human rights, the Declaration of 1793 made the revolutionary conclusion that in cases of violation of the right of the people by the government, “rebellion for the people and for every part of it is its sacred right and most urgent duty” (Art. 35). Thus, in contrast to the Declaration of 1789, which spoke of national sovereignty, the Jacobins in their constitutional documents carried out the idea of popular sovereignty, dating back to J.-J. Rousseau.

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.

The fierce class struggle forced, however, the Jacobins to abandon practical implementation The Constitution of 1793. Once in power, the Jacobins had to solve the problems on which the salvation of France and the revolution depended. Famine reigned in the country (it was necessary to find food and organize its distribution); the army, small in number, was defeated; coalition troops entered French territory. The Jacobins had to deal with the implementation of their program requirements: to give land to the peasants, to take care of the workers. The situation forced the creation of a revolutionary government, an integral part of which was the National Convention (the highest legislative body of the republic, it concentrated all the supreme executive power in its hands). Thus, the revolutionary government actually rejected the principle of separation of powers.

Of the decrees adopted during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, it should also be noted:

Decree of September 7, 1793 - "no Frenchman can enjoy feudal rights ... in any area, under pain of deprivation of all rights of citizenship."

Decree Abolishing Negro Slavery in the Colonies February 4 - April 11, 1794 - All inhabitants of the colonies, without distinction of race, are French citizens and enjoy all the rights established by the constitution.

Under the influence of the left, at the end of February 1794, decrees were adopted on the free division of the property of "suspicious" (enemies of the revolution) among the poor ("Vantose decrees"). The Jacobins agreed to this, since the partition was supposed to increase the number of property owners from the poor and thereby expand the circle of people supporting the Jacobin dictatorship. But these decrees came up against the sharply hostile attitude of many members of the Convention and the government apparatus and were not put into effect.

At the end of September 1793, the Decree of the Convention was adopted on the introduction in France of a new revolutionary chronology, originating from the establishment of the French Republic.

It is characteristic that the close connection of the Jacobins with the urban lower classes, when this was required by extraordinary circumstances (food difficulties, rising high prices, etc.), repeatedly forced them to deviate from the principle of free trade and the inviolability of private property. In July 1793, the Convention introduced the death penalty for speculation in basic necessities; in September 1793, fixed food prices were established by decree on the maximum.

In addition, Robespierre tried to strengthen his influence with the help of a new civil religion, preached earlier by the left. He rejected both Catholicism and atheism and promoted the cult of the Supreme Being of nature. Robespierre wanted to unite all the revolutionary elements of France around the Supreme Being. The decree on the cult of the Supreme Being was adopted on May 7, 1794, but neither the masses nor the bourgeoisie sympathized with the new cult, it was artificial and could not be durable.

So, with the beginning of the rule of the Jacobins, the French Revolution entered its final third stage (June 2, 1793 - July 27, 1794). State power, already concentrated by this time in the Convention, passed into the hands of the leaders of the Jacobins, a small political group determined to further the decisive and uncompromising development of the revolution. The extreme tension of the external and internal situation of the Republic, which fought against numerous and irreconcilable enemies, the need to organize and equip the army, mobilize the entire people, break the internal counter-revolution and eradicate treason - all this required strong centralized leadership. The constitution of 1793 never came into effect.

2. Jacobin dictatorship: main institutions and regime of government

.1 Organization of revolutionary power

In the autumn of 1793, the Jacobin dictatorship took shape. The supreme body of the republic was the Convention. He exercised full legislative, judicial and executive power. The foundations of the organization of the revolutionary government (see the diagram in Fig. 1 in the appendix) were determined by the Convention in a number of decrees, in particular in the Constituent Law of December 4, 1793 "On the revolutionary order of government." This Decree provided that the "sole center of government" in the republic was the National Convention. He was granted the exclusive right to adopt and interpret decrees. Such consolidation of the leading role of the Convention in the system of organs of the revolutionary dictatorship was due to the very course of the political struggle. After the expulsion of the Girondins, the dominant influence in it was enjoyed by the Jacobins.

The Convention was closely connected with the Paris Commune, popular societies, i.e. was a recognized center of the revolutionary forces of that time, moreover, a permanent body that quickly responded to the rapidly changing political situation, considered a large number of issues and in a relatively short period of time adopted a huge mass of laws (decrees).

Even earlier, in connection with the danger of foreign intervention and monarchist rebellions that threatened the very existence of the republic, the Girondin Convention decreed the establishment of the Committee public safety(October 2, 1792), the Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal at Paris (March 10, 1793), the Committee of Public Safety (April 6, 1793).

In July 1793 the Convention renewed the Committee of Public Safety. Danton, who had previously played a leading role in the Committee and was increasingly showing a conciliatory attitude towards the Girondins, was removed. Member of the Committee in different time Robespierre, who showed an inexorable will to suppress the counter-revolution, and Saint-Just and Couthon, full of revolutionary energy and courage, were chosen. 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 the internal and foreign policy, a matter of national defense.

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. The commissars of the Convention were also appointed to the army, where they did a great job: they took care of supplying the troops with everything necessary, controlled the activities of the command staff, ruthlessly dealt with traitors, led agitation, etc.

The role of the Committee of Public Safety increased sharply after the adoption of the Decree on Suspicious (September 17, 1793), which declared suspicious everyone who was known for adherence to the old order, who was related to emigrant nobles or was in their service, and all those who could not prove by what means it exists. The decree ordered the arrest of suspects. If there were accusatory materials, those arrested were subject to trial; if these materials were not available, they were left under arrest for an indefinite period.

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.

By the summer of 1793, the forces of the anti-French coalition had grown many times over. The industry and finances of England, her fleet and many armies European countries were used against revolutionary France. To survive and win, France needed military strength, equipment, at least a minimum supply of the army with everything necessary, as well as confidence in the justice of the war, fortitude and revolutionary upsurge. For greater coordination of the actions of the old linear units, which made up the army before the revolution, with volunteer troops, less trained and disciplined, it was necessary to merge the entire army into one. The Committee of Public Safety carried out an "amalgam", i.e. connection of linear regiments with volunteer ones. Volunteer units raised the spirit of the entire army. Many of the volunteers ardently supported the Jacobins. "Peace to huts, war to palaces" is the main slogan of the French army.

During 1793, during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the struggle against the Catholic Church as a stronghold of reaction intensified. Throughout France in the autumn of 1793 "de-Christianization" was carried out. Priests were forced to renounce their priesthood, churches were closed. The Commune of Paris in November 1793 banned Catholic worship. These measures were used by the enemies of France for counter-revolutionary agitation, and a month later, taking into account the discontent of the peasants, the Convention was forced to adopt a Decree on freedom of worship.

To connect the Convention and government agencies with localities, commissioners were sent to the departments and the army from among the deputies of the Convention, who were endowed with broad powers. They exercised control over the application of the decrees of the revolutionary government and, if necessary, could remove officials in the departments and generals in the army. The difficult political situation (counter-revolutionary rebellions, treason in the army) forced the commissars of the Convention to sometimes yell at themselves and direct administrative and organizational functions - to issue mandatory orders, to command military units etc.

