French bourgeois revolution 1789 1794 History of the French Revolutions

Among non-Marxist historians, two views prevail on the nature of the Great French Revolution, which do not contradict each other. The traditional view that arose at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. (Sieyès, Barnave, Guizot), considers the revolution as a nationwide uprising against the aristocracy, its privileges and its methods of oppressing the masses, hence the revolutionary terror against the privileged classes, the desire of the revolutionaries to destroy everything that was associated with the Old Order and build a new free and democratic society . From these aspirations flowed the main slogans of the revolution - freedom, equality, brotherhood.

According to the second view, which shares large number modern historians (including V. Tomsinov, I. Wallerstein, P. Huber, A. Cobbo, D. Guerin, E. Leroy Ladurie, B. Moore, Huneke, etc.), the revolution was anti-capitalist in nature and represented an explosion mass protest against capitalism or against those methods of its spread that were used by the ruling elite.

There are other opinions about the nature of the revolution. For example, historians F. Furet and D. Richet view the revolution largely as a struggle for power between various factions that replaced each other several times during 1789-1799. . There is a view of the revolution as the liberation of the bulk of the population (peasants) from a monstrous system of oppression or some kind of slavery, hence the main slogan of the revolution - freedom, equality, brotherhood. However, there is evidence that at the time of the revolution the vast majority of the French peasantry were personally free, and state taxes and feudal duties were not at all high. The reasons for the revolution are seen to be that it was a peasant revolution caused by the last filling of the reservoir. From this point of view, the French Revolution was systemic in nature and belonged to the same type of revolution as the Dutch Revolution, the English Revolution or the Russian Revolution. .

Convocation of the Estates General

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to get out of a difficult financial situation, Louis XVI announced in December 1787 that he would convene French government officials for a meeting of the States General in five years. When Jacques Necker became a parliamentarian for the second time, he insisted that the Estates General be convened as early as 1789; the government, however, had no specific program.

The rebel peasants burned the castles of the lords, seizing their lands. In some provinces, about half of the landowners' estates were burned or destroyed; these events of 1789 were called the “Great Fear”.

Abolition of class privileges

By decrees of August 4-11, the Constituent Assembly abolished personal feudal duties, seigneurial courts, church tithes, privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations and declared the equality of all before the law in the payment of state taxes and the right to occupy civil, military and church positions. But at the same time it announced the elimination of only “indirect” duties (the so-called banalities): the “real” duties of the peasants, in particular, land and poll taxes, were retained.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Activities of the Constituent Assembly

Was held administrative reform : The provinces were united into 83 departments with a single judicial system.

Following the principle of civil equality, the assembly abolished class privileges and abolished the institution of hereditary nobility, noble titles and coats of arms.

The policy began to take hold economic liberalism: it was announced that all trade restrictions would be lifted; Medieval guilds and state regulation of entrepreneurship were eliminated, but at the same time, according to Le Chapelier's law, strikes and workers' organizations - companionships - were prohibited.

In July 1790, the Constituent Assembly completed church reform: bishops were appointed to all 83 departments of the country; all church ministers began to receive salaries from the state. The Constituent Assembly demanded that the clergy swear allegiance not to the Pope, but to the French state. Only half of the priests and only 7 bishops decided to take this step. The Pope responded by condemning the French Revolution, all the reforms of the Constituent Assembly, and especially the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.”

Adoption of the constitution

Arrest of Louis XVI

On June 20, 1791, the king tried to escape the country, but was recognized at the border in Varenna by a postal employee and returned to Paris, where he actually found himself in custody in his own palace (the so-called “Varenna crisis”).

On September 3, 1791, the National Assembly proclaimed the fourth constitution in European history (after the Constitution of Pylyp Orlik, the Constitution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of May 3, and the Constitution of San Marino) and the fifth constitution in the world (the US Constitution of 1787). It proposed to convene a Legislative Assembly - a unicameral parliament based on a high property qualification. There were only 4.3 million “active” citizens who received the right to vote under the constitution, and only 50 thousand electors who elected deputies. Deputies of the National Assembly could not be elected to the new parliament. The Legislative Assembly opened on October 1, 1791. This fact indicated the establishment of a limited monarchy in the country.

At meetings of the Legislative Assembly, the question of starting a war in Europe was raised, primarily as a means of solving internal problems. On April 20, 1792, the King of France, under pressure from the Legislative Assembly, declared war on the Holy Roman Empire. On April 28, 1792, the National Guard launched attacks on the Belgian positions, which ended in complete failure.

From the storming of the Tuileries to the execution of the king

On August 10, 1792, about 20 thousand rebels (the so-called sans-culottes) surrounded the royal palace. His assault was short-lived, but bloody. The attackers were resisted by several thousand soldiers of the Swiss Guard, almost all of whom fell at the Tuileries or were killed in prisons during the “September Murders”. One of the results of this assault was the virtual removal of Louis XVI from power and the emigration of Lafayette.

From this point on, for several months, the highest revolutionary bodies - the National Assembly and the Convention - were under strong influence and pressure from the popular masses (sans-culottes) and in a number of cases were forced to fulfill the immediate demands of the crowd of rebels who surrounded the building of the National Assembly. These demands included the rollback of previously implemented trade liberalization, freezing prices, wages and harsh prosecution of speculators. These measures were taken and lasted until the arrest of Robespierre in July 1794. All this occurred against the backdrop of a rise in mass terror, which, although directed mainly against the aristocracy, led to the executions and murders of tens of thousands of people from all walks of life.

At the end of August, the Prussian army launched an attack on Paris and took Verdun on September 2, 1792. The confusion and fear that arose in society about the return of the old order led to the “September murders” that occurred in early September of aristocrats and former soldiers of the king’s Swiss guard, prisoners in prisons in Paris and a number of other cities, during which more than 5 thousand people were killed.

Accusations and attacks on the Girondins

The trial of Marie Antoinette

The revolution led to enormous casualties. It is estimated that from 1789 to 1815. Only from revolutionary terror in France up to 2 million civilians died, and up to 2 million soldiers and officers died in wars. Thus, 7.5% of the population of France died in revolutionary battles and wars alone (the population in the city was 27,282,000), not counting those who died over the years from hunger and epidemics. By the end of the Napoleonic era, there were almost no adult men left in France capable of fighting.

At the same time, a number of authors point out that the revolution brought liberation from heavy oppression to the people of France, which could not have been achieved in any other way. A “balanced” view of the revolution views it as a great tragedy in the history of France, but at the same time inevitable, resulting from the severity of class contradictions and accumulated economic and political problems.

Most historians believe that the Great French Revolution had enormous international significance, contributed to the spread of progressive ideas throughout the world, and influenced a series of revolutions in Latin America, as a result of which the latter was freed from colonial dependence, and a number of other events of the first half of the 19th century V.

Songs of revolutionary France

Revolution in philately

Literature

Ado A.V. Peasants and the Great French Revolution. Peasant movements in 1789-94. M.: Publishing house Mosk. University, 2003.
Current problems in studying the history of the Great French Revolution (materials of the “round table” on September 19-20, 1988). M., 1989.
Bachko B.. How to get out of Terror? Thermidor and the Revolution. Per. from fr. and last D. Yu. Bovykina. M.: BALTRUS, 2006.
Bovykin D. Yu. Is the revolution over? Results of Thermidor. M.: Publishing house Mosk. University, 2005.
Gordon A.V. The fall of the Girondins. Popular uprising in Paris May 31 - June 2, 1793. M.: Nauka, 2002.
Dzhivelegov A.K. The army of the Great French Revolution and its leaders: a historical sketch. M., 2006.
Historical sketches about the French Revolution. In memory of V. M. Dalin (on the occasion of his 95th birthday). Institute general history RAS. M., 1998.
Zacher Ya. M.“Mad Ones,” their activities and historical significance // French Yearbook, 1964. M., 1965
Carlyle T. French Revolution: history. M., 2002.
Koshen O. Small people and revolution. M.: Iris-Press, 2003.
Kropotkin P. A. The Great French Revolution. 1789-1793. M., 2003.
Levandovsky A. Maximilian Robespierre. M.: Young Guard, 1959. (ZhZL)
Levandovsky A. Danton. M.: Young Guard, 1964. (ZhZL)
Manfred A. Z. Foreign policy of France 1871-1891. M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1952.
Manfred A. Z. The Great French Revolution. M., 1983.
Manfred A. Z. Three portraits of the era of the Great French Revolution (Mirabeau, Rousseau, Robespierre). M., 1989.
Mathiez A. French Revolution. Rostov-on-Don, 1995.
Minier F. History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814. M., 2006.
Olar A. Political history of the French Revolution. M., 1938. Part 1, Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
The first explosion of the French Revolution. From the reports of the Russian envoy in Paris I. M. Simolin to Vice-Chancellor A. I. Osterman// Russian archive, 1875. - Book. 2. - Issue. 8. - pp. 410-413.
Popov Yu. V. Publicists of the Great French Revolution. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 2001.
Revunenkov V. G. Essays on the history of the Great French Revolution. L., 1989.
Revunenkov V. G. Parisian sans-culottes of the era of the French Revolution. L., 1971.
Sobul A. From the history of the Great Bourgeois Revolution of 1789-1794. and the revolution of 1848 in France. M., 1960.
Sobul A. The problem of the nation during the social struggle during the French bourgeois revolution of the 18th century. New and Contemporary History, 1963, No. 6. P.43-58.
Tarle E. V. Working class in France during the revolution
Tocqueville A. The old order and revolution. Per. from fr. M. Fedorova. M.: Moscow. Philosophical Foundation, 1997.
Tyrsenko A. V. Feyants: at the origins of French liberalism. M., 1993.
Frikadel G.S. Danton. M. 1965.
Yure F. Understanding the French Revolution. St. Petersburg, 1998.
Hobsbawm E. Echo of the Marseillaise. M., Inter-Verso, 1991.
Chudinov A.V. The French Revolution: History and Myths. M.: Nauka, 2006.
Chudinov A.V. Scientists and the French Revolution

Notes

Wallerstein I. The Modern World-System III. The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s. San Diego, 1989, pp. 40-49; Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 265
See, for example: Goubert P. L’Ancien Regime. Paris, T. 1, 1969, p. 235
The introduction of market relations began in 1763-1771. under Louis XV and continued in subsequent years, until 1789 (see Ancien Regime). The leading role in this was played by liberal economists (physiocrats), who were almost all representatives of the aristocracy (including the head of government, the physiocrat Turgot), and kings Louis XV and Louis XVI were active supporters of these ideas. See Kaplan S. Bread, Politics and Political Economy in the reign of Louis XV. Hague, 1976
See Old Order. One such example is the uprising of October 1795 (shot from cannon by Napoleon), in which 24 thousand armed bourgeois residents took part central regions Paris. World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek and others, Minsk, 1997-1999, vol. 16, p. 86-90. Another example is the uprising of the sans-culottes on August 10, 1792, who for the most part represented the petty bourgeoisie (small businesses, artisans, etc.) opposing big business - the aristocracy. Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 109
Goubert P. L'Ancien Regime. Paris, T. 2, 1973, p. 247
Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 255
Wallerstein I. The Modern World-System III. The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s. San Diego, 1989, pp. 40-49
Furet F. et Richet D. La revolution francaise. Paris, 1973, pp. 213, 217
Goubert P. L'Ancien Regime. Paris, T. 1, 1969; Kuzovkov Yu. World history of corruption. M., 2010, chapter XIII
Aleksakha A. G. Introduction to progressology. Moscow, 2004 p. 208-233 alexakha.ucoz.com/vvedenie_v_progressologiju.doc
World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1998, vol. 16, p. 7-9
World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1998, vol. 16, p. 14
Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 71
Palmer R. The World of the French Revolution. New York, 1971, p. 111, 118
World History: In 24 volumes. A. Badak, I. Voynich, N. Volchek et al., Minsk, 1998, vol. 16, p. 37-38

1789–1791
1791–1793
1793–1799
1799–1814
Napoleon's coup and establishment of the empire
1814–1848
1848–1851
1851–1870
1870–1875
Revolution of 1870 and establishment of the Third Republic

In 1787, an economic recession began in France, which gradually turned into a crisis: production fell, the French market was flooded with cheaper English goods; to this were added crop failures and natural disasters, which led to the destruction of crops and vineyards. In addition, France spent a lot on unsuccessful wars and supporting the American Revolution. There was not enough income (by 1788, expenses exceeded income by 20%), and the treasury took out loans, the interest on which was unaffordable for it. The only way to increase revenues to the treasury was to deprive the first and second estates of tax privileges Under the Ancien Regime, French society was divided into three classes: the first - the clergy, the second - the nobility and the third - everyone else. The first two estates had a number of privileges, including being exempt from having to pay taxes..

Government attempts to abolish the tax privileges of the first two estates failed, meeting resistance from the noble parliaments Parliaments- before the revolution, the highest courts of fourteen regions of France. Until the 15th century, only the Parisian Parliament existed, then the other thirteen appeared.(that is, the highest courts of the Old Order period). Then the government announced the convening of the Estates General Estates General- a body that included representatives of the three classes and was convened on the initiative of the king (as a rule, to resolve a political crisis). Each class sat separately and had one vote., which included representatives of all three classes. Unexpectedly for the crown, this caused a widespread public upsurge: hundreds of pamphlets were published, voters drew up orders to deputies: few people wanted a revolution, but everyone hoped for change. The impoverished nobility demanded financial support from the crown, while at the same time counting on restrictions on its power; the peasants protested against the rights of the lords and hoped to gain ownership of the land; Enlightenment ideas about equality of all before the law and equal access to positions became popular among townspeople (in January 1789, Abbot Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès’s widely known pamphlet “What is the Third Estate?” was published, containing the following passage: “1. What is the Third Estate ? - Everything. 2. What has it been so far in political terms? - Nothing. 3. What does it require? - To become something." Drawing on the ideas of the Enlightenment, many believed that the nation, not the king, should have the highest power in a country, that absolute monarchy should be replaced by a limited one, and that traditional law should be replaced by a constitution—a collection of clearly written laws that apply to all citizens.

The French Revolution and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy

Capture of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Painting by Jean Pierre Uel. 1789

Bibliothèque nationale de France

Chronology 

Start of work of the Estates General 

Proclamation of the National Assembly

Storming of the Bastille 

Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Adoption of the first French constitution 

On May 5, 1789, a meeting of the Estates General opened in Versailles. According to tradition, each class had one vote when voting. Deputies from the third estate, who were twice as many as deputies from the first and second, demanded an individual vote, but the government did not agree to this. In addition, contrary to the expectations of the deputies, the authorities brought up only financial reforms for discussion. On June 17, deputies from the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly, that is, representatives of the entire French nation. On June 20, they vowed not to disperse until a constitution was drawn up. After some time, the National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly, thus declaring its intention to establish a new political system in France.

Soon a rumor spread throughout Paris that the government was massing troops to Versailles and planning to disperse the Constituent Assembly. An uprising began in Paris; On July 14, hoping to seize weapons, the people stormed the Bastille. This symbolic event is considered the beginning of the revolution.

After this, the Constituent Assembly gradually turned into the highest power in the country: Louis XVI, who sought to avoid bloodshed at all costs, sooner or later approved any of his decrees. Thus, from August 5 to August 11, all peasants became personally free, and the privileges of the two classes and individual regions were abolished.

Overthrow of the absolute monarchy
On August 26, 1789, the Constituent Assembly approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. On October 5, the crowd went to Versailles, where Louis XVI was, and demanded that the king and his family move to Paris and approve the Declaration. Louis was forced to agree - and in France it ceased to exist absolute monarchy. This was enshrined in the constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 3, 1791.

Having adopted the constitution, the Constituent Assembly dispersed. The laws were now approved by the Legislative Assembly. Executive power remained with the king, who became an official subject to the will of the people. Officials and priests were no longer appointed, but elected; The church's property was nationalized and sold off.

Symbols

"Liberty, equality, fraternity." The formula “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité,” which became the motto of the French Republic, first appeared on December 5, 1790, in an unspoken speech by Maximilian Robespierre, one of the most influential French revolutionaries, elected to the Estates General from the Third Estate in 1789.

Bastille. By July 14, the Bastille, the ancient royal prison, held only seven prisoners, so its assault was symbolic rather than pragmatic, although it was taken in the hope of finding weapons there. By decision of the municipality, the captured Bastille was destroyed to the ground.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The Declaration of Human Rights stated that “men are born and are born free and equal in rights,” and declared that the human rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression are natural and inalienable. In addition, it secured freedom of speech, press and religion and abolished classes and titles. It was included as a preamble in the first constitution (1791) and still forms the basis of French constitutional law, being a legally binding document.

Execution of the king and establishment of the republic

The last moments of the life of Louis XVI. Engraving after a painting by Charles Benazech. 1793

Wellcome Library

Chronology 

Beginning of the war with Austria 

Overthrow of Louis XVI

Start of the National Convention

Execution of Louis XVI 

On August 27, 1791, in the Saxon castle of Pillnitz, the Prussian king Frederick William II and the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II (brother of Louis XVI's wife Marie Antoinette), under pressure from aristocrats who emigrated from France, signed a document declaring their readiness to provide support to the king of France, including military . Girondins Girondins- a circle formed around deputies from the Gironde department, who advocated further reforms, but held relatively moderate views. In 1792, many of them opposed the execution of the king., supporters of the republic, took advantage of this to persuade the Legislative Assembly to war with Austria, which was declared on April 20, 1792. When French troops began to suffer defeats, the royal family was blamed.

Overthrow of the constitutional monarchy
On August 10, 1792, an uprising occurred, as a result of which Louis was overthrown and imprisoned on charges of betraying national interests. The Legislative Assembly resigned: now, in the absence of the king, it was necessary to write a new constitution. For these purposes, a new legislative body was assembled - the elected National Convention, which first of all proclaimed France a republic.

In December, a trial began that found the king guilty of malicious intent against the freedom of the nation and sentenced him to death.

Symbols

Marseillaise. March written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (military engineer, part-time poet and composer) on April 25, 1792. In 1795, the La Marseillaise became the national anthem of France, losing this status under Napoleon and finally regaining it in 1879 under the Third Republic. By the second half of the 19th century it had become an international song of leftist resistance.

Jacobin dictatorship, Thermidorian coup and establishment of the Consulate

The overthrow of Robespierre at the National Convention on July 27, 1794. Painting by Max Adamo. 1870

Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Chronology 

By decree of the Convention, the Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal was established, which in October will be renamed the Revolutionary Tribunal

Creation of the Committee of Public Safety

Expulsion of the Girondins from the Convention

Adoption of the Constitution of the Year I, or Montagnard Constitution 

Decree on the introduction of a new calendar

Thermidorian coup

Execution of Robespierre and his supporters 

Adoption of the Constitution of the III year. Formation of the Directory

Coup of the 18th Brumaire. Change of Directory by the Consulate

Despite the execution of the king, France continued to suffer setbacks in the war. Monarchist revolts broke out within the country. In March 1793, the Convention created the Revolutionary Tribunal, which was supposed to try “traitors, conspirators and counter-revolutionaries,” and after it the Committee of Public Safety, which was supposed to coordinate the country’s domestic and foreign policy.

