The Great French Revolution 1789–1793 - The Anarchist Library

340 Pages·2014·1.28 MB·English

The Great French Revolution 1789–1793
Pëtr Kropotkin
1909
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter1:TheTwoGreatCurrentsoftheRevolution 7
Chapter2:TheIdea 10
Chapter3:Action 14
Chapter4:ThePeopleBeforetheRevolution 17
Chapter5:TheSpiritofRevolt:theRiots 19
Chapter6:TheConvocationoftheStatesGeneralBecomesNecessary 26
Chapter7:TheRisingoftheCountryDistrictsDuringtheOpeningMonthsof1789 29
Chapter8:RiotsinParisandItsEnvirons 35
Chapter9:TheStates-General 37
Chapter10:PreparationsfortheCoupd’État 41
Chapter11:ParisontheEveoftheFourteenth 47
Chapter12:TheTakingoftheBastille 54
Chapter13:TheConsequencesofJuly14atVersailles 60
Chapter14:ThePopularRisings 64
Chapter15:TheTowns 67
Chapter16:ThePeasantRising 74
Chapter17:August4andItsConsequences 80
Chapter18:TheFeudalRightsRemain 87
Chapter19:DeclarationoftheRightsofMan 94
Chapter20:TheFifthandSixthofOctober1789 97
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Chapter21:FearsoftheMiddleClasses—TheNewMunicipalOrganisation 104
Chapter22:FinancialDifficulties—SaleofChurchProperty 110
Chapter23:TheFêteoftheFederation 114
Chapter24:The“Districts”andthe“Sections”ofParis 118
Chapter25:TheSectionsofParisUndertheNewMunicipalLaw 123
Chapter26:DelaysintheAbolitionoftheFeudalRights 127
Chapter27:FeudalLegislationin1790 133
Chapter28:ArrestoftheRevolutionin1790 138
Chapter29:TheFlightoftheKing—Reaction—EndoftheConstituentAssembly 144
Chapter30:TheLegislativeAssembly—Reactionin1791–1792 150
Chapter31:TheCounter-RevolutionintheSouthofFrance 156
Chapter32:TheTwentiethofJune1792 161
Chapter33:TheTenthOfAugust:ItsImmediateConsequences 169
Chapter34:TheInterregnum—TheBetrayals 177
Chapter35:TheSeptemberDays 186
Chapter36:TheConvention—TheCommune—TheJacobins 193
Chapter37:TheGovernment—ConflictsWiththeConvention—TheWar 198
Chapter38:TheTrialoftheKing 205
Chapter39:The“Mountain”andTheGironde 211
Chapter40:AttemptsoftheGirondinstoStoptheRevolution 216
Chapter41:The“Anarchists” 219
Chapter42:CausesoftheRisingonMay31 224
Chapter43:SocialDemands—StateofFeelingInParis—Lyons 229
Chapter44:TheWar—TheRisinginLaVendee—TreacheryofDumouriez 235
Chapter45:ANewRisingRenderedInevitable 242
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Chapter46:TheInsurrectionofMay31andJune2 247
Chapter47:ThePopularRevolution—ArbitraryTaxation 252
Chapter48:TheLegislativeAssemblyandtheCommunalLands 255
Chapter49:TheLandsRestoredtotheCommunes 260
Chapter50:FinalAbolitionoftheFeudalRights 264
Chapter51:TheNationalEstates 267
Chapter52:TheStruggleAgainstFamine—TheMaximum—Paper-Money 270
Chapter53:Counter-RevolutionInBrittany—AssassinationofMarat 275
Chapter54:TheVendee—Lyons—TheRisingsinSouthernFrance 280
Chapter55:TheWar—TheInvasionBeatenBack 286
Chapter56:TheConstitution—TheRevolutionaryMovement 291
Chapter57:TheExhaustionoftheRevolutionarySpirit 296
Chapter58:TheCommunistMovement 300
Chapter 59: Schemes for the Socialisation of Land, Industries, Means of Subsis-
tenceandExchange 305
Chapter60:TheEndoftheCommunistMovement 309
Chapter61:TheConstitutionoftheCentralGovernment—Reprisals 314
Chapter62:Education—TheMetricSystem—TheNewCalendar—Anti-Religious
Movement 320
Chapter63:TheSuppressionoftheSections 326
Chapter64:StruggleAgainsttheHebertists 329
Chapter65:FalloftheHebertists—DantonExecuted 334
Chapter66:RobespierreandHisGroup 339
Chapter67:TheTerror 342
Chapter68:The9th Thermidor—TriumphofReaction 346
Chapter69:Conclusion 352
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Preface
The more one studies the French Revolution the clearer it is how incomplete is the history
ofthatgreatepoch,howmanygapsinitremaintobefilled,howmanypointsdemandelucida-
tion.Howcoulditbeotherwise?TheGreatRevolution,thatsetallEuropeastir,thatoverthrew
everything, and began the task of universal reconstruction in the course of a few years, was
the working of cosmic forces dissolving and re-creating a world. And if in the writings of the
historians who deal with that period and especially of Michelet, we admire the immense work
theyhaveaccomplishedindisentanglingandco-ordinatingtheinnumerablefactsofthevarious
parallelmovementsthatmadeuptheRevolution,werealiseatthesametimethevastnessofthe
workwhichstillremainstobedone.
