Understanding the French Revolution

348 Pages·1988·7.776 MB·English

by  Albert Soboul

Translation by Aprif. Ana Knutson
UNDERSTANDING
FRENCH REVOLUTION
THE

UNDERSTANDING
FRENCH
THE
REVOLUTION
by Albert Soboul
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, New York
Translation by April Ane Knutson
© 1988 International Publishers Co., Inc.
All rights reserved
1st printing, 1988
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Soboul, Albert.
Understanding the French Revolution.
Translation of: Comprendre la Revolution.
Bibliography: p.
1. France-History-Revolution, 1789-1797.
I. Title.
DC143.S713 1988 944.04 88-1215
ISBN-0-7178-0658-8 (pbk.)
iv
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
1. Reform or Revolution?
On the historical function of historical absolutism
2. Classes and Class Struggle during the Revolution 15
3. Political Aspects of Popular Democracy during Year II 43
4. From Feudalism to Capitalism 56
5. Problems of the Revolutionary State 64
6. Problems of work in Year II 87
7. The "Maximum" of Parisian Wages and 9 Thermidor 102
8. Sectional Personnel and Babouvist Personnel 117
9. Religious Sentiments and Popular Cults: 131
Patriot saints and martyrs of liberty
10. On the "Red Priests" in the French Revolution 145
11. Militant Women of the Parisian Sections (Year II) 158
12. From the Ancien Regime to the Revolution: 168
The regional problem and social realities
13. From the Ancien Regime to the Empire: 194
The national problem and social realities
14. Jaures, Mathiez and the History of the French Revolution 226
15. Georges Lefebvre ( 1874-1959): 237
Historian of the French Revolution
16. Classical Revolutionary Historiography and Revisionist 255
Endeavors
17. The French Revolution in the History of the Contemporary 274
World
v
Appendix: 300
Calendar of the Revolution 300
Glossary 301
Map and Notes of the Paris Sections 304
Map of the Historic Provinces 307
Reference Notes 308
Albert Soboul 333
vi
Foreword
This compilation of writings of Albert Soboul, published in the year before
his death, is a fascinating, masterful presentation of various aspects of the
great French Revolution, which began when the people of Paris stormed
the hated Bastille prison on July 14, 1789. It ended more than ten years
later with Napoleon's coup d'etat on November 9, 1799 (18th brumaire).
Soboul does not give us a chronological, blow-by-blow account of the
Revolution that marked the end of the ancien regime and the beginning of
modern European history. Rather, Soboul probes a series of political and
social problems, stimulating us to consider, or reconsider, the enormous
complexity of the dialectical movement of the French Revolution-and of
all revolutionary change.
These essays encourage us to re-think much of what we thought we
knew about the French Revolution. By presenting much new data and
illuminating many paths of inquiry, Soboul argues persuasively that the
Revolution was a very complex process, joined by many social categories
with vastly different goals and needs. Amateur historians, students-all
lovers of a good tale-will enjoy Soboul's handling of the revolutionary
process and his moving sketches of its key participants. Professional histo
rians will be further inspired to research economic and social issues on the
plane that Soboul so deftly delineates.
All readers will gain a new understanding of the conditions leading to
the Revolution and of the various attempts by different factions of the ris
ing bourgeoisie to forge a society that would allow capitalism to fully
develop, yet placate and contain the just grievances of the angry
multitudes-the artisan-workers and peasants.
Each chapter focuses on a single aspect or question; readers are
encouraged to explore, perhaps reading first the chapters of most immedi
ate personal interest.
Chapter one -is a quite condensed philosophical summary that assumes
some knowledge of the Enlightenment philosophers. Chapter two is espe
cially rich in background information for the selections that follow. Here
and in succeeding chapters we are immersed in developing class struggles
and popular democracy, and the problems of the revolutionary state.
Soboul captures the ferocity of the struggles in the streets and the radical
nature of the democratic procedures instituted in the neighborhood
assemblies.
Chapters six and seven are a detailed look at the questions around work
and wages during the revolutionary period.
vii
Understanding the French Revolution
Soboul provides copious notes with each chapter. Notes that refer to
archives in the National Library in Paris are of little immediate use to most
American readers. But others refer to standard works on the French revo
lution and to the classics of Marx, Engels and Lenin, readily available in
English. Still other notes enrich the content of this work on the forces that