Expulsion of the Girondins, Jacobin dictatorship

The Girondins gained great influence in the Committee of Public Safety. Many of them did not support the execution of the king and the introduction of emergency measures, some expressed outrage that Paris was imposing its will on the country. Montagnards who competed with them Montagnards- a relatively radical group that relied, in particular, on the urban poor. The name comes from the French word montagne - mountain: at meetings of the Legislative Assembly, members of this group usually took seats in the upper rows on the left side of the hall. They sent dissatisfied urban poor against the Girondins.

On May 31, 1793, a crowd gathered at the Convention demanding that the Girondins, who were accused of treason, be expelled from it. On June 2, the Girondins were placed under house arrest, and on October 31, many of them were guillotined by the verdict of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

The expulsion of the Girondins led to civil war. Despite the fact that France was at war with many European states at the same time, the constitution adopted in 1793 never came into force: until the onset of peace, the Convention introduced a “temporary revolutionary order of government.” Almost all power was now concentrated in his hands; The Convention sent commissioners with enormous powers to the localities. The Montagnards, who now had a huge advantage in the Convention, declared their opponents enemies of the people and sentenced them to guillotine. The Montagnards abolished all seigneurial duties and began to sell the lands of emigrants to peasants. In addition, they introduced a maximum to which prices for the most necessary goods, including bread, could rise; in order to avoid shortages, they had to forcefully take grain from the peasants.

By the end of 1793, most of the revolts were suppressed, and the situation at the front was turned around - the French army went on the offensive. Nevertheless, the number of victims of terror did not decrease. In September 1793, the Convention adopted the “Law on Suspects,” which ordered the detention of all people who were not accused of any crime, but who might have committed it. Since June 1794, interrogations of defendants and their right to lawyers, as well as mandatory interrogations of witnesses, were abolished at the Revolutionary Tribunal; for people found guilty by the tribunal, only one punishment was now provided - the death penalty.

Thermidorian coup  

In the spring of 1794, the Robespierrists began to talk about the need for a final wave of executions that would clear the Convention of opponents of the revolution. Almost all members of the Convention felt that their lives were under threat. On July 27, 1794 (or 9 Thermidor II according to the revolutionary calendar), the leader of the Montagnards, Maximilian Robespierre, and many of his supporters were arrested by members of the Convention, who feared for their lives. On July 28 they were executed.

After the coup, the terror quickly subsided, Jacobin Club Jacobin Club- a political club formed in 1789 and meeting in a Jacobin monastery. The official name is the Society of Friends of the Constitution. Many of its members were deputies of the Constituent and Legislative Assembly, and then the Convention; they played a big role in the ongoing policy of terror. was closed. The power of the Committee of Public Safety was reduced. Thermidorians Thermidorians- members of the Convention who supported the Thermidorian coup. A general amnesty was proclaimed, and many surviving Girondins returned to the Convention.

Coup of the 18th Brumaire

A new conspiracy has matured within the Directory itself. On November 9, 1799 (or 18 Brumaire of the VIII year of the Republic), two of the five directors, together with Bonaparte, carried out a coup, dispersing the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders. The Directory was also deprived of power. Instead, a Consulate arose - a government consisting of three consuls. All three conspirators became them.

Symbols

 Tricolor.  In 1794, the tricolor became the official flag of France. To the white Bourbon color used on the flag before the Revolution, blue, the symbol of Paris, and red, the color of the National Guard, were added.

Republican calendar. On October 5, 1793, a new calendar was introduced into circulation, the first year of which was 1792. All months in the calendar received new names: time had to start anew with the revolution. In 1806 the calendar was abolished.

Louvre Museum. Despite the fact that some parts of the Louvre were open to the public before the revolution, the palace became a full-fledged museum only in 1793.

Napoleon Bonaparte's coup and establishment of the empire

Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul. Fragment of a painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. 1803-1804

Wikimedia Commons

Chronology 

Adoption of the VIII Constitution, which established the dictatorship of the first consul

Adoption of the 10th Constitution, which made the powers of the first consul lifelong 

Adoption of the XII Constitution, proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor

On December 25, 1799, a new constitution was adopted (Constitution VIII), created with the participation of Napoleon Bonaparte. A government came to power consisting of three consuls, named directly in the constitution, and elected for ten years (as a one-time exception, the third consul was then appointed for five years). Napoleon Bonaparte was named the first of the three consuls. Almost all real power was concentrated in his hands: only he had the right to propose new laws, appoint members of the State Council, ambassadors, ministers, senior military leaders and department prefects. The principles of separation of powers and popular sovereignty were effectively abolished.

In 1802, the Council of State put to a referendum the question of whether Bonaparte should be made consul for life. As a result, the consulate became lifelong, and the first consul received the right to appoint a successor.

In February 1804, a monarchist conspiracy was uncovered, the purpose of which was to assassinate Napoleon. After this, proposals began to arise to make Napoleon’s power hereditary in order to prevent this from happening in the future.

Establishment of the Empire
On May 18, 1804, the XII Constitution was adopted, approved by referendum. Administration of the republic was now transferred to the “Emperor of the French,” who was declared to be Napoleon Bonaparte. In December, the emperor was crowned by the Pope.

In 1804, the Civil Code, written with the participation of Napoleon, was adopted - a set of laws that regulated the life of French citizens. The Code asserted, in particular, the equality of all before the law, the inviolability of land property and secular marriage. Napoleon managed to normalize the French economy and finances: through constant recruitment into the army, both in the countryside and in the city, he managed to cope with the surplus of labor, which led to an increase in income. He cracked down harshly on the opposition and limited freedom of speech. The role of propaganda glorifying the invincibility of French weapons and the greatness of France became enormous.

Symbols

Eagle.  In 1804, Napoleon introduced a new imperial coat of arms, which featured an eagle, a symbol of the Roman Empire that was present on the coats of arms of other great powers.

Bee. This symbol, dating back to the Merovingians, became Napoleon's personal emblem and replaced the lily flower in heraldic ornaments.

Napoleondor.  Under Napoleon, a coin called Napoleon d’or (literally “golden Napoleon”) was circulated: it depicted Bonaparte’s profile.

Legion of Honor. An order established by Bonaparte on May 19, 1802, following the example of knightly orders. Belonging to the order testified to the official recognition of special services to France.

Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy

Freedom leading the people. Painting by Eugene Delacroix. 1830

Musée du Louvre

Chronology

Napoleon's invasion of Russia

Capture of Moscow

Battle of Leipzig ("Battle of the Nations")

Napoleon's abdication and the proclamation of Louis XVIII as king

Promulgation of the 1814 Charter

Napoleon's escape from Elba

Capture of Paris

Battle of Waterloo 

Napoleon's abdication

Accession to the throne of Charles X 

Signing of the July Ordinances

Mass unrest 

Abdication of Charles X 

The Duke of Orleans' oath of allegiance to the new Charter. From that day on he became King of the French Louis Philippe I

As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the French Empire became the most powerful European power with a stable government system and finances in order. In 1806, Napoleon banned all European countries under his control from trading with England - as a result of the Industrial Revolution, England was crowding out French goods from markets. The so-called Continental Blockade damaged the English economy, but by 1811 the resulting economic crisis affected all of Europe, including France. The failures of French troops in the Iberian Peninsula began to destroy the image of the invincible French army. Finally, in October 1812, the French had to begin a retreat from Moscow, which they occupied in September.

Bourbon Restoration 
On October 16-19, 1813, the Battle of Leipzig took place, in which Napoleon's army was defeated. In April 1814, Napoleon abdicated the throne and went into exile on the island of Elba, and Louis XVIII, the brother of the executed Louis XVI, ascended the throne.

Power returned to the Bourbon dynasty, but Louis XVIII was forced to grant the people a constitution - the so-called Charter of 1814, according to which each new law had to be approved by the two houses of parliament. A constitutional monarchy was re-established in France, but not all citizens and not even all adult men had the right to vote, but only those who had a certain level of income.

One Hundred Days of Napoleon

Taking advantage of the fact that Louis XVIII did not have popular support, Napoleon fled from Elba on February 26, 1815 and landed in France on March 1. A significant part of the army joined him, and in less than a month Napoleon occupied Paris without a fight. Attempts to negotiate peace with European countries failed, and he had to go to war again. On June 18, the French army was defeated by Anglo-Prussian troops at the Battle of Waterloo, on June 22, Napoleon again abdicated the throne, and on July 15, he surrendered to the British and went into exile on the island of St. Helena. Power returned to Louis XVIII.

July Revolution

In 1824, Louis XVIII died and his brother Charles X ascended the throne. The new monarch took a more conservative course. In the summer of 1829, while the Chambers of Deputies were not working, Charles appointed the extremely unpopular Prince Jules Auguste Armand Marie Polignac as Minister of Foreign Affairs. On July 25, 1830, the king signed ordinances (decrees that had the force of state laws) - on the temporary abolition of freedom of the press, the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, raising the electoral qualification (now only landowners could vote) and calling new elections to the lower house. Many newspapers were closed.

Charles X's ordinances caused widespread outrage. On July 27, riots began in Paris, and on July 29, the revolution ended, the main urban centers were occupied by the rebels. On August 2, Charles X abdicated the throne and left for England.

The new king of France was the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe, a representative of the younger branch of the Bourbons, who had a relatively liberal reputation. During his coronation, he swore allegiance to the Charter of 1830 drawn up by the deputies, and became not “King by the Grace of God,” like his predecessors, but “King of the French.” The new constitution lowered not only the property but also the age limit for voters, deprived the king of legislative power, banned censorship and returned the tricolor flag.

Symbols

Lilies.  After the overthrow of Napoleon, the coat of arms with an eagle was replaced by a coat of arms with three lilies, which symbolized royal power already in the Middle Ages.

"Freedom Leading the People".  The famous painting by Eugene Delacroix, in the center of which Marianne (symbolizing the French Republic since 1792) with the French tricolor in her hand as the personification of the struggle for freedom, was inspired by the July Revolution of 1830.

Revolution of 1848 and establishment of the Second Republic

Lamartine rejects the red flag in front of the Paris City Hall on February 25, 1848. Painting by Henri Felix Emmanuel Philippoteau

Musée du Petit-Palais, Paris

Chronology

Beginning of riots 

Resignation of the Guizot government 

Approval of a new constitution establishing a republican form of government

General presidential election, victory of Louis Bonaparte

By the end of the 1840s, the policies of Louis Philippe and his Prime Minister François Guizot, supporters of gradual and cautious development and opponents of universal suffrage, ceased to suit many: some demanded the expansion of suffrage, others demanded the return of the republic and the introduction of suffrage for all. There were poor harvests in 1846 and 1847. Hunger began. Since rallies were prohibited, in 1847 political banquets gained popularity, at which monarchical power was actively criticized and toasts were proclaimed to the republic. Political banquets were also banned in February.

Revolution of 1848
The ban on political banquets caused widespread unrest. On February 23, Prime Minister François Guizot resigned. A huge crowd awaited his exit from the Foreign Office. One of the soldiers guarding the ministry fired, most likely by mistake, and this started a bloody clash. After this, the Parisians built barricades and moved towards the royal palace. The king abdicated the throne and fled to England. A republic was proclaimed in France and universal suffrage was introduced for men over 21 years of age. Parliament (returning to the name "National Assembly") became unicameral again.

On December 10-11, 1848, the first general presidential elections were held, in which Napoleon's nephew, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, unexpectedly won, receiving about 75% of the votes. In the elections to the Legislative Assembly, Republicans won only 70 seats.

Symbols

 Barricades.  Barricades were erected on the streets of Paris during every revolution, but it was during the revolution of 1848 that almost all of Paris was barricaded. Parisian omnibuses launched in the late 1820s were also used as material for barricades.

Coup of 1851 and Second Empire

Portrait of Emperor Napoleon III. Fragment of a painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. 1855

Chronology

Dissolution of the National Assembly

Promulgation of the new constitution. Changes made to its text on December 25 of the same year created the Second Empire

Proclamation of Napoleon III as Emperor of the French

The Republicans no longer enjoyed the confidence of either the president, parliament, or the people. In 1852, Louis Napoleon's presidential term was coming to an end. According to the constitution of 1848, he could be elected again only after the expiration of the next four-year term. In 1850 and 1851, supporters of Louis Napoleon several times demanded a revision of this article of the constitution, but the Legislative Assembly was against it.

Coup of 1851
On December 2, 1851, President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, supported by the army, dissolved the National Assembly and arrested its opposition members. The unrest that began in Paris and in the provinces was harshly suppressed.

Under the leadership of Louis Napoleon, a new constitution was prepared, extending presidential powers for ten years. In addition, a bicameral parliament was returned, with members of its upper house appointed by the president for life.

Rebuilding the Empire
On November 7, 1852, the Senate appointed by Louis Napoleon proposed the restoration of the empire. As a result of a referendum, this decision was approved, and on December 2, 1852, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor Napoleon III.

Until the 1860s, the powers of Parliament were reduced and freedom of the press was limited, but from the 1860s the course changed. In order to strengthen his authority, Napoleon started new wars. He planned to reverse the decisions of the Congress of Vienna and rebuild all of Europe, giving each nation its own state.

Proclamation of the Republic
On September 4, France was again proclaimed a republic. A provisional government was chosen, headed by Adolphe Thiers.

On September 19, the Germans began the siege of Paris. There was famine in the city and the situation worsened. In February 1871, elections to the National Assembly were held, in which the monarchists received a majority. Adolphe Thiers became the head of government. On February 26, the government was forced to sign a preliminary peace treaty, which was followed by a German parade on the Champs-Elysees, which many townspeople perceived as treason.

In March, the government, which had no funds, refused to pay the salaries of the National Guard and tried to disarm it.

Paris Commune

On March 18, 1871, an uprising broke out in Paris, as a result of which a group of radical left politicians came to power. On March 26, they held elections for the Paris Commune, the council of the city of Paris. The government led by Thiers fled to Versailles. But the power of the commune did not last long: on May 21, government troops went on the offensive. By May 28, the uprising was brutally suppressed—the week of fighting between the troops and the Communards was called “Bloody Week.”

After the fall of the commune, the position of the monarchists again strengthened, but since they all supported different dynasties, in the end the republic was preserved. In 1875, Constitutional laws were adopted that established the post of President and Parliament, elected on the basis of universal male suffrage. The Third Republic lasted until 1940.

Since then, the form of government in France has remained republican, with executive power passing from one president to another through elections.

Symbols

  Red flag.  The traditional republican flag was the French tricolor, but members of the commune, among whom there were many socialists, preferred a single-color red. The attributes of the Paris Commune - one of the key events for the formation of communist ideology - were also adopted by Russian revolutionaries.

Vendôme Column. One of the important symbolic gestures of the Paris Commune was the demolition of the Vendome Column, erected in honor of Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. In 1875, the column was installed again.

Sacré-Coeur. The neo-Byzantine style basilica was founded in 1875 in memory of the victims of the Franco-Prussian War and became one of the important symbols of the Third Republic.

The editors thank Dmitry Bovykin for his assistance in working on the material.

The Great French Bourgeois Revolution or Révolution française (1789-1794) was a major change in the social and political system of France, which led to the destruction of the Ancien Régime, as well as the absolute monarchy, in the country. The First French Republic was proclaimed in the state (September 1792) with de jure free and equal citizens, and the motto of the revolution and the new order was the slogan “Liberty, equality, fraternity.”

The Great French Revolution was a turning point in the history of France. After the revolutionary coup, everything changed and France, saying goodbye to the monarchy, took a different path.

In our article we will not describe in detail each stage of the revolution, or delve into historical data. We will just try to figure out whether the French bourgeois revolution was such a good thing as it seemed at first? What did she bring to the country and the people and how many human lives did she take? We will try to find out all this today.

There were many reasons, but analyzing the revolution and its consequences as a whole, it seems that they were caused artificially.

But we'll start with the premises. The first signs of the pre-revolutionary crisis in the state began under King Louis XV, who, towards the end of his reign, was not too interested in the country and the affairs of the state. He was engaged in entertainment, and left state affairs to his favorite, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, better known as Madame Pompadour. But in vain, because when a woman manages things, this does not always lead to a good result. Madame de Pompadour

Madame Pompadour acted in a way that was beneficial to her: she encouraged the aristocrats and the wealthy population, she herself appointed ministers and statesmen who could please her and not the state. At that time, industry, handicrafts and other activities vital to the country were already shaking. But Madame Pompadour encouraged and protected the enlightenment of that time. She wanted to be known as an enlightened lady, so her salons were frequented by the enlighteners of that time - Voltaire, Diderot and others.

So, these same Voltaire and company published brochures and leaflets with which they muddied the popular consciousness. Their articles contained calls for freedom, for science to take the place of religion, agitation about how destructive an absolute monarchy is for the people, how it strangles the people, and everything in the same spirit.

According to one version, the famous phrase “ Aprilsnousledeluge – After us there may be a flood“belonged to King Louis XV himself, and according to another version, it was told to the king by Madame Pompadour after one of his military defeats. Neither she nor the king thought about the consequences. And the consequences were not long in coming, and they fell on the head of the innocent King Louis XVI.

In the 18th century, shortly before the revolution, France was overtaken by a crisis, which was facilitated by a series of natural disasters. The drought of 1785 caused a food famine. In 1787, there was a shortage of silk cocoons. This caused a reduction in silk weaving production in the city of Lyon. A strong hailstorm in July 1788 destroyed grain crops in many provinces. Very harsh winter 1788/89 destroyed many vineyards and part of the harvest. All this led to food prices rising. The supply of markets with bread and other products has deteriorated sharply. To top it all off, an industrial crisis began, which turned out to be disastrous for French production, which could not withstand the competition of cheaper English goods that poured into France.

So, there is a situation clearly conducive to discontent. Under the Capetians or the Valois, popular indignation would simply be suppressed (just remember how Charles V the Wise easily and quickly dealt with the Parisian uprising led by Etienne Marcel during the Hundred Years War), and they would also raise taxes. But this was not the case with Louis XVI of Bourbon.

What family was Louis XVI born into?

Louis XVI was not the son of Louis XV, he was his grandson. But it was he who had to become the king of France and take over the country in the deplorable state in which his predecessor left it.

On August 23, 1774, a son was born into the family of the Dauphin (heir to the throne) Louis-Ferdinand and Princess Marie-Joseph of Saxony, who received the name Louis-Augustus at baptism. This child was destined to become king of France.