The investigations made during the past thirty years by the school of historical research rep-
resentedbyM.AulardandtheSociétédelaRevolutionfrançalse,havecertainlyfurnishedmost
valuablematerial.TheyhaveshedafloodoflightuponttheactsoftheRevolution,onitspoliti-
calaspects,andonthestrugglesforsupremacythattookplacebetweenthevariousparties.But
the study of the economic side of the Revolution is still before us, and this study, as M. Aulard
rightlysays,demandsanentirelifetime.Yetwithoutthisstudythehistoryoftheperiodremains
incomplete and inmany points wholly incomprehensible. In fact, a long series of totally new
problemspresentsitselftothehistorianassoonasheturnshisattentiontotheeconomicsideof
therevolu-tioharyupheaval.
ItwaswiththeintentionofthrowingsomelightupontheseeconomicproblemsthatIbegan
in1886tomakeseparatestudiesoftheearliestrevolutionarystirringsamongthepeasants;the
peasantrisingsin1789;thestrugglesforandagainstthefeudallaws;therealcausesofthemove-
mentofMay31,andsoon.UnfortunatelyIwasnotabletomakeanyresearchesintheNational
Archives of France, and my studies have, therefore, been confined to the collections of printed
matterintheBritishMuseum,whichare,however,inthemselvesexceedinglyrich.
Believingthatitwouldnotbeeasyforthereadertoap-preciatethebearingofseparatestudied
of this kind without a general view of the whole development of the Revolution understood in
thelightofthesestudies,Isoonfounditnecessarytowriteamoreorlessconsecutiveaccountof
thechiefeventsoftheRevolution.InthisaccountIhavenotdweltuponthedramaticsideofthe
episodesofthesedisturbedyears,whichhavebeensooftendescribed,butIhavemadeitmychief
objecttoutilisemodernresearchsoastorevealtheintimateconnectionandinterdependenceof
thevariouseventswhichcombinedtoproducetheclimaxoftheeighteenthcentury’sepic.
ThismethodofstudyingseparatlythevariouspartsoftheworkaccomplishedbytheRevolu-
tionhasnecessarilyitsowndrawbacks:itsometimesentailsrepetition.Ihavepreferred,however,
totaketheriskorreproachforthisfaultinthehopeofimpressingmoreclearlyuponthereader’s
mind the mighty currents of thought and action that came into conflict during the French Rev-
olution—currentssointimatelyblendedwiththeveryessenceofhumannaturethattheymust
inevitablyreappearinthehistoriceventsofthefuture.
AllwhoknowthehistoryoftheRevolutionwillunderstandhowdifficultitistoavoiderrors
in facts when one tries to trace the development of its impassioned struggles. I shall, therefore,
be extremely grateful to those who will be good enough to point out any mistakes I may have
made. And I wish to express here my sincerest gratitude to my friends, James Guillaume and
Ernest Nys, who have had the kindness to read my manuscript and help me in this work with
theirknowledgeandtheircriticisms.
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PeterKropotkin
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Chapter 1: The Two Great Currents of the
Revolution
MaincausesofGreatRevolution—Previousrisings—Unionofmiddleclassesand
peoplenecessary—Importanceofpartplayedbypeople
TwogreatcurrentspreparedandmadetheGreatFrenchRevolution.Oneofthem,thecurrent
ofideas,concerningthepoliticalreorganisationofStates,camefromthemiddleclasses;theother,
thecurrentofaction,camefromthepeople,bothpeasants.andworkersintowns,whowantedto
obtainimmediateanddefiniteimprovementsintheireconomiccondition.Andwhenthesetwo
currents met and joined in the endeavour to realise an aim. wllich for some time was common
toboth,whentheyhadhelpedeachotherforacertaintime,theresultwastheRevolution.
