early life
robespierre was born in arras, the French province of the northern channel of Calais. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were local lawyers, and it is said that he is a descendant of Irish immigrants. He is the eldest of four children and was born four months after his parents got married. When robespierre was 6 years old, his mother died in childbirth, and his father ran away from home. He died in Mannheim in 1777, leaving their children to be raised by their grandmother and aunt respectively.
in p>177, robespierre received a scholarship from a local priest in arras and came to study at the Louis the Great School. Among his friends at school was Camille Desmoulins, one of the representatives of the French Revolution. In 1775, when King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette passed through the college after they ascended the throne, robespierre recited the Latin literature words written by the teachers to the king on behalf of all the teachers and students. He graduated from law school in 178 and obtained a bachelor's degree in law in 1781.
in the summer of the same year, robespierre returned to his hometown, entered the court of arras at the end of the year, and began to engage in legal work. In early 1782, he was appointed as one of the five judges of the court of arras. He was deeply influenced by Rousseau, and often defended people who were obviously wronged, with a high success rate. In 1783, De Visseri, who lived near Arras, caused protests from his neighbors because he installed the lightning rod invented by Franklin. robespierre successfully defended him with the help of his friend and patron A.J. Buissart, and this case attracted the attention of the whole country.
robespierre lived a relatively quiet life in arras, interacting with local lawyers and scholars and taking part in local literary activities. He was accepted as an academician of Alastair Academy of Sciences, and was later elected as the president of Alastair Academy. During this period, he met Joseph Fouché, who played an important role in the French Revolution, and Lazare Carnot, who was his later colleague in the Public Security Committee.
From the third-level meeting to the Constitutional Convention
In p>1788, France faced economic and political crisis, and there were endless calls for holding the third-level meeting. Robespierre published a letter to the people of artois-on the necessity of reforming the third-level meeting in artois (according to the regional division at that time, Arras belonged to artois County), which described the history of the third-level local councils since the Middle Ages, strongly criticized the artois nobles for seizing the power that should belong to the people, exploiting and oppressing civilians, and called for institutional reform. The article mentioned that Louis XVI still used the same regime. The article still uses respectful language when referring to Louis XVI.
after the royal family announced the convening of the third-level meeting, he took an active part in the election and was successfully elected as the third-level representative, and left arras in May 1789. During his stay in Versailles, he made a speech suggesting that church members should unite with the third class. When a bishop persuaded the third class to cooperate with the first and second classes on the grounds of famine relief, he spoke against the luxury of church life. Although his speech is not as personal as that of Mirabo and other delegates, his speech level is very fast, with a total of 276 speeches at the third-level meeting and the Constitutional Convention, ranking 2th among the delegates. In his speech, he supported universal suffrage for men, opposed the king's veto power, supported the civil rights of Jews, called for the abolition of slavery and the death penalty, and opposed censorship, but did not openly oppose the bill prohibiting workers from forming trade unions and going on strike. His suggestions were rarely adopted, but they quickly won the support of the people of the whole country and earned him the title of "honest man".
His other main activity place at that time was the Jacobin Club. On March 31, 1791, he was elected president of the club, and Lafayette left angrily. In June, 1791, Louis XVI and members of the royal family were found to have attempted to abscond. At the Constitutional Convention, robespierre demanded the removal of the king, but said that he did not support the establishment of a peaceful country. After the Constituent Assembly decided to acquit Louis XVI, he initially supported the protest petition of the Deliere Club at the shooting range, but later persuaded the jacobins Club to withdraw its support. After the shooting range tragedy on July 17th, the constitutional monarchy headed by Lafayette broke with the jacobins Club, and robespierre became one of the leaders of jacobins.
War and the trial of the king
On September 3, 1791, the Constitutional Assembly adopted the Constitution and was dissolved on the 3th. Due to robespierre's proposal, the former members of the Constituent Assembly, including himself, could not participate in the election of the newly established Legislative Assembly. After the Constituent Assembly, he returned to his hometown of Arras and did not return to Paris until November. During this period, Austria and Prussia formed the first anti-French alliance, and the cloud of war hung over France. Brissot, one of the leaders of Gironde in the Legislative Assembly, called for punishing the fugitive nobles and taking direct action against the powers. The king and queen hope to rely on foreign forces to restore their former kingship, and they also actively support France's tough attitude.
