political club during the French Revolution. Its predecessor was the Breton Club, created in June 1789 in Versailles by a group of deputies of the Estates General from the third estate of Brittany; soon it included many deputies from the third estate of other provinces and some deputies from the nobility (bourgeois liberal nobles). After moving in Oct. 1789 in Paris, the Breton Club was transformed into the "Society of Friends of the Constitution", it began to be called the Jacobin Club after its meeting place - in the hall of the former library of Jacobin monks (as members of the Dominican Order were called in France). Access to the club was open not only to deputies of the Constituent Assembly. It included the most prominent political figures, members of legislative and government institutions. It had a wide network of branches in the provinces. The club's political orientation and composition democratized as the revolution progressed in an upward direction. Initially, the club united all opponents of the feudal absolutist system, but the predominant influence in it belonged to monarchist constitutionalists, representatives of the moderate big bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility. In the spring of 1790, the most conservative members of the club (E. J. Sieyes, O. G. Mirabeau, M. J. Lafayette, etc.) separated into the narrow “Society of 1789”, formally retaining membership in the club. The first split of the YK occurred on July 16, 1791 during an acute political crisis in the country. Monarchist-constitutionalists who left the club founded the Feuillants Club. The more radical bourgeois movement - supporters of J.P. Brissot (future Girondins) - became predominant in the Jacobin club. After the overthrow of the monarchy on August 10. In 1792, within the Jacobin club there was an intensive division between the Girondins, who sought to slow down the further development of the revolution, and the Jacobins (M. Robespierre and others). In Oct. In 1792, the second split of the club occurred - Brissot was expelled, after which other Girondins left him. From that time on, the club's leadership was led by bourgeois revolutionary democrats. During the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the club was the most important center for developing the government's political line; during the period of intensification of the struggle between various movements among the Jacobins, he remained the support of the Robespierrists. After the Thermidorian coup (July 27/28, 1794) it was closed by a decree of the Convention of November 12. 1794.

Plan
Introduction
1 Origin of the term
2 Jacobin Club
2.1 Fall of the Feuillants
2.2 Apostasy 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. Agony of the Club
5 Dissolution of the club
6 The role of the Jacobin Club in the French Revolution
7 Jacobins as a political and psychological type

9 Essays

11 Fiction

Introduction

Jacobins (French jacobins) - members of the political club of the era of the French Revolution, who established their dictatorship in 1793-1794. They were 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 the right wing, whose leader was Danton, the center, led by Robespierre, and the 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'etat, 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. Origin of the term

Until 1791, club members were supporters of a constitutional monarchy. By 1793, the Jacobins had become the most influential force in the Convention, advocating for the unity of the country, strengthening 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 Jacobin leaders, the club was closed (November 1794).

Since the 19th century, the term “Jacobins” has been used not only to designate 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 enormous influence on the course of the French Revolution of 1789. It has been said, not without reason, 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, meetings organized by several deputies of the third estate of Brittany upon their arrival at Versailles for the Estates General even before their opening.

The initiative of these meetings is attributed to d'Hennebon and de Pontivy, who were among the most radical deputies of their province. Soon deputies of the Breton clergy and deputies of other provinces, holding different directions, took part in these meetings. There were Sieyès and Mirabeau, the Duke d'Aiguillon and Robespierre, Abbot Gregoire, Barnave and Pétion. The influence of this private organization was strongly felt 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 meet again, first in a private house, then in a room they rented in a monastery of Jacobin monks (Dominican order) near the arena where the National Assembly met. Some of the monks also took part in the meetings; Therefore, the royalists called the members of the club in mockery 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 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 unknown (since minutes of meetings were not kept at first) when outsiders, that is, non-deputies, began to be accepted as members.

As the number of members grew, the organization of the club became much more complex. At the head was a chairman, elected for a month; he had four secretaries, twelve inspectors, and, which is especially typical for 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, meetings took place three times a week, then daily; the public began to be allowed to attend meetings only on October 12, 1791, that is, already under the Legislative Assembly.

Saint-Just, Louis Antoine

At this time, the number of club members reached 1211 (based on 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 it hired after the abolition of the order and the confiscation of its property, and in which meetings took place until the closure 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 people from the merchant class.

Fabre d'Eglantine

Some of its members bore famous names: the doctor Cabanis, the scientist Lacepede, the writer Marie-Joseph Chenier, Choderlos de Laclos, the painters David and Carl Vernet, La Harpe, Fabre d'Eglantine, Mercier. Although with a large influx of members, the mental level and education of those arriving decreased , however, the Paris Jacobin Club retained to the end two original features: doctoralism and some stiffness in relation to the educational qualification. This was expressed in antagonism towards the Cordeliers Club, which accepted people without education, even illiterate ones, and also in the fact that the very entry into The Jacobin club was subject to a fairly high membership fee (24 livres annually, and upon joining another 12 livres).

Georges Couthon

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

2.1. Fall of the Feuillants

He was not led astray from this path by the flight of the king and his detention in Varenna. The clashes caused by these events, however, caused a split between the club members; 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 Feuillant Club. Adherents of this trend later formed the right wing in the Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, following the model of the Parisian 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 affiliates.

This sharply revealed the dominance of Paris and the desire for centralization inherent in the “Old Order”; the influence of the Parisian club on the provincial ones played a large role in the revolutionary re-education of France and significantly 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 radical elements in the Jacobin Club. It was very important for his future fate that in the dispute between the Feuillants and the Jacobins, the provincial clubs took the side of the latter. At the elections to the Legislative Assembly that took place in early September 1791, the Jacobins managed to include only five club leaders among the 23 deputies of Paris; but his influence grew, and in the November elections to the Paris municipality the Jacobins gained the upper hand. After this, the Paris Commune became an instrument of the Jacobin Club.

The most influential of the Parisian newspapers spoke for the Jacobins against the Feuillants. The Jacobin Club founded its own organ called the Journal des débats et des décrets to replace the former Journal d. 1. soc. etc.”, which went to the Feuillants. Not limiting themselves 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 - Petion, Collot d'Herbois and Robespierre himself - devoted themselves to the “noble calling of teaching the children of the people the constitution,” that is, teaching the “catechism of the constitution” in public schools. Another measure was of more practical importance - the recruitment of agents who were supposed to engage in the political education of adults in the squares or galleries of the club and the National Assembly 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 previously 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 a large influx, the salary was reduced to 20 sous. A great influence in the Jacobin spirit was exerted by visiting the galleries of the Jacobin Club, open to the public, which could accommodate up to one and a half thousand people; Seats were occupied from two o'clock in the afternoon, although meetings began only at six in the evening. Club speakers tried to keep the audience in constant excitement. An even more important means of acquiring influence was the seizure of the galleries of the Legislative Assembly through agents and a mob 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 fees; but the Jacobin Club enjoyed large subsidies from the Duke of Orleans or appealed to the “patriotism” of its wealthy members; one of these collections brought in 750,000 livres.

2.2. The Apostasy of the Girondins

After the Feuillants left the Jacobin Club, a new split arose in the latter at the beginning of 1792; two parties emerged in it, which later fought in the Convention under the names Girondins and Montagnards; At first, this struggle looked like a rivalry between two leaders - Brissot and Robespierre.

The disagreement between them and their supporters was especially clear on the issue of declaring war on Austria, which Brissot advocated. Personal relationships and party rivalries became even more intense when Louis XVI agreed to form a ministry from people close to the circle of deputies of the Gironde.

2.3. Overthrow of the monarchy. Radicalization of the club

The uprising of August 10, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy, will remain incomprehensible to anyone who does not know the activities of the Jacobin Club from June 28 to August 10.

Its members systematically brought under their direct influence three forces, which they led in an attack against the king and the constitution: the federates, the sections and the Commune. The federates, that is, the volunteers who came from the departments, were subject to the influence of the Jacobin Club with the help of a central committee from among them, which held secret meetings in the Jacobin Club. This committee selected from among its members 5 members to form a secret directory, and to these 5 persons 10 Jacobins were added. It was the headquarters of the revolutionary militia created to capture the Tuileries. Through agitation in the sections, a “rebel commune” was created, which on the night of August 9–10 captured the town hall and paralyzed the defense of the palace by the National Guard, killing its commander.

Upon the overthrow of the king, the Jacobin Club demanded that he be immediately brought to trial. On August 19, a proposal was made to replace the previous name of the “Club of Friends of the Constitution” with a new one - “Society of Jacobins, Friends of Liberty and Equality”; the majority rejected this name, but on September 21 the club began to be called that. At the same time, it was decided to “cleanse” the club of unworthy people, for which a special commission was elected. The Jacobin Club as such did not take a direct part in the September murders, but there can be no doubt about the solidarity of the club leaders with them; this is confirmed both by the content of their speeches at this time and the testimony of their fellow club members, such as Pétion, and by the open approval of the murders by club members later. The further activities of the Jacobin Club were dominated by the principle of terror. In the first period of its history, the Society of Friends of the Constitution was a political club that influenced the formation of public opinion and the mood of the National Assembly; in the second it became a hotbed of revolutionary agitation; in the third, the Jacobin Club became a semi-official institution of the ruling party, an organ and at the same time a censor of the National Convention. This result was achieved through a long struggle.

