Revolutions and the Collapse of the Monarchy: Human Agency and the Making of Revolution in France, Russia and Iran (International Library of Historical Studies)

297 Pages·2007·16.51 MB·English

by  Zhand Shakibi

Revolutions and the
Collapse of Monarchy
Zhand Shakibi
I.B. TAURIS

RElVOLUTIONS
AND THE COLLAPSE OF
MONARCHY
REVOLUTIONS
AND THE COLLAPSE OF
MONARCHY
Human Agen y and the Making ofRevol'.tion in
France) Russia) and Iran
Zhand Shahbj
1 I
I.B. TAURIS
Published in 2007 by I.B.'l'auris & Co Ltd
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Copyright 02 007 %hand Shaklb~
The right of Zhand Shakibi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and l'atent Act 1988.
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International Library of 1 Iistorical Studies 42
ISBN 978 1 8451 1 292 9
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camera-ready copy ed~teda nd supphed by the author
CONTENTS
Prt$ace vii
1. Revolution: Structure and Human Agency 1
2. Structural Factors of Revolution 18
3. The Making of Monarchs 58
4. Louis XVI and the Collapse of the Bourbon State 93
5. Nicholas I1 and the Collapse of the Romanov State 140
6. Mohammad Reza Shah and the Collapse of the Pahlavi State 181
7. The Making of Revolution: Conclusions 224
Notes 236
Ribliograph_y 257
Index 283

PREFACE
Pvly great interest in revolution emerged when as a boy I saw demonstrations in
the turbulent period leading to the overthrow of 'The Shah', hiohammad Keza
Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran and Light of the Aryans. The Iranian Revolution
questioned many of the assumptions underpinning approaches to the study of
revolution. When the revolution began, the Pahlavi state did not face financial
collapse, a serious economic crisis, or defeat in war. A movement headed by
religious clerics overthrew a 'modernizing' monarch whose army and repressive
capacity remained intact. The French and Russian Revolutions stressed forms of
universalistic modernity whilst the Iranian Revolution seemingly rejected them.
My study of the Iranian Revolution led to the examination of other great
revolutions of the modern era and of general theories of revolution. The
structure-human agency debate caught my attention. I noticed that within the
human agency approach the role of the revolutionary leader, such as Lenin, and
the role of societal classes, such as workers or peasants, had been systematically
and/or in comparative terms examined. The role of the monarch remained on the
periphery, reduced to undeserved secondary importance. Many structural
approaches focus on the role and the actions of the state in the 'coming' of
revolution without examining the pivot of that state, the monarch. Given tlus
omission, it seemed that these approaches to revolution were incomplete and
thereby unable to explain the occurrence and timing of the disintegration of the
monarchical regimes in France, Russia, and Iran.
This book is a comparative study of the implosion of the monarchical states in
Bourbon France, Romanov Russia and Pahlavi Iran which culminated in three of
the great revolutions of modern time. The main aim is to determine the extent to
which King Louis XVI, Tsar Nicholas 11, and hiohammad Reza Shah made
revolution in their respective countries. It follows that this book offers an
alternative and, in some cases, comphentary, explanation to existing theories of
revolution that focus on structural and impersonal causes of revolution. The over-
all approach of the book is that of interpretative political, comparative, and
international history, centred on general theories of revolution and historical
explanations of revolution.
What is new about this approach is the analysis in a comparative framework of
the overall modus operandi of these three men and its impact on the effectiveness
of government. The modus operandi of Louis XVI, Nicholas I1 and Pvlohammad
Reza Pahlavi shared certain characteristics which together created a hole in the
centre of the government. It was this hole that paralysed the government and
thereby made revolution. This book is not an attempt to explain revolution in
terms of human agency alone or to deny the work done on the structural causes
of revolution. Rather I attempt to integrate the modus operandi and idiosyncrasies
of the monarchs and monarchical states with structural variables in order to
determine the extent to which each of these men made revolution. In other
words, I do not aim to present a theory of revolution based on human agency.
Moreover, argumg for the systematic attention to the role of monarchs in
revolution does not mean that the personality of the monarch of necessity was of
equal importance in all cases of the overthrow of royal regimes.
a s b ook has three new dimensions in regard to the study of revolution.
Firstly, no comparison of the implosion of the French, Russian, and Iranian
monarclucal states has been undertaken. Secondly, a new structural element is
added. It focuses on the monarchical institutions and their functioning as a
potential cause of revolution, an issue to which previous structural approaches
paid scant attention, in part for the important reason that very few political
scientists are interested in the structure of old regimes. Thirdly, as mentioned
above, the book's aim is to determine the extent to which each of these men
made revolution. The systematic analysis of monarchs' modus operandl has not
been fashionable, regarded as the study of unimportant elements in an ineluctable
movement towards revolution and 'progress.'
This book grew out of a doctoral dissertation completed in the Government
Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Thts
labour of love would not have been possible without the help, guidance, and
support of many people to whom I offer my deepest thanks. Specifically I
enjoyed a great deal of intellectual (as well as personal) support from Mohsen
hfdani, Mahmoud Rasekh, Pvfohammad Reza Saleh-Nejad, Jubin Goodarzi, and
Fred Halhday. Special thanks to Dominic Lieven, a dedicated PhD supervisor. I
would also like to thank Sergei Spiridonov, Sasha Samolenko, Natasha
Chapytkova, Irina Shulakovskaya, Georg Heine, John Belohlavek, Larissa
Nlkolaevna, Roxana Djaltlt, Gordon and Angela Hamme, Linda Trautman,
Razmik Panossian, Gwen Sasse and Pvlassoud Jenabzade. Finally, thanks to my
family and especially to my parents, Mohammad and Kathryn Shakibi to whom
this book is dedicated, for their love and support.
REVOLUTION: STRUCTURE AND
HUMAN AGENCY
For my part I hate all those absolztte ~stemtsh at
make all the events of histoy depend on greatjrst tames
linked together b_y the chain offate and thus succeed, so to speak,
in banishing menf rom the histoy ofthe human race.
Alexis de Tocquevi.de
We are the pawns, and Heaven is theplqe~
. . . We move abozlt the chessboard ofthe world.
Then drop into the casket ofthe void.
Omar Khqyam
Louis XVI, h g of France and Navarre, Nicholas 11, Tsar and Autocrat of all the
Russias, and Mohammad Keza Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran and Li-g ht of the
.Aryans, have gone down in history as ill-fated men destined to watch helplessly as
a revolutionary wave destroyed their respective ruling houses and monarchies.
Eugene de la Croiu's painting, La Liberte' Gtlidant le petrple and the words of L'abbi
Edgewood de Fumont to Louis XVI as he stepped up to the Notine, 'Son of St.
Louis, rise to heaven' symbolise well the images of revolution in the modern age.
Under the progressive banner of a revolutionary leader, the masses rise to
overthrow a decrepit, unjust and corrupt regime. The outcome is the execution of
the symbol of that old order, the monarch, who failed to overcome the laws of
progressive hlstory. Leon Trotskii's famous rebuke to opponents of Bolshevik
party plans succinctly describes the view taken by most on the role of monarchs in
revolutionary situations. 'You are pitiful, isolated individuals. You are bankrupts,
your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on-into the dustbin of
history.'
Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French political thinker of the nineteenth
century, provided the initial theoretical attempt to explain the first revolution of