moved the revolution forward and those that braked its egalitarian thrust.
Some notes pose additional questions about the revolutionary process or
ideology.
Chapter eight has the most extensive notes. Here Soboul gives data on
the occupations of all subscribers to Babeuf's Tribun du peuple and of all
those arrested with Babeuf in the spring of 1796, as well as in the attempted
takeover of the Grenelle Camp in the early summer of the same year.
Soboul is interested not only in the jobs of the Babouvists but in discover
ing how many of them had been active in community politics (particularly
in the sectional assemblies) in the most democratic year of the Revolution,
year II (Sept. 22, 1793 to September 21, 1794). He concludes that the
overlap is not as large as might have been expected, and suggests that the
Conspiracy for Equality led by Babeuf had some weaknesses in its methods
of forging essential links with the popular masses.
Fran<;ois-Noel Babeuf was born and educated in rural France, in the
Picardy region. His first job was as clerk for a land commissioner, an
expert hired by a feudal lord to research all the ancient and current eco
nomic rights that the lord held over the peasants, in order to reclaim the old
aristocratic rights lost to the central state during the reign of Louis XIV.
Babeuf would later write in his newspaper, Le Tribun du peuple, that it was
"in the dust of the feudal archives that I discovered the mysteries of the
usurpations of the noble caste." Babeuf's revolutionary program called for
an end to inheritance of property and an absolutely equal distribution of the
land. After leading numerous struggles for peasants' rights in Picardy,
Babeuf was imprisoned in Paris in 1790, but won release through the
efforts of Marat, among others. Appointed administrator of the Montdidier
district by the Directory, he was again threatened with imprisonment after
attempting to distribute national lands to poor peasants. Returning to Paris,
he worked in the food distribution administration and foresaw the possibil
ity of mass starvation in Paris. He began to formulate a program linking the
interests of the peasants with those of the urban poor. In the autumn of
1794, he launched the Tribun du peuple, outlining his program for equality
and calling for insurrection.
The struggles of Babeuf and "the Equals" is significant as the last act of
the popular movement during the French Revolution, and as the harbinger
viii
Foreword
of the Paris Commune, and the later struggles for socialism in the
zoth
century.
*
Soboul chronicles the extraordinary behavior of the people of Paris and
those in various French provinces as they conducted the revolution. The
chapter, "Patriot Saints and Martyrs of Liberty," describes the bizarre rit
uals developed by peasant rebels and Parisian sans-culottes to honor slain
heroes and heroines of the revolution. Soboul asks his readers to consider
the possibility that these cults replaced what he calls the "traditional cult"
(i.e., Catholicism) in the hearts of a fundamentally religious people who
had thrown themselves into a revolutionary upheaval.
Chapter 11 is the only one in this book that had not been published pre
viously in a French historical or philosophical journal. We are reminded
that women participated in both direct action in the streets and in electoral
politics in the assemblies. Women claimed and exercised these "rights" in
years I and II. After the thermidorian reaction (July 1794), women were
forced back to their "natural sphere"-home and children. French women
did not vote again until after World War II.
In chapters 12 and 13 Soboul examines the question of regional identi
ties and the process of creating a modem nation. Early in chapter 13, he
paints for us the famous tableau of the 1792 battle of Valmy where the
French rallied to the cry, "Vive la Nation!" and turned back the Prussian
advance on Paris. Soboul recounts that Goethe witnessed the historic rally
and proclaimed, "On this day and at this place begins a new era in world
history."
*
While associating the American Revolution with earlier upheavals in
Europe that ended in compromise to maintain the dominance of private
wealth, Soboul singles out our revolution for special comment:
.. .it was in the name of the theory of free contract that they [the Amer
ican colonies] justified their secession, and their Declarations proclaimed
the rights of man, not just those of Americans-universalism of natural
right appeared in public law. It is not possible, however, to conceal the fla
grant contradictions that marked the application of the principles so sol
emnly proclaimed. The Blacks remained slaves. And, if equality of rights
was admitted between whites, the social hierarchy founded on wealth did
not suffer any blows.
ix