3. National Convention

The National Convention, which opened on September 21, 1792, was at first weakly influenced by the Jacobin Club. The reasons for this must be sought in the popularity of the Girondins, whose leaders, thanks to their eloquence, dominated the Convention and carried with them the wavering center (“Swamp”). But soon a struggle began between the Jacobins and Girondins, both in the Convention and in the Jacobin Club. In the first, the Girondins prevailed, pushing back their opponents, trying to win their leaders and the deputies of Paris to their side. The central club was very concerned about the attitude of the provincial clubs towards it, in which, after subordinating the commune and the anarchist elements of Paris to this leadership, the crisis accelerated: the uprisings of May 31 and June 2 led to the removal of the Girondins from the convention and their arrest. This victory freed the hands of the Jacobin Club and assigned it a new role - the organization of government power and control over it. At the same time, the club moved from an oppositional position to a ruling one and therefore entered into a struggle with opposition elements. At the same time, the new government body becomes the head of the highest government body, disposing of both the executive (ministry) and legislative (convention) powers. The Jacobin Club became the mentor of the central government body, but France had not yet been conquered; local authorities in many cases still adhered to the policies of the fallen party. The club seizes power over the province through local Jacobin clubs. On July 27, a law is passed threatening all local authorities, military commanders and private individuals with 5 or 10 years of imprisonment in chains for opposing or dissolving "popular societies" (sociétés populaires).

On the other hand, the Jacobin Club defends the government, that is, its policy, and from the left, that is, against the extreme revolutionaries, whose center continues to be the Cordeliers Club, but who often transfer the struggle to the meetings of the Jacobin Club itself. Although the constitution of 1793 drawn up by the Jacobin party at the convention found ardent defenders in the Jacobin Club, it did not at all correspond to the real goal of the main leaders of this party. The Jacobins carried out and defended it in order to eliminate the constitution drawn up by the Girondins on the basis of direct democracy. The Jacobin constitution was somewhat more moderate in this regard, but still it provided supreme power to the masses - and this was not at all part of the Jacobin plans. Representing a minority in the country, they did not want to let go of power from their hands. The seizure of power by the Jacobins did not arise only from their position: it was a consequence of their political temperament and a condition for the implementation of their political ideals.

Only with the help of unlimited power could they satisfy their anger against the order overthrown by the revolution and the interests and classes of people associated with it; Only through bloody despotism could they impose their social program on France. The crisis has arrived in the history of the revolution, which splits it into two halves that are opposite in spirit - the era of the desire for freedom, which turned into anarchy, and the era of the desire to centralize power, which turned into terror. In this change of front of the revolution, the Jacobin Club played an outstanding role, preparing the crisis, inspiring appropriate measures in the party and the convention, and defending the new program in Paris and in the provinces through its ramifications. The club itself operated mostly under the inspiration of Robespierre.

3.1. Jacobin dictatorship and terror

On the night of June 2, 1793, tens of thousands of armed Parisians and troops of the National Guard surrounded the Convention. The muzzles of the guns were aimed at the hall where the deputies were sitting. Under the threat of execution on the spot, the deputies of the Convention decided to remove the Girondins from its composition. Many of them were later arrested, some were executed. Power passed to the Jacobin club and its leaders - Robespierre, Marat, Danton. Emergency courts - revolutionary tribunals - began to work with renewed vigor. In the summer of 1793, Marat was killed.

Meanwhile, the Convention adopted a new Constitution, which declared France a republic. The situation became tense and, as the situation in the rear and at the front worsened, the Convention adopted the Law on Suspicious Persons, which ordered the arrest of all “suspicious” people. These were declared to be “enemies of the revolution and the republic, sympathizers of tyranny,” whom the Convention commissioners and relatives of the emigrants suspected. Under these conditions, anyone could be considered “suspicious.” By this time, the last Girondins had been arrested. One of their leaders, before his execution, uttered the famous words: “The revolution... devours its own children.”

Meanwhile, the terror grew. The prisons were filled with “suspicious” people. High-profile political processes followed one after another. In October 1793, the former Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, was executed. Executions became a widespread phenomenon. The Commissioners of the Convention “restored order” in the cities of France and in the army.

On October 9, 1793, Lyon was captured. The convention adopted a decree according to which Lyon was to be destroyed. Almost all the people remaining in the city were taken out of Lyon and shot.

4. 9 Thermidor. Agony of the Club

The matter ended, however, with the fall of Robespierre himself, on 9 Thermidor. The club president was executed along with Robespierre; the death of the latter was also a disaster for the Jacobin Club. True, the club was reopened a few days later by the party that overthrew Robespierre - the Thermidorians, who wanted to make him their tool. But the Jacobin Club again became a gathering of faithful Jacobins. When at the end of August the convention adopted, at the insistence of the leaders of the Thermidorians - Tallien and Freron - a resolution on freedom of the press, the Jacobin Club strongly opposed this measure, which would “ruin the terrorist government”; a few days later, Tallien and Freron were forced to return their membership cards and leave the meeting.

This victory of the Jacobins revived the club’s relations with provincial clubs, but precisely because of this it brought to the fore the question of the position of these former instruments of terror and their relationship to the central club. To maintain its influence, the Parisian club addressed the provincial ones; the convention responded to this with an address to the French people, in which characteristic words are found: “no association (society) represents the people; no one should speak or act in his name.” This was a verdict on the entire previous development of the revolution, a condemnation of that interpretation of the idea of ​​democracy, which contributed to the anarchic turn of the revolution, and then the seizure of power by the Jacobin clubs. A week later, Delmas, the former president of the Jacobin Club, introduced to the convention a draft law directed against the clubs and prohibiting “all affiliations, communications and correspondence between societies of the same name, as undermining the government and the unity of the republic.”

5. Dissolution of the club

The strong web that had enmeshed France, woven by the Jacobins, was torn apart. The temporary break in the terror that lay a heavy burden on the population caused bitterness against the “terrorists” in various classes of society. The Jacobin Club became unpopular; tabloid dandies (muscadins) were looking for clashes with the Jacobins, infiltrating their meetings with abuse and threats; strong irritation against them was also noticed among the common people. The case of Carrier, the former terrorist executioner of Brittany, carried out at the convention, accelerated the denouement. Carrier played a big role in the club, which ardently stood up for him. On November 9 the Carrier case was to be heard at the convention; a dense crowd surrounded him shouting: “Down with the Jacobins.” The matter was postponed, but the crowd did not disperse, and in the evening moved to the club singing the song “Awakening the People,” hostile to the Jacobins. The crowd began to throw stones at the windows, and “muscadines” armed with clubs burst into the galleries and began to drive out the spectators, mostly women; the drama took place both in the courtyard of the club and in the surrounding streets until members of the convention and committees arrived with armed force. A few days later the doors of the club were sealed.

In order to destroy the very memory of the club, the convention decided to demolish the Jacobin monastery and establish in its place the “9 Thermidor market”. Now it is called "Marché St.-Honoré", on the street of this name. After the dissolution of the convention in 1795, members of the former club twice attempted to reorganize. They first 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 closed already on February 28, 1796. When clashes between the directory and the councils created fertile ground for the resumption of Jacobin agitation, the Jacobins organized a new club "Manege", which opened on July 6, 1799 and glorified pathetic speeches commemorate Babeuf and Robespierre. This immediately caused resistance from the “golden youth” and new fights, during which the crowd took the side of the clubists. On August 13, the club was closed by order of Sieyes.

6. The role of the Jacobin Club in the French Revolution

The role of the Jacobin Club in the French Revolution has not yet been sufficiently recognized, although individual historians - both apologists for the revolution and its critics - have repeatedly pointed out this role. In fact, the influence of this club is one of the most characteristic facts in the “evolution” of the revolutionary movement. If the press of that time inflamed revolutionary passions, then the clubs, and Jacobinsky at their head, united and directed the movement. Herzen's apt expression about the “staging” of revolutions best defines the role of the Jacobin Club. Among the French historians, Quinet, idealizing the revolution, sums up the activities of the Jacobin Club as follows:

“The ideas of the revolution were spread by thousands of lips and were heard from everywhere like an echo. The principles of the revolution, which would have remained a dead letter in books, suddenly illuminated the thousand-year night. No government was able to fight these clubs. They imposed their opinions on the three great legislative assemblies, sometimes appearing at their meetings, sometimes giving them orders through their addresses. The idea emanating from the Jacobin Club flew around France in a few days and, returning to Paris, was heard in the legislative assembly or convention like a peremptory plebiscite. This, perhaps, was the newest side of the revolution.

The provinces, so silent two years before, were illuminated by the flame that was lit in Paris. But the consequence of this was that it was enough to put an end to the electrical radiation of the club for everything to change in a few months. And then the old ignorance was restored.” Viewing the revolution from the opposite point of view, Taine also exposes, but in a more real light, the interaction of the capital club and its ramifications, or colonies. The Paris Club publishes a list of clubs, prints their denunciations, because of this, in the most remote village, every Jacobin feels that he is supported not only by the club, but by the entire association that covers the country and protects with its powerful patronage the smallest of its adherents. In return, each local club obeys the password sent to it from Paris. From the center to the periphery, as well as vice versa, continuous correspondence maintains the established consensus. This is how a huge political mechanism has developed with thousands of levers acting at a time under one common pressure, and the handle that sets them in motion is in the Rue Saint-Honoré in the hands of several businessmen.