Local administration was adapted to the tasks of the revolutionary dictatorship. By the law of December 4, 1794, the most important questions "relating to revolutionary laws and measures of administration and public salvation" were withdrawn from the administration of departments. On these issues, the districts and municipalities communicated directly with the revolutionary government. The municipalities from which the Girondins were expelled were the most active in local government. In the work of the communes and their sections, in the general councils, the rank and file of the urban and rural population took an active part.

Even under the Decree of March 21, 1793, supervisory and other special committees were elected in each commune and its section to supervise foreigners hostile to the republic. Under the Jacobins, the functions of these committees expanded significantly, they were called revolutionary committees. These committees, made up of the most active and fanatically devoted to the revolution, were set up all over the country. They have become an instrument of revolutionary terror and the main support of the Committee of Public Safety in the localities. They not only consistently carried out the policy of the center in their districts, but in their turn put pressure on the Convention, forcing it in a number of cases to comply with the demands of the masses intoxicated with the revolution.

One of the essential features of the Jacobin dictatorship was the creation special bodies designed to fight external enemies and internal counter-revolution. In their activities aimed at defending the republic and the gains of the revolution, they used the methods of revolutionary terror.

The Revolutionary Tribunal also played an extremely active role in the system of organs of the Jacobin dictatorship. It became a permanent instrument of revolutionary terror only after its reorganization on September 5, 1793. Judges, jurors, public prosecutors and their assistants were appointed by the Convention. The entire procedure in the Revolutionary Tribunal was characterized by simplicity and speed, which allowed him to conduct a targeted, but at the same time, cruel fight against the political opponents of the revolutionary government - royalists, Girondins, agents of foreign powers.

Until June 10, 1794 alone, 2,607 people were executed by the verdict of the Revolutionary Tribunal. On June 10, 1794, the Decree on the Revolutionary Tribunal stipulated that the "enemy of the people" (without a precise definition) was subject to the death penalty; this Decree also led to an increase in the executions of innocent and slandered people (1350 people were executed in 43 days).

In this regard, it should be noted that the points of view on the Jacobin dictatorship are different.

"The Jacobins saw in the state great power which must subjugate all manifestations of human existence, educating a citizen for its own purposes, demand complete obedience from him, establish everything in private and social life, from the little things of behavior to religion, which should also be civil, ”wrote the famous historian Kareev . Dictatorship and terror, according to Kareev, were due to the peculiarities of the doctrine that the Jacobins professed.

A.V. Gordon views the Jacobin uprising of May-June 1793 as "popular" and "deeply patriotic", as "the climax of the Great Revolution". He believes that thanks to the Jacobin dictatorship, France defeated feudalism in the agrarian sector and foreign intervention.

V.G. Revunenkov, who does not hide his Marxist views, agrees that the Jacobin dictatorship was "the pinnacle of the French Revolution." He defends the Jacobin terror, calling it "historically justified," but argues that the true vanguard of the people who made the revolution was the Commune of Paris, the "mad" Hebertists, but not the Jacobins, who, in his opinion, represented the revolutionary bourgeoisie.

It was the Jacobin decrees and Jacobin energy that saved the proletariat from starvation. The Jacobins extended the maximum to all essentials: the sale of goods was supposed to be reduced, but the main gain was achieved: the rise in prices for goods was stopped. Food detachments were sent to the village, seizing surplus food with an armed hand. In the interests of fair distribution, ration cards were invented.

Thus, we can draw the following conclusions. The National Convention itself became an integral part of the revolutionary government. Having retained the position of the supreme legislative body of the republic, he still concentrated all the supreme executive power in his hands. Thus, it was stated that the revolutionary government does not know the separation of powers. The Committee of Public Safety became the nucleus of power, its headquarters, its actual center. The Committee of Public Security became the third important element of the revolutionary government. His special task was to prosecute counter-revolutionaries, arrest and bring to trial the revolutionary tribunal. Revolutionary committees served as local organs of the Jacobin dictatorship. They acted alongside the municipalities, but played a greater role than the latter. The implementation of revolutionary laws was entrusted mainly to them. We emphasize that the strong centralized power in the hands of the Jacobins was combined with a 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.

2.2 Collapse of the Jacobin dictatorship in France

By the end of 1793, the policy of revolutionary terror in France had seized not only the rebellious provinces, but the whole country. Revolutionary tribunals, spreading far and wide, in dealing with a growing stream of cases, issued only two decisions - full acquittal or the death penalty. Among those sentenced to death were people of completely different strata of society - this is the "widow of Capet" Marie Antoinette, and the former Duke of Orleans, as well as the Feuillants, Girondins, "mad", Dantonists, Hebertists. Regardless of the goals pursued by the convicts, one fate befell those who defended the old order, and those who stood at the origins and made the revolution.

Having dealt with the enemies, Robespierre concentrated maximum power in his hands. But mass repressions led to the isolation of him and his closest associates in the Convention: Couton, Saint-Just, Loeb, Robespierre Jr. The successes of the revolutionary armies on all fronts have deprived the policy of terror of any logical justification. The left, the right, and the "swamp" of the Convention united to fight the tyrant. The coup d'état on 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) put an end to the Jacobin dictatorship. Its leaders died under the knife of the same guillotine (the leading Jacobins were arrested and then executed).

The Thermidorian coup marked the beginning of the gradual fading of the revolution.

In 1795 a new Constitution was adopted. She approved a bicameral legislative body, introduced two-stage elections, as well as a property qualification. Executive power was vested in the Directory of five people. However, these measures were designed to protect the interests not of the former aristocracy, but of the new big proprietors born of the revolution. The situation in France was not stable, a tougher regime was needed.

At general trend to political stabilization, the regime of the Directory at the same time reflected the further development of the revolutionary process. The confiscation of emigrant lands continued. The separation of church and state was proclaimed (1794). The economic crisis has caused the latest surge popular movements in germinal and prairial for 3 years (April - May 1795). In the autumn of 1795, Barras and Bonaparte defeated the royalist rebellion in Paris, which became an unconditional success for the policy of the Directory. italian hike French armies laid the foundation for revolutionary expansion in Europe.

The abolition of maximums and regulation of income, the abolition of assignats, carried out by the Directory, were inevitably accompanied by rising prices and speculation. The nouveaux riches (the new rich), the "golden youth" gained more and more influence, salons flourished, where the center of political life moved. The Jacobin Club was destroyed.

In order to destroy the very memory of the club, the Convention decided to demolish the Jacobin monastery and arrange in its place a “9 Thermidor market”. Now it is called March é St.-Honoré", on the street of that name. After the dissolution of the Convention in 1795, the members of the former club tried twice to reorganize. At first they formed the Pantheon club, which enjoyed the patronage of the Directory and quickly grew to 2,000 members; but since this club succumbed to the socialist propaganda of Babeuf, it was already closed on February 28, 1796. When clashes between the Directory and the Soviets created fertile ground for the resumption of Jacobin agitation, the Jacobins organized a new Manezh club, which opened on July 6, 1799 and glorified in pathetic speeches, the memory of Babeuf and Robespierre. This immediately caused a rebuff from the "golden youth" and new fights, during which the crowd took the side of the club members. On August 13, the club was closed by order of Sieyes.