It is worth saying a few words about the Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand, that is, about the son of Louis XV and the father of the future Louis XVI. While King Louis XV indulged in entertainment, hunting and love pleasures, while the king set a bad example for his subjects and the court indulged in entertainment like its king, while the church was attended by high society purely symbolically or not completely, and received communion less and less often, the family of the Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand was the complete opposite of the society of that time.

Louis Ferdinand received an excellent and fairly strict upbringing and education. He was a strict Catholic, putting faith in God first. He knew the Holy Scriptures very well, constantly read the Bible and the church fathers, and did not miss a single Sunday service. The Dauphin very rarely and with great reluctance attended the amusements of his father the king, and had a negative attitude towards his constantly changing favorites. For this, Louis Ferdinand was not loved at court and was called the “unloved prince”, “saint”, “hermit”.

Meanwhile, Prince Louis Ferdinand was a wonderful person. He understood very well into what abyss the immorality of the king and the nobility was dragging France. Therefore, his main idea was to subordinate politics to Christian morality. It was this idea that he passed on to his son.
Naturally, the children in the family of Louis Ferdinand were brought up according to different rules than the children of other princes. The future Louis XVI and his brothers and sisters spent their time in constant work. Their upbringing was personally supervised by their parents.

Louis-Augustus, the future king, in addition to studying military affairs, foreign languages, exact sciences and history, was a professional joiner, turner and carpenter. Subsequently, as king, Louis XVI loved to work on machines. The young prince's favorite subject was history. Then, in childhood, parents and educators laid the foundations of the worldview and perception of royal service for the future Louis XVI, to which Louis XVI was faithful throughout his life. This is what the future king wrote in his diary: “The true king is the king who makes his people happy. The happiness of the subjects is the happiness of the sovereign.”

Unfortunately, the future Louis XVI lost both his parents early; he had to become king and clean up everything that his predecessor Louis XV had done. The reign of Louis XVI fell on troubled times.

The king who wanted to save the country

The young king was only twenty years old in those years, and the burden of power and the consequences of the incompetent reign of Louis XV and his greedy mistress had already fallen on him.

The young Louis XVI perfectly understood the seriousness and severity of the situation. A sad legacy fell on the shoulders of the young king: a ruined country, an empty treasury, a decayed nobility and a low level of French prestige in Europe. The court and aristocracy had absolutely no intention of moderating their expenses and saying goodbye to their past riotous life. King Louis XVI of France

But they attacked the wrong king! Louis XVI was filled with the best intentions, he sought first of all to improve the lives of the common people and streamline their finances. In this, the king set a personal example: he refused 15 million livres, which were due to him by law upon accession to the throne. The king's example was followed by the queen, his wife Marie Antoinette. This money was saved for the state budget. Then began cuts to pensions and benefits, that is, the privileges of the aristocracy. All this caused an enthusiastic attitude on the part of the people towards their king. People gathered in large crowds in front of the royal castle, noisily expressing their love to the monarch.

During the reign of Louis XVI, a lot was done for the prosperity of the country:

finances were streamlined
raised living standards of the people
many taxes were canceled
extrajudicial arrests were abolished, when, on the secret order of the king, a person without any guilt could be thrown into the Bastille for any period of time
torture is prohibited
military schools were built for the impoverished nobility, as well as schools for blind children of all classes
new higher educational institutions were created
The first fire service in France was created
New types of weapons were introduced into the army (especially artillery)

As a sovereign, Louis XVI was very different from his predecessors. In his rooms there were drawings of the canals dug by his order, a collection of geographical maps and globes, many of which were made by the king himself; a carpenter's room, in which, in addition to a lathe, there were many different tools. The library, located on the floor above, contained all the books published during his reign.

Louis XVI worked twelve hours a day. His main virtues were justice and honesty. The king was distinguished by a piety that was rare for those times. He was a wonderful family man, the father of three children, and sincerely loved his wife all his life. The king loved simple food and practically did not drink alcoholic beverages.

Louis XVI never argued, but always stuck to his decision. He was a strong-willed, but reserved and delicate person.

But, unfortunately, the mechanism to destroy the economy was launched a very long time ago, long before the reign of Louis XVI. The country was sorely short of finances. The king, among his other abilities, had a talent for finding smart people. And he found smart finance ministers with great potential who developed a system for France to get out of the financial crisis. First it was Turgot, then Necker. These people proposed reasonable ways to improve the situation and developed useful reforms for the state. Their main point was to cut the benefits and privileges of the nobles and aristocracy and force them to pay taxes in the same way as the third estate (that is, peasants, artisans, merchants, etc.). The king gladly greeted this proposal and supported it. But, unfortunately, the king was alone in his love for the Motherland. The aristocracy was indignant at the intentions of the finance ministers: no one was going to part with luxury and a brilliant life. Ministers resigned, exorbitant costs continued to mount and, as we know, it all ended tragically.

The storming of the Bastille - the beginning of the revolution

Storming of the Bastille

We will not dwell in detail on this event, which marked the beginning of the revolution, since our website already has a detailed article about it.

Let us only recall that the Bastille was a prison for a long time and for some reason was considered by the revolutionaries to be a stronghold of absolutism. On July 14, 1789, it was taken by storm.

Power ended up in the hands of someone unknown, but not the king. From then on, his life and freedom, as well as the life and freedom of his family, no longer belonged to them, they became prisoners in Versailles, in their own palace, then they were forced to move to the Tuileries (palace in Paris).

While the capital rejoiced at the victory of the revolution (by the way, many nobles also went over to the side of the revolution!), vagrancy, banditry and looting reigned in the countryside. And in general, everything started from the ground up: anarchy began in the country, those who disagreed with the revolution quickly and in large numbers left France, emigrating to other countries, peasant uprisings broke out here and there.

In all this fuss, the Constituent Assembly was formed, which approved the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” - a prerequisite for democratic constitutionalism.

Yes, all this chaos must be given its due: personal feudal duties, seigneurial courts, church tithes, privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations were abolished and everyone was declared equal before the law in paying state taxes and in the right to hold civil, military and church positions. However, at the same time, they announced the elimination of only “indirect” duties (the so-called banalities): the “real” duties of the peasants, in particular, land and poll taxes, were retained. That's it.

Louis XVI was not the kind of sovereign who sheds the blood of his subjects. He realized that the machine was running and could not be stopped. To avoid civil war and bloodshed, he is forced to make concessions. Legislative power passed to the National Assembly, and the king retained only nominal rights. On the night of June 20, 1791, the king tried to escape with his family in order to free himself and try to dictate his terms to the constitution, since it was inevitable. But in Varenna he was caught.

The French army was in a state of chaos, the generals abdicated responsibility. A wave of murders and arrests of those who did not accept the revolution swept across the country. The monarchy has fallen.

Why was Louis XVI executed?

The king was executed because it was necessary to hang up all the past sins of others and place all the responsibility for what happened on someone else.

On September 21, 1792, the National Convention opened its meeting, this is something like parliament. First of all, the Convention abolished the monarchy and proclaimed a republic. The Convention included many parties: Girondins, Montagnards, but most of the parliamentary seats were occupied by the Jacobins, who were the largest party. Among the Jacobins, Danton, Robespierre and Marat stood out for their activity and cruelty. The Convention voted for the execution of the king and on January 21, 1792, Louis XVI, who had been under strict guard all this time, was beheaded by guillotine. A few months later, Marie Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine. And their son Louis-Charles, the failed Louis XVII, was tortured and died under unclear circumstances at the age of ten.

A dictatorship came to the country and terror was established. All those who disagreed were sent to the guillotine; the Parisian River Seine was red with blood for a long time. The guillotine is a product of the French Revolution; 18,613 people were beheaded there, including nobles, priests, the poet Andre Chénier and the chemist Antoine Lavoisier. In addition, during riots against the revolution that broke out in the Vendée, Lyon and other places, thousands of people died. 1793 is considered the peak of the revolution; it was during this period that the largest number of executions and persecutions occurred. The wave of murders was so strong, even many ardent supporters of the revolution were executed, including Danton (Marat was killed by Charlotte Corday earlier), that France could not stand it.

And on 9 Thermidor (the revolution even changed the names of the months of the year!) a coup took place, during which Robespierre was executed. This coup brought a change of power to the directory and then the reign of Napoleon, but that is a completely different story.

This is the history of the French Revolution, a tragic story of how one can pay with one’s life for the love of the people and the Motherland.

The Great French Bourgeois Revolution served as a source of inspiration for many writers and filmmakers.

First of all, it is worth paying attention to a series of novels by Alexandre Dumas that describe the revolutionary period. Yes, Dumas is not always accurate in his presentation of events, but in general he respects the historical truth. We are talking about his books “Ange Pitou”, “The Queen’s Necklace”, “The Countess de Charny”. In addition, his novel Louis XV and His Court, which describes France before the revolution, is interesting.

The 1989 film “The Great French Revolution” depicts in detail and with historical accuracy the main events and main characters of the revolution. The film was shot on a very large scale, with many crowded and monumental scenes. The film can even be watched in French.

For fans of costumed historical cinema, we recommend Sofia Coppola’s film “Marie Antoinette.” The film is not replete with historical truth, but it is beautifully made.

“Farewell to the Queen” is a movie in which the main emphasis is on the wife of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, her character and way of life.

The film by cinema classic Andrzej Wajda “Danton” tells about the revolutionary events after the execution of the king and mainly describes the fate of Danton.

A must-see is the 2009 film The Escape of Louis XVI, which depicts with historical accuracy the character of the king, his way of thinking and his attempt to save France and his family. This film keeps the viewer in suspense throughout the entire viewing and until the end you want to hope that he will still be saved.

Enjoy watching, friends, and enjoy reading!

THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION, revolution of the late 18th century, which eliminated the “old order”. THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION Prerequisites. 17871789. The Great French Revolution can with good reason be considered as the beginning modern era. At the same time, the revolution in France itself was part of a broad movement that began before 1789 and affected many European countries, as well as North America.

"Old order" ("ancien r

é gime") was undemocratic in its very essence. The first two classes, the nobility and the clergy, who had special privileges, strengthened their positions, relying on a system of various kinds of state institutions. The monarch's rule rested on these privileged classes. “Absolute” monarchs could only implement such policies and carry out only such reforms that strengthened the power of these classes.

By the 1770s, the aristocracy felt pressure from two sides at once. On the one hand, her rights were encroached upon by “enlightened” monarchs-reformers (in France, Sweden and Austria); on the other hand, the third, unprivileged class sought to eliminate or at least curtail the privileges of the aristocrats and clergy. By 1789 in France, the strengthening of the king's position caused a reaction from the first classes, which were able to nullify the monarch's attempt to reform the management system and strengthen finances.

In this situation, the French king Louis XVI decided to convene the Estates General - something similar to a national representative body that had long existed in France, but had not been convened since 1614. It was the convening of this assembly that served as the impetus for the revolution, during which the big bourgeoisie first came to power, and then the Third Estate, which plunged France into civil war and violence.

In France, the foundations of the old regime were shaken not only by conflicts between the aristocracy and royal ministers, but also by economic and ideological factors. Since the 1730s, the country has experienced a constant rise in prices, caused by the depreciation of the growing mass of metallic money and the expansion of credit benefits in the absence of production growth. Inflation hit the poor the hardest.

At the same time, some representatives of all three classes were influenced by educational ideas. Famous writers Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, and Rousseau proposed introducing the English constitution and judicial system in France, in which they saw guarantees of individual freedoms and effective government. The success of the American War of Independence inspired new hope in the determined French.

Convocation of the Estates General. The Estates General, convened on May 5, 1789, was faced with the task of resolving the economic, social and political problems facing France at the end of the 18th century. The king hoped to reach agreement on a new taxation system and avoid financial collapse. The aristocracy sought to use the Estates General to block any reforms. The Third Estate welcomed the convening of the Estates General, seeing an opportunity to present their demands for reform at their meetings.

Preparations for the revolution, during which discussions expanded about the general principles of government and the need for a constitution, lasted 10 months. Lists, so-called orders, were compiled everywhere. Thanks to a temporary relaxation of censorship, the country was flooded with pamphlets. It was decided to give the Third Estate an equal number of seats in the Estates General with the other two estates. However, the question of whether the estates should vote separately or together with other estates was not resolved, just as the question of the nature of their powers of power remained open. In the spring of 1789, elections were held for all three classes on the basis of universal suffrage for men. As a result, 1201 deputies were elected, of which 610 represented the third estate. On May 5, 1789, in Versailles, the king officially opened the first meeting of the Estates General.

First signs of revolution. The Estates General, having received no clear instructions from the king and his ministers, became bogged down in disputes over procedure. Inflamed by the political debate taking place in the country, various groups took irreconcilable positions on fundamental issues. By the end of May, the second and third estates (nobility and bourgeoisie) were completely at odds, and the first (clergy) was split and sought to gain time. Between 10 and 17 June, the Third Estate took the initiative and declared itself the National Assembly. In doing so, it asserted its right to represent the entire nation and demanded the power to revise the constitution. In doing so, it disregarded the authority of the king and the demands of the other two classes. The National Assembly decided that if it was dissolved, the temporarily approved taxation system would be abolished. On June 19, the clergy voted by a slight majority to join the Third Estate. Groups of liberal-minded nobles also joined them.

The alarmed government decided to seize the initiative and on June 20 tried to expel the members of the National Assembly from the meeting room. Then the delegates gathered in a nearby ballroom took an oath not to disperse until a new constitution was put into effect. On July 9, the National Assembly proclaimed itself the Constituent Assembly. The gathering of royal troops towards Paris caused unrest among the population. In the first half of July, unrest and riots began in the capital. To protect the lives and property of citizens, the municipal authorities created the National Guard.

These riots resulted in the storming of the hated royal fortress of the Bastille, in which the national guards and the people took part. The fall of the Bastille on July 14 became clear evidence of the impotence of royal power and a symbol of the collapse of despotism. At the same time, the assault caused a wave of violence that spread throughout the country. Residents of villages and small towns burned the houses of the nobility and destroyed their debt obligations. At the same time, among the common people there was a growing mood of “great fear” and panic associated with the spread of rumors about the approach of “bandits” allegedly bribed by aristocrats. As some prominent aristocrats began to flee the country and periodic army expeditions began from starving cities into the countryside to requisition food, a wave of mass hysteria swept through the provinces, causing blind violence and destruction

. On July 11, the minister-reformer, banker Jacques Necker, was removed from his post. After the fall of the Bastille, the king made concessions, returning Necker and withdrawing troops from Paris. The liberal aristocrat Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War, was elected commander of the emerging new National Guard, consisting of representatives of the middle classes. A new national tricolor flag was adopted, combining the traditional red and blue colors of Paris with the white color of the Bourbon dynasty. The municipality of Paris, like the municipalities of many other cities in France, was transformed into the Commune - a virtually independent revolutionary government that recognized only the authority of the National Assembly. The latter took responsibility for forming a new government and adopting a new constitution.

On August 4, the aristocracy and clergy renounced their rights and privileges. By August 26, the National Assembly approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which proclaimed freedom of personality, conscience, speech, the right to property and resistance to oppression. It was emphasized that sovereignty belongs to the entire nation, and the law must be a manifestation of the general will. All citizens must be equal before the law, have the same rights when holding public office, as well as equal obligations to pay taxes. Declaration

"signed" a death sentence for the old regime.

Louis XVI delayed approving the August decrees, which abolished church tithes and most feudal taxes. On September 15, the Constituent Assembly demanded that the king approve the decrees. In response, he began to gather troops to Versailles, where the meeting was meeting. This had an exciting effect on the townspeople, who saw in the king’s actions a threat of counter-revolution. Living conditions in the capital worsened, food supplies decreased, and many were left without work. The Paris Commune, whose sentiments were expressed by the popular press, incited the capital to fight against the king. On October 5, hundreds of women walked in the rain from Paris to Versailles, demanding bread, the withdrawal of troops and the king's move to Paris. Louis XVI was forced to authorize the August decrees and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The next day, the royal family, which had become virtually hostage to the gloating crowd, moved to Paris under the escort of the National Guard. It was followed 10 days later by the Constituent Assembly.

Situation in October 1789. By the end of October 1789, the pieces on the chessboard of the revolution moved to new positions, which was caused by both previous changes and random circumstances. The power of the privileged classes was ended. The emigration of representatives of the highest aristocracy increased significantly. The Church with the exception of part of the higher clergy has linked its fate with liberal reforms. IN Constituent Assembly Liberal and constitutional reformers prevailed and entered into confrontation with the king (they could now consider themselves the voice of the nation).

During this period, much depended on those in power. Louis XVI, a well-intentioned but indecisive and weak-willed king, had lost the initiative and was no longer in control of the situation. Queen Marie Antoinette "Austrian" was unpopular due to her extravagance and connections with other royal courts in Europe. Count de Mirabeau, the only one of the moderates who had the abilities of a statesman, was suspected by the Assembly of supporting the court. Lafayette was believed much more than Mirabeau, but he did not have a clear idea of the nature of the forces that were involved in the struggle. The press, freed from censorship and gaining significant influence, largely passed into the hands of extreme radicals. Some of them, for example Marat, who published the newspaper “Friend of the People” (“Ami du Peuple”), had an energetic influence on public opinion. Street speakers and agitators at the Palais Royal excited the crowd with their speeches. Taken together, these elements made up an explosive mixture.

CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY Work of the Constituent Assembly. The experiment with constitutional monarchy, which began in October, has raised a number of problems. The royal ministers were not deputies of the Constituent Assembly. Louis XVI was deprived of the right to postpone meetings or dissolve the assembly, and he did not have the right of legislative initiative. The king could delay the adoption of laws, but did not have the right of veto. The legislature could act independently of the executive and intended to take advantage of the situation.

The Constituent Assembly limited the electorate to approximately 4 million Frenchmen out of a total population of 26 million, taking as the criterion for an "active" citizen his ability to pay taxes. The Assembly reformed local government, dividing France into 83 departments. The Constituent Assembly reformed the judicial system, abolishing the old parliaments and local courts. Torture and the death penalty by hanging were abolished. A network of civil and criminal courts was formed in the new local districts. Less successful were attempts to carry out financial reforms. The tax system, although reorganized, failed to ensure the solvency of the government. In November 1789, the Constituent Assembly carried out the nationalization of church land holdings in order to raise funds to pay the salaries of priests, for worship, education and assistance to the poor. In the following months, it issued government bonds secured by nationalized church lands. The famous “assignats” rapidly depreciated during the year, which fueled inflation.