There was no more effective, better constructed machine for fabricating an artificial and bitter opinion, giving it the appearance of a national and instinctive (spontané) impulse, in order to transfer to a noisy minority the rights of the silent majority and subordinate the government to it.

In the last two works on the revolution, the role of the Jacobin Club is obscured. There is no mention of it in Jaurès’s voluminous work; Olar, a specialist in this matter, who published a collection of documents on the history of the Jacobin Club, devotes only one paragraph to it and, belittling its influence, says: “The Jacobin Club followed in this era (Sept. 1792) all the vicissitudes of public opinion and expressed them true and prudent."

The enormous influence of the Jacobin Club on the course of the revolution is beyond doubt and can be proven by the reviews of contemporaries. It manifested itself in two directions: the club prepared laws for the convention and forced it to adopt them. In the first respect, we can refer to Saint-Just, who directly admits that the speakers presented bills to the convention, having previously developed them in the Jacobin Club. About the method of instilling Jacobin fabrications in the convention, Abbé Gregoire says: “Our tactics were very simple. By agreement, one of us took advantage of the opportunity to throw out a proposal in one of the sessions of the national assembly. He knew in advance that it would meet with the approval of only a very small number of members of the assembly, while the majority would burst out against him. But it didn't matter. He demanded that his proposal be submitted to the commission; our opponents, hoping to bury him there, did not object to this. But the Parisian Jacobins took possession of the issue. By their circular or under the influence of their newspapers, the question was discussed in three or four hundred affiliated clubs, and three weeks later addresses poured in from all sides to the meeting, which adopted by a large majority the project it had previously rejected.” In view of this, to fully illuminate the role of the Jacobin Club, it is necessary not only to study the activities of the central club, but also the local ones, which is much more difficult.

7. Jacobins as a political and psychological type

The Jacobins as a political type survived the Jacobin Club and continue to live in history. Hippolyte Taine drew attention to this aspect of the matter and, long before his history of the revolution, expressed the idea that the psychological analysis of the Jacobin type was as important for understanding the revolution of 1789 as the characteristics of the Puritan were for the English revolution of the 17th century. In Volume III of The Rise of Modern France, Taine took up this issue. Even before Taine, there were apt descriptions of the Jacobins, which, however, applied more to members of the Jacobin Club. Michelet, out of sympathy for Danton, does not fully sympathize with the Jacobins and their main leader Robespierre, calls them “revolutionary clergy” and motivates this review with “their corporate spirit, their fiery and dry faith, their tenacious inquisitorial curiosity”; they were the “piercing eye of the revolution” (oeil scrutateur). The characterization of Louis Blanc, an ardent admirer of Robespierre, is also interesting: Louis Blanc considers the inherent characteristics of the Jacobins to be hatred of all inequality, rigid convictions, calculated fanaticism in the matter of bold innovations, love of dominion and passion for order (règle). A true Jacobin is something powerful, original and dark, something between an agitator and a statesman, between a Protestant and a monk, between an inquisitor and a tribune. Hence his fierce vigilance, elevated to the level of virtue, espionage, elevated to a patriotic feat, and mania for denunciations."

Taine looks for the roots of the “Jacobin spirit” in the general properties of human nature and finds them in two traits - in the tendency to abstract reasoning and in pride. These qualities often manifest themselves in young people who enter into life and judge the world from the point of view of their acquired theories and self-esteem. Under normal living conditions, this “growing pain” goes away; During the revolution, under favorable circumstances, it developed to the extreme. The collapse of the old order destroyed all barriers to self-esteem: the need to create a new order of things gave rise to political dreams of all kinds; everyone could consider himself a legislator and philosopher and declare this; general disorder gave rise not only to fermentation of minds, but also to perversion of feelings and passions; An immense expanse opened up before ambition. Under such conditions, the Jacobin type developed through hypertrophy of the two mentioned properties: the need for abstract reasoning degenerated into narrow dogmatism, not balanced by observation of reality and knowledge of facts; the mind was filled with political axioms; the speech revolved exclusively in the area of ​​commonplaces; mental myopia did not interfere, but on the contrary, contributed to the development of ambition and the desire to take everything into one’s own hands. The doctrine adopted by the Jacobin tempted him not so much with its sophisms as with its promises; Convinced of the correctness of his theory, he was inclined to exaggerate his rights; by adhering to the orthodox dogma, he acquired in his own eyes the right to rule over those who were alien to it; in this respect, he was not a usurper, but a savior of people, becoming their legitimate ruler, an infallible priest. Hence the arrogant tone, the imperious language of the Jacobins. By introducing the orthodox theory into life, the Jacobin rose in his eyes not only intellectually, but also morally; he personified not only truth, but also virtue; to oppose it is not only madness, but also a crime; his calling is to fight evildoers, to ensure the triumph of virtue by crushing the wicked; on this basis, his cruelty becomes a new virtue in his eyes. Under such conditions, the evolution of a type gives rise to two deformities: the loss of common sense and the perversion of moral sense. The key to explaining the Jacobins should be their incomprehensible at first glance contradiction in relation to the principles of freedom and democracy. Having acted as fanatical adherents of these principles, they then began to implement the principle of authority and unconditional dictatorship with the same fanaticism. Historians of the revolution first explained this sharp turn in their policy by external historical circumstances - the hostility of Europe against the French revolution, the need to fight back with all the strength of the country; others referred to fighting internal enemies; One can also point to the influence of the traditions of the old order with its absolutism and centralization. All this actually explains both the environment and the moment when the Jacobins had to act, and should be taken into account; but the essence of the matter is the natural, spontaneous emergence of the Jacobin type. Its root is the deepest egoism, which prompts people of a certain temperament to seek dominion over others and, in the absence of restraint, degenerates into unbridled conceit in the field of ideas and arbitrariness in life, in social and economic matters. Where it encounters obstacles in the social system and where society is receptive to the idea of ​​equality, such egoism seeks support in the democratic principle, in collective law, in the idea of ​​democracy; but all these are only means to rise in alliance with others and in the name of their rights and remove obstacles. When this is achieved, individual egoism uncontrollably emerges, like a butterfly breaking out of a chrysalis, and discards democratic principles and ideas of freedom and humanity like an unnecessary shell. Having become a master over an enfeebled society, the Jacobin revealed his being in both directions in which the pathological development of the human “I” is manifested: in contempt for the beliefs and conscience of others - and in the shameless disposal of their lives and property. From these two fundamental traits of the Jacobin, a third developed by itself: embitterment - not only that embitterment that is caused by opposition and struggle, but also the chronic embitterment inherent in egoism, which sees in theoretical disagreement and practical opposition a crime deserving punishment. Psychological analysis of the Jacobin is important not only for understanding the type itself; Without it, the most important fact in the history of the revolution remains incomprehensible - the turning point that took place in it, dividing it into two opposite halves: the period of unconscious aspirations for freedom and democracy and the period of conscious dictatorship and terror.

WorksRobespierre M. Selected works. In 3 vols. M. “Science” (Literary monuments). 1965 Literature

· Gladilin A. The Gospel of Robespierre M. Politizdat (Fiery revolutionaries). 1970

· Genife P. French Revolution and Terror // French Yearbook 2000: 200 years of the French Revolution of 1789-1799: Results of the anniversary. M.: Editorial URSS, 2000.

· Zacher Y. M. Robespierre. M. 1925

· Lewandowski A. Maximilian Robespierre M. “Young Guard” (ZhZL). 1959

· Lukin N. M. Maximilian Robespierre. In the book: Lukin N. M. Izbr. works. t.1 M. 1960

· Manfred A. Z. Three portraits of the era of the Great French Revolution. M. "Thought" 1978.

· Manfred A. Z. Maximilian Robespierre. Debates about Robespierre. Robespierre in Russian and Soviet historiography. In the book: Manfred A. Z. The Great French Revolution. M. "Science". 1983

· Mitrofanov A. A. The image of Russia in revolutionary journalism and the periodical press of France during the Jacobin dictatorship // Russia and France: XVIII-XX centuries. / Rep. ed. P.P. Cherkasov. Vol. 9. M.: Nauka, 2009. pp. 69-99.

· Molchanov N. Montagnards. M. “Young Guard” (ZhZL). 1989

· Levandovsky A.P. Robespierre. Rostov-on-Don. "Phoenix" (Trace in History). 1997

· Problems of the Jacobin dictatorship. Symposium in the sector of French history of the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, May 20-21, 1970 // French Yearbook, 1970. M., 1972. pp. 278-313.

· Chudinov A.V. Reflections on the hidden meanings of the discussion on the problem of the Jacobin dictatorship (60s - 80s of the twentieth century) // French Yearbook 2007. M., 2007. pp. 264 - 274.

(except for the above-mentioned Jacobin Club newspapers):

· Zinkeisen, “Der Jacobiner Klub” (2 vols., 1853) and

· Aulard, "La Société d. Jacobins" ("Recueil de documents, 4 vols., 1889-92)....