With the defeat of the Jacobins, the popular masses left the French political scene for a long time. The intensification of the reaction was accompanied by the "white terror", which in many ways resembled the settling of old scores. However, it differed significantly from the "Red Terror" of the Robespierists. It did not have special institutional forms - tribunals. It was not covered by special legislative acts and, obviously, had a different scale. The growing craving for stability, for the consolidation of those forces that were enriched and attached to power as a result of the revolution, led to a military coup on 18 Brumaire (November 9-10, 1799) and to the establishment of the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte: on November 9, 1799, General Bonaparte dispersed Directory and established in fact his own power, although the republican system was outwardly preserved. In 1802, Napoleon was appointed consul for life by plebiscite. In 1804, the republic in France was abolished, Napoleon became emperor of the French.

Despite the difference in interests and the heterogeneity of the social aspirations of the Jacobin bloc, the influence of the lower classes of the city and countryside - the sans-culottes, sections of the Commune on the policy of the Jacobins was so significant that it was during the Jacobin dictatorship that the feudal fetters were finally broken. The historical greatness of the Jacobins consisted in the fact that they were with the revolutionary majority of the people, with the revolutionary advanced classes of their time. The Jacobins fulfilled their historical mission: they helped pave the way for capitalism, although they aspired to higher goals, to the general welfare of the whole people.

The coup of 18 Brumaire, which put an end to the history of the French Revolution, surprisingly coincided with the end of the 18th century. The Great Revolution ended the Age of Enlightenment, but it also largely determined the political and social processes of the next century, far beyond the borders of France itself, as well as the fate of many European states of that time.

Conclusion

The Jacobin dictatorship is a revolutionary-democratic dictatorship, the highest stage of the Great French Revolution. It was established as a result of the popular uprising of May 31 - June 2, 1793, which brought the Jacobins to power. It relied on the revolutionary bloc of the urban petty and middle bourgeoisie, the majority of the peasantry and the plebeian masses. The Jacobin dictatorship was established in difficult conditions, when rebellions unleashed by internal enemies (royalists in the Vendée, Girondins in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon and other cities), counter-revolutionary terror, intervention, and economic difficulties brought the French Republic to the brink of disaster.

The legal formalization of the power system of the Jacobin dictatorship was carried out gradually and was completed by decrees of October 10 and December 4, 1793, which established in France a "temporary revolutionary order of government" (the introduction of the bourgeois-democratic constitution adopted by the Convention on June 24, 1793 was postponed) .

All legislative and executive power was concentrated in the hands of the Convention and its committees; The Committee of Public Safety (since July 27, 1793, actually headed by M. Robespierre) in essence performed the functions of a revolutionary government; the main task of the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal was to fight against the internal counter-revolution. Commissars of the Convention vested with emergency powers were sent to departments and armies.

The concentration of state power in the hands of the Jacobin government was combined with the broad initiative of the masses and their organizations. Along with the Jacobin Club, an important political role was played by the Paris Commune, democratic in composition, elections for which were held in November 1792, and the sections of Paris associated with it, as well as the Cordeliers Club, Revolutionary Committees that functioned throughout the country, and numerous popular societies. The direct pressure of the popular masses on the Convention largely determined the resolute policy of the Jacobin dictatorship.

On the initiative of the Paris sections of the Commune, on August 23, 1793, a decree was issued on the mobilization of the entire nation to repulse the enemy. Under the pressure of the Parisian plebeians on September 4-5, 1793, the Convention responded with revolutionary terror to the terror of the enemies of the revolution, repression against speculators, state intervention in the distribution of the main consumer products (decree on a general maximum on September 29, 1793, etc.). These measures hurt the interests of the urban and rural bourgeoisie.

The Jacobins in the shortest possible time solved the main tasks of the bourgeois revolution and defended its gains. When, thanks to the Jacobin dictatorship, the danger of restoring the old order had passed, the antagonism within the bloc of social forces that rallied around the Jacobins in the fight against a common enemy intensified. Dissatisfaction with the bourgeois narrow-mindedness of politics grew among the urban and rural lower classes. Jacobin power(the extension of the maximum wages, the persecution of strikes by urban and rural workers, the elimination of the "madmen", the dissolution of the "revolutionary army" by decree on March 27, 1794, the non-fulfillment of the Ventose decrees, etc.).

The big and middle bourgeoisie, the prosperous and middle peasantry, as the danger of the restoration of the monarchy diminished, no longer wanted to endure the regime of revolutionary dictatorship (restriction of freedom of trade and enterprise, a firm policy of maximum and requisitions, revolutionary terror), which narrowed their opportunities to extract all the benefits from the victory of the bourgeois revolution. These processes were reflected in the escalation since the beginning of 1794 of the political struggle within the ranks of the Jacobin bloc itself. Expressing the aspirations of the poor, the left (“extreme”) Jacobins (leaders of the Paris Commune, J. R. Hébert, P. G. Chaumette and others) and figures close to them in the Paris sections and the Cordeliers Club demanded further leveling measures that limit large property and freedom of bourgeois gain, the strictest observance of the maximum, the tightening of revolutionary terror, the war until complete victory. On the opposite political flank, the “indulgent” (Dantonists), led by J. Danton and C. Desmoulins, associated with the new bourgeoisie that had risen during the revolution, sought to weaken the regime of the revolutionary dictatorship, and in foreign policy- speedy conclusion of peace.

The execution in March - April 1794 of Hébert and other Hébertists, Chaumette, as well as Danton and other Dantonists, the intensification of revolutionary terror (decree of June 10, 1794) could not prevent the inexorable process of the collapse of the Jacobin bloc and the growing crisis of the Jacobin dictatorship. In June - July 1794, a conspiracy was formed in the depths of the Convention, directed against the revolutionary government headed by Robespierre and his closest associates. Although some left-wing Jacobins also joined the conspiracy, representatives of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie played the main role in it. As a result of the Thermidorian coup (July 27/28, 1794), the Jacobin dictatorship was overthrown.

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Jacobins and their role in the revolution. First part.

The club takes its name from the club's meeting place in the Dominican convent of St. James on the rue Saint-Jacques in Paris.

The Jacobin Party included:

Right wing, led byGeorges Jacques Danton

Center headed by Robespierre

Left wing, led by Jean-Paul Marat.

(and after his death by Hébert and Chaumette).

Origin

-----------------

The Jacobin Club had an enormous influence on the course of the French Revolution of 1789. Not without reason it has been said that the revolution grew and developed, fell and disappeared in connection with the fate of this club. The cradle of the Jacobin Club was the Breton Club, (Bretagne - that's what it's called,)To there are meetings arranged by several deputies of the third estate of Brittany after their arrival at Versailles for the estates general, even before they were opened.