Civil status of the clergy. The relationship between the congregation and the church caused the next major crisis. Until 1790, the French Roman Catholic Church recognized changes in its rights, status and financial base within the state. But in 1790 the meeting prepared a new decree on the civil status of the clergy, which actually subordinated the church to the state. Church positions were to be held based on the results of popular elections, and newly elected bishops were prohibited from recognizing the jurisdiction of the papal throne. In November 1790, all non-monastic clergy were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the state. Within 6 months it became clear that at least half of the priests refused to take the oath. Moreover, the pope rejected not only the decree on the civil status of the clergy, but also other social and political reforms of the Assembly. Religious schism was added to the political differences; the church and the state entered into the dispute. In May 1791, the papal nuncio (ambassador) was recalled, and in September the Assembly annexed Avignon and Venescens, papal enclaves on French territory.

On June 20, 1791, late at night, the royal family escaped from the Tuileries Palace through a secret door. The entire journey on the carriage, which could move at a speed of no more than 10 km per hour, was a series of failures and miscalculations. Plans to escort and change horses fell through, and the group was detained in the town of Varennes. The news of the flight caused panic and anticipation of civil war. News of the king's capture forced the Assembly to close the borders and put the army on alert.

The forces of law and order were in such a nervous state that on July 17 the National Guard opened fire on the crowd on the Champ de Mars in Paris. This "massacre" weakened and discredited the moderate constitutionalist party in the Assembly. In the Constituent Assembly, differences intensified between the constitutionalists, who sought to preserve the monarchy and social order, and the radicals, who aimed to overthrow the monarchy and establish democratic republic. The latter strengthened their position on August 27, when the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Prussia promulgated the Declaration of Pillnitz. Although both monarchs refrained from invasion and used rather cautious language in the declaration, it was perceived in France as a call for joint intervention by foreign countries. Indeed, it clearly stated that the position of Louis XVI was “the concern of all the sovereigns of Europe.”

Constitution of 1791. Meanwhile, the new constitution was adopted on September 3, 1791, and on September 14 it was publicly approved by the king. It assumed the creation of a new Legislative Assembly. The right to vote was granted to a limited number of representatives of the middle strata. Members of the Assembly did not have the right to re-election. Thus, the new Legislative Assembly at one blow threw away the accumulated political and parliamentary experience and encouraged energetic political figures to become active outside its walls in the Paris Commune and its branches, as well as in the Jacobin Club. The separation of executive and legislative powers created the preconditions for a deadlock situation, since few people believed that the king and his ministers would cooperate with the Assembly. The Constitution of 1791 itself had no chance of implementing its principles in the socio-political situation that arose in France after the flight of the royal family. Queen Marie Antoinette, after her captivity, began to profess extremely reactionary views, resumed intrigues with the Emperor of Austria and made no attempts to return the emigrants.

European monarchs were alarmed by events in France. Emperor Leopold of Austria, who took the throne after Joseph II in February 1790, and Gustav III of Sweden stopped the wars in which they were involved. By early 1791, only Catherine the Great, the Russian empress, continued the war with the Turks. Catherine openly declared her support for the King and Queen of France, but her goal was to draw Austria and Prussia into war with France and give Russia a free hand to continue the war with the Ottoman Empire.

The deepest response to events in France appeared in 1790 in England in the book of E. Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France . Over the next few years, this book was read throughout Europe. Burke contrasted the doctrine of natural human rights with the wisdom of the ages and projects of radical reconstruction with a warning about the high cost of revolutionary changes. He predicted civil war, anarchy and despotism and was the first to draw attention to the large-scale conflict of ideologies that had begun. This growing conflict turned the national revolution into a pan-European war.Legislative Assembly. The new constitution gave rise to insoluble contradictions, primarily between the king and the Assembly, since the ministers did not enjoy the confidence of either the first or the second and, moreover, were deprived of the right to sit in the Legislative Assembly. In addition, contradictions between rival political forces intensified, as the Paris Commune and political clubs (for example, the Jacobins and the Cordeliers) began to express doubts about the authority of the Assembly and the central government. Finally, the Assembly became an arena of struggle between warring political parties - the Feuillants (moderate constitutionalists), who were the first to come to power, and the Brissotines (radical followers of J.-P. Brissot).

Key ministers Comte Louis de Narbonne (illegitimate son of Louis XV), and after him Charles Dumouriez (former diplomat under Louis XV) pursued an anti-Austrian policy and viewed the war as a means of containing the revolution, as well as restoring order and a monarchy relying on the army. By implementing a similar policy, Narbonne and Dumouriez became increasingly close to the Brissotines, who later became known as the Girondins, since many of their leaders came from the Gironde district.

In November 1791, in order to stem the wave of emigration, which was negatively affecting the financial and commercial life of France, as well as army discipline, the Assembly adopted a decree obliging emigrants to return to the country by January 1, 1792 under threat of confiscation of property. Another decree of the same month required the clergy to take a new oath of allegiance to the nation, the law and the king. All priests who refused this new political oath were deprived of their salaries and imprisoned. In December, Louis XVI vetoed both decrees, which was a further step towards open confrontation between the crown and the radicals. In March 1792, the king dismissed Narbonne and the Feuillant ministers, who were replaced by Brissotines. Dumouriez became Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the Austrian Emperor Leopold died, and the impulsive Franz II took the throne. Militant leaders came to power on both sides of the border. On April 20, 1792, after an exchange of notes that subsequently resulted in a series of ultimatums, the Assembly declared war on Austria.

War outside the country. The French army turned out to be poorly prepared for military operations; only about 130 thousand undisciplined and poorly armed soldiers were under arms. Soon she suffered several defeats, the serious consequences of which immediately affected the country. Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the extreme Jacobin wing of the Girondins, consistently opposed the war, believing that the counter-revolution should first be crushed within the country, and then fought against it abroad. Now he appeared in the role of a wise people's leader. The king and queen, forced during the war to take openly hostile positions towards Austria, sensed the growing danger. The war party's plans to restore the king's prestige turned out to be completely untenable. The leadership in Paris was seized by the radicals.Fall of the monarchy. On June 13, 1792, the king vetoed the previous decrees of the Assembly, dismissed the Brissotine ministers and returned the Feuillants to power. This step towards reaction provoked a series of riots in Paris, where again, as in July 1789, growing economic difficulties were observed. A public demonstration was planned for July 20 in honor of the anniversary of the oath in the ballroom. The people submitted petitions to the Assembly against the removal of ministers and the royal veto. Then the crowd broke into the building of the Tuileries Palace, forced Louis XVI to put on the red cap of liberty and appear before the people. The king's courage endeared him to the crowd, and the crowd dispersed peacefully. But this respite turned out to be short-lived.

The second incident occurred in July. On July 11, the Assembly announced that the fatherland was in danger and called upon all Frenchmen capable of holding arms to serve the nation. At the same time, the Paris Commune called on citizens to join the National Guard. Thus the National Guard suddenly became an instrument of radical democracy. On July 14, approx. arrived in Paris to participate in the annual celebrations of the fall of the Bastille. 20 thousand provincial national guards. Although the celebration of July 14 was peaceful, it contributed to the organization of radical forces who soon came forward with demands for the removal of the king, the election of a new National Convention and the proclamation of a republic. On August 3, in Paris, a manifesto published a week earlier by the Duke of Brunswick commander of the Austrian and Prussian troops became known, in which it was proclaimed that his army intended to invade French territory to suppress anarchy and restore the power of the king, and the national guards who resisted would be shot . The inhabitants of Marseille arrived in Paris to the marching song of the Army of the Rhine, written by Rouget de Lille.

Marseillaise became the anthem of the revolution, and subsequently the anthem of France.

On August 9, a third incident occurred. Delegates from the 48 sections of Paris overthrew the legal municipal authorities and established the revolutionary Commune. General Council The 288-member commune met daily and exerted constant pressure on political decisions. Radical sections controlled the police and the National Guard and began to compete with the Legislative Assembly itself, which by that time had lost control of the situation. On August 10, by order of the Commune, the Parisians, supported by detachments of federates, headed towards the Tuileries and opened fire, destroying approx. 600 Swiss Guards. The king and queen took refuge in the building of the Legislative Assembly, but the entire city was already under the control of the rebels. The assembly deposed the king, appointed a provisional government, and decided to convene a National Convention based on universal male suffrage. The royal family was imprisoned in the Temple Fortress.

REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT Convention and War. The elections to the National Convention, held in late August and early September, took place in an atmosphere of great excitement, fear and violence. After Lafayette deserted on August 17, a purge of the army command began. In Paris, many suspects were arrested, including priests. A revolutionary tribunal was created. On August 23, the border fortress of Longwy capitulated to the Prussians without a fight, and rumors of betrayal infuriated the people. Riots broke out in the departments of Vendée and Brittany. On September 1, reports were received about the imminent fall of Verdun, and the next day the “September massacre” of prisoners began, which lasted until September 7, in which approx. 1200 people.

On September 20, the Convention met for the first time. His first act on September 21 was the abolition of the monarchy. From the next day, September 22, 1792, the new revolutionary calendar of the French Republic began counting down time. The majority of the members of the Convention were Girondins, heirs of the former Brissotines. Their main opponents were representatives of the former left wing - the Jacobins, led by Danton, Marat and Robespierre. At first, the Girondin leaders seized all ministerial posts and secured strong support from the press and public opinion in the province. The Jacobin forces concentrated in Paris, where the center of the extensive organization of the Jacobin Club was located. After the extremists discredited themselves during the "September Massacre", the Girondins strengthened their authority, confirming it with the victory of Dumouriez and François de Kellerman over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy on September 20.

However, during the winter of 1792–1793, the Girondins lost their positions, which opened the way for Robespierre to power. They were mired in personal disputes, speaking primarily (which turned out to be disastrous for them) against Danton, who managed to gain the support of the left. The Girondins sought to overthrow the Paris Commune and deprive the Jacobins of support, who expressed the interests of the capital, not the province. They tried to save the king from trial. However, the Convention virtually unanimously found Louis XVI guilty of treason and, by a majority of 70 votes, sentenced him to death. The king was executed on January 21, 1793 (Marie Antoinette was guillotined on October 16, 1793).

The Girondins brought France into war with almost all of Europe. In November 1792, Dumouriez defeated the Austrians at Jemappe and invaded the territory of the Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium). The French discovered the mouth of the river. Scheldt for ships of all countries, thereby violating the international agreements of 1648 that navigation on the Scheldt should be controlled exclusively by the Dutch. This served as a signal for Dumouriez to invade Holland, which caused a hostile reaction from the British. On November 19, the Girondist government promised “fraternal assistance” to all peoples who wanted to achieve freedom. Thus, a challenge was thrown to all European monarchs. At the same time, France annexed Savoy, the possession of the Sardinian king. On January 31, 1793, through the mouth of Danton, the doctrine of “natural borders” of France was proclaimed, which implied claims to the Alps and the Rhineland. This was followed by Dumouriez's order to occupy Holland. On February 1, France declared war on Great Britain, ushering in the era of “general war.”

The national currency of France depreciated sharply due to the fall in the value of assignats and military expenditures. British Secretary of War William Pitt the Younger began an economic blockade of France. In Paris and other cities there was a shortage of essentials, especially food, which was accompanied by growing discontent among the people. Military suppliers and profiteers aroused ardent hatred. In the Vendée, the revolt against military mobilization, which had raged throughout the summer, flared up again. By March 1793, all signs of a crisis appeared in the rear. On March 18 and 21, Dumouriez's troops were defeated at Neerwinden and Louvain. The general signed an armistice with the Austrians and tried to turn the army against the Convention, but after the failure of these plans, he and several people from his headquarters switched sides on April 5.

The betrayal of the leading French commander dealt a tangible blow to the Girondins. Radicals in Paris, as well as the Jacobins led by Robespierre, accused the Girondins of aiding the traitor. Danton demanded a reorganization of the central executive. On April 6, the Committee of National Defense, created in January to control the ministries, was transformed into the Committee of Public Safety, headed by Danton. The committee concentrated executive power in its hands and became an effective executive body, taking over the military command and control of France. The Commune came to the defense of its leader, Jacques Hébert, and Marat, chairman of the Jacobin Club, who were persecuted by the Girondins. During May, the Girondins incited the provinces to riot against Paris, depriving themselves of support in the capital. Under the influence of extremists, the Parisian sections established a rebel committee, which on May 31, 1793 transformed the Commune, taking it under its control. Two days later (June 2), having surrounded the Convention with the National Guard, the Commune ordered the arrest of 29 Girondin deputies, including two ministers. This marked the beginning of the Jacobin dictatorship, although the reorganization of the executive did not take place until July. To put pressure on the Convention, an extremist clique in Paris incited hostility between the provinces and the capital.

Jacobin dictatorship and terror. Now the Convention was obliged to take measures aimed at pacifying the provinces. Politically, a new Jacobin constitution was drawn up, intended as a model of democratic principles and practice. In economic terms, the Convention supported the peasants and abolished all seigneurial and feudal duties without compensation, and also divided the emigrants' estates into small plots of land so that even poor peasants could buy or rent them. He also carried out the division of communal lands. The new land legislation was intended to become one of the strongest links connecting the peasantry with the revolution. From this point on, the greatest danger for the peasants was the restoration, which could take away their lands, and therefore none of the subsequent regimes tried to annul this decision. By mid-1793, the old social and economic system was eliminated: feudal duties were abolished, taxes were abolished, the nobility and clergy were deprived of power and lands. A new administrative system was established in local districts and rural communes. Only the central government remained fragile, and for many years it was subject to drastic and violent changes. The immediate cause of instability was the ongoing crisis provoked by the war.

By the end of July 1793, the French army was experiencing a series of failures, which created a threat of occupation of the country. The Austrians and Prussians advanced in the north and in Alsace, while the Spaniards, with whom Pitt had formed an alliance in May, threatened an invasion from the Pyrenees. The rebellion in the Vendée spread. These defeats undermined the authority of the Committee of Public Safety under Danton's leadership. On July 10, Danton and six of his comrades were deposed. On July 28, Robespierre joined the Committee. Under his leadership, the Committee during the summer ensured a turning point on the military fronts and the victory of the republic. On the same day, July 28, Danton became chairman of the Convention. Added to the personal enmity between the two Jacobin leaders was a bitter clash with a new enemy - Jacobin extremists, who were called "mad". These were the heirs of Marat, who was killed on July 13 by the Girondist Charlotte Corday. Under pressure from the “mad”, the Committee, now recognized as the real government of France, took more stringent measures against speculators and counter-revolutionaries. Although by the beginning of September the “mad” were defeated, many of their ideas, in particular the preaching of violence, were inherited by the left-wing Jacobins led by Hébert, who occupied significant positions in the Paris Commune and the Jacobin Club. They demanded a tightening of terror, as well as the introduction of tighter government controls over supplies and prices. In mid-August, Lazare Carnot, who soon received the title of “organizer of victory,” became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and on August 23, the Convention announced a general mobilization.

In the first week of September 1793, another series of crises broke out. The summer drought led to a bread shortage in Paris. A plot to free the queen was uncovered. There were reports of the surrender of the port of Toulon to the British. Hébert's followers in the Commune and the Jacobin Club renewed powerful pressure on the Convention. They demanded the creation of a “revolutionary army”, the arrest of all suspects, tightening price controls, progressive taxation, the trial of the leaders of the Gironde, the reorganization of the revolutionary tribunal to try the enemies of the revolution and the deployment of mass repressions. On September 17, a decree was adopted ordering the arrest of all suspicious persons by revolutionary committees; At the end of the month, a law was introduced that set price limits for basic necessities. The terror continued until July 1794.

Thus, the terror was caused state of emergency and pressure from extremists. The latter took advantage of the personal conflicts of the leaders and factional clashes in the Convention and the Commune. On October 10, the Jacobin-drafted constitution was formally adopted, and the Convention declared that the Committee of Public Safety would serve as a provisional or “revolutionary” government for the duration of the war. The purpose of the Committee was declared to be the implementation of strictly centralized power aimed at the complete victory of the people in saving the revolution and protecting the country. This body supported the policy of terror, and in October it held major political trials of the Girondins. The committee carried out political control over the Central Food Commission, created in the same month. The worst manifestations of terror were “unofficial”, i.e. were carried out on the personal initiative of fanatics and thugs who were settling personal scores. Soon, a bloody wave of terror covered those who had held high positions in the past. Naturally, emigration increased during the terror. It is estimated that about 129 thousand people fled from France, about 40 thousand died during the days of terror. Most executions took place in rebellious cities and departments, such as the Vendée and Lyon.

Until April 1794, the policy of terror was largely determined by the rivalry between the followers of Danton, Hébert and Robespierre. At first, the Eberists set the tone; they rejected Christian doctrine and replaced it with the cult of Reason; instead of the Gregorian calendar, they introduced a new, republican calendar, in which the months were named according to seasonal phenomena and were divided into three “decades.” In March, Robespierre put an end to the Héberists. Hebert himself and 18 of his followers were executed by guillotine after speedy trial. The Dantonists, who sought to mitigate the excesses of terror in the name of national solidarity, were also arrested, and in early April they were convicted and executed. Now Robespierre and the reorganized Committee of Public Safety ruled the country with unlimited power.

The Jacobin dictatorship reached its most terrible expression in the decree of the 22nd Prairial (June 10, 1794), which accelerated the procedures of the revolutionary tribunal, depriving the accused of the right to defense and turning the death sentence into the only punishment for those found guilty. At the same time, the propaganda of the cult of the Supreme Being, put forward by Robespierre as an alternative to both Christianity and the atheism of the Héberists, reached its peak. Tyranny reached fantastic extremes and this led to the rebellion of the Convention and the coup of 9 Thermidor (July 27), which abolished the dictatorship. Robespierre, along with his two main assistants, Louis Saint-Just and Georges Couthon, was executed the next evening. Within a few days, 87 members of the Commune were also guillotined.

The highest justification for terror - victory in the war - was also the main reason for its end. By the spring of 1794, the French Republican army numbered approx. 800 thousand soldiers and represented the largest and most combat-ready army in Europe. Thanks to this, she achieved superiority over the fragmented Allied forces, which became clear in June 1794 at the Battle of Fleurus in the Spanish Netherlands. Within 6 months, the revolutionary armies reoccupied the Netherlands.

THERMIDORIAN CONVENTION AND DIRECTORY. JULY 1794 DECEMBER 1799 Thermidorian reaction. Forms of "revolutionary" government remained until October 1795, as the Convention continued to provide executive power through the special committees it created. After the first months of the Thermidorian reaction so-called. “White terror” directed against the Jacobins, the terror began to gradually subside. The Jacobin Club was closed, the powers of the Committee of Public Safety were limited, and the decree of 22 Prairial was annulled. The revolution lost its momentum, the population was depleted by the civil war. During the Jacobin dictatorship, the French army achieved impressive victories, invading Holland, the Rhineland and northern Spain. The first coalition of Great Britain, Prussia, Spain and Holland collapsed, and all the countries that were part of it except Austria and Great Britain asked for peace. The Vendée was pacified through political and religious concessions, and religious persecution also ceased.