· Augustin Barruel, "Memoires pour servir a l"histoire du Jacobinisme" (5 vols., 1797)

11. Fiction

during the French Revolution of the late 18th century. members of the Jacobin Club in Paris, who remained in its composition after the Girondins left the club in 1792. Leaders: M. Robespierre, J.P. Marat, J. Danton, L.A. Saint-Just and others. On November 11, 1794, the Jacobin Club was closed.

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JACOBINS

During the French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century, members of the Jacobin Club who remained in its membership after leaving this club in October. 1792 Girondins (from this time on the term “I” began to be widely used); In reality, the demarcation between Ya. and the Girondins within the club has already been determined since the overthrow of the monarchy on August 10. 1792. Ya., whose leaders were M. Robespierre, J. P. Marat, J. J. Danton, L. A. Saint-Just, were actually political. party; expressed the interests of the revolutionaries. democratic the bourgeoisie, which acted in alliance with the peasantry and plebeian masses. Their program was to protect the gains of the revolution and its further development. Followers of the ideas of J. J. Rousseau, Ya. were strong supporters of full political. equality. Many of them (Robespierre, Saint-Just and their supporters who headed the revolutionary government, P. G. Chaumette and others) were characterized by aspirations for a republic without the contrasts of poverty and wealth. This left its mark on the socio-economic. Ya.'s policy, helped them meet the social demands of the people. the lower classes (agricultural laws of June 3 and 10, 1793, the maximum system, the publication of the Ventoise decrees), when, as a result of the people. uprising May 31-June 2, 1793 they came to power and established a revolutionary-democratic regime. dictatorship (see Jacobin dictatorship). However, in general, Japan paid much more attention to political issues than to economic ones; In addition, egalitarian aspirations were not shared by all of Ya. The social policy of Ya. was characterized by internal. inconsistency, inconsistency (extension of the maximum not only to consumer goods, but also to wages, persecution of strikes, repressions against the “mad”, etc.). Ultimately, Ya - brave, radical, but bourgeois revolutionaries, could not unite the people around themselves for long. masses. On the other hand, the “plebeian methods” used by Yaroslavl in the fight against the enemies of the revolution provoked resistance from the mountains. and sat down. bourgeoisie, which increased as the revolution carried out its bourgeoisie. goals and weakening the threat of restoration of the old order. All this led to the struggle of currents among Japan, which intensified in the autumn of 1793, becoming especially aggravated in the first months of 1794. Danton and his supporters (C. Desmoulins, F. F. Fabre d'Eglantine, L. Legendre, etc.) began to demand a policy of “moderation”, “lenience”, i.e. weakening of the revolutionary regime. dictatorship. This “right” grouping of Yaroslavl (later called Dantonists in historical literature) expressed the interests of the new bourgeoisie that had grown up during the years of the revolution. She was opposed by the “extreme” (left) Ya. (P. G. Chaumette, J. R. Hebert, A. F. Momoro, etc.), most closely associated with the people. the lower classes, who paid means. attention to social issues, after the defeat of the “mad” ones, many of their demands were accepted. The influence of the “extreme” Yaroslavl was especially great in the Paris Commune; they were supported by numerous people. leaders of the Parisian sections. However, they were not clearly defined either ideologically or organizationally (this explains the absence in the historical literature of a unified interpretation of the term “leftist self.”). In March 1794, part of the “extreme” Yaroslavs (Hébert and his like-minded people, later called the historical literary swarm Hébertists) even went into open action against the revolutionaries. pr-va, calling for an uprising. Basic Ya's backbone was under the leadership of Robespierre; The J. Robespierrists resorted to fighting opposition groups in March-April. 1794 to the execution of the most prominent leaders of the “lenient” (Dantonists) and “extreme” Ya. However, this could not prevent the further weakening and split of the Jacobin bloc and the growing crisis of the Jacobin dictatorship. The reprisal against the “extreme” members and the decline in the activity of sections and “popular societies” undermined the support of Jacobin power among the people. At the same time, the desire of the mountains intensified. and sat down. bourgeoisie to end the revolutionary regime. dictatorship. Counter-revolutionary The Thermidorian coup (July 27/28, 1794) put an end to the power of Ya. On July 28, Robespierre, Saint-Just, J. O. Couthon and their closest associates were guillotined, and in the following days many others were executed. "The historical greatness of the real Jacobins, Jacobins of 1793,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “was that they were “Jacobins with the people,” with the revolutionary majority of the people, with the revolutionary advanced classes of their time” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed. ., vol. 32, p. 216 (vol. 24, p. 494)). In a broad sense, the word “Jacobin” therefore went down in history as a designation for a persistent, decisive, consistent revolutionary democrat. A. V. Ado. Moscow.

On May 31 – June 2, 1793, a massive popular uprising took place in Paris, which was organized by the Jacobin Club, the Cordeliers Club, and the Paris Commune. The Council of the Commune appointed the Jacobin Henriot as commander of the National Guard. On May 31, armed detachments of national guardsmen under his leadership approached the Convention; at their request, the “Commission of 12” was dissolved, but the Girondins remained in power. The next day it became known about the counter-revolutionary rebellion in Lyon and the executions of the Jacobins. This gave a new impetus to the uprising. On June 2, the National Guard and thousands of armed sans-culottes surrounded the Convention. Henriot gave the order to bring the guns into readiness and, under the threat of fire, the deputies of the Convention agreed to remove Brissot, Vergniaud, Petion and several dozen other Girondins from the meeting room. Soon almost all of them were arrested. Power in the country passed into the hands of the Jacobins.

As a result of the uprising of May 31 - June 2, the third period of the revolution began, called the Jacobin dictatorship. Just like other parties that had previously come to power, the Jacobins first of all took up the solution of the agrarian question in order to win over the peasant masses. At the beginning of June, the Convention adopted decrees on the sale of emigrant lands in small plots with long installment payments so that land-poor peasants could buy them, and on the return to peasants of communal lands seized by lords. Peasants were given the right to divide communal lands.

On July 17, 1793, the Convention adopted a decree abolishing all feudal duties of peasants without any ransom, even if the lords had written documents on them. Moreover, the same decree ordered that such documents be burned, and those who continued to keep them were supposed to be punished with imprisonment. As a result of the solution of the agrarian question “in the Jacobin way,” all peasants who had previously been in feudal dependence turned into free owners of their land. This ensured that the Jacobins had peasant support for their policies at this stage.

On June 24, 1793, the Convention adopted a constitution drafted by the Jacobins. In contrast to the “federalism” of the Girondins, she declared a “single indivisible” democratic republic in France. This constitution proclaimed the idea of ​​the supremacy of the people and the equality of people in rights. The unicameral Legislative Body was to be elected by all men over 21 years of age. In addition to drafting bills and approving laws, its functions included electing the Executive Council from candidates nominated by departmental meetings. The most important bills were to be submitted to the primary assemblies for approval. This constitution did not provide for a clear separation of legislative and executive powers. Its authors, Robespierre and other Jacobins, were supporters of Rousseau's idea of ​​direct democracy. The state of war with the coalition of European powers and the internal revolts that engulfed a large part of the country prompted the Jacobins to delay the entry into force of this constitution and the holding of new elections. The current situation required quick decisions and emergency measures, which the overthrown Girondins had once refused.

In the struggle for power, the Jacobins were ready to take the most decisive and harsh measures; they established a revolutionary dictatorship. The power apparatus of the Jacobin dictatorship, or as it was officially called “revolutionary government,” was created gradually and was fully formed by the fall of 1793. On October 10, a law was issued on the creation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, which legally formalized the regime of the Jacobin dictatorship. The Jacobins began to pursue a policy of terror towards their opponents in the struggle for power, declaring them enemies of the revolution. The word "terror" means "fear, horror." The system of state terror on the part of the Jacobin authorities meant instilling fear and terror into political opponents by threatening their physical destruction. The use of a policy of terror by the Jacobins is usually explained by the fact that they came to power in extraordinary circumstances, when coalition troops again advanced into French territory, the Vendée, the north-west of the country, was engulfed in a peasant uprising, and in the south the Girondins rebelled against supporters of federalism. However, explaining the origins of the Jacobin terror only by these objective circumstances would not be complete enough.

At first, the Jacobins were adherents of humanistic ideas of freedom and personal integrity. Robespierre, for example, in the first years of the revolution persistently demanded the abolition of the death penalty. In addition to objective circumstances that required emergency measures, the Jacobins were led to the path of terror by some subjective factors, primarily their consciousness, beliefs, fanatical belief in the rightness of their cause and extreme intolerance towards opponents. They considered themselves spokesmen for the interests of the people and saw any dissenter as a criminal and enemy of the people. With such views, they naturally came to rely on terror as a way to resolve all conflicts. Introduced to combat the enemies of the revolution, terror gradually became a weapon in the struggle for power between the Jacobins, and many of them also became its victims.

The initiative to unleash the terror came not only from the Jacobins. The demands of terror came from below. The spontaneous terror of the crowd manifested itself from the very beginning of the revolution. Already the capture of the Bastille was accompanied by bloody massacres. The head of the commandant of the Delaunay fortress, mounted on a pike, was worn around Paris. In the first days of the revolution, the Comptroller General Foulon was torn to pieces by an angry crowd; other officials, whom the Parisians accused of high prices and high taxes, were also hanged from lanterns. A strong surge of popular terrorism occurred in September 1792, when lynching and massacres of prisoners in Parisian prisons were carried out; it manifested itself repeatedly throughout the revolution. The cruelty of the crowd was prepared by the policies pursued by royal power in previous centuries. Public barbaric executions continued in France in the 18th century. In the judicial system, legalized torture was abolished only in 1788. The policy of terror that the Jacobins resorted to, hoping with its help to solve the problems facing them, corresponded to the mood of the people, especially the sans-culottes, who saw the reason for their difficult situation in the machinations of the enemies of the revolution.