The initiative for these conferences is attributed to d'Ennebon and de Pontivy, who were among the most radical deputies in their province. Deputies of the Breton clergy and deputies of other provinces, who held different directions, soon took part in these meetings. There were Sieys and Mirabeau, the Duke d'Eguillon and Robespierre, the Abbé Gregoire, Pétion and

Barnave

Initially, the Jacobin Club consisted almost entirely of deputies from Brittany, and its meetings were held in strict secrecy. Then it included deputies from other regions. Soon the membership of the club was no longer limited to deputies of the National Assembly. Thanks to its wide membership, the Jacobin Club became the spokesman for the opinions of the most diverse groups of the French population, it even included citizens of other states.
Soon the views of most members of the club began to take on a more radical character. The speeches called for a transition to a republican form government controlled, to the introduction of universal suffrage, the separation of church and state. Among the tasks of the Jacobin club, formulated in February 1790, were a preliminary discussion of issues that were to be considered by the National Assembly, improving the constitution, adopting a charter, maintaining contacts with similar clubs that were being created in France.

The club's management decided to include in its membership similar in views and structure of societies located in other regions of France. This decision determined further fate Jacobin club. Within a few months, he had more than 150 branches in different regions of France, while maintaining a rigid system of centralized leadership. By July 1790, the metropolitan branch of the club had 1,200 members and held meetings four times a week. The club was a powerful political force. Any member of the Jacobin club who, in word or deed, expressed his disagreement with the constitution and the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen", was subject to exclusion from its ranks. This rule subsequently contributed to the "purges" with the exclusion of those members of the club who held more moderate views. One of the tasks formulated in February 1790 was to enlighten the people and protect them from error. The nature of these misconceptions has been the subject of much debate.

When the number of members grew, the organization of the club became much more complicated.

At the head was the chairman, who was elected for a month; he had 4 secretaries, 12 inspectors, and, which is especially characteristic of this club, 4 censors; all these officials were elected for 3 months: 5 committees were formed at the club, indicating that the club assumed the role of a political censor in relation to the national assembly and France - committees for the representation (censorship) of members, for supervision (Surveillance ), administration, reports and correspondence.

Meetings began to take place daily; the public began to be admitted to meetings only from October 12, 1791, that is, already at the legislative assembly.

At this time, the number of members of the club reached 1211 (by voting at the meeting on November 11).

As a result of the influx of non-deputies, the composition of the club changed: it became the organ of that social stratum that the French call la bourgeoisie lettrée (“intelligentsia”); the majority consisted of lawyers, doctors, teachers, scientists, writers, painters, who were also joined by persons from the merchant class.

Some of these members bore well-known names: the doctor Kabany, the scientist Laseped, the writer Marie-Joseph Chenier, Choderlos de Laclos, the painters David and C. Vernet, La Harp, Fabre d'Eglantin, Mercier. Although with a large influx of members, the mental level and educational the qualification of arrivals was lowered, but the Parisian Jacobin club to the end retained two of its original features: doctorality and a certain stiffness in relation to the educational qualification.This was expressed in antagonism towards the Cordeliers club, where people without education, even illiterates, were admitted, and also in the fact that that the very entry into the Jacobin Club was due to a rather high membership fee (24 livres annually, in addition to joining another 12 livres).

Subsequently, a special department was organized at the Jacobin Club, called "fraternal society for the political education of the people", where women were also allowed; but this did not change the general character of the club.

The club acquired its own newspaper; its edition was entrusted to Choderlos de Laclos, who was in close relations with the Duke of Orleans; the newspaper itself began to be called the "Monitor" of Orléanism. This revealed a certain opposition to Louis XVI; nevertheless, the Jacobin Club remained true to the political principle proclaimed in its name..

In the elections to the legislative assembly that took place in early September 1791, the Jacobins were able to get only five leaders of the club out of the 23 deputies of Paris; but his influence grew, and in the elections to the municipality of Paris, in November, the Jacobins gained the upper hand. The "Paris Commune" from that time became the instrument of the Jacobin Club.

The Jacobins began at the end of 1791 to directly influence the people; to this end, prominent members of the club - Pétion, Collot d "Herbois and Robespierre himself - devoted themselves to the "noble calling of teaching the children of the people in the constitution", that is, to teach the "catechism of the constitution" in public schools. Another measure had a more practical significance - the recruitment of agents, who, in the squares or in the galleries of the club and the national assembly, were to engage in the political education of adults and win them over to the side of the Jacobins.These agents were recruited from military deserters who were heading in droves to Paris, as well as from workers who had previously been initiated into the ideas of the Jacobins.

At the beginning of 1792 there were about 750 such agents; they were under the command of a former officer who received orders from the secret committee of the Jacobin Club. Agents received 5 livres a day, but due to the large influx, this price dropped to 20 sous. Of great educational importance in the Jacobin sense were the galleries of the Jacobin Club, where a crowd of 1,500 people crowded; seats were occupied from 2 o'clock, although the sessions did not begin until 6 o'clock in the evening. Club speakers tried to keep this crowd in constant exaltation. An even more important means of acquiring influence was the capture of the galleries in the legislature through agents and mobs led by them; in this way the Jacobin Club could exert direct pressure on the orators of the legislative assembly and on the vote. All this was very expensive and was not covered by membership dues; but the Jacobin Club enjoyed large subsidies from the Duke of Orleans, or appealed to the "patriotism" of its wealthy members; one such collection delivered 750,000 livres.

Although the Jacobin dictatorship did not last long, it became the highest stage of the revolution. The Jacobins were able to awaken in the people irrepressible energy, courage, courage, self-sacrifice, daring and courage. But despite all the unsurpassed greatness, all the historical progressiveness, in the Jacobin dictatorship there was still a limitation that is inherent in any bourgeois revolution.

The Jacobin dictatorship, both in its foundation and in its policy, had enormous internal contradictions. The goal of the Jacobins was freedom, democracy, equality, but precisely in the form in which these ideas were imagined by the great bourgeois revolutionary democrats of the 18th century. They crushed and uprooted feudalism, and, in the words of Marx, swept away everything medieval and feudal with a "gigantic broom", thereby clearing the ground for the formation of new capitalist relations. As a result, the Jacobins created all the conditions for the replacement of the feudal system by the capitalist one.

The Jacobin dictatorship strictly intervened in the sphere of sale and distribution of basic products and goods, speculators and those who violated the maximum laws were sent to the guillotine.

But just as the state during the period of dictatorship regulated only in the sphere of distribution and did not affect the mode of production, therefore, neither the policy of repression of the Jacobin government, nor state regulation could weaken the economic power of the new bourgeoisie.

In addition, during this period, the economic strength of the bourgeoisie grew significantly, thanks to the elimination of feudal landownership and the sale of national property. Economic ties were destroyed by the war, at this time great demands were placed on all economic areas of life. But, despite the restrictive measures taken by the Jacobins, all conditions were created for the enrichment of enterprising businessmen. From everywhere, after liberation from feudalism, an energetic, bold new bourgeoisie, striving for wealth, appeared. Its ranks were constantly growing due to people from the urban petty-bourgeois strata and wealthy peasants. The sources of the rapid fabulous growth of the wealth of the new bourgeoisie were the speculation of scarce goods, the sale of land, the difference in the exchange rate of money, huge supplies to the army, accompanied by various frauds and frauds. The policy of repression pursued by the Jacobin government could not influence this process. Not afraid of being beheaded, the rich who appeared during the revolution were able to a short time to make themselves a huge fortune, they rushed uncontrollably to enrich themselves and in every possible way circumvented the laws on the maximum, on the prohibition of speculation and other measures of the revolutionary government.