In the last year of the Convention, which got rid of the Jacobins and royalists, key positions in it were occupied by moderate republicans. The convention was strongly supported by peasants happy with the land they had received, army contractors and suppliers, business people and speculators who traded in land holdings and made capital from it. He was also supported by a whole class of new rich people who wanted to avoid political excesses. The social policy of the Convention was aimed at meeting the needs of these groups. The lifting of price controls led to renewed inflation and new misfortunes for workers and the poor, who had lost their leaders. Independent revolts broke out. The largest of these was the uprising in the capital in the prairie (May 1795), supported by the Jacobins. The rebels erected barricades on the streets of Paris and seized the Convention, thereby accelerating its dissolution. To suppress the uprising, troops were brought into the city (for the first time since 1789). The rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed, almost 10 thousand of its participants were arrested, imprisoned or deported, the leaders ended their lives on the guillotine.

In May 1795, the revolutionary tribunal was finally abolished, and emigrants began to look for ways to return to their homeland. There were even attempts by royalists to restore something similar to the pre-revolutionary regime, but they were all brutally suppressed. In the Vendée, the rebels took up arms again. The English fleet landed over a thousand armed royalist emigrants on the Quibron Peninsula on the northeastern coast of France (June 1795). In the cities of Provence in southern France, the royalists made another attempt at rebellion. On October 5 (13 Vendémière), a monarchist uprising broke out in Paris, but it was quickly suppressed by General Napoleon Bonaparte.

Directory. The moderate republicans, who strengthened their power and the Girondins, who restored their positions, developed a new form of government - the Directory. It was based on the so-called constitution III year, which officially established the French Republic, which began its existence on October 28, 1795.

The Directory relied on suffrage, limited by property qualifications, and on indirect elections. The principle of separation of powers was established between the legislative power, represented by two assemblies (the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders), and the executive power, vested in a Directory of 5 people (one of whom had to leave his post annually). Two-thirds of the new legislators were elected from among the members of the Convention. The insoluble contradictions that arose in the relations between the legislative and executive powers, apparently, could only be resolved by force. Thus, from the very beginning, the seeds of the coming military coups fell on fertile soil. The new system was maintained for 4 years. Its prelude was a royalist revolt specially timed to coincide with October 5, which was swept away by Bonaparte with a “volley of grapeshot.” It was not difficult to assume that the general would put an end to the existing regime, resorting to the same means of forceful pressure that happened during the “coup of the 18th Brumaire” (November 9

1799). The four years of the Directory were a time of corrupt government within France and brilliant conquests abroad. These two factors in their interaction determined the fate of the country. The need to continue the war was now dictated less by revolutionary idealism, and more by nationalist aggression. In treaties with Prussia and Spain, concluded in 1795 in Basel, Carnot sought to keep France practically within its old borders. But the aggressive nationalist doctrine of achieving “natural boundaries” encouraged the government to lay claim to the left bank of the Rhine. Since European states could not help but react to such a noticeable expansion of the borders of the French power, the war did not stop. For the Directory, it became both an economic and political constant, a source of profit and a means of establishing the prestige necessary to maintain power. In domestic politics, the Directory, which represented the republican majority of the middle class, for the sake of self-preservation had to suppress all resistance on the part of both left and right, since the return of Jacobinism or royalism threatened its power.

As a result, the internal policy of the Directory was characterized by a struggle in these two directions. In 1796, the “Conspiracy of Equals” was discovered - an ultra-Jacobin and pro-communist secret society led by Gracchus Babeuf. Its leaders were executed. The trial of Babeuf and his associates created a new republican myth, which after some time acquired great appeal among adherents of underground and secret societies in Europe. The conspirators supported the ideas of social and economic revolution as opposed to the reactionary social policies of the Directory. In 1797, Fructidor's coup took place (September 4), when the royalists won the elections, and the army was used to annul their results in 49 departments. This was followed by the Floréal coup (May 11, 1798), during which the results of the Jacobin election victory were arbitrarily annulled in 37 departments. Following them, the Prairial coup took place (June 18, 1799) During the elections, both extreme political groups strengthened at the expense of the center, and as a result, three members of the Directory lost power.

The rule of the Directory was unprincipled and immoral. Paris and other large cities have earned a reputation as hotbeds of debauchery and vulgarity. However, the decline in morals was not general and widespread. Some members of the Directory, primarily Carnot, were active and patriotic people. But it was not they who created the reputation of the Directory, but people like the corrupt and cynic Count Barras. In October 1795, he recruited the young artillery general Napoleon Bonaparte to suppress the rebellion, and then rewarded him by giving him his former mistress Josephine de Beauharnais as his wife. However, Bonaparte encouraged Carnot much more generously, entrusting him with command of an expedition to Italy, which brought him military glory.

The Rise of Bonaparte. Carnot's strategic plan in the war against Austria envisaged the concentration of three French armies near Vienna - two moving from the north of the Alps, under the command of generals J.B. Jourdan and J.-V. Moreau, and one from Italy, under the command of Bonaparte. The young Corsican defeated the king of Sardinia, imposed the terms of the peace agreement on the pope, defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Lodi (May 10, 1796) and entered Milan on May 14. Jourdan was defeated, Moreau was forced to retreat. The Austrians sent one army after another against Bonaparte. All of them were defeated in turn. Having captured Venice, Bonaparte turned it into an object of bargaining with the Austrians and in October 1797 concluded peace with Austria at Campo Formio. Austria transferred the Austrian Netherlands to France and, according to a secret clause of the agreement, promised to cede the left bank of the Rhine. Venice remained with Austria, which recognized the Cisalpine Republic created by France in Lombardy. After this agreement, only Great Britain remained at war with France.

Bonaparte decided to strike a blow at the British Empire, cutting off access to the Middle East. In June 1798 he captured the island of Malta, in July he took Alexandria and moved troops against Syria. However, British naval forces blocked his land army, and the expedition to Syria failed. Napoleon's fleet was sunk by Admiral Nelson in the battle of Aboukir (August 1, 1798).

Meanwhile, the Directory was in agony due to defeats at the fronts and growing discontent within the country. A second anti-French coalition was formed against France, in which England managed to attract hitherto neutral Russia as an ally. Austria, the Kingdom of Naples, Portugal and the Ottoman Empire also joined the alliance. The Austrians and Russians drove the French out of Italy, and the British landed in Holland. However, in September 1799, British troops were defeated near Bergen, and they had to leave Holland, and the Russians were defeated at Zurich. The seemingly formidable combination of Austria and Russia disintegrated after Russia left the coalition.

In August, Bonaparte left Alexandria, avoiding the English fleet guarding him, and landed in France. Despite huge losses and defeat in the Middle East, Napoleon was the only person who managed to inspire confidence in himself in a country where the government was close to bankruptcy. As a result of the elections in May 1799, many active opponents of the Directory entered the Legislative Assembly, which led to its reorganization. Barras remained as always, but now he has teamed up with Abbot Sieyes

. In July, the Directory appointed Joseph Fouché as Minister of Police. A former Jacobin terrorist, insidious and unscrupulous in his means, he began persecuting his former comrades, which prompted the Jacobins to actively resist. On Fructidor 28 (September 14), they attempted to force the Council of Five Hundred to proclaim the slogan “the fatherland is in danger” and create a commission in the spirit of Jacobin traditions. This initiative was thwarted by Lucien Bonaparte, the most intelligent and educated of all Napoleon's brothers, who managed to postpone the discussion of this issue.

On October 16, Napoleon arrived in Paris. He was met and greeted everywhere as a hero and savior of the country. Bonaparte became a symbol of revolutionary hopes and glory, the prototype of the ideal republican soldier, the guarantor of public order and security. On October 21, the Council of Five Hundred, sharing popular enthusiasm, elected Lucien Bonaparte as its chairman. The cunning Sieyes decided to involve him in the conspiracy that he had long been hatching to overthrow the regime and revise the constitution. Napoleon and Lucien saw Sieyes as a tool with which to clear the way to power.

The coup of the 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799), one might say, was an “internal affair” of the Directory, since two of its members (Sieyes and Roger Ducos) led a conspiracy that was supported by the majority of the Council of Elders and part of the Council of Five Hundred. The Council of Elders voted to move the meeting of both assemblies to the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud, and entrusted the command of the troops to Bonaparte. According to the plan of the conspirators, the meetings, frightened by the troops, would be forced to vote for the revision of the constitution and the creation of a provisional government. After this, power would be given to three consuls, who were ordered to prepare a new Constitution and approve it in a plebiscite.

The first stage of the conspiracy went according to plan. The meetings moved to Saint-Cloud, and the Council of Elders showed agreement on the issue of revising the constitution. But the Council of Five Hundred showed a clearly hostile attitude towards Napoleon, and his appearance in the meeting chamber caused a storm of indignation. This almost thwarted the plans of the conspirators. If not for the resourcefulness of the chairman of the Council of Five Hundred, Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon could have immediately been declared an outlaw. Lucien told the grenadiers guarding the palace that the deputies were threatening to kill the general. He put his naked sword to his brother's chest and vowed to kill him with his own hand if he violated the foundations of freedom. The grenadiers, convinced that they, in the person of the devout Republican General Bonaparte, were saving France, entered the meeting chamber of the Council of Five Hundred. After this, Lucien hurried to the Council of Elders, where he told about the conspiracy hatched by the deputies against the republic. The elders formed a commission and adopted a decree on temporary consuls Bonaparte, Sieyes and Ducos. Then the commission, reinforced by the remaining deputies of the Council of Five Hundred, announced the abolition of the Directory and proclaimed the consuls a provisional government. The meeting of the Legislative Assembly was postponed to February 1800

. Despite gross miscalculations and confusion, the coup of the 18th Brumaire was a complete success.

The main reason for the success of the coup, which was joyfully greeted in Paris and throughout most of the country, was that the people were extremely tired of the rule of the Directory. The revolutionary pressure had finally dried up, and France was ready to recognize a strong ruler capable of ensuring order in the country.

Consulate. France was ruled by three consuls. Each of them had equal power, they exercised leadership in turn. However, from the very beginning, Bonaparte's voice was undoubtedly decisive. The Brumaire decrees constituted a transitional constitution. In essence, it was a Directory, reduced to the power of three. At the same time, Fouche remained Minister of Police, and Talleyrand became Minister of Foreign Affairs. The commissions of the two previous assemblies remained and developed new laws at the behest of the consuls. On November 12, the consuls took an oath "to be devoted to the Republic, one and indivisible, based on equality, freedom and representative government." But Jacobin leaders were arrested or exiled during the consolidation new system. Gaudin, entrusted with the important task of organizing finances that were in a state of chaos, achieved impressive results through his integrity, competence and ingenuity. A truce was reached in the Vendée with the royalist rebels. Work to create a new basic law, called the Constitution VIII year, came under the jurisdiction of Sieyes. He supported the doctrine that "trust must come from below and power from above."

Bonaparte had far-reaching plans. On the sidelines of the coup, it was decided that he himself, J.-J. de Cambaceres and C.-F. Lebrun will become consuls. It was assumed that Sieyes and Ducos would top the lists of future senators. By December 13, the new constitution was completed. Electoral system formally relied on universal suffrage, but at the same time a complex system of indirect elections was established, which excluded democratic control. 4 assemblies were established: the Senate, the Legislative Assembly, the Tribunate and the State Council, whose members were appointed from above. Executive power was transferred to three consuls, but Bonaparte, as first consul, towered over the other two, who were content with only an advisory voice. The Constitution did not provide for any counterbalance to the absolute power of the First Consul. It was approved through a plebiscite in an open vote. Bonaparte forced the pace of events. On December 23, he issued a decree according to which the new constitution was to come into force on Christmas Day. The new institutions began to operate even before the results of the plebiscite were announced. This put pressure on the voting results: 3 million votes for and only 1562 against. The consulate opened new era in the history of France.

Legacy of the revolutionary years. The main result of the Directory's activities was the creation outside of France of a ring of satellite republics, completely artificial in terms of the system of government and in relations with France: in Holland the Batavian, in Switzerland the Helvetic, in Italy the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Roman and Parthenopean republics. France annexed the Austrian Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine. Thus, it increased its territory and surrounded itself with six satellite states created on the model of the French Republic.

Ten years of revolution left an indelible mark on the state structure of France, as well as on the minds and hearts of the French. Napoleon was able to complete the revolution, but he could not erase its consequences from his memory. The aristocracy and the church were no longer able to restore their pre-revolutionary status, although Napoleon created a new nobility and concluded a new concordat with the church. The revolution gave rise not only to the ideals of freedom, equality, fraternity, and popular sovereignty, but also to conservatism, fear of revolution, and reactionary sentiments.

LITERATURE The Great French Revolution and Russia . M., 1989
Freedom. Equality. Brotherhood. Great French Revolution . M., 1989
Smirnov V.P., Poskonin V.S.Traditions of the Great French Revolution . M., 1991
Furet F. Understanding the French Revolution . M., 1998
Historical sketches about the French Revolution . M., 1998

By the time of the reign of Louis XVI (1774), the social atmosphere was increasingly tense, and an increasing number of signs foreshadowed the proximity of a revolutionary explosion. There was famine in the country, and the protests of the masses, the so-called « flour war » 1775 assumed formidable proportions. Louis XV, to whom rumor attributed the words: « After us - even a flood! » - left a sad legacy for his successor. In the 70s In the 18th century, as the French historian E. Labrousse showed, in France there was a fall in prices for agricultural products, which led to a reduction in the income of feudal lords. Since the 80s begins in the French village « feudal reaction » , as Chére called this process, and after him the Feudal Aristocracy, trying to get out of this situation, began to restore the old medieval duties for the peasants.

Louis XVI began his reign with reforms. In 1774 he appointed Turgot, a supporter of the « enlightened absolutism » and reforms in the spirit of the teachings of the physiocrats, who made attempts to allow free trade in grain, limit the wastefulness of the court and eliminate the guild system with its conservative traditions, routine technology and organization of labor. However, all the reforms of the royal minister encountered decisive resistance from the nobility, who achieved the resignation of Turgot in 1776. The decisive Turgot was replaced by the more cautious Necker, but in 1781 he too suffered the same fate as his predecessor.

In 1787 - 1789 A revolutionary situation arose in France. A crisis occurred in industry and trade, caused by the penetration of English cheap goods into the market. State comptrollers Calonne and Loménie de Brienne tried to cover the costs with loans. By 1789, France's national debt had reached 4.5 billion livres, and the annual budget deficit was 80 million livres.

On the advice of Calonne, in 1787, Louis XVI convened an assembly of notables, consisting of representatives of the three estates, appointed by the king himself. To overcome the financial crisis that struck the country, Calonne proposed a change in the tax system, providing for the payment of part of the taxes by the privileged classes. Having rejected the proposals of the royal minister, the assembly of notables was dissolved. Remaining under the threat of financial collapse and growing unrest, Louis XVI returned Necker to power in August 1788, on whose advice he agreed to convene the Estates General. The convening of representatives of the three estates was scheduled for May 1789. The Estates General was entrusted with the task of finding ways and means to overcome the financial crisis. Forced to reckon with the growing discontent of the Third Estate, the king agreed to give its representatives a double advantage in the Estates General. However, the important question of how to vote - by class or by the number of votes - was left open.

On May 5, 1789, in one of the palaces of Versailles, the grand opening of the meeting of the Estates General, which had not been convened in France since the time of Louis XIII (1610 - 1643), took place. In front of the king's throne, 300 representatives of the clergy, dressed in purple and white cassocks, took their places on one side. On the other side were 300 representatives of the nobility, dressed in lush camisoles and expensive hats. At the back of the hall at the Palace of Versailles, behind the nobility and clergy, were the deputies from the third estate, numbering 600 people, dressed in modest and inexpensive black suits. These external differences in clothing and positions indicated the privileged position of deputies from the first and second estates, one of which protected the peace of the feudal-absolutist monarchy, serving the king and government « prayers » , and the other « sword » . Even united together, they made up just under 1% of France's 25 million population in the 18th century.

Opening the meetings of representatives of the three estates, Louis XVI delivered a message to the deputies of the Estates General. The king's speech, although it was met with unanimous greetings, still could not justify the hopes placed on it. Louis XVI said nothing about the need for reform and expressed disapproval of « immoderate desire for innovation » . Following the monarch, Minister Necker, very popular in the third estate, spoke, who demanded on behalf of the government that the estates submit a loan to the crown in the amount of 80 million livres. In his report, he avoided all the most pressing issues and did not express an opinion either on the state of affairs in the state or on the tasks of the Estates General.

The next day, the Estates General was to begin checking the powers of the deputies. The question arose about the procedure for conducting verification of credentials, closely related to another issue - about class-by-class or universal voting. The problem that arose, how to vote - by class or by majority vote, was not so much practical as it was fundamental. The nobility and clergy insisted on maintaining the former estate division of the Estates General, which allowed them to vote separately and have a double advantage over the third estate.

On May 6, 1789, deputies from the first and second estates organized themselves in separate halls into chambers independent from each other and began separately to verify their powers. For representatives of the third estate, a serious danger arose of maintaining the old principle of estate division in the Estates General and turning the deputies who did not belong to the first two privileged estates and who constituted a significant majority of the French people into a third of the assembly. Count Gabriel Honore Mirabeau, a deputy of the third estate, pointed out this danger; he called on his colleagues from the third estate to fight this, seeking a joint verification of the powers of all deputies.

Long negotiations began. The lower clergy was ready to compromise with the deputies of the third estate, proposing to elect commissars from each estate in order to reach an agreement. However, the nobility was irreconcilable and categorically refused any concessions.

The political crisis that arose within the Estates General and lasted for more than a month attracted the attention of the French people. Masses of people began to gather at Versailles, filling the palace galleries in dense rows. « little fun » , in which the meeting of the third estate, named in the English manner, met « House of Commons » . Having received widespread support from the people, the deputies of the third estate decided to take bold and decisive actions.

On June 10, at the suggestion of Abbot E.-J. The Sieyes Assembly of the Third Estate began to verify the powers of the deputies from the three estates elected to the Estates General. Rejecting the principle of estate division, the French « House of Commons » invited the first and second estates to join this verification on the basis of a universal vote on the principle of a majority vote. Deputies who did not appear for inspection were deprived of their powers and were to be considered expelled from the assembly.