One of the reasons for unleashing the Jacobin terror was the murder on July 16, 1793 of Marat, the main ideologist of dictatorship and political terror. From the rostrum of the Convention and on the pages of his newspaper, Marat called for “passing the sickle of equality over the heads of the aristocrats.” By this time, he suffered from a severe skin disease and felt relief only in a hot bath, sitting in which he worked on his articles and even received visitors. One of his visitors, 26-year-old Charlotte Corday, the great-great-granddaughter of the playwright Corneille, a supporter of the Girondins, came to Paris from Brittany, obtained an audience with Marat under the pretext that she could inform him of a dangerous conspiracy against the republic, and stabbed him to death as he lay in the bathtub. with a dagger that she carried in the folds of her clothes. She was immediately arrested and sent to the guillotine.

The Convention commissioned the artist David to capture the features of the “friend of the people” for history. David, by that time a deputy of the Convention, a member of the Committee of Public Safety, carried out this assignment with enthusiasm. He depicted the moment of Marat's tragic death. The half-naked torso of the murdered Marat, like an ancient hero, protruded from the likeness of a sarcophagus, into which the artist turned the folds of the sheet covering the bathtub. The painting was solemnly installed in the conference hall of the Convention. A resolution was adopted to reproduce it in engraving and this contributed to the popularization of “Marat”. After the overthrow of the Jacobin dictatorship, Marat's ashes were thrown out of the Pantheon, the painting was returned to the artist, and a special ban was issued on publicly displaying images of revolutionary figures earlier than 10 years after their death.

Charlotte Corday hoped through her action and self-sacrifice to save France from the “bloodthirsty monster” that she imagined Marat to be. But the removal of the main ideologist of the dictatorship not only did not prevent, but on the contrary, contributed to its strengthening and served as a kind of justification for the terror unleashed since then.

The Convention, elected to develop a republican constitution, was supposed to terminate its powers after its approval on June 24, 1793. However, the deputies decided not to disperse, not to lose power from their hands, and turned the Convention into the highest body of the Jacobin dictatorship. The deputies of the Convention concentrated legislative, executive and judicial powers in their hands. They legislated laws, enforced them, and the Convention had the final say in judicial decisions. The Convention exercised its power through the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of Public Safety.

The Committee of Public Safety was created back in May 1793 from 12 people elected by the Convention. Now his functions have been expanded, and in fact he has been endowed with emergency powers. The Committee of Public Safety supervised diplomacy, military affairs, weapons production, the country's economy, gave orders for arrests, i.e., actually managed all internal and external affairs, appointed and removed all senior military and civilian officials. The functions of the former ministries were transferred to him. In July, the composition of the Committee of Public Safety was updated; Danton was no longer included in it; Robespierre began to play a leading role in the Committee of Public Safety and in general in the system of the Jacobin dictatorship.

Another supreme body of the Jacobin dictatorship with emergency powers was the Committee of Public Safety, which was entrusted with the leadership of the police and “revolutionary justice”. Subordinate to him was the Revolutionary Tribunal, which administered justice based not on laws, but on “revolutionary necessity” in the emergency conditions of war and the dictatorial power of the Convention. The system of bodies of the Jacobin dictatorship included commissars - deputies whom the Convention sent to the army and to the provinces with unlimited powers. When suppressing the Girondin uprisings, many commissioners of the Convention showed unjustified cruelty. Commissioner Carre in Nantes ordered hundreds of those arrested to be taken to the middle of the Loire and, tied up, thrown into the water. In Lyon, commissioners Collot d'Herbois, a former actor, and Fouché, a former priest, ordered groups of arrested persons to be shot from cannon.

Locally, the Jacobin policies were implemented by local municipalities, but to monitor them, revolutionary committees were created from the most revolutionary-minded local citizens, mainly sans-culottes. The numerous popular societies that emerged had an influence on the policies of local authorities, with Jacobin clubs playing a leading role. The Paris Commune, created in 1792 as a self-government body of the capital, received great power. Soon she began to exert her influence on decision-making affecting not only Paris, but the entire country. The leaders of 48 sections of the capital put pressure on her. Section employees received 40 sous per day. Among them were many radical sans-culottes, especially in the outskirts of the city, inhabited by the Parisian poor, where plebeian agitators found the largest number of supporters of their revolutionary calls.

On September 4-5, 1793, sans-culottes took to the streets of Paris with weapons in their hands, demanding that the Convention “put terror on the order of the day” and “instill terror in all conspirators.” On September 17, 1793, the Convention adopted the “Decree on Suspects,” i.e., on the arrest and trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal of all persons suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. According to this decree, the Jacobins sent to the guillotine Queen Marie Antoinette, officials of the old regime, members of the families of emigrants who remained in France, a number of figures of the first stage of the revolution, among them Philippe d'Orléans-Egalité, Bailly, Barnave, Le Chapelier, known for being accepted by the Constituent Assembly in 1791 according to his proposal, a law prohibiting workers' organizations and strikes. This law outlived its author for a long time, remained in force under all subsequent regimes and was repealed only in the 60s. XIX century.

Soon many Girondins and their leaders Brissot, Vergniaud and others were executed. Together with them, the wife of the former Minister of the Interior, Jeanne Roland, who influenced the Convention when the Girondins were in power, was sent to the guillotine. Beautiful, intelligent and educated Madame Roland was the soul of their party; in her house the Girondins gathered to discuss their plans and actions. The husband, having learned about her execution, he was in Rouen at that time, stabbed himself with a dagger. A prominent Girondist, the author of the federalization project, Barbara, who was close to the Rolands, also committed suicide. The body of Petion, the former mayor of the capital, who fled from Paris from arrest, was found in a cave in Saint-Emilion, gnawed by dogs.

But executions in themselves could not improve the situation of the poor. The sans-culottes demanded the introduction of maximum prices and an intensified fight against speculation. On July 27, the Convention adopted a decree on the death penalty for speculation, but it was not implemented, as well as the May 4 law on maximum grain prices. In Paris and other large cities, food shortages began to be felt more and more, and high prices grew, from which the poor population suffered. This intensified the activity of rabid, plebeian agitators. The Jacobins arrested and put to death their leaders, including the most popular among them, Jacques Roux, but were still forced to meet the sans-culottes halfway and fulfill their demands. Under pressure from the frenzied, on September 29, the Convention adopted a decree on a general maximum price. Fixed prices for food and basic necessities were set at the level of pre-war prices with a slight increase. For violation of the maximum, speculation, buying up food, and profiteering, severe penalties were provided for, including the death penalty. At the same time, in the interests of entrepreneurs, along with the maximum prices, a maximum wage was also established.

At the request of the sans-culottes, supported by the Paris Commune, in September the Convention created a revolutionary army “to carry out, wherever necessary, the revolutionary laws and measures of public salvation decreed by the Convention.” She was entrusted with the responsibility of suppressing internal rebellions, carrying out requisitions to supply the army, Paris and other cities with food, and combating profiteering. This army of six thousand, commanded by the former writer-playwright Ronsen, moved around the country with a portable guillotine, carrying out requisitions, arrests, and executions. Its task also included carrying out a policy of de-Christianization directed against religion and the church, which the Jacobin dictatorship began in the fall of 1793.

During the implementation of this policy, churches were closed in cities and rural areas, bells were removed and sent for melting down to make cannons. Silver church utensils were sent to the impoverished Mint, and bullets were cast from pewter. Propaganda of religion was prohibited. Priests, on their own initiative, or more often under coercion, renounced their priesthood. They were persecuted, arrested, executed. Notre Dame Cathedral was turned into the “Temple of Freedom,” and festivities were held in church buildings in honor of the “cult of Reason.” This policy caused deep discontent among the masses of believers, which created a danger for the Jacobin authorities. In December 1793, the Convention, based on Robespierre's report, adopted a decree on freedom of worship.

In May 1794, Robespierre came up with a proposal to create the cult of the “Supreme Being of Nature”, in fact a new state religion, which was based on rationalism and republican ideas. The cult of the “Supreme Being” was the basis of the ideology of the Freemasons, to which Robespierre belonged. He called on all French to unite on the basis of a new cult that glorified civic virtues and republican virtues. Robespierre hoped that the new religion, based on republican morality, would strengthen the political unity of the nation. The convention decreed his proposal. On June 8, 1794, the worship of the new deity was organized in Paris, a grand celebration in honor of the Supreme Being. Robespierre himself played his role. In a blue suit specially tailored for this purpose with a bouquet of flowers and ears of corn in his hands, he walked at the head of the deputies of the Convention to a special dais on which cardboard symbols of religion and atheism were stacked, and set them on fire with a torch in front of numerous spectators. From under the ashes emerged a statue of Wisdom, personifying the new religion, majestic, although slightly grimy, as eyewitnesses noted. The new religion did not find adherents among the population and caused ridicule from many deputies of the Convention towards Robespierre.