The eighteenth-century philosophers had long been sapping the foundations of the law-and-
ordersocietiesofthatperiod,whereinpoliticalpower,aswellasanimmenseshareofthewealth
belongedtothearistocracyandtheclergy,whilstthemassofthepeoplewerenothingbutbeasts
ofburdentotherulingclasses.Byproclaimingthesovereigntyofreason;bypreachingtrustin
humannature—corrupted,theydeclared,bytheinstitutionsthathadreducedmantoservitude,
but, nevertheless, certain to regain all its qualities when it had reconqured liberty — they had
opened up new vistas to mankind. By proclaiming equality among men, without distinction of
birth;bydemandingfromeverycitizen,whetherkingorpeasant,obediencetothelaw,supposed
to express the will of the nation when it has been made by the representativesof the people;
finally, by demanding freedom of contract between free men, and the abolition of feudal taxes
andservices—byputtingforwardalltheseclaims,linkedtogetherwiththesystemandmethod
characteristic of French thought, the philosophers had undoubtedly prepared, at least in men’s
minds,thedownfalloftheoldrégime.
This alone, however, would not have sufficed to cause the outbreak of the Revolution. There
wasstillthestageofpassingfromtheorytoaction,fromtheconceptionofanidealtoputtingit
intopractice.Andthemostimportantpointinthestudyofthehistoryofthatperiodistobring
into relief the circumstances that made it possible for the French nation at a given moment to
enterontherealisationoftheideal—toattemptthispassagefromtheorytoaction.
On the other hand, long before 1789, France had already entered upon an insurrectionary
period. The accession of Louis XVI. to the throne in 1774 was the signal for a whole series of
hungerriots.Theselastedupto1783;andthencameaperiodofcomparativequiet.Butafter1786,
andstillmoreafter1788,thepeasantinsurrectionsbrokeoutagainwithrenewedvigour.Famine
hadbeenthechiefsourceoftheearlierdisturbances,andthelackofbreadalwaysremainedone
oftheprincipalcausesoftherisings.Butitwaschieflydisinclinationonthepartofthepeasants
to pay the feudal taxes which now spurred them to revolt. The outbreaks went on increasing
in number up to 1789, and in that year they became general in the east, north-east and south-
east of France.In this way the disaggregationof the body social came about. A jacquerie is not,
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however, a revolution, even when it takes such terrible forms as did the rising of the Russian
peasants in 1773 under the banner of Pougatchoff. A revolution is infinitely more than a series
ofinsurrectionsintownandcountry.Itismorethanasimplestrugglebetweenparties,however
sanguinary;morethanmerestreet-fighting,andmuchmorethanamerechangeofgovernment,
suchaswasmadeinFrancein1830and1848.Arevolutionisaswiftoverthrow,inafewyears,
of institutions which have takencenturies to root in the soil, and seem so fixed and immovable
that even the most ardent reformers hardly dare to attack them in their writings. It is the fall,
thecrumblingawayinabriefperiod,ofallthatuptothattimecomposedtheessenceofsocial,
religious,politicalandeconomiclifeinanation.Itmeansthesubversionofacquiredideasandof
acceptednotionsconcerningeachofthecomplexinstitutionsandrelationsofthehumanherd.
In short, it is the birth of completely new ideas concerning the manifold links in citizenship
— conceptions which soon become realities, and then begin to spread among the neighbouring
nations,convulsingtheworldandgivingtothesucceedingageitswatchword,itsproblems,its
science,itslinesofeconomic,politicalandmoraldevelopment.
To arrive at a result of this importance, and for a movement to assume the proportions of a
revolution, as happened in England between 1648 and 1688, and in France between 1789 and
1793, it is not enough that a movement of ideas, no matter how profound it may be, should
manifestitselfamongtheeducatedclasses;itisnotenoughthatdisturbances,howevermanyor
great, should take place in the very heart of the people. The revolutionary action coming from
thepeoplemustcoincidewithamovementofrevolutionarythoughtcomingfromtheeducated
classes.Theremustbeaunionofthetwo.
ThatiswhytheFrenchRevolution,liketheEnglishRevolutionoftheprecedingcentury,hap-
penedatthemomentwhenthemiddleclasses,havingdrunkdeepatthesourcesofcurrentphi-
losophy,becameconsciousoftheirrights,andconceivedanewschemeofpoliticalorganisation.
Strong in their knowledge and eager for the task, they felt themselves quite capable of seizing
thegovernmentbysnatchingitfromapalacearistocracywhich,byitsincapacity,frivolityand
debauchery,wasbringingthekingdomtoutterruin.Butthemiddleandeducatedclassescould
nothavedoneanythingalone,if,consequentonacompletechainofcircumstances,themassof
thepeasantshadnotalsobeenstirred,and,byaseriesofconstantinsurrectionslastingforfour
years, given tothe dissatisfied among the middle classes the possibility of combating both King
andCourt,ofupsettingoldinstitutionsandchangingthepoliticalconstitutionofthekingdom.