These bold political steps, backed by strong statements, quickly yielded results. On June 13, part of the lower clergy joined the meeting of the third estate, and it also became known about unrest and hesitation among the rest of the clergy and some of the nobility. The entirety of the political initiative now passed into the hands of the deputies of the third estate, who, taking upon themselves full responsibility in organizing the verification of the powers of deputies of all classes, emphasized that only the third estate is the authorized representative of the entire nation. In addition to E.-J. Sieyes this idea was repeatedly expressed by Mirabeau, Barnave and the Breton lawyer Le Chapelier.

Transformation of the Estates General on June 17, 1789 into a National Assembly. Proclamation of the National Assembly on July 9, 1789 as a Constituent Assembly.

After the Third Estate assumed responsibility for checking the powers of all deputies of the Estates General, when it was divided into 20 departments for this purpose, elected its chairman - Bailly, elected a bureau, when it identified its rights with the rights of all France, this new the state of affairs required a new legal expression.

On June 17, the meeting of the Third Estate proclaimed the Estates General as the National Assembly, thereby becoming the highest legislative and representative body of the entire French people. Alarmed by these events, the king, as well as the highest nobility and clergy, hastened to take all necessary measures. On June 20, the government, under the pretext of convening a royal meeting, ordered

In response to this, deputies of the National Assembly gathered in the hall that had previously served as a ball game. A proposal was made that the members of the assembly should take an oath not to disperse until a constitution was developed and adopted. The meeting solemnly accepted the text of the drawn up oath.

On June 23, at a meeting of the three estates convened by the king, Louis XVI declared all resolutions of the National Assembly invalid, and the Assembly itself non-existent and proposed that the estates again be divided into chambers, maintaining the previous class isolation. After which Louis XVI and the first two estates left the meeting room. However, the astronomer Bailly, who was elected chairman of the National Assembly in early June, declared its meeting open. The royal master of ceremonies, the Marquis de Breze, demanded that the deputies obey the order of the monarch, for which he heard Mirabeau’s angry response: « Go and tell yours Mr. that we are here by the will of the people and will leave our places only yielding to the force of bayonets » .

At Mirabeau's proposal, the Assembly proclaimed the inviolability of the personalities of deputies, and decided to consider attempts to attack these rights as a state crime. Thus, on June 23, the absolutist monarchy suffered a serious defeat, after the members of the National Assembly refused to disperse at the will of the monarch. Already on June 24, a significant part of the clergy and nobility hastened to join the National Assembly. The king was forced, against his will, to sanction this union of the three classes in the National Assembly.

On July 9, the National Assembly proclaimed itself the Constituent Assembly. By this, it emphasized its responsibility to develop the constitutional foundations on the basis of which it was supposed to establish a new social system in France. In those distant July days, Count Mirabeau indulged in illusions: « This great revolution will do without atrocities and without tears » . However, this time Mirabeau's insight changed. The Great French Bourgeois Revolution was just beginning, and the French people were just entering its threshold.

The king and his entourage followed the developments at Versailles with alarm and irritation. The government was gathering troops to disperse the Assembly, which dared to declare itself Constituent. Troops were gathered in Paris and Versailles. Unreliable parts were replaced with new ones. Public speakers before a huge crowd of people explained the threat that hung over the Constituent Assembly. A rumor spread among the bourgeoisie about the impending declaration of state bankruptcy, that is, the government's intention to cancel its debt obligations. The stock exchange, shops and theaters were closed.

On July 12, news reached Paris of the resignation of Minister Necker, whom the king ordered to leave France. This news caused a storm of indignation among the people, who the day before carried busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans through the streets of Paris. Necker's resignation was perceived as counter-revolutionary forces going on the offensive. Already on the evening of July 12, the first clashes between the people and government troops took place.

On the morning of July 13, the alarm sounded over Paris, calling on Parisians to revolt. People seized several tens of thousands of guns from gun stores and the Invalides Home. Under the onslaught of the armed people, government troops were forced to retreat, leaving block after block. By evening, most of the capital was in the hands of the rebels.

On July 13, Parisian electors organized a Permanent Committee, which was later transformed into a commune - the Paris Municipality. On the same day, the Standing Committee decided to form the National Guard - the armed force of the bourgeois revolution, designed to defend revolutionary gains and protect bourgeois property.

However, the outcome of the confrontation between the king and the deputies of the Constituent Assembly was not yet decided. The muzzles of the cannons of the 8-tower fortress-prison of the Bastille still continued to look towards the Saint-Antoine suburb. The Standing Committee tried to reach an agreement with the commandant of the Bastille, de Launay. Historians attribute the call to storm the Bastille to the young journalist Camille Desmoulins. The crowd noticed how a detachment of dragoons proceeded to the fortress. The people rushed to the gates of the fortress. The Bastille garrison opened fire on the crowd that stormed the fortress. Once again blood was shed. However, it was no longer possible to stop the people. An angry crowd burst into the fortress and killed Commandant de Donay. People of various professions took part in the storming of the Bastille: carpenters, jewelers, cabinetmakers, shoemakers, tailors, marble craftsmen, etc. The capture of the stronghold of tyranny meant the victory of the popular uprising. Having formally admitted his defeat, the king, together with the deputation of the Constituent Assembly, arrived in Paris on July 17, and on July 29, Louis XVI returned the popular Necker to power.

The news of the success of the popular uprising quickly spread throughout France. Vox Dei swept like a punishing hand over many royal officials who despised the people and saw in them only stupid « black » . The royal official Foulon was hanged from a lamppost. The same fate befell the mayor of Paris, Flessel, who slipped boxes of rags instead of weapons. In cities big and small, people took to the streets and replaced appointed the king of power, personifying the old order with the new elected bodies of city self-government - municipalities. Unrest began in Troyes, Strasbourg, Amiens, Cherbourg, Rouen, etc. This broad movement, which swept the cities of France in July - August, was called « municipal revolution » .

Peasant protests began at the beginning of 1789 before the convening of the Estates General. Under the impression made by the storming of the Bastille in July - September, peasant protests began, which received a new revolutionary scope. Everywhere, peasants stopped paying feudal duties, destroyed noble estates, castles and burned documents that confirmed the rights of feudal lords to the identity of the peasants. The owners of the estates were gripped by horror, which went down in history as « Great fear » .

The Constituent Assembly, which finally united all three classes, became the most important step towards the establishment of a monarchy limited by law in the kingdom. However, after the victory won on July 14, power and political leadership actually passed into the hands of the big bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisified liberal nobility united with it. Jean Bailly became the head of the Paris municipality, and Lafayette became the head of the formed National Guard. In the provinces and most municipalities, the big bourgeoisie also prevailed, which, in alliance with the liberal nobility, formed the constitutionalist party. Divided between rights and left

Already in July, the Assembly created a commission to prepare a declaration and constitution for France. However, due to the growth of peasant uprisings, the Assembly urgently begins to resolve the agrarian question. At the meeting of the Constituent Assembly on August 4, 1789, which lasted until late at night, the noble deputies and the bourgeois who owned land rent were more susceptible to « Great fear » , make a proposal to solve the problems affecting the village. The Duke d'Aiguillon, painting a frightening picture of a raging village, proposed a ready-made bill consisting of 8 sections. Calling on the rest of the nobility « sacrifice one's rights in the interests of justice » and make sacrifices « on the altar of the fatherland » On August 11, the Constituent Assembly adopted decrees on the agrarian question.

All feudal duties were divided into « personal » And « real » . TO « personal » included: servage, seigneurial courts, law dead hand, exclusive hunting right, etc. « Real » payments were considered: church tithes, chinsh, one-time duties to the lord on the sale and inheritance, censives, champar, etc. The difference between them was that « personal » duties as opposed to « real » canceled without any ransom and were not associated with land ownership. Thus, without resolving the essence of the agrarian question, the Constituent Assembly, in decrees of August 4 - 11, announced that « completely destroys the feudal regime » .

After the adoption of the agrarian decrees, the assembly returned to constitutional issues. On August 26, the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights was adopted, consisting of 17 articles, which were based on the anti-feudal educational ideas of J.-J. Rousseau. In contrast to royal absolutism, the Declaration proclaimed the principle of the supremacy of the nation. The nation is the only source of all power. This formulation allowed for the preservation of the monarchy. The Declaration formulated precise definitions « natural, inalienable and inalienable rights » .The first article of the declaration began: « People are born and remain free and equal in rights » . True, a vague clause was included in the first article, allowing « social differences » if they lead to « common benefit » . « Natural and inalienable rights » personal freedom, freedom of speech and press, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, security and resistance to oppression, and choice of any occupation were recognized. In the 17th article of the Declaration, the right of property was declared to be the same inviolable right. Its removal from the hands of the owner was allowed only in the event « social need » , on the basis of law and subject to « advance and fair compensation » .

Rejecting class privileges, the Declaration provided for the right of all citizens to participate themselves or through their representatives in the legislative process.

In the very title of the Declaration, man comes first after the citizen. This also expressed the ideas of the enlighteners, who sought to focus all their attention on human individuality. Following the humanists of the 16th century. and the rationalists of the 17th century, the enlighteners placed man at the center of all their historical and philosophical constructions. They wanted to snatch him from the clutches of feudal corporations (class, guild, guild), considering him as an individual equal to every other. Universal equality was necessary to eliminate those class barriers that feudal society had built. Therefore, the highlighting of the human personality as opposed to feudal corporatism was the main idea of the bourgeois worldview, which the enlighteners of the 18th century. brought to extraordinary sharpness. The famous triune formula « liberty, equality and fraternity » , extracted from the Declaration, subsequently echoed thunderously throughout Europe.

After the approval of the Declaration and the provision of fundamental rights and freedoms to citizens, the question of suffrage arose. Already on August 31, the majority of the deputies of the Assembly reacted with understanding to the proposal of deputy Mounier to establish a property qualification for voters and to divide citizens into « active » And « passive » . This idea was expressed by Sieyes back in July.

In September, the government was preparing a new counter-revolutionary coup. Louis XVI refused to sign the August decrees and the Declaration. Reliable units were assembled in Versailles and Paris. October 5 from the pages of Marat's newspaper « Friend of the people » there was a call for a march on Versailles. About 6 thousand women took part in the campaign, demanding bread. Later, the National Guard led by Lafayette approached Versailles. On October 6, an armed clash broke out with the royal guards, during which people broke into the palace. The frightened king twice went out onto the balcony with Lafayette and tried to calm the armed crowd. Fearing the worst possible development of the situation, Louis XVI signed the declaration and agrarian laws, after which he hastily left Versailles and went to Paris. Following the king, the Constituent Assembly moved to the capital.

On October 21, the Constituent Assembly passed a law authorizing the use of military force to suppress popular uprisings.

Administrative reform.

Having abolished the old privileges of the provinces in August, the Assembly then destroyed the entire medieval system of dividing France into provinces, generalites, seneschalships, balages, etc. By the law of January 15, 1790, the Constituent Assembly established a new administrative structure for the kingdom. The whole country was divided into 83 departments, which in turn were divided into communes, cantons and discretes. This new administrative structure, which destroyed the old feudal fragmentation with internal customs, patrimonial courts, and the like, ensured the national unity of the state. As a result of the reform, 44 thousand municipalities were formed in France.

Church reform

Attempts by Louis XVI and his ministers in 1787 and 1789 to resolve the socio-political and economic crisis hanging over the kingdom ended in vain. The new revolutionary government inherited from the feudal-absolutist monarchy a significant amount of debt and a growing financial crisis in the country. To avoid dangerous precedents of violation « inviolable and sacred » rights of private property protected by the last article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the Constituent Assembly, at the proposal of Bishop Talleyrand of Autun, supported by G. O. Mirabeau, decided to sequester church property, based on the explanation proposed by Talleyrand that this measure « is entirely compatible with strict respect for property rights » , since the duties imposed on priests by the ecclesiastical rank do not allow the clergy to be the same owners as the nobility or the bourgeoisie. Despite the protest of the clergy, outraged by the outburst of their brother, and appealing to the 17th article of the August Declaration, deputies of the Constituent Assembly, by decree of November 2, 1789, decided to transfer all church property to the disposal of the nation. Church reform affected not only the Gallican Church, which remained faithful to Catholicism, but also those churches that were influenced by the Reformation.

After the property of the church was declared the property of the state, the deputies of the Assembly decided to eliminate the political autonomy of the church, and began, in fact, the reform of the church itself. By the decrees of July - November 1790, the Assembly sought to change the internal structure of the church and determine its future sphere of activity in the state. A number of powers administered by the church administration were transferred to the jurisdiction of local civil authorities (registration of marriage, registration of deaths and registration of newborns). In an effort to place the clergy at the service of the interests of the emerging bourgeois order, the deputies of the Assembly decided to withdraw the Gallican Church from the influence of the French king and the Pope. The king was deprived of the prerogative of appointing persons to episcopal sees, and the pope was deprived of the right to approve them. All church positions became elected, based on the property qualification established by law. Regardless of religious affiliation, the highest clergy were elected by departmental electors, the lowest by parish electors.

The government took upon itself the obligation to pay salaries to the clergy. Between the state and the clergy, ties were finally formalized along the state-church vector, expressed, among other things, through monetary compensation established by law in the form of wages received by clergy for their work. Thus, everyone rightfully wearing a cassock turned into a spiritual official, a minister, but not in the theological, but in the secular meaning of this word.

The old division of France into 18 archbishoprics and 116 bishoprics was replaced by a division into 83 dioceses, which corresponded to the 83 departments created during the administrative reform.

By decree of November 27, 1790, the Constituent Assembly decided to swear allegiance to the drafted articles of the constitution. Each bishop was obliged to take the oath in the presence of municipal authorities. However, most clergy refused to take the oath. Of the 83 bishops, only 7 swore allegiance to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, as well as to the articles of the constitution. From the end of November 1790 until 1801, i.e., at the time Napoleon I signed the concordat with Rome, the clergy in France was divided into constitutional (sworn) and unconstitutional (refusal to take the oath).

A further attempt to resolve the peasant issue by the Constituent Assembly.

The peasantry perceived the decrees of August 4-11 as the complete abolition of all feudal duties. The peasants stopped paying not only « personal » duties, which was allowed by law, but also « real » , which were supposed to be redeemed. Since the authorities tried to force the peasants to bear the required duties until they ransomed them, an uprising broke out again in February 1790.

In resolving the agrarian question, the Constituent Assembly used two methods: the method of persuasion and the method of coercion. By a decree of March 15, 1790, landowners were deprived of the right of triage. By decrees of February and July 1790, the Assembly confirmed the obligation of peasants to pay « real payments » and gave local authorities the right to introduce « martial law » . In the event of a pogrom of the owner's property by peasants, the government imposed on the communities the obligation to compensate for the damage caused in the amount of 2/3 of the cost of the loss incurred by the owner.

In May 1790, the Assembly established a redemption procedure that was unfavorable for the peasants « real payments » , which led to a new wave of peasant movement. In the departments of Quercy, Périgord, and Rouergue, the peasantry again rose up to fight in the winter of 1790. The meeting sent to « rebellious » departments of troops and commissars. But it was not possible to quickly extinguish the source of the uprising.

Back on May 15, 1790, the Assembly issued a decree according to which it authorized the sale of national property at auction in small plots with payment in installments of up to 12 years. In June, the payment period was reduced from 12 to 4 years. Instead of selling land in small plots, they now began to sell it as whole plots. At first, the peasantry showed interest in the sale of church lands and the number of unrest decreased noticeably. However, land prices were set high, and the sale of large plots at auction raised them even higher.

Having begun the sale of national property, the Constituent Assembly issued special state monetary obligations to pay for them - assignats, initially in the amount of 400 million livres. This amount was equal to the price intended for the sale of part of the national property. The assignats were initially issued with a nominal value of one thousand livres and were quoted as securities. However, they were soon given the functions of paper money: they began to be issued in small bills, and they began to circulate on a par with specie.

Municipal elections in January - February 1790. Le Chapelier's Law. Abolition of estates.

In January - February 1790, on the basis of new constitutional articles on property qualifications, elections to municipal bodies were held. Access to them, like the National Guard, was open only to wealthy people.

In the field of trade and industrial legislation, the Constituent Assembly proceeded from the principles of economic liberalism of the physiocratic school. In an effort to ensure the greatest scope for economic initiative, it abolished all previous restrictions. Interfering with freedom of industrial and commercial activities. On February 16, 1791, a decree was issued on the abolition of workshops and their privileges; even earlier, government regulation in industrial production was abolished. March 2 The Assembly adopts a law on freedom of enterprise.

In the spring of 1790, workers' strikes began in Paris and other cities, demanding higher wages and a shorter working day. A Fraternal Union was formed, uniting thousands of carpenter workers. Even earlier, the printers of Paris created their own special organization.

On June 14, 1791, deputy Le Chapelier, a lawyer from Rennes, introduced a draft against the workers, which was adopted almost unanimously by the deputies of the Constituent Assembly. This decree, according to its creator, became known as the Le Chapelier Law. The law prohibited the union of workers into unions or other associations, prohibited strikes, and took action against violators. Violators of the law were punished with fines and imprisonment. Meetings of strikers were equivalent to « rebels » and could be used against the participants military force. Le Chapelier himself motivated the need for the adoption of this law by the fact that trade unions and workers' strikes restrict the personal freedom of the entrepreneur and thereby contradict the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

The Constituent Assembly eliminated the division of the country into classes, however, it retained the title of nobility itself. In order to ensure the further equality of all citizens in rights, the Assembly on June 19, 1790 abolished the institution of nobility and all titles associated with it. The wearing of titles: marquis, count, duke, etc., as well as the use of family coats of arms was prohibited. Citizens could only have the surname of the head of the family.

The first political circles in France

It is generally accepted that the first political club in France arose in June 1789 in Versailles, before the revolutionary uprisings of the masses and the fall of the Bastille. This became the Breton Club, which united a group of bourgeois deputies from Brittany, who were soon joined by prominent members of the National Assembly. By the end of June, the number of club members exceeded 150 people. After the events of October 5-6, following the king and the Constituent Assembly, leaders of the Breton Club moved to Paris. Here in the capital of France the club was transformed into « Society of Friends of the Constitution » , or the Jacobin Club, named after the library of the monastery of St. James, in which meetings of its members were held. All members of the club paid an annual entrance fee of 12 to 24 livres, which did not allow the poor to take part in its work. Unlike the Beton Club, which accepted into its ranks only deputies of the Constituent Assembly in « Society of Friends of the Constitution » included supporters of bourgeois-democratic reforms and moderate liberal constitutionalists. In the first years of the revolution, the role of the Jacobin Club, which united almost all the major figures of the third estate, both on the right (from Sieyes, Lafayette and Mirabeau) and on the left (to Robespierre), was great. Most of the issues considered by the deputies of the Constituent Assembly were discussed at the club. The Jacobin Club had many branches. In June 1790 their number reached 100, at the beginning of 1791 it reached 227, and at the time of the Varennes crisis there were 406 branches of the club in 83 departments of France.