In line with de-Christianization during the Jacobin dictatorship, a new revolutionary calendar was introduced. It was adopted by the Convention back in 1792 after the proclamation of the republic, but put into effect in December 1793. The new calculation of time was associated with the end of royal power, and the months were given names based on the state of nature in the corresponding period. The year was divided into 12 months of 30 days each, five additional days were called sansculottes, i.e. days of the poor. The day of the proclamation of the republic, September 22, 1793, was taken as the beginning of chronology and became in the new calendar the first day of the first month, called Vendémières (grape harvest). It was followed by the month of Brumaire (fog) from October 22. The following months were named sequentially: frimer (frost), nivoz (snow), pluvio (rain), vantose (wind), germinal (germination), floreal (flowers), prairie (meadows), messidor (harvest), thermidor (heat), fructidor (fruit). Each month was divided into three decades; The days of the decade were designated by the names of plants, vegetables, and animals. The new revolutionary calendar became binding. It operated from December 1793 to October 31, 1805.

The Jacobins sought to change the entire social life of the country, its way of life, and morals in accordance with their ideals. In the name of establishing equality of citizens, the Convention officially decreed the replacement of the address “you” with the address “you”. Instead of the French addressing each other as "Monsieur" and "Madame", everyone had to call each other "citizen" and "citizen". When there was a shortage of food in Paris, “bread of equality” was baked from flour with various additives, distributed for sale equally throughout both poor and rich quarters of the city. “Equality meals” were held, when neighbors had to bring all the food they had to common tables. Frivolous, frivolous motives were expelled from theatre, literature, painting, and music; they were replaced by the theme of civic virtue and duty. The Royal Louvre Palace has been turned into a museum, open to everyone who wants to see its art collections.

The main task of the Jacobin dictatorship remained the organization of victory over the external enemy. By the summer of 1793, the forces of the anti-French coalition had grown many times over. The industry and finances of England, its navy, and the armies of European countries were used against republican France. In July, the Austrian army advanced into French territory, Spanish troops crossed the Pyrenees border and invaded France. The country found itself surrounded by fronts. The convention announced general mobilization, and in a short time 14 armies were created, equipped and sent to the front out of 500 thousand mobilized soldiers, and their number was constantly growing. The general management of the actions of all armies was carried out by the Committee of Public Safety. A member of this committee, the talented military leader Lazare Carnot created the first semblance of a general staff in history. The Jacobins took a number of measures to organize the accelerated production of cannons, rifles, and gunpowder. Forges were set up in the open air to produce weapons. In Paris alone, 140 such forges were built; they even worked in the Luxembourg Gardens. Mass production of saltpeter was established by washing the soil from old cellars. In conditions of general mobilization, all men fit for service were sent to the front, women sewed uniforms and tents, children plucked lint, old people had to sit on the streets and raise the patriotic spirit of the population with their speeches.

The Jacobins attracted the greatest scientists to the creation of the military industry. Gaspard Monge, a mathematician, creator of descriptive geometry, headed all military production in the country, established the production of saltpeter, steel, guns, and then trained scientific, engineering, and military personnel. Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), the author of the famous “Analytical Mechanics,” who arrived in Paris on the eve of the revolution, was recruited by the Jacobins to carry out calculations on the theory of ballistics. But Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-94), one of the founders of modern chemistry and thermochemistry, who before the revolution received income from the sale of salt, tobacco, and alcohol, among other farmers, was sent to the guillotine by the court of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Since the spring of 1793, an amalgam of the army was carried out, that is, the unification of regular army soldiers and federated volunteers in the same military units. This achieved the strengthening of military discipline and training among the volunteers, and thanks to their patriotic enthusiasm, revolutionary ideas spread among the soldiers and officers of the old army. In case of failure in battles, generals were sent to the guillotine. Simultaneously with the amalgam, a purge of the army command staff was carried out. Almost all of the high-ranking noble officers were removed from their positions. People from various segments of the population capable of military affairs were appointed to the positions of officers, including senior commanders. Gauche, the son of a groom, who received this title at the age of 24, Jourdan, the son of a shopkeeper, and many others became generals. At the armies there were commissioners of the Convention with emergency powers. An example of their activity is the order of Saint-Just, who ordered “to take off all Strasbourg aristocrats in one night and send 10 thousand pairs of shoes to the army by morning.” The Jacobin armies were not burdened with large convoys, since they were supplied through requisitions from the population, especially outside France. The slogan “Peace to huts - war to palaces” remained in force and was supposed to attract sympathy for the French army from the population of the occupied countries.

The measures taken soon yielded results. By the end of 1793, the royalist rebellion in the Vendee was localized, in no small part due to the fact that the republican army of thousands was advancing against the rebels, moving the guillotine in the front ranks. The uprisings in Lyon, Nantes and other cities, raised by the Girondist leaders who fled from Paris, were suppressed with great cruelty, and Toulon was liberated from the English troops that had captured it. During the liberation of Toulon, the young artillery captain Napoleon Bonaparte distinguished himself, to whom the Commissar of the Convention in this army, Robespierre's brother, entrusted command of the operation. For its successful implementation, Bonaparte at the age of 24 was promoted to general by the Convention. By the beginning of 1794, the coalition troops, under pressure from the French army, retreated on all fronts. The entire territory of France was liberated.

Thus, the Jacobin dictatorship fulfilled its main tasks. She consolidated the elimination of feudal relations in the countryside, suppressed counter-revolutionary uprisings, and defended the republic from external enemies. Despite this, its leaders did not intend to move from a dictatorial regime to constitutional rule. The Jacobin terror, carried out on a large scale, did not decrease, but even expanded and began to be increasingly used not so much to fight against the enemies of the republic and the revolution, but as a means of struggle for power between Jacobin leaders.

In the winter and spring of 1794, the struggle within the ruling circles of the Jacobin dictatorship intensified. The Jacobins were not a homogeneous group. In Soviet historiography, the point of view was established that they represented a bloc of forces that were different in class terms, reflecting the interests of the middle and petty bourgeoisie, the urban plebeians and the majority of the peasantry. The 19th-century French historian Hippolyte Taine wrote that a Jacobin is not a representative of any political party or social class, but a “special psychological type” of a person who is cruel, angry, dissatisfied with everything, and capable only of destruction. Indeed, among the French Jacobins there were people from all levels of French society, from nobles and priests to sans-culottes. A large, if not decisive, role in the actions of each of them was played by personal ambitions, the desire for power, wealth, envy, intrigue, etc. Nevertheless, in the Jacobin bloc there are groups that differ in their political and social demands, which are conventionally called right , left and center. Contradictions in the Jacobin bloc had occurred before, but during the period of military failures and the struggle with the Girondins, the Jacobins were united against a common enemy. At the beginning of 1794, when the main threats to the republic were eliminated, contradictions between the Jacobin leaders in their understanding of the further development of the revolution began to appear with particular force.

Danton, the leader of the right - “lenient”, moderate, or as they later came to be called, Dantonists, sought the start of peace negotiations with the coalition and an end to the war in order to make dictatorship unnecessary, stop terror, and declare amnesty suspicious. By this time there were 12 prisons in Paris, 44 thousand throughout France, and they were all overcrowded. Fear, mutual suspicion, and the spread of slanderous denunciations became a characteristic feature of the life of the French at this time. Danton said: “What makes our cause weak is the severity of our principles, which frightens many people.” The closest of his like-minded people, Desmoulins, in his newspaper “Old Cordelier,” criticized the position of those Jacobins who took a course towards intensifying terror, and accused their leader Robespierre of striving for a personal dictatorship.

The left, or extreme, led by the journalist Hébert, were irreconcilable opponents of the lenient. Hébert, who published the newspaper “Père Duchesne,” on behalf of a rude stove-maker who used common vocabulary, gave a sharply critical assessment of their actions and calls. The Ebertists, as historians later began to call them, opposed concluding peace with the coalition, demanded increased terror against speculators, the strictest implementation of maximum prices, demanded the division of property of the suspicious, i.e., in their program they were close to the rabid. They were supported by the Paris Commune and its leader Chaumette, as well as numerous section leaders who joined them.

Under the influence of the left, at the end of February 1794, or Vantose according to the revolutionary calendar, the Convention adopted decrees on the free division of the property of executed suspects among indigent patriots. In each municipality, lists of rich suspects and poor patriots were to be compiled in order to divide the property of the suspects between them after their execution. The Ventose decrees stimulated the poorest urban and rural populations to search for new suspects, to increase the flow of slanderous denunciations, and to the unbridled expansion of terror. This became dangerous not only for the nouveau riche, but also for local authorities, and for those deputies of the Convention who became rich during the revolution. Therefore, the Ventoise decrees were not implemented.

All power during this period was concentrated in the hands of Robespierre and his supporters. They were the core of the Jacobin bloc and occupied a centrist position between the Dantonists and the Hébertists. Robespierre was a supporter of the republic in the spirit of Rousseau's teachings, without the extremes of wealth and poverty. He was ready to support the measures aimed at expanding the circle of owners from the poorest strata, which were proposed by the Hebertists, but he was still opposed to the violation of private property rights that they could lead to. Robespierre considered the Dantonists' calls for peace with the coalition to be unpatriotic. He and his supporters wanted to bring the war to complete victory. The continuation of the war justified the terror, but Robespierre was against ending it.