Thehistoryofthisdoublemovementremainsstilltobewritten.ThehistoryofthegreatFrench
Revolution has been told and re-told many times, from the point of view of as many different
parties; but up to the present the historians have confined themselves to the political history,
the history of the triumph of the middle classes over the Court party and the defenders of the
institutionsoftheoldmonarchy.
ThusweknowverywelltheprincipleswhichdominatedtheRevolutionandweretranslated
into its legislative work. We have been enraptured by the great thoughts it flung to the world,
thoughtswhichcivilisedcountriestriedtoputintopracticeduringthenineteenthcentury.The
ParliamentaryhistoryoftheRevolution,itswars,itspolicyanditsdiplomacy,hasbeenstudied
and set forth in all its details. But the popular history of the Revolution remains still to be told.
Thepartplayedbythepeople ofthecountryplacesandtownsintheRevolutionhasneverbeen
studiedandnarratedinitsentirety.OfthetwocurrentswhichmadetheRevolution,thecurrent
ofthought isknown;buttheother,thecurrentofpopularaction,hasnotevenbeensketched.
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Itisforus,thedescendantsofthosecalledbytheircontemporariesthe“anarchists,”tostudy
thepopularcurrent,andtotrytoreconstructatleastitsmainfeatures.
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Chapter 2: The Idea
ModernStates—InfluenceofEnglishandAmericanRevolutionsonFrenchRevolu-
tion—Conditionandaimsofmiddleclasses—Centralisationofauthority—Attitude
towardspeasants—Influenceofeighteenth-centuryphilosophy
Tounderstandfullytheideawhichinspiredthemiddleclassesin1789wemustconsideritin
thelightofitsresults—themodernStates.
Thestructureofthelaw-and-orderStateswhichweseeinEuropeatpresentwasonlyoutlined
attheendoftheeighteenthcentury.Thesystemofcentralisedauthority,nowinfullworkingor-
der,hadnotthenattainedeithertheperfectionoruniformityitpossessesto-day.Thatformidable
mechanism,bywhichanordersentfromacertaincapitalputsinmotionallthemenofanation,
ready for war, and sends them out to carry devastation through countries, and mourning into
families;thoseterritories,overspreadwithanetworkofofficialswhosepersonalityiscompletely
effacedbytheirbureaucraticapprenticeship,andwhoobeymechanicallytheordersemanating
fromacentralwillthatpassiveobedienceofcitizenstothelaw;thatworshipoflaw,ofParliament,
of judges and their assistants, which we see about us to-day; that mass of hierarchically organ-
ised and disciplined functionaries; that system of schools, maintained or directed by the State,
whereworshipofpowerandpassiveobediencearetaught;thatindustrialsystem,whichcrushes
underitswheelstheworkerwhomtheStatedeliversovertoitstendermercies;thatcommerce,
whichaccumulatesincrediblerichesinthehandsthosewhomonopolisetheland,themines,the
waysofcommunicationandtherichesofNature,uponwhichtheStateisnourished;andfinally,
that science, which liberates thought and immensely increases the productive powers of men,
butwhichatthesametimeaimsatsubjectingthemtotheauthorityofthestrongestandtothe
State—allthiswasnon-existentbeforetheRevolution.
However, long before the Revolution had by its mutterings given warning of its approach,
the French middle classes the Third Estate had already developed a conception of the political
edifice which should be erected on the ruins of feudal royalty. It is highly probable that the
English Revolution had helped the French middle class towards a comprehension of the part
theywouldbecalledontoplayinthegovernmentofsociety.Anditiscertainthattherevolution
inAmericastimulatedtheenergiesofthemiddle-classrevolutionaries.ThankstoHobbes,Hume,
Montesquieu,Rousseau,Voltaire,Mably,d’Argensonandothers,eversincethebeginningofthe
eighteenth century the study of Politics and the constitution of organised societies based on
electiverepresentationhadbecomepopular,andtothisTurgotandAdamSmithhadjustadded
thestudyofeconomicquestionsandtheplaceofpropertyinthepoliticalconstitutionofaState.
That is why, long before the Revolution broke out, the idea of a State, centralised and well-
ordered,governedbytheclassesholdingpropertyinlandsorinfactories,orbymembersofthe
learnedprofessions,wasalreadyforecastanddescribedinagreatnumberofbooksandpamphlets
fromwhichthemenofactionduringtheRevolutionafterwardsdrewtheirinspirationandtheir
logicalforce.
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