In 1790, representatives of the constitutionalist party, represented by an alliance of the big bourgeoisie with the liberal-minded nobility, while remaining mostly members of the Jacobin Club, formed « Society of 1789 » , which included: the leader of the constitutionalists Mirabeau, the head of the National Guard Lafayette, the mayor of the Paris municipality of Bailly, the Breton lawyer from Rennes Le Chapelier and others. Chairman « Society of 1789 » Abbot Sieyes was elected. All of them adhered to right-wing views, and in the Constituent Assembly their representation was called moderate liberal constitutionalists. IN « Society of 1789 » high membership fees were set, and its meetings were held behind doors closed from prying eyes.

With the growth of the peasant-plebeian movement, new ideological and political circles arose that absorbed the views of the French enlighteners. Among them, a special place was occupied « Social circle » , founded in January 1790 by Abbot Claude Faucher and an ardent admirer of the educational ideas of J.-J. Rousseau and the writer Nicolas de Bonville, who united the democratically minded intelligentsia in his ranks. Huge political influence « Social circle » acquired in November 1790, after a wider organization was founded by its leaders - « » , which included about 3 thousand people. Meetings « » took place in the premises of the Palais Royal circus and attracted an audience of 4 - 5 thousand people, consisting of artisans, workers and other representatives of the Parisian poor. In speeches at federation meetings, as well as in published « Social circle » newspapers « Iron mouth » , Faucher and Bonville put forward demands for the allocation of land to all poor people, the equalization of property and the abolition of the right of inheritance. Despite the fact that neither Faucher nor Bonville took an exclusively left-wing position on pressing political issues, K. Marx and F. Engels argued that in « Social circle » that revolutionary movement began, which then « gave birth to communist idea » , put forward by Babeuf and his followers.

In April 1790 it was founded « Society of Friends of Human and Civil Rights » or the Cordeliers Club, which took its name from the monastery belonging to the Franciscan Cordeliers order, in which the club members met. The Cordeliers Club in its composition represented a more democratic organization that fought against the restriction of qualifications for deputies of the Assembly of suffrage. Small membership fees were established for those wishing to join the club. Unlike the Jacobin Club, the Cordeliers Club had few deputies to the Constituent Assembly. It consisted mainly of revolutionary-minded public figures, bearers of republican ideas: lawyer Danton, journalist Camille Desmoulins, newspaper publisher « Friend of the people » Jean Paul Marat, journalist and lawyer Francois Robbert, typographer Momoro and others. The emblem of the Club was the all-seeing eye, symbolizing the vigilance of the people.

"Varenna Crisis" on June 21, 1791 and the first split within the Jacobin Club on July 16, 1791.

After the march on Versailles on October 5-6, 1789 and the move of the king and the Assembly to Paris, the palace in the Tuileries became the residence of the monarchy. On the morning of June 21, 1791, Parisians were awakened by the sound of the alarm bell and cannon shots, signaling the escape of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette together with their children from the Tuileries Palace. It became obvious that the carriage containing the highest-born of all aristocrats was rapidly moving towards eastern border France, where counter-revolutionary forces were gathering to begin their crusade against « rebel rabble » .

On the same day, at a meeting of the Cordeliers Club, a proclamation was drawn up to the French people, published in the form of a poster: with paraphrased verses from « Brutus » Voltaire followed with a call for the punishment of tyrants by death. Immediately, the members of the Club unanimously approved a petition personally drawn up by François Robert to the Constituent Assembly, demanding the final destruction of the monarchy after the flight of the king and queen from Paris. On June 21, all the forces of supporters of republican rule became more active. Journalist Brissot and the press called for the deposition of Louis XVI and the proclamation of France as a republic « World Federation of Friends of Truth » - « Iron mouth » . Press organ « Society of Friends of Human and Civil Rights » - « Friend of the people » called for a revolutionary struggle against tyrants.

After the escape of the royals, all measures were urgently taken to detain them. Not even a day had passed before the fugitives were captured near the border in the town of Varennes and taken to Paris under the escort of the National Guard. The capture was helped by the son of a postal employee, Drouet, who recognized Louis XVI from the profile minted on the coins and raised the alarm. Already on June 25, the residents of Paris greeted the king and queen with hostile silence.

Cordeliers Club and « World Federation of Friends of Truth » led the movement to establish a republic in France. Danton, Chaumette, Condorcet were its ardent advocates at section meetings. Local branches of the Jacobin Club sent petitions to Paris demanding the immediate abdication of the king and queen. At the time of the proceedings, the deputies of the Constituent Assembly temporarily removed the king from power. Without losing hope, after so many transformations, to come to an agreement with Louis XVI and establish a constitutional monarchy in the kingdom, and also trying to give the most decisive rebuff to the supporters of the republic, the deputies of the Assembly made every effort to save the greatly damaged reputation of the French king. Through their diligence, on July 15, Louis XVI was rehabilitated before France, which was enshrined in the form of a resolution by deputies of the right-wing Constituent Assembly, adhering to the version of « kidnapping of the king » for the purpose of compromising it.

The restoration of the power of Louis XVI by decision of the Constituent Assembly infuriated the democrats. The Cordeliers Club refused to recognize the legitimacy of this decree and drew up another petition calling for not to submit to the illegal power of the traitor king. The next day, members of the Cordeliers Club went to the Jacobin Club, calling for support for the anti-royal petition.

The process of political division in the chamber of the third estate into supporters and opponents of the revolution began in June 1789. Outwardly, it was noticeable that supporters of the revolution took seats to the left of the chairman's table, which stood in the center of the hall, and opponents of the revolution always sat on the right. After Louis XVI signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen along with individual articles of the constitution and left Versailles, ardent supporters of absolutism left the Constituent Assembly on October 13, 1789. Thus, in the created political « Society of Friends of the Constitution » formed on the basis of the Breton Club, included moderate liberal constitutionalists and revolutionary democrats. However, the division into supporters and opponents of the revolution continued. During « municipal revolutions » July - August 1789 and the two-stage elections established by law for local bodies of city government held at the beginning of 1790, supporters of a constitutional monarchy came to power. Having achieved their goals, the big bourgeoisie and liberal nobility sought to strengthen their position and stop the growing movement for rights and freedoms coming from the urban and rural poor. The outward expression of the separation of moderate liberal constitutionalists from the democratic bourgeoisie was the separation of the right part of the Jacobin Club into a new political organization - « Society of 1789 » , who had not yet broken with the Jacobins. At the time the Cordeliers submitted a petition to the Jacobin Club, an intense political struggle was already underway in the latter. On July 16, 1791, the left side of the Jacobin Club supported the petition. This caused the first split within the Jacobins. The right part of the Jacobins, consisting of « Society of 1789 » , defiantly left the meeting and soon resigned from the Jacobin Club. Most members « Society of 1789 » , who broke with the left-wing Jacobins, founded a new political Club of Feuillants, named after the former monastery that previously belonged to the Feuillants order. Its leaders were Lafayette, Bailly and formed after the death of Mirabeau « triumvirate » represented by Barnave, Duport and Lamet. The Feuillants established high membership fees, providing their organization with reliable protection from penetration of the Club by democratically minded citizens. The split of the Jacobin Club in Paris led to splits in all branches belonging to the club. The same thing happened in all departments of France. Representatives of the big bourgeoisie left local branches of the Jacobin Club.

So, supporters of a limited monarchy set out to complete it at all costs. On July 15, Barnave speaks in the Constituent Assembly, demanding an end to the revolutionary impulses of the masses. The day before the tragedy on the Champ de Mars, opponents of the republic left the Jacobin Club. Democratic clubs and newspapers demanded the overthrow of the monarchy. At the call of the Cordeliers Club, crowds of people gathered on the Champ de Mars for several days to accept a petition for the abolition of the monarchy in France, the abolition of property qualifications and the re-election of deputies of the Constituent Assembly.

By order of the Constituent Assembly, troops of the National Guard were assembled on the Champs de Mars. The meeting of the people passed calmly, but the ruling power, seeking to establish a constitutional monarchy, decided to act. The mayor of Paris, Bailly, ordered the demonstration to be dispersed by force. On July 17, the guardsmen under the command of Lafayette opened fire on the unarmed people. About 50 people were killed and hundreds wounded. For the first time, one part of the third estate took up arms against another part of it. After the dispersal of the peaceful demonstration, punitive measures by the government followed. On July 18, the Constituent Assembly issued a decree on severe punishment « rebels » , deciding to begin prosecution of the demonstrators.

Having a significant advantage in the Assembly over supporters of the republic, the constitutionalists decided to increase the property qualification for all categories « active » citizens. Under the pretext of codifying the articles of the constitution previously adopted by the Constituent Assembly, deputies from the majority achieved a revision of the articles relating to the electoral qualifications. In August, by majority vote « right » a decision was made to significantly increase the property qualification.

The victory of the French Revolution caused excitement among the European aristocracy. On July 14, 1789, a dangerous precedent was set. In the autumn of 1789, the national liberation movement flared up in Belgium against the rule of the Austrians and soon grew into a bourgeois revolution. By December of the same year, the Austrians were expelled from Belgian territory. Not wanting the revolutionary fire to spread throughout Europe, on July 27, 1790, by agreement in Reichenbach between Austria and Prussia, the main controversial issues were resolved, followed by the conclusion of an alliance to suppress the revolution in Belgium. By November 1790, the Belgian revolution was defeated. The motives that prompted the governments of European monarchies to rush into intervention against revolutionary France were clearly formulated by Catherine II: « We must not sacrifice a virtuous king to the barbarians; the weakening of monarchical power in France endangers all other monarchies » .

After the victory in Belgium, the Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation, Leopold II, turned to the European powers with a proposal to convene, in view of the impending threat, a pan-European congress in Aachen or Spa to organize a joint intervention against the revolution in France. Due to the fact that Russia and England chose to avoid participating in the congress, Emperor Leopold's initiative ended in failure.

Due to the suppression of the Belgian revolution, points of contact emerged between Prussia and Austria. On August 27, 1791, at Pillnitz Castle in Saxony, Emperor Leopold II and the Prussian King Frederick William II signed a declaration of joint action to help the French monarch. The Austro-Prussian Treaty of Alliance concluded on the basis of the Pillnitz Declaration and the preliminary treaty of 1791 on February 7, 1792 marked the beginning of the first anti-French coalition.

Back in July 1789, the Constituent Assembly decided to form a commission to prepare the Declaration and develop the main articles of the French constitution. However, the growth of peasant uprisings forced the deputies of the Constituent Assembly to address the agrarian question. At the end of August, the Constituent Assembly returned to the discussion of the constitution, the prologue to which was the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Under the influence of the events of October 5-6, 1789, deputies of the Assembly accelerated work on editing the articles of the Basic Law. This difficult work was completed by the deputies already in October, and by the end of December it was completed, and the corresponding decrees acquired legal force.

By legislation of October - December 1789, citizens were divided into « active » And « passive » . « Passive » those who did not have the established property qualifications were considered and therefore were deprived of the right to be elected and to be elected. « Active » Citizens who had property qualifications and voting rights were divided into three categories:

1. The right to elect electors was granted to men who had reached the age of 25 and paid a direct tax in an amount equal to the local three-day wages of a day laborer.

2. The right to be elected as an elector and to elect deputies was granted to persons who paid a direct tax in the amount of ten days' wages.

3. The right to be elected as deputy was granted only to persons who paid a direct tax in the amount of a silver mark (about 54 livres) and who owned land property.

Of the 25 - 26 million population of France, the constitution granted voting rights to only 4 million 300 thousand people.

Developing the constitution in parts and putting it into effect as individual articles were approved, by September 1791 the Constituent Assembly completed this work. Having fully restored the power of Louis XVI, the deputies of the Assembly submitted to him for approval the articles of the first bourgeois constitution in France. The Basic Law, signed by the king on September 3, proclaimed the principle of the supremacy of the nation: « All powers come from the nation » .

In accordance with the articles of the constitution, France was declared a monarchy limited by the Basic Law. The head of the highest executive power was « by God's grace and the power of constitutional laws » the king of the French, who was given the legitimate right to appoint persons to the positions of ministers and senior military leaders, as well as the right of suspensive (delaying) veto. The entirety of supreme legislative power was concentrated in the hands of deputies of the Legislative Assembly, which consisted of one chamber and was elected in two-stage elections « active » citizens for a period of 2 years. Ministers appointed by the king, at the request of the Legislative Assembly, had to report to the deputies of the Assembly on the state of the budget and could be held accountable by a majority vote of the Assembly in the manner prescribed by law. The declaration of war and the conclusion of peace were made by the Legislative Assembly on the basis of the proposal of the king.

The constitution equalized the rights of all faiths professing themselves on the territory of the kingdom, and also preserved slavery in the French colonies.

Without finally resolving the agrarian question, the constitution of 1791 did not ensure the elimination of feudalism. By preserving slavery as the most severe form of exploitation of man by man, the constitutional system contradicted the articles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Instead of the equality of citizens proclaimed in the first article of the Declaration in the rights given to them by the Creator from birth and subsequently preserved, the Basic Law established property inequality between citizens, granting political rights only « active » citizens who can express their civic position in the elections of representatives to local authorities and municipalities.

Nevertheless, the French bourgeois constitution had great progressive significance at that time.

Completion of the work of the Constituent Assembly on September 30, 1791. The end of the first stage of the Great French Bourgeois Revolution.

After the proclamation of bourgeois rights and freedoms in France, as well as the development of the constitutional foundations of the kingdom, approved by the head of the executive branch - the monarch, the Constituent Assembly, which worked for more than two years, considered its mission completed. The manifesto of Louis XVI, which approved the completion of the work of the deputies of the Constituent Assembly, stated that « the end of the revolution has come » .

The Constitution of 1791 delimited the powers of power between the monarch and the representative office. Having vested the king with executive power, the bourgeoisie limited his legislative activity, granting, however, the right to veto decisions of the Assembly. Before passing a resolution to terminate the meeting of the Constituent Assembly, deputies announced the start of elections to the Legislative Assembly. Only after they were held, the king signed a manifesto according to which the Constituent Assembly ceased its activities, giving way to deputies elected to the Legislative Assembly.

On October 1, 1791, the Legislative Assembly began its work in Paris. It consisted overwhelmingly of representatives of the bourgeoisie and bourgeois-minded intelligentsia. Since the Constituent Assembly decreed that its members could not be elected to the Legislative Assembly, the latter's deputies were elected from local municipalities and the local elected administration. Although the Jacobins were better represented in these elected local civil authorities, they constituted a significant minority in the Assembly. The reason for this was the property qualification, which few were able to overcome.

The right wing of the Legislative Assembly consisted of the Feyians, who received more than 250 seats. The Left Assembly consisted mainly of Jacobins and numbered 136 deputies. The numerous center, formed by about 350 deputies, formally did not belong to either the right or left bloc of the Assembly. However, the majority of center deputies supported right-wing ideas. The Feyants could always count on their votes in case of active opposition from the Jacobins, which arose during the discussion of the most pressing political issues.

By the end of 1791 - beginning of 1792. France's economic situation worsened. The sale of national property, initiated by the previous Assembly, was successful. But with the accepted sale of land, mainly in large plots, most of the land fell into the hands of the bourgeoisie, and not the peasantry. The peasantry, who were also forced to carry out uncanceled duties, openly expressed their dissatisfaction. The increasing issue of assignants led to the beginning of the depreciation of paper money. The immediate consequence of the depreciation of money was an increase in prices for essential goods.

Due to the uprising of black slaves in the French colonies (Saint-Domingue), by the beginning of 1792, goods such as coffee, sugar, and tea almost disappeared from sale. Sugar, which cost 25 sous per pound, rose in price to 3 livres. Already in November, unrest among workers and artisans arose in Paris. The Legislative Assembly received complaints and petitions demanding the establishment of fixed prices for products and curbing the arbitrariness of large wholesale traders. In February 1792, the Legislative Assembly issued a decree prohibiting the export of various raw materials from France. Then armed peasants in the Noyon area detained barges with grain on the Oise River and partly distributed among themselves, partly sold at stable prices. This movement was supported by Babeuf, the future leader of the conspiracy « in the name of equality » . Similar cases occurred in other areas of France. Priest Jacques Roux, future leader « mad » , the Jacobin priest Dolivier already at the beginning of 1792 demanded the establishment of fixed prices for food and the protection of the poor from the tyranny of the rich.

On November 9, 1791, a decree was adopted against emigrants, declaring all those who did not return to France before January 1, 1792, traitors to the Fatherland, and on November 29, a decree was adopted against priests who did not take the oath of the constitution, establishing penalties for them.

Quite a lot of time passed after the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, however, the situation in France still remained tense. The king's brother, Count d'Artois, who fled from Paris on the night of July 16-17, emigrated abroad. In Turin, counter-revolutionary forces soon began to form around his brother Louis XVI. At the end of 1789, Count d'Artois sent his numerous emissaries to the monarchs of Europe with a call to join the campaign of the French nobility against the revolution. Since 1791, Koblenz became the center of counter-revolutionary forces, where Count d'Artois began to form an army. At the same time, Queen Marie Antoinette, through secret agents, sent letters to her brother, Emperor Leopold II of Austria, in which she begged him to come to the rescue as soon as possible and suppress the rebellion.

In this situation, on October 20, 1791, the Girondist Brissot made an excited speech at the Assembly, calling for a rebuff to European despotism, which was preparing an intervention against France. Robespierre and other representatives of revolutionary democracy were categorically against war with the thrones of Europe. The leader of the left-wing Jacobin-Montagnards, Robespierre, believed that the main forces of counter-revolution threatening France were located within the country, and not in London, Vienna, St. Petersburg or Koblenz: « To Koblenz, you say, to Koblenz!.. Is there danger in Koblenz? No! Koblenz is by no means a second Carthage, the center of evil is not in Koblenz, it is among us, it is in our bosom » .

In March 1792, the king formed a ministry of Girondins. Roland, led by his wife, was appointed Minister of the Interior, and Dumouriez, who was one of the most ardent supporters of the war, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. The political center of the Girondins became the salon of Madame Roland, who knew how to bring up for discussion the most important policy issues of the Girondin party over evening tea in a casual conversation.

On April 20, 1792, France declared war on the King of Bohemia and Hungary - the Austrian Emperor. Declaring war « reactionary monarchies » in the person of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Legislative Assembly wanted to emphasize that the French Revolution was not at war with the peoples of the German Empire, but with a tyrant.

From the very first days of the war, France suffered setbacks. General Rochambeau resigned shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. The officers, most of them nobles, went over to the enemy's side. Marat, who resumed publication of his newspaper, spoke openly about treason. Robespierre accused the traitor generals and Girondins of betraying the interests of France. The Girondins, in turn, resumed their persecution of Marat and began to persecute Robespierre, declaring that he served Austria.

