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The Great French Revolution 1789–1793 - The Anarchist Library PDF

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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 2 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 3 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 4 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. 5 PeterKropotkin 6 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, 7 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. 8 Itisforus,thedescendantsofthosecalledbytheircontemporariesthe“anarchists,”tostudy thepopularcurrent,andtotrytoreconstructatleastitsmainfeatures. 9 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. 10

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Chapter 31: The Counter-Revolution in the South of France The more one studies the French Revolution the clearer it is how incomplete is the history of that .
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