In the future, like-minded deputies from other provinces began to join them. In Paris, the club was reorganized and took the name "Society of Friends of the Constitution" (after the proclamation of the Republic, the Jacobins changed this name to "Society of Friends of Liberty and Equality"). Similar clubs began to appear in other cities, and almost all of them established a permanent correspondence with the Parisian club, becoming its branches. Club memberships are estimated at up to 500,000 nationwide. From November 1790, the Jacobins began to publish their own organ, the Journal of the Society of Friends of the Constitution.

Gradually, the influence of the club grew and from a discussion society, the club began to determine the direction of the development of the revolution, and after Louis XVI's attempted escape to Varennes, it became one of the revolutionary bodies that influenced and participated in the uprisings of August 10 and May 31. After the Revolutionary Government came to power, the club degenerates into one of the administrative bodies of the government; many members of the club become functionaries of the government, following its policies. " The revolution was frozen, all its principles were weakened, only a red cap remained on the heads of intrigue- wrote Saint-Just at this time.

Origin

Gradually, like-minded deputies from other provinces began to join them, including Mirabeau, Sieyes, Duke d "Aiguillon, Viscount Noaille, Barnave, Pétion, Volney, Abbé Gregoire, brothers Charles and Alexander Lamet, lawyer from Arras Maximilian Robespierre. Members of the club usually met on the eve of important meetings of the Estates General and outlined a common line of conduct.It soon became clear, however, that in an assembly where the nobles and clergy had a representation equal to the third estate, even a well-organized party could not form a majority.It became clear that support from outside was needed. meetings, the formation of public opinion, when individuals could apply to the meeting with petitions, influence local governments, support the discussion of pressing issues in the press.

When the king and the National Assembly moved to Paris, the Breton Club disintegrated, but its former members began to gather again, first in a Parisian private house, then in the premises they hired in the monastery of the Jacobin monks (of the Dominican order) near the arena, where the National Assembly met. Some of the monks also took part in the meetings; so the royalists called the members of the club in derision Jacobins, while they themselves adopted the name "Society of Friends of the Constitution."

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.

The escape changed the situation. By this time, none of the Jacobins, including the left wing - Robespierre, Pétion, Roederer, Buzot, held or expressed republican views. For the first time since the beginning of the Revolution, the press began to openly discuss the possibility of establishing a republic. However, the constitutionalists, 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 Guardsmen opened fire, killing several dozen people.

The events led to deep divisions and a split in the Jacobin Club; the moderate part, among whom were many deputies of the Legislative Assembly, led by Barnave, Duport and Alexandre Lamet, left the club in large numbers and founded a new club called the Feuillants Club. Most of the members left with them, as did the club's branches all over the country. About 400 provincial clubs took the side of the Feuillants and only about a dozen of the remaining ones - the Jacobins. Robespierre remained. It was at this time that Robespierre became the most famous and influential member of the Jacobin Club. In the next few months, along with the radicalization of the country, agitation and clarification, many returned. Prieur, Gregoire, Barère, dubois-cransais, Talleyrand, and Sieyès returned at the end of July. By September, the club's membership had risen to 800, and soon about 500 provincial clubs requested affiliation (fr. affiliations) with the Parisian club.

The split led to the rapprochement of the Jacobins and other popular movements in Paris, which was facilitated by new democratic slogans - republicanism, the right to universal suffrage, and the abolition of slavery in the colonies. These events, the split and change in political orientation of the club, were one of the major turning points of the revolution, the consecration of which, writes François Fouret, came a year later with the fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic.

Second revolution

In maintaining and even increasing the influence of the club, to a large extent was the result of the work of one of the most important committees of the club - the Correspondence Committee (fr. Comité de Correspondance), whose members are now Robespierre, Brissot, Carra, Desmoulins, Clavier, Collot-Derbois, Billaud-Varenne . Future Montagnards, future Girondins, future Hébertists and Dantonists - all the future of the revolution, temporarily united. Preparing for debates in the assembly was no longer the goal of the club. The public began to be admitted to meetings from October 12, 1791, with the advent of the public, pressure on the club's debates from Parisian activists increased. The club began to turn into a kind of headquarters for the revolution.

The influence of the Jacobins on the Legislative Assembly was relatively small, and it was the Jacobin Club that was the platform for the "messianic" agitation of Brissot and his associates before declaring war on Austria. It was in the club in December 1791 and January 1792 that Robespierre delivered his famous anti-war speeches. The distinctions between Girondins and Montagnards were rather blurred. After the catastrophic start of the war and the radicalization of the revolution, the club became a unifying force between the Parisian sections and the revolutionary federates who arrived in Paris in the movement to overthrow the monarchy. The legalist direction was abandoned once and for all in July 1792 in support of the election of a new assembly, reflecting the new balance of power - the National Convention.

The Jacobins were not a political party in the modern sense, and therefore it is difficult to find any centralizing element in the events leading up to the uprising of August 10 and the overthrow of the king. But the participation of the Jacobins in the struggle for predominance in the Paris sections, agitation and fraternization with the federates arriving from the provinces is known for sure. Revolutionary Committee The insurgent commune included the Jacobins, who found themselves in the most important posts after the fall of the Tuileries and the victory of the rebels. The same can be said about the Jacobin club's biggest rival, the Cordeliers club. The composition of the revolutionary Commune was increased to 288 members with the predominant influence of the Jacobins. For François Furet, the club's contribution was the crucible (fr. le creuset) in which the very spirit of the August 10 revolution, the fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic, was forged.

For victory, Jacobinism fully mobilized national feeling and the desire for equality. National unity was revived after August 10 around the "Society of Friends of Liberty and Equality" (fr. Amis de la Liberté et de l'Égalité), as the Jacobins began to call themselves. The Paris Commune considered the club to be its ally. The very name of the club, originally given as a mockery, has now become a proud title. Volunteers leaving for the front considered the Jacobin emblem a sign of true citizenship and patriotism, before which all the enemies of the revolution would shudder in horror.

Participation in the National Convention

Club organization

Creation date and articles of association

The exact date of the opening of the club in Paris - in December 1789 or January of the following year - is not known. Its charter was drawn up by Barnave and adopted by the club on February 8, 1790.

Membership

It is not known (because no minutes of the meetings were kept at first) when outsiders, that is, non-deputies, began to be accepted as members.

When the number of members grew, the organization of the club became much more complicated. At the head was the chairman, who was elected for a month; he had four secretaries, twelve inspectors, and, which is especially characteristic of this club, four censors; all these officials were elected for three months: five committees were formed at the club, indicating that the club itself assumed the role of a political censor in relation to the National Assembly and France - committees for the representation (censorship) of members, for supervision ( Surveillance), by administration, by reports and by correspondence. At first the meetings took place three times a week, then daily; the public began to be admitted to meetings only from October 12, 1791, that is, already at the Legislative Assembly.