At the end of May and beginning of June, the Legislative Assembly issued three decrees: on the expulsion of the clergy who had not sworn allegiance to the French constitution, on the dissolution of the royal guard and on the creation of a federal camp of 20 thousand people near Paris. However, the king agreed only with the dissolution of his guard. Using the right given to him by the constitution, Louis XVI vetoed the remaining two decrees.

On June 13, the king, being the head of the executive power according to the constitution, dismissed the Girondist ministers and summoned the Feyants. After such a demarche, troubles for the monarchy were to be expected. And they were not long in coming. On June 20, several thousand Parisians took part in the anti-royal demonstration. Having burst into the Tuileries Palace, they forced the king to put a red cap on his head and demanded that the Girondin ministers be returned to power.

Meanwhile, the situation at the fronts was becoming critical. The French army under the command of Luckner began to retreat towards Lille. Lafayette left the army and came to Paris. Demanding the Legislative Assembly to disperse revolutionary clubs. Without relying on their generals, the people themselves began to prepare to defend the capital. On July 11, 1789, the Legislative Assembly adopted a decree proclaiming « The Fatherland is in danger » . All men capable of bearing arms were subject to conscription.

After the Varenna crisis, the betrayal of the king and the aristocracy became obvious. Already at the beginning of June 1792, Marat proposed taking Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as hostages. In your newspaper « Defender of the Constitution » , and also, speaking at the Jacobin Club, Robespierre put forward another demand - the convening of a democratically elected National Convention on the basis of universal suffrage, the tasks of which the Jacobin set as the establishment of a democratic republic in France and the revision of the constitution of 1791, which divided the country's population into « active » And « passive » . At the end of June, Danton manages to achieve the abolition of such division in one of the sections of Paris - the section of the French Theater.

From mid-June, new revolutionary bodies began to take shape in Paris. Supporters of the federation who arrived in the capital formed their own central committee, which met in taverns « golden sun » And « Blue dial » . However, an even more important role was played by the meeting of the commissioners of the 48 sections of Paris. From June 23, it officially met in the city municipality, explicitly establishing another new revolutionary body of Paris - the Commune, in which the leading role belonged to the Montagnards and Cordeliers. The future prosecutor of the Commune, Chaumette, wrote: « How much greatness there was in this Assembly! What high impulses of patriotism I saw when the question of deposing the king was discussed! What was the National Assembly with its petty passions... petty measures, with its decrees stopped halfway... in comparison with this meeting of the Parisian sections » .

As the forces of the revolution grew, demands for the overthrow of the French monarchy began to sound louder. On June 25, the provincial actress Claire Lacombe rose to the podium of the Legislative Assembly, demanding the abdication of Louis XVI and the resignation of Lafayette. The confused Assembly, consisting mainly of Feyants, was still trying to delay the inevitable denouement.

On July 24, at a time of growing popular unrest, a manifesto of the Prussian Army General Duke of Brunswick, commander of the interventionist forces, was published and on August 3 became known in Paris. The manifesto on behalf of the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia declared that « the united armies intend to put an end to anarchy in France: restore the legitimate power of the king » . The document legally warned that in the event of the slightest insult to the majesty and his family, Paris would be subjected to terrible military execution and complete destruction. However, the threats of European monarchs were received with irritation by the French people. In an address to the Legislative Assembly, the commissioners of 47 of the 48 sections of Paris demanded the abdication of Louis XVI and the immediate convening of the National Constituent Convention. Without relying on representatives of the Legislative Assembly, the commissioners of the Paris sections on August 5 began to openly prepare for an armed uprising.

On the night of August 9-10, the alarm sounded over Paris. In the morning, the commissars of the Commune moved the armed people towards the Tuileries Palace, which served as the residence of Louis XVI. On the approaches to the Tuileries, a hot battle ensued between the rebels and the royalist forces supported by Swiss mercenaries. During the general assault on the palace, about 500 Parisians were killed and wounded. The king placed himself under the protection of the Legislative Assembly. Thus began the second stage of the Great French Bourgeois Revolution.

After the popular uprising, all power was in the hands of the Paris Commune. Appearing at the Legislative Assembly, the leaders of the Commune from August 10 to 12 dictated the will of the insurgent people to the Assembly. Under pressure from the Commune, the decision of the Legislative Assembly was the deposition of Louis XVI. The Assembly designated the Luxembourg Palace for the former monarch as his further residence. However, the revolutionary sections of Paris, taking advantage of the full power they had in the city, arrested Louis XVI, bypassing the decision of the Legislative Assembly, and imprisoned him in the Temple. The Assembly decreed the convening of a Convention, elected by two-stage elections by all men over 25 years of age. But two days later the age limit was lowered to 21 years. The king's ministers resigned. Instead, the Assembly elected a Provisional Executive Council, which formed a new revolutionary government, predominantly consisting of Girondins. Montagnard Danton received the post of Minister of Justice in the Council. Camille Desmoulins wrote: « My friend Danton, by the grace of the guns, became Minister of Justice; this bloody day should have ended for both of us with our rise to power or to the gallows » .

The uprising of August 10 actually overthrew the monarchy in France, ended the political dominance in the Legislative Assembly of representatives of the big bourgeoisie who belonged to the Feuillant party, and also eliminated the anti-democratic qualification system established by the constitution of 1791.

Etienne Charles Laurent de Lomeny de Brienne (1727 - 1794) - French politician. From 1763 - Archbishop of Toulouse, in 1787 - 1788. - Comptroller General of Finance, from August 1787 - Chief Minister, from 1788 - Archbishop of Sansa. In 1793 he was arrested by the revolutionary authorities and died in prison the following spring.

The Assembly of Notables is a class advisory body convened by the kings of France to discuss state, mainly financial and administrative issues. Notables were appointed by the king from among the most prominent representatives of the nobility, the highest clergy and the highest city leaders. Under Louis XVI, they convened twice: February 22 - May 25, 1787 and November 6 - December 12, 1788.

Alexandre Charles de Calonne (1734 - 1802) - French politician. He was intendant of Metz and Lille from 1783 to 1787. - Comptroller General (Minister) of Finance of France. To solve the financial crisis, he proposed a reform program, mainly in the field of taxation. The decision of the Paris Parliament to put him on trial prompted Calonne to flee to England. At the end of 1790 he joined the camp of royalist emigration, being, as it were, the head of the government in exile. After the Peace of Amiens he returned to France.

The last time the Estates General was convened in France was in 1614 at the request of the feudal nobility, who sought a change of government and the transfer of government into their own hands. However, representatives of the third estate were in the minority. The States General, assembled in 1614, declared the French monarchy divine and the power of the king sacred. By the king's edict, parliament was obliged to register all the monarch's ordinances. The rights of the Parisian and other local parliaments of the kingdom were limited. Thus, by the time of the reign of King Louis XVI (1774 - 1792), the Estates General had not been convened by the French monarchs for more than a hundred years.

An old French formula said: “The clergy serves the king with prayers, the nobility with the sword, the third estate with property.” That is, representatives of the third estate had to pay all the expenses of the monarchy and the ruling feudal aristocracy in the person of the secular and spiritual nobility, who were the support of French absolutism.

In France, everyone who did not belong to the clergy and nobility was part of the third estate. The most numerous social stratum in the third estate was the peasantry, the smallest was the bourgeoisie. Having concentrated enormous capital in its hands, the bourgeoisie represented an economically strong layer of society, however, it was the same politically powerless class as the entire third estate, which made up the overwhelming majority of the population of the French kingdom.

Emmanuel Joseph Abbe Sieyes (1748 - 1836) - French pamphleteer, prominent political figure of the Great French Revolution. Deputy of the States General, the National Assembly and the National Convention, member of the Council of Five Hundred (1795 - 1798), in 1798 - 1799. - Ambassador to Prussia. He assisted in the coup of the 18th Brumaire X of Liberty 7 of the Republic (November 9 - 10, 1799), was one of the three temporary consuls (together with Bonaparte and Count Ducos), president of the Senate, and from 1808 - Count of the Empire. After the Hundred Days, Napoleon emigrated and returned to France only after the revolution of 1830, during which the French bourgeoisie came to power.

Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (1761 - 1792) - French politician. Member of the States General, the National Assembly and the Constitutional Assembly, supporter of the constitutional monarchy. In August 1792 he was arrested, convicted by a revolutionary court and guillotined in November 1792.

Henri Evrard Marquis de Dreux-Breze (1762 - 1829) - French courtier. From 1781 he held the hereditary post of chief ceremonies of the court. At the beginning of the revolution he emigrated, after the Restoration he became a peer of France.

Honore Gabriel Rocket de Mirabeau (1749 - 1791) - a prominent figure in the Great French Revolution at its initial stage, a famous pamphleteer and orator. Member of the States General and the National Assembly. Playing a prominent role in the development of revolutionary events, Mirabeau became, however, a secret agent of the royal court. Died in the middle of it; conspiracy, the shadow side of his activities became known only after his death.

Louis Philippe Joseph Duke of Orléans (1747 - 1793) - prince of the blood, cousin of Louis XVI; in September 1792 he took the name “Citizen Philippe Egalité.” As a deputy of the Estates General, together with a group of representatives of the liberal nobility, he joined the Third Estate and was a member of the National Assembly and the National Convention. He supported the Jacobins and voted for the execution of Louis XVI. however, in April 1793 he was arrested and seven months later was guillotined by the verdict of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Faubourg Saint-Antoine is a district of Paris in which representatives of the third estate lived, mainly artisans and workers. The Bastille's cannons, by order of the authorities, were always to face in this direction. Here an interesting analogy can be drawn with England in the 17th century. In London, the guns of the Tower fortress-prison were aimed at the City, where the English Parliament was then sitting, opposing absolutism. From such actions and others like them, it is immediately clear who the authorities consider their enemies, but one is ashamed to say so. It is impossible not to agree with the opinion of Thomas Beard, who became famous thanks to his book “The Theater of Divine Retribution”, written in 1597: “Good princes have been very rare in all times.”

Jacques Necker (1732 - 1804) - a prominent French scientist and statesman of Swiss origin. After Turgot's resignation, he was appointed three times to the position of director general of finance: 1776 - 1781, then August 25, 1788 - July 11, 1789 and July 29, 1789 - September 8, 1790. Despite his talent and knowledge of the matter, he was not appointed general controller of finance, as he was a Protestant. In 1790 he left France and returned to his native Switzerland.

Vox populi vox Dei (lat.) - “The voice of the people is the voice of God.”

Joseph François Foulon (1717 - 1789) - French royal official. During the Seven Years' War - General Quartermaster of the Army, from 1771 - Quartermaster of Finance, from 1789 - State Councilor. Rumor attributed to Foulon the words: “If I were a minister, I would force the French to eat hay.” Executed by the people on July 22, 1789

Jacques de Flesselles (1721 - 1789) - French royal official. Since April 1789, “prevot des marchands” was the merchant foreman (mayor) of Paris, who headed the city magistrate. He persuaded the Standing Committee, consisting of Parisian bourgeois electors, to come to an agreement with the commandant of the Bastille de Launay. Executed by the people in the evening after the storming of the Bastille.

On July 18, an uprising began in Troyes, supported by the peasants. On July 20, the peasants entered the city, but were dispersed by the local militia created by the bourgeoisie - the National Guard. However, on August 19, the people managed to break into the town hall, seize weapons, and form a local municipality. At the same time, a salt warehouse was seized and put on sale at fixed prices. On September 9, the people executed the mayor of Troyes.

On July 19, there was an uprising in Strasbourg, where the mayor's house and tax collection offices were destroyed.

Behind the castle the feudal lord felt safe. The destruction of castles was an important step towards the centralization of the state and the unification of the nation, the elimination of seigneurial tyranny.

Jean Sylvain de Bailly (1736 - 1793) - French astronomer and politician. Member of the Estates General. On June 20, 1789, the President of the National Assembly was elected. After the execution of the royal official Jacques de Flesselles, the acting mayor of Paris, on July 15, Bailly was elected merchant foreman (mayor) - “prevot des marchands” and held it until November 12, 1791. In 1793, he was executed by the verdict of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

In order to block the way to the National Guard for representatives of the people and peasantry, a special uniform was installed for the guards, which cost at least 4 livres. This was a kind of qualification for recruitment into the guard. Because only wealthy people could purchase such a luxurious uniform. In the battle against the Gironde, which followed the events of May 31 - June 2, the Mountain relied on the people's army - the sans-culottes. The words of Robespierre: “Whoever wears gold-embroidered trousers is the enemy of all sans-culottes” - indicated the external difference between the fighters of the opposing sides and revealed the social meaning of this struggle.

Marie Paul Joseph Yves Roque Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette (1757 - 1834) - French military leader and politician. During the war of independence of 13 American states against Great Britain (1775 - 1783) in the period 1777 - 1782. took part in military operations in North America on the side of the Americans, receiving the rank of major general. Later in France he was a member of the Assembly of Notables, the Estates General, the National Assembly, and the Constitutional Assembly. In July he became commander of the Paris National Guard. From December 1791, during the war with Austria, he was the commander of one of the three armies; in August 1792 he was removed from command and was forced to flee, fearing revolutionary terror. Returned to France after the second counter-revolutionary coup of the 18th Brumaire of the VI of Liberty of the III of the Republic (November 9, 1795) of Napoleon Bonaparte. Recognized Napoleon, but refused positions offered to him, including the post of French ambassador to the United States.

Marat described the love of the nobility for the Fatherland in the following way on the pages of his newspaper “Friend of the People”: “Even if all these sacrifices were caused by a feeling of charity, one cannot help but admit that it waited too long before manifesting itself. What can I say! After all, only in the reflections of the flames that were devouring the set fire to the castles of the nobles did they show greatness of soul, sufficient to refuse the privilege of keeping in chains people who managed to regain their freedom with arms in hand!

Joseph Jean Mounier (1758 - 1806) - French politician, one of the leaders of the moderate royalists. Member of the Estates General. National Assembly, active member of the Constitutional Committee. In May 1790 he emigrated, returned in 1801 with the permission of the consul and was appointed prefect of one of the departments, and from 1805 - a member of the State Council.

That is, those who had the right to express their civic position in elections and those who were deprived of such a right.

Prohibition or restriction established by authorities state power for the use or disposal of any property.

Triage- the most common form of seizure of communal peasant lands by the feudal-absolutist aristocracy in France before the revolutionary events of 1789. It was expressed in the allocation of 1/3 of the lord's allotment from the communal lands. Sometimes the allotment reached 1/2, and in some cases 2/3.

In messages from the local authorities of Cahors to the Constituent Assembly at the end of September 1790, it was reported: “In some places the people are again beginning to plant “May trees”, which is a general signal for uprisings... in other places gallows are being erected for those who will pay rents, and for those who will collect them."

At that time, a worker in France worked 13 to 14 hours a day.

Operated unchanged for 70 years.

A province located in northwestern France.

In November 1790, Faucher wrote: “Every person has the right to land and should have his own plot to ensure his existence. He gets the right to own it through his labor, and his part must therefore draw lines (between the plots) so that everyone has something and no one has anything extra.”

Bonville wrote: “As long as exclusive and hereditary privileges continue to exist, granting to one what belongs to all, the forms of tyranny may vary according to circumstances, but tyranny will always exist.”

Belted with cord (rope).

Marat was negatively disposed towards the legislative activity of the Constituent Assembly and sharply criticized the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights approved by the deputies of the Assembly, in which he saw privileges granted only to the big bourgeoisie: “Your famous declaration of rights is, therefore, only a temporary bait for the amusement of fools, until you feared their wrath, since it ultimately comes down to nothing more than transferring to the rich all the advantages and all the honors of the new order.”

It said: “The free French who form the Club of the Cordeliers declare to their fellow citizens that the number of tyrannicides in this club is equal to the number of its members and that each of them has taken an oath to pierce with a dagger the tyrants who dare to attack our borders or in any way whatsoever.” will encroach on our constitution."

The republican views of François Robert, a member of the Society of Friends of Human Rights and Citizens, are known. Back in the fall of 1790, he expressed his attitude towards the limited monarchical power of the constitution: “Let us erase the very word “king” from our concept and our constitution.”

Republic (Res publica) in the lane. from Latin, - a public matter.

Future head of the Gironde.

Speaking on July 15, 1791 at the Constituent Assembly, Antoine Barnave very accurately defined the position of the big bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility after the Varennes crisis: “We are being caused great harm when the revolutionary movement is continued ad infinitum... At the present moment, gentlemen, everyone must feel that the common interest is that the revolution stops.”

Thus, the conventional concepts of “right” and “left” entered politics, defining their ideological and political views in achieving the ultimate goal, as well as dividing socio-political movements into opponents and supporters of changes through revolution.

Membership fees, established at the request of the leaders of the Feuillants Club, reached 250 francs.

This decision was supposed to come into force in two years. During this time, a republic was already proclaimed in France, all property qualifications were abolished, the Jacobin coup was carried out, and the Jacobin dictatorship was established.

“For my part, I am ready to resist with all my might. It’s time to act and take up arms to intimidate these raging people.”

However, the words remained just words. Russia under Catherine II did not join the ranks of the anti-French coalition of European powers. The Russian monarchy limited itself to moral support, sending curses at the revolutionaries. The fears of European sovereigns are understandable. In France, the aristocracy and monarchy perished under the pressure of the revolution. The very idea of a divine monarchy also perished completely. The mob, which does not have divine sanction, dictates its will to the Lord’s anointed. Who, if not the monarch, is the most important aristocrat? Whose origin can compare with his? In 1815, the aristocracy would win the last major victory throughout Europe, restoring the Bourbon dynasty in France, which arrived in the train of the invaders. The aristocracy itself understood this perfectly well, that its success would not be repeated in the future. All the more terrible will be the ensuing reaction dictated by the Holy Alliance. Herzen A.I. wrote about that time: “The revolution turned out to be untenable... People escaped from the present in the Middle Ages, into mysticism - they read Eckartshausen, studied magnetism and the miracles of Prince Hohenlohe.”

The first article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” This article of the Declaration reflected the views of the enlighteners expressed in natural law. Man is free from birth and has equal political rights. According to the theory of social contract, only people equal to each other could create societies and states.

Having burst into the Tuileries Palace, the rebels allegedly put forward an ultimatum to the king: “Choose between Koblenz and Paris.”

Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick (1735 - 1806). He took part in the Seven Years' War, becoming a field marshal of Prussia. In 1787 he commanded the Prussian army, which suppressed the patriotic movement in the Netherlands. In 1792, the commander-in-chief of the Austro-Prussian troops against revolutionary France was defeated in September at the Battle of Valmy. In 1806 - commander-in-chief of the Prussian army, mortally wounded at the Battle of Auerstedt.