A fierce struggle was waged, first of all, between moderate and extreme Jacobins. In the press and in clubs they subjected each other to mutual accusations. At the same time, they expressed dissatisfaction with the policies of the Robespierrists who were in power. On February 22, Hébert spoke at the Cordeliers Club calling for an uprising. Leaflets issued by the Hébertists also called for an uprising. Through an uprising, they intended to achieve the renewal of the Committee of Public Safety, the purge of the Convention from Dantonists, and the removal of the Robespierrists from power. Having taken power into their own hands, they intended to intensify the terror and ensure the full implementation of the Ventoise decrees and other demands of the sans-culottes.

In response to the Hebertists' preparations for an uprising, the Committee of Public Safety ordered their arrest. On March 24, Hébert and more than ten of his supporters were executed. They were accused of plotting against the revolutionary government. The commander of the revolutionary army, Ronsen, the hero of the Bastille, who arrested the commandant of the Meillard fortress, was brought in for the Hébert case and guillotined together with him. Along with Hebert was executed the foreigner Kloots, a citizen of the world, or speaker of humanity, as he called himself, famous for his calls for waging war until the liberation of all Europe from tyrants. Following the revolutionary fashion of calling himself after famous people of Ancient Greece, he took the name of Anacharsis, the legendary Scythian who visited Athens in search of wisdom. He was declared a foreign spy and guillotined. The Paris Commune and its leader Chaumette did not support Hébert's call for an uprising, but they were also sent to the guillotine. The prosecutor of the Paris Commune, former paramedic Jean Pierre Chaumette, who took the name Anaxagoras, was one of the most active proponents of the policy of de-Christianization and arrests of suspicious persons. He said that he “could distinguish a suspicious person by his face,” and now he himself was one of them.

The elimination of the extreme Hébertists strengthened the position of the moderate Dantonists. Robespierre saw this as a danger to his power, since Danton enjoyed great influence among the deputies of the swamp in the Convention. A week after the execution of the Hébertists, the Committee of Public Safety, at the insistence of Robespierre, decided to arrest Danton, Desmoulins and their supporters. They were accused of conspiring in favor of the monarchy, seeking to overthrow the republic and destroy the Convention. Danton’s friends, having learned about this, suggested that he flee, but he responded with a phrase that later became popular: “Is it possible to carry away the Fatherland on the sole of your shoes?” He hoped that, given his great services to the revolution, “they would not dare.” Georges Danton was born in the south of France into a wealthy farming family. A lawyer by profession, shortly before the revolution he opened his own law office in Paris. During the elections to the Estates General, Danton was president of the Cordeliers constituency in Paris. He becomes an active member of the Cordeliers Club and a popular speaker there. As historians note, Danton was a master of revolutionary strategy; he was able to most correctly assess the situation and offer the right solution to problems that arose. He saved France from the troops of the Duke of Brunswick in September 1792. At a time when the Girondins in power intended to leave Paris, take the government and the Convention to the south, fleeing the advancing Prussian army, Danton used all his strength and energy to organize resistance to the interventionists. Occupying the post of Minister of Justice at that time, Danton actually took the defense of the capital into his own hands, and he managed to prevent the interventionist invasion of Paris.

But the Revolutionary Tribunal still sent the leaders of the right wing of the Jacobins, led by Danton and Desmoulins, to the guillotine. They were combined with arrested fraudsters and stock speculators in one trial. The trial lasted three days from April 2 to 4, 1794. Danton refuted all the charges brought against him and demanded that the members of the Committee of Public Safety, who decided to arrest him, themselves act as witnesses and accusers, and then he would “cover them with dishonor.” His performance in court began to evoke sympathy among the audience, the matter could take an unpredictable turn, and the Committee of Public Safety made a hasty decision, by virtue of which persons who insult judges “may be excluded from the debate.” Danton was deprived of his word. The day after the verdict was pronounced, April 5, 1794, the defendant Dantonists were sent to the guillotine. Before his execution, Danton told his friends: “At this time, twelve months ago, I proposed the establishment of this Revolutionary Tribunal. Now I ask God and people to forgive me for this. They are all Cain's brothers: Brissot wanted me to be guillotined, just as Robespierre wants it now. Robespierre will follow me, I will carry Robespierre away." This prediction soon came true.

His closest associate, Camille Desmoulins, who was executed along with him, was known even before the revolution as a young talented journalist. Desmoulins is credited with the first call to arms and the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Coming from the third estate, he could not hope that the aristocratic parents of his bride would allow her to marry him. The revolution changed the situation, and now they considered it an honor to become related to him. Desmoulins became a prominent figure in the revolution, popular in democratic circles. He called himself the first republican in France. But Desmoulins did not approve of the expansion of terror during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship and wrote in his newspaper: “shouldn’t there be a “committee of mercy” among so many arresting and punishing committees? He made quips about the law on suspicious persons. Desmoulins' last article, dated February 3, 1794, ended with Montezuma's words: "The gods are thirsty." Obviously, he came to understand that the revolution constantly requires new sacrifices in the form of human lives, just as the Gods of the ancient Indians demanded sacrifices. Robespierre was a personal friend of Desmoulins and even the best man at his wedding, but he just as mercilessly sent him to execution, like his other close friends, as soon as they showed disagreement with his actions. Moreover, ten days later, Lucille, Desmoulins' widow, was sent to the guillotine along with Hébert's widow. They were accused of plotting an escape from their husbands' prison.

After these executions, a group of Jacobins led by Robespierre remained in power. By this time, without holding any higher position than other members of the Committee of Public Safety, he was in fact at the head of the Jacobin dictatorship. They listened to him and supported him in the Jacobin Club. In the Convention and the Committee of Public Safety his word was law. The trial and execution of the Dantonists temporarily strengthened the position of the Robespierrists, but could not prevent the further weakening and split of the Jacobin bloc. Hidden opposition in the Convention against Robespierre and the regime of the Jacobin dictatorship intensified. Among the swamp of the Convention, representatives of the new rich, close in their views to the Dantonists, predominated. In April 1794, they did not dare to support Danton, because complete victory over the coalition had not yet been achieved and the threat of the restoration of the old order remained, and with it the loss of their wealth acquired during the revolution. They viewed the regime of the Jacobin dictatorship as forced. However, already in May significant victories were won. The main forces of the Austrians were defeated in Belgium at the battle of the village of Fleurus on June 26, 1794.

The need for a dictatorial regime caused by the military threat was no longer necessary. Specific goals have been achieved. The interventionists were expelled from France, and feudal relations in the village were ended. Many members of the Convention, as well as the Committee of Public Safety, received from the Jacobin dictatorship everything that it could give them. Now Robespierre's group, which included Saint-Just, Couthon, Lebas, Robespierre's brother Augustin and other supporters of increasing terror, began to arouse the hostility of many members of the Convention, who did not want to continue to lead a Puritan lifestyle, so as not to be accused of lacking republican virtues and be persecuted among the suspicious. However, Robespierre, Saint-Just and their supporters were not going to give up dictatorial power and intensified the terror. Daily executions in squares became a mass spectacle. But this did not improve the socio-economic situation in the country.

The situation of workers and the poorest artisans during the war constantly worsened. Taxation of prices did not give much results. Merchants did not want to sell their goods at low prices. Supervision over compliance with maximum prices weakened. Food shortages grew. Parisians had been queuing for bread at bakeries since the evening. The Jacobin dictatorship was losing its support not only among the new rich, but also among peasants dissatisfied with requisitions, mass recruitment into the army, as well as the urban lower classes, whose situation it did not improve. In the last months of its reign, the Jacobin dictatorship lost ground.

The leader of the Jacobin dictatorship, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-94), was born into a noble family in the north of France in Arras, and became a lawyer. He was an admirer of Rousseau's ideas, was elected to the Constituent Assembly, then to the Convention, and became a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He received the well-deserved nickname “Incorruptible” because he did not use power for personal enrichment, like many other leaders of the revolution. His patriotic words “not enough has been done for the Fatherland if everything has not been done” became popular. At the same time, Robespierre mercilessly sent to the guillotine those people who, from his point of view, did not have such high virtues and “republican virtue” as he did. He eliminated not only enemies, but also recent friends, suspecting them of apostasy or intrigue against him personally. Robespierre and his closest supporter Saint-Just insisted on the adoption by the Convention on June 10, 1794 of a law to simplify legal proceedings and abolish defense in cases subject to the jurisdiction of the Revolutionary Tribunal. This law gave the government the means to intensify its terror against the new rich and against the extreme Jacobins. The number of arrests and executions increased sharply. According to this decree, not only those who were listed in the previous decree of September 17, 1793, but also people who were simply caught for allegedly “not showing revolutionary enthusiasm” were declared suspicious. This expansion of terror made it unpredictable and dangerous for everyone.