At this time, the number of members of the club reached 1211 (by voting at the meeting on November 11). Even earlier (since May 20, 1791), the club moved its meetings to the church of the Jacobin Monastery, which he hired after the abolition of the order and the confiscation of its property, and in which meetings took place until the closing of the club. Due to the influx of non-deputies, the composition of the club changed: it became the organ of that social stratum that the French call la bourgeoisie lettrée ("intelligentsia"); the majority consisted of lawyers, doctors, teachers, scientists, writers, painters, who were also joined by persons from the merchant class.

Some of its members bore famous names: doctor Cabanis, scientist Laseped, writer Marie-Joseph Chenier, Choderlos de Laclos, painters David and Carl Vernet, Laharpe, Fabre d'Eglantine, Mercier. Although with a large influx of members, the mental level and education of those arriving decreased , however, the Parisian Jacobin Club to the end retained two original features: a doctorate and some attention to educational qualification... This was expressed in antagonism towards the Cordeliers club, where even illiterate people were accepted, and also in the fact that the very entry into the Jacobin Club was conditioned by a rather high membership fee (24 livres annually, and upon entry another 12 livres).

Newspaper

The club acquired its own newspaper; editing it was entrusted to Choderlos de Laclos, close to the Duke of Orleans; the newspaper itself began to be called the "Monitor" of Orléanism. This revealed a certain opposition to Louis XVI; nevertheless, the Jacobin Club remained true to the political principle proclaimed in its name.

Political current

The political revolutionary movement of a radical kind - Jacobinism - survived the Jacobin Club and continues to live in history. Today, "Jacobinism" or "Jacobin" refers to a wide range of definitions: the indivisibility of national sovereignty and independence, the role of the state in the transformation of society, the centralization of the state, equality guaranteed by the universality of law, spiritual renewal through republican education. Jacobinism called on society to discard old taboos and direct freedom of thought to the service of the nation. In this the European monarchies were not mistaken. The Jacobin Republic was a symbol of a total struggle against every form of oppression, and conservative Europe tried to protect itself from the "French epidemic". "Jacobin" became synonymous with "democrat". There was a sense in Britain that the Levellers had returned from their own revolution. In divided Poland and in the Habsburg Empire, the peoples saw in Jacobinism the promise and desire for liberation. Illegally or openly, clubs have been established from Turkey to the United States. Some even sought an affiliation with the Paris Club.

Genife P. French Revolution and Terror // French Yearbook 2000: 200 years of the French Revolution 1789-1799: Anniversary Results. M.: Editorial URSS, 2000.
Mathiez, Albert. The French Revolution. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1995.
Mitrofanov A. A. The image of Russia in revolutionary journalism and periodicals of France during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship // Russia and France: XVIII-XX centuries. / Rev. ed. P. P. Cherkasov. Issue. 9. M.: Nauka, 2009. S. 69-99.
Molchanov N. Montagnary. M. "Young Guard" (ZhZL). 1989
// French Yearbook, 1970. M., 1972. S. 278-313.
Revunenkov V.G. Essays on the history of the French Revolution. Part 1. The fall of the monarchy. 1789-1792. - Leningrad: Leningrad University Publishing House, 1982.
Chudinov A. V. Reflections on the hidden meanings of the discussion on the problem of the Jacobin dictatorship (60s - 80s of the XX century) // French Yearbook 2007. M., 2007. P. 264-274.
Andreas, David. The Terror: the merciless war for freedom in revolutionary France. - Farrar: Straus and Giroux, 2006. - ISBN 0-374-27341-3.
Brinton, Crane. The Jacobins: An Essay in the New History. - New York: The Macmillan Company, 1930.
Bouloiseau, Marc. The Jacobin Republic: 1792–1794. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. - .
Kuhlmann, Charles. Influence of the Breton Deputation and the Breton Club in the French Revolution (april-october, 1789). - Nebraska: Lincoln, 1903.
Lefebvre, George. The French Revolution: from its Origins to 1793. - New York: Columbia University Press, 1962. - V. 1. - ISBN 0-231-08599-0.
Lefebvre, George. The French Revolution: from 1793 to 1799. - New York: Columbia University Press, 1963. - Vol. II. - ISBN 0-231-08599-0.
Lefebvre, George. The Thermidorians & the Directory. - New York: Random House, 1964.
Rude, George. The French Revolution. - New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991. -

Gradually, the influence of the club grew and from a debating society, the club began to determine the direction of the development of the revolution, and after the attempted escape of Louis XVI to Varennes, it became one of the revolutionary bodies that influenced and participated in the uprisings of August 10 and May 31. After the Revolutionary Government came to power, the club degenerates into one of the administrative bodies of the government; many members of the club become functionaries of the government, following its policies. " The revolution was frozen, all its principles were weakened, only a red cap remained on the heads of intrigue- wrote Saint-Just at this time.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ From Jacobin dictatorship to Napoleonic empire

✪ French Revolution (part 3) - Age of Terror

Subtitles

Origin

When the king and the National Assembly moved to Paris, the Breton Club broke up, but its former members began to gather again, first in a private house in Paris, then in a room they had hired in the monastery of the Jacobin monks (of the Dominican order) near the arena, where the National Assembly met. Some of the monks also took part in the meetings; so the royalists called the members of the club in derision Jacobins, while they themselves adopted the name "Society of Friends of the Constitution."

Varenna Crisis

The escape changed the situation dramatically. By this time, no one among the Jacobins, including the left wing - Robespierre, Pétion, Roederer, Buzot, held or expressed republican views. For the first time since the beginning of the Revolution, the press began to openly discuss the possibility of establishing a republic. However, the constitutionalists, 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 Guardsmen opened fire, killing several dozen people.

The split led to the rapprochement of the Jacobins and other popular movements in Paris, which was facilitated by new democratic slogans - republicanism, the right to universal suffrage, and the abolition of slavery in the colonies. These events, the split and change in the political orientation of the club, were one of the major turning points of the revolution, the consecration of which, according to François Fouret, occurred a year later with the fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic.

Second revolution

The influence of the Jacobins on the Legislative Assembly was relatively small, and it was the Jacobin Club that was the platform for the "messianic" agitation of Brissot and his associates before declaring war on Austria. And it was in the club in December 1791 and January 1792 that Robespierre delivered his famous anti-war speeches. The distinctions between Girondins and Montagnards were rather blurred, and what is now called the Girondin or Brissotine Ministry was at that time called the Jacobin Ministry. After the catastrophic start of the war and the radicalization of the revolution, the club becomes a unifying force between the Parisian sections and the revolutionary federates (fr. fédérés) who arrived in Paris in the movement to overthrow the monarchy. The legalist direction was abandoned once and for all in July 1792 in support of the election of a new assembly, reflecting the new balance of power - the National Convention.

The Jacobins were not a political party in the modern sense, and therefore it is difficult to find any of their centralizing principle or action in the events leading to the uprising on August 10 and the overthrow of the king. But the participation of the Jacobins in the struggle for predominance in the Paris sections, agitation and fraternization with the federates arriving from the provinces is known for sure. The revolutionary committee of the insurgent commune included the Jacobins, as well as the fact that the Jacobins found themselves in the most important posts after the fall of the Tuileries and the victory of the rebels. The same can be said about the Jacobin club's biggest rival, the Cordeliers club. The composition of the revolutionary Commune was increased to 288 members with the predominant influence of the Jacobins. For François Furet, the contribution of the club was the crucible (fr. le creuset) in which the very spirit of the August 10 revolution, the fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic, was forged.

In order to achieve victory, Jacobinism fully mobilized national feeling and the desire for equality. National unity was revived after August 10 around the "Society of Friends of Liberty and Equality" (fr. Amis de la Liberté et de l'Égalité), as the Jacobins began to call themselves. The Paris Commune considered the club to be its ally. Every Parisian section considered it a point of pride to imitate the Jacobins. The very name of the club, originally given as a mockery, has now become a proud title. Volunteers leaving for the front considered the Jacobin emblem a sign of true citizenship and patriotism, before which all the enemies of the revolution would shudder in horror.

Participation in the National Convention

Club organization

Creation date and articles of association

The exact date of the opening of the club in Paris - in December 1789 or January of the following year - is not known. Its charter was drawn up by Barnave and adopted by the club on February 8th.

Membership

It is not known (because no minutes of the meetings were kept at first) when outsiders, that is, non-deputies, began to be accepted as members.

When the number of members grew, the organization of the club became much more complicated. At the head was the chairman, who was elected for a month; he had four secretaries, twelve inspectors, and, which is especially characteristic of this club, four censors; all these officials were elected for three months: five committees were formed at the club, indicating that the club itself assumed the role of a political censor in relation to the National Assembly and France - committees for the representation (censorship) of members, for supervision ( Surveillance), by administration, by reports and by correspondence. At first the meetings took place three times a week, then daily; The public began to be admitted to meetings only from October 12, 1791, that is, already at the Legislative Assembly.

At this time, the number of members of the club reached 1211 (by voting at the meeting on November 11). Even earlier (from May 20, 1791), the club moved its meetings to the church of the Jacobin Monastery, which he hired after the abolition of the order and the confiscation of its property, and in which meetings took place until the closing of the club. Due to the influx of non-deputies, the composition of the club changed: it became the organ of that social stratum that the French call la bourgeoisie lettrée ("intelligentsia"); the majority consisted of lawyers, doctors, teachers, scientists, writers, painters, who were also joined by persons from the merchant class.

Some of its members bore famous names: the doctor Cabanis, the scientist Laseped, the writer Marie-Joseph Chenier, Choderlo de Laclos, the painters David and Karl Vernet, Laharpe, Fabre d "Eglantine, Mercier. Although with a large influx of members, the mental level and education of the arrivals decreased However, the Jacobin Club of Paris retained to the end two original features: a doctorate and some stiffness in relation to the educational qualification.This was expressed in antagonism towards the Cordeliers club, where people without education, even illiterates, were admitted, and also in the fact that the very entry into The Jacobin club was conditioned by a rather high membership fee (24 livres annually, and upon entry another 12 livres).

Newspaper

Political current

Jacobinism as a political trend has evoked, evokes and will evoke various emotions and attitudes; for supporters - the best in the revolution, for opponents - the worst. In 1796, Babeuf attempted to mobilize nostalgia for the Jacobin republic of Year II in the Conjuration des Égaux, which was both neo-Jacobin and proto-communist. In the same year, Joseph de Maistre published Discourses on France (fr. Considérations sur la France), in which he presented the revolution as an event of unsurpassed lawlessness and the Jacobins as an instrument of God's punishment. Thanks to the ability of Jacobinism to embody the most radical thing in the revolution, Jacobinism has come down to us in legend, theory, practice and revolutionary tradition; as in history, the club has forever remained a "society of friends of freedom and equality" Mathiez, Albert. The French Revolution. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1995.

Mitrofanov A. A. The image of Russia in revolutionary journalism and periodicals of France during the Jacobin dictatorship // Russia and France: XVIII-XX centuries. / Rev. ed. P. P. Cherkasov. Issue. 9. M.: Nauka, 2009. S. 69-99.

Molchanov N. Montagnary. M. "Young Guard" (ZhZL). 1989

// French Yearbook, 1970. M., 1972. S. 278-313.

Revunenkov V.G. Essays on the history of the French Revolution. Part 1. The fall of the monarchy. 1789-1792. - Leningrad: Leningrad University Publishing House, 1982.

Chudinov A. V. Reflections on hidden meanings discussions on the problem Jacobin dictatorship (60s - 80s years XXth century) // French Yearbook 2007. M., 2007. P. 264-274.

Andreas, David. The Terror: the merciless war for freedom in revolutionary France. - Farrar: Straus and Giroux, 2006. - ISBN 0-374-27341-3.

Brinton, Crane. The Jacobins: An Essay in the New History. - New York: The Macmillan Company, 1930.

Bouloiseau, Marc. The Jacobin Republic: 1792–1794. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. - ISBN 0-521-28918-1.

Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. - ISBN 978-0199252985.

Furet, Francois. The French Revolution: 1770-1814. - London: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. - ISBN 0-631-20299-4 .

Furet, Francois. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. - London: Harvard University Press, 1989. - ISBN 0-674-17728-2.

Hampson, Norman. A Social History of the French Revolution. - Routledge: University of Toronto Press, 1988. - ISBN 0-710-06525-6 .

Kuhlmann, Charles. Influence of the Breton Deputation and the Breton Club in the French Revolution (april-october, 1789). - Nebraska: Lincoln, 1903.

Lefebvre, George. The French Revolution: from its Origins to 1793. - New York: Columbia University Press, 1962. - Vol. 1. - ISBN 0-231-08599-0.

Lefebvre, George. The French Revolution: from 1793 to 1799. - New York: Columbia University Press, 1963. - Vol. II. - ISBN 0-231-08599-0.

Lefebvre, George. The Thermidorians & the Directory. - New York: Random House, 1964.

Rude, George. The French Revolution. - New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991. - ISBN 1-55584-150-3 .

Soboul, Albert. The French Revolution: 1787-1799. - New York: Random House, 1974. - ISBN 0-394-47392-2.

Thompson J.M. Robespierre. - London: Blackwell Pub, 1936. - Vol. 1. - ISBN 063115504X.

Vovelle Michel. The Fall of the French monarchy 1787-1792. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. - ISBN 0-521-28916-5 .

Plan
Introduction
1 Origin of the term
2 Jacobin Club
2.1 Feuillants falling away
2.2 Fall of the Girondins
2.3 Overthrow of the monarchy. Radicalization of the club

3 National Convention
3.1 Jacobin dictatorship and terror

4 9 Thermidor. Club Agony
5 Dissolution of the club
6 Role of the Jacobin Club in the French Revolution
7 Jacobins as a political and psychological type

9 Compositions

11 Fiction

Introduction

The Jacobins (fr. jacobins) are members of the political club of the era of the Great French Revolution, who established their dictatorship in 1793-1794. Formed in June 1789 on the basis of the Breton faction of deputies of the National Assembly. They got their name from the club, located in the Dominican monastery of St. James. The Jacobins included primarily members of the revolutionary Jacobin Club in Paris, as well as members of provincial clubs closely associated with the main club.