A conspiracy arose against Robespierre in the depths of the Convention. It was attended by members of the Committee of Public Safety, including Carnot, who led the armies. Among the organizers of the conspiracy were supporters of both right-wing and left-wing Jacobins who escaped arrest. Barras, Freron and other right-wing conspirators got rich during the revolution through speculation, embezzlement, and bribery. Continuation of the terror threatened them with the guillotine. The left-wing Jacobins, who took part in organizing the conspiracy, were unhappy with the execution of Hébert and Chaumette and feared for their fate. Tallien feared arrest for the crimes he committed in Bordeaux during the suppression of the Girondin rebellion there. The left-wing Jacobin, the former abbot Fouche, who justified his cruelties in Lyon by the fact that “the republic must go to freedom over corpses,” seeing Robespierre’s hostile attitude towards himself, became one of the most active conspirators. The removal of Robespierre from power for the left, who themselves were involved in unlimited terror, was necessary to save their lives.

On 8 Thermidor, Robespierre spoke at the Convention with denunciations of the “new enemies of the republic,” but did not name his name. The next day, 9 Thermidor according to the revolutionary calendar, or July 27, 1794, Robespierre rose to the podium of the Convention to continue his accusations, but the conspirators did not give him the opportunity to speak. Shouts came from the audience: “tyrant, dictator, murderer.” Tallien threatened that if the Convention did not dare to overthrow the tyrant, he would do it himself with the help of the dagger he was holding in his hands. Robespierre tried to speak, but the chairman of the Convention, Thurio, drowned him out with the ringing of his bell. Robespierre lost his voice. In the hall, the words of one of the deputies began to be heard: “Danton’s blood is choking him.” Then loud shouts began to be heard demanding his immediate arrest. The Chairman put the matter to a vote and the motion passed. Maximilien Robespierre is arrested in the Convention building. Augustin Robespierre declares that he wants to share the fate of his brother. He, and with him Couthon, Saint-Just, Lebas, who supported Robespierre, were also arrested and taken from the hall. They were taken to the Luxembourg prison, but its chief, seeing Robespierre among the accused, refused to accept them and they headed to the town hall.

The commander of the national guard, the Jacobin Henriot, a supporter of Robespierre, led the battalions subordinate to him to the Place de Greve to the town hall. Robespierre could have given the order to Henriot's national guards to march on the Convention and disperse it. But he didn't. Meanwhile, one of the most determined conspirators, Barras, a former officer, gathered the remaining National Guardsmen loyal to the Convention and also led them to the town hall. Here he announced the resolution of the Convention: “Robespierre and all rebels are outlawed!” This shook the resolve of the defenders of the town hall. Having not received an order to move to the Convention, they were forced to disperse, especially since heavy rain began to pour in at that time. When the conspiratorial troops burst into the town hall, Henriot jumped out of the window, Augustin Robespierre did the same, Couthon tried to kill himself, but was unsuccessful, Lebas shot himself, Saint-Just calmly awaited arrest. The conspirators who burst into the building saw Maximilian Robespierre lying on the floor with a crushed jaw. It is believed that he tried to shoot himself, but one of the Meda conspirators who burst into the town hall, who later became a general and baron, insisted that it was he who shot at Robespierre.

There is still no clear answer to this question, just as there is no consensus on the question of why Robespierre did not give the order to the National Guardsmen loyal to him to move to the Convention and arrest the conspirators. According to the French writer Romain Rolland, Robespierre did not want to confirm the accusations against him that he was striving for a personal dictatorship. The Soviet historian A. Z. Manfred, who idealized Robespierre, was sure that within the framework of the bourgeois revolution he had taken revolutionary-democratic transformations to the limit and did not know where to move next, he did not have a program of action if he had won over the conspirators. Another Soviet historian N.N. Molchanov wrote that Robespierre was simply a coward, he personally did not take part in any of the uprisings during the revolution and only through intrigue and unscrupulousness in means reached the pinnacle of power.

But be that as it may, the next day Robespierre and those who were next to him, both dead and survivors, were all sent to the guillotine, 22 people in total. There was no trial of them, because they had already been declared outlaws. The Chairman of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Fouquier-Tinville, only formally verified their identities. In the following days, the executions of the Robespierrists continued. On the 11th of Thermidor, 70 members of the Paris Commune were executed. On 9 Thermidor or July 27, 1794, the Jacobin dictatorship was overthrown.

Later, 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 constant correspondence with the Parisian club, becoming its branches. Club membership is estimated at up to 500,000 nationwide. In November 1790, the Jacobins began publishing their own publication, the Journal of the Society of Friends of the Constitution.

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 escape attempt 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 was transformed into one of the administrative bodies of the government; many club members become government functionaries, following its policies. " The revolution became frozen, all its principles weakened, only the red cap remained on the heads of intrigue"- Saint-Just recorded at this time.

Origin

Gradually, like-minded deputies from other provinces began to join them, including Mirabeau, Sieyès, Duke d'Aiguillon, Viscount Noaille, Barnave, Pétion, Volney, Abbot Gregoire, brothers Charles and Alexandre 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 general 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 was necessary from outside the meeting, the formation of public opinion, when private individuals could contact the meeting with petitions, influence local governments, and support discussion of pressing issues in the press.

Jacobin Club in Paris

When the king and the National Assembly moved to Paris, the Breton Club disintegrated, but its former members began to meet again, first in a Parisian private house, then in a room they rented in a monastery of Jacobin monks (Dominican order) near the arena where the National Assembly met. Some of the monks also took part in the meetings; Therefore, the royalists nicknamed the club members in mockery Jacobins, and 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 clear evidence of the incompatibility of the monarchy and revolutionary France and destroyed the attempt to establish a constitutional monarchy. Externally, this hastened the approach of military conflict with monarchical Europe.

Escape changed the situation. By this time, none of the Jacobins, including the left wing - Robespierre, Pétion, Roederer, Buzot, adhered to 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, 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 called on the townspeople to collect signatures on a petition on July 17 on the Champ de Mars demanding the abdication of the king. City authorities banned the demonstration. The mayor of 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.

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 Club des Feuillants. Most of the members left with them, as did the club's branches across the country. About 400 provincial clubs sided with the Feuillants, and only about a dozen remaining took the side of 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 explanation, many returned. Prieur, Gregoire, Barer, Dubois-Cranse, 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 affiliations with the Parisian club.

The split led to a rapprochement between the Jacobins and other popular movements of Paris, which was facilitated by new democratic slogans - republicanism, the right of 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 main turning points of the revolution, the consecration of which, as François Fouret writes, occurred a year later with the fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic.

Second revolution

Jacques-Pierre Brissot

Camille Desmoulins

Etienne Clavier

Jacques Nicolas Billot-Varenne

The preservation and even increase in the influence of the club was largely a consequence of the work of one of the most important committees of the club - the correspondence committee (French Comité de Correspondance), whose members now included Robespierre, Brissot, Carra, Desmoulins, Claviers, Collot-Derbois, Billot-Varenne . Future Montagnards, future Girondins, future Hébertists and Dantonists - the entire future of the revolution, temporarily united. Preparing for debates in the assembly was no longer the club's goal. The public began to be admitted to meetings on October 12, 1791, and with the appearance of the public, pressure on the club's debates from Parisian activists increased. The club began to turn into something like the headquarters of the revolution.

The influence of the Jacobins on the Legislative Assembly was relatively small, and it was the Jacobin Club that was the tribune of the “messianic” agitation of Brissot and his associates before the declaration of war on Austria. It was at the club in December 1791 and January 1792 that Robespierre made his famous anti-war speeches. The differences between the Girondins and the Montagnards were quite blurred. After the catastrophic outbreak 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 trend was abandoned once and for all in July 1792 in support of the election of a new assembly that reflected the new balance of forces - the National Convention.

The Jacobins were not a political party in the modern sense and therefore it is difficult to find any centralizing principle in the events leading to the uprising of August 10 and the overthrow of the king. But what is certain is the participation of the Jacobins in the struggle for dominance in the Parisian sections, agitation and fraternization with federates arriving from the provinces. The revolutionary committee of the insurgent commune included Jacobins, who found themselves in the most important positions 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 (French 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.

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” (French. Amis de la Liberté et de l'Égalité), as the Jacobins began to call themselves. The Paris Commune considered the club its ally. The very name of the club, originally given as a mockery, has now become a proud title. Volunteers going to the front considered the Jacobin emblem a sign of true citizenship and patriotism, before which all enemies of the revolution would shudder with horror.

Participation in the National Convention

Club organization

Date of creation and charter

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 (since minutes of meetings were not kept at first) when outsiders, that is, non-deputies, began to be accepted as members.

As the number of members grew, the organization of the club became much more complex. At the head was a chairman, elected for a month; he had four secretaries, twelve inspectors, and, which is especially typical for 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, meetings took place three times a week, then daily; the public began to be allowed to attend meetings only on October 12, 1791, that is, already under the Legislative Assembly.

At this time, the number of club members reached 1211 (based on 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 it hired after the abolition of the order and the confiscation of its property, and in which the meetings took place until the closure 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 people from the merchant class.

Some of its members bore well-known names: doctor Cabanis, scientist Lacepede, writer Marie-Joseph Chenier, Choderlos de Laclos, painters David and Carl Vernet, La Harpe, 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 retained two original features to the end: doctoralism and some attention to educational qualifications. This was expressed in antagonism towards the Cordeliers Club, which accepted people even illiterate people, and also in the fact that the very entry into the Jacobin Club was determined by a rather high membership fee (24 livres annually, and upon joining another 12 livres).

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

Newspaper

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