The Jacobin party included a right wing led by Danton, a center led by Robespierre, and a left wing led by Marat (and after his death Hébert and Chaumette).

The Jacobins (mainly supporters of Robespierre) participated in the Convention, and on June 2, 1793, they carried out a coup d'état, overthrowing the Girondins. Their dictatorship lasted until the coup on July 27, 1794, as a result of which Robespierre was executed.

During their reign, the Jacobins carried out a number of radical reforms and launched mass terror.

1. The emergence of the term

Until 1791, the members of the club were supporters of the constitutional monarchy. By 1793, the Jacobins had become the most influential force in the Convention, they advocated the unity of the country, the strengthening of national defense in the face of counter-revolution, and harsh internal terror. In the second half of 1793, the dictatorship of the Jacobins, led by Robespierre, was established. After the coup of 9 Thermidor and the death of the leaders of the Jacobins, the club was closed (November 1794).

Since the 19th century, the term "Jacobins" has been used not only to refer to the historical members of the Jacobin Club and their allies, but also as the name of a certain radical political-psychological type.

2. Jacobin club

The Jacobin Club had an enormous influence on the course of the French Revolution of 1789. Not without reason it has been said that the revolution grew and developed, fell and disappeared in connection with the fate of this club. The cradle of the Jacobin Club was the Breton Club, that is, the meetings arranged by several deputies of the third estate of Brittany upon their arrival at Versailles in the Estates General before they were opened.

The initiative for these conferences is attributed to d'Ennebon and de Pontivy, who were among the most radical deputies in their province. Deputies of the Breton clergy and deputies of other provinces, who held different directions, soon took part in these meetings. There were Sieyes and Mirabeau, the Duke d'Aiguilon and Robespierre, the Abbé Gregoire, Barnave and Pétion. The influence of this private organization made itself felt strongly on the critical days of June 17 and 23.

When the king and the National Assembly moved to Paris, the Breton Club disintegrated, but its former members began to gather again, first in a private house, then in a room rented by them in the monastery of the Jacobin monks (of the Dominican order) near the arena, where the National Assembly met. Some of the monks also took part in the meetings; hence the royalists called the members of the club, in derision, the Jacobins, and they themselves adopted the name of the Society of Friends of the Constitution.

Jean-Paul Marat

In fact, the political ideal of the then Jacobin club was a constitutional monarchy, as understood by the majority of the National Assembly. They called themselves monarchists and recognized the law as their motto. The exact date of the opening of the club in Paris - in December 1789 or January of the following year - is unknown. Its charter was drawn up by Barnave and adopted by the club on February 8, 1790. It is not known (since minutes of meetings were not kept at first) when outsiders, that is, non-deputies, began to be accepted as members.

Saint Just, Louis Antoine

Fabre d'Eglantin

Some of its members bore famous names: the doctor Cabanis, the scientist Laseped, the writer Marie-Joseph Chenier, Choderlos de Laclos, the painters David and Carl Vernet, Laharpe, Fabre d'Eglantin, Mercier. Although with a large influx of members, the mental level and education of the arrivals dropped However, the Jacobin Club in Paris retained to the end two original features: a doctorate and some stiffness in relation to the educational qualification.This was expressed in antagonism towards the Cordeliers club, where people without education, even illiterates, were admitted, and also in the fact that the very entry into The Jacobin club was conditioned by a rather high membership fee (24 livres annually, and upon entry another 12 livres).

Georges Couthon

Subsequently, at the Jacobin Club, a special department was organized under the name "fraternal society for the political education of the people", where women were also allowed; but this did not change the general character of the club. The club acquired its own newspaper; editing it was entrusted to Choderlos de Laclos, close to the Duke of Orleans; the newspaper itself began to be called the "Monitor" of Orléanism. This revealed a certain opposition to Louis XVI; nevertheless, the Jacobin Club remained true to the political principle proclaimed in its name.

2.1. Feuillants falling away

He was not deterred from this path by the flight of the king and his detention in Varenna. The clashes caused by these events caused, however, a split among the members of the club; the more moderate of them, led by Barnave, Duport, and Alexandre Lamet, left the club in large numbers and founded a new one called the Feuillants Club. Adherents of this trend later formed the right wing in the Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, following the model of the Paris Jacobin Club, similar clubs began to appear in other cities and even in villages: there were about a thousand of them; they all entered into correspondence and relations with the Parisian, recognizing themselves as its branches (affiliations).

In this, the predominance of Paris and the desire for centralization inherent in the "Old Order" were sharply manifested; The influence of the Parisian club on the provincials played a great role in the revolutionary re-education of France and greatly contributed to the final triumph of the principle of centralization in the country. The separation of the more moderate Feuillants from the Jacobins strengthened the position of the radical elements in the Jacobin Club. It was very important for his further fate that in the feud between the Feuillants and the Jacobins, the provincial clubs took the side of the latter. In the elections to the Legislative Assembly that took place at the beginning of September 1791, the Jacobins managed to get only five leaders of the club out of the 23 deputies of Paris; but his influence grew, and in the November elections for the municipality of Paris, the Jacobins gained the upper hand. After that, the Paris Commune became an instrument of the Jacobin Club.

The most influential of the Parisian newspapers were in favor of the Jacobins against the Feuillants. The Jacobin Club founded its own organ called the Journal des debats (Journal des débats et des décrets) instead of the former newspaper, the Journal d. 1. soc. etc.", which went to the feuillants. Not limited to the press, the Jacobins moved at the end of 1791 to direct influence on the people; to this end, prominent members of the club - Pétion, Collot d "Herbois and Robespierre himself - devoted themselves to "the noble vocation to teach the children of the people of the constitution", that is, to teach the "catechism of the constitution" in public schools. Another measure of more practical importance was the recruitment of agents who in the squares or in the galleries of the club and the National Assembly they were supposed to engage in the political education of adults and win them over to the side of the Jacobins.These agents were recruited from military deserters who fled in droves to Paris, as well as from workers who had previously been initiated into the ideas of the Jacobins.

At the beginning of 1792 there were about 750 such agents; they were under a former officer who received orders from the secret committee of the Jacobin Club. Agents received 5 livres a day, but due to the large influx, the salary was reduced to 20 sous. Big influence in the Jacobin spirit was a visit to the galleries of the Jacobin Club, open to the public, where up to one and a half thousand people could fit; seats were occupied from two o'clock in the afternoon, although the meetings did not begin until six in the evening. Club speakers tried to keep the audience in constant excitement. An even more important means of acquiring influence was the capture of the galleries in the Legislative Assembly through agents and mobs led by them; in this way, the Jacobin Club could directly influence the speakers of the Legislative Assembly and the vote. All this was very expensive and was not covered by membership dues; but the Jacobin Club enjoyed large subsidies from the Duke of Orleans, or appealed to the "patriotism" of its wealthy members; one such collection delivered 750,000 livres.