After returning to Paris, robespierre initially supported Gironde's radical stance, but later changed his mind and began to debate with brissot for several months in early December. In addition to giving a speech at the jacobins Club, he also founded The Defender of the Constitution to express his views. He declared that he was not opposed to all wars, but pointed out that France was not ready for war, the people lacked weapons, the army was in the hands of nobles, and the real enemy was actually at home, because the court plotted to overthrow the revolution. He refuted brissot's and others' claims that the revolution was being exported to Europe, pointing out that foreign people would not warmly welcome the invaders. He stressed that war will greatly restrict freedom and democracy and easily lead to military dictatorship.
Although robespierre continued to receive the support of Jacobin Club, his anti-war remarks were not popular in Paris at that time, and his reputation declined for a time. Finally, France declared war on Austria on April 2th, 1792. After the war broke out, the French army lost one after another, and there was a fierce conflict between the royal family and Gironde. At first, robespierre still advocated maintaining the constitutional monarchy, opposed the realization of * * * * and peace through rebellion, and hoped to strive for democracy through the Legislative Assembly. However, he gradually began to move closer to the Corderie Club, which was preparing to launch a rebellion in July, and finally proposed to depose the king again on August 8.
On August 1th, 1792, the people of Paris launched an uprising, broke into the palace and overthrew the king. Robespierre did not directly participate in the uprising, and later refused to be the president of the court to try the conspirators. However, he exerted influence on the Legislative Assembly as a representative of the Paris Commune. On September 2nd, when the news of the siege of Verdun reached Paris, Parisians were afraid of being retaliated by royalists in prison and clergy who refused to be sworn in, so they rushed into the prison and lynched more than 1, prisoners. This was the famous September Massacre. Robespierre didn't seem to instigate or try to stop the massacre, but in the meantime, he accused brissot of colluding with the royal family. Brissot survived under the protection of Dandong and Petion.
On September 21st of the same year, France established a new National Assembly, and announced the establishment of a peaceful country the next day.
In December, the King's Trial was held, and robespierre made 11 speeches, strongly demanding the execution of King Louis XVI.
jacobin's dictatorship
In May, 1793, at the proposal of robespierre, the National Assembly passed the Act on the Maximum Price of Grain, but the National Assembly began to persecute the revolutionary commune and arrested Mara. Mara called for an uprising on May 26th to eradicate the Gironde Mission in the National Assembly. On June 4th, he was elected as the chairman of the new National Assembly, and presided over the adoption of the new Constitution, which guaranteed citizens the freedom of person, belief, publication, petition and association, as well as the right to education and social assistance, and stipulated that if the government violated people's rights, people had the right to revolt.
On July 13th, Mara was assassinated by a royalist. On the 26th, the Citizens' Association authorized the public security committee to arrest the suspect. On the 27th, robespierre joined the public security committee, reorganized the revolutionary court, simplified the trial procedure, implemented the dictatorship of jacobins, and punished criminals and revolutionary traitors with a horrible revolutionary policy, known as "terrorist rule" in history. Many innocent people were falsely accused and killed, and thousands were guillotined. Thousands of people were guillotined, including the king's relatives and most of the nobles. This policy was criticized as "killing nine families" and violating humanity.
The Public Security Committee set up a new revolutionary army to quell civil strife and defeat foreign meddlers, and repelled the allied forces of Prussia, Austria, Britain and the Netherlands. In February 1794, the "Fengyue Order" was promulgated, and the property of "public enemies" was confiscated and distributed to "public enemies". In February 1794, the "Fengyue Order" was promulgated, and the property of "public enemies" was confiscated and distributed to patriots. The Public Security Committee kept a balance between the Ebel faction who advocated radical policies and demanded the expansion of terror and the Dandong faction who advocated tolerance and relaxation of repression, and sent the leaders of the two factions to the guillotine.
While attacking the Catholic Church, robespierre also opposed the de-Christianization movement and doubted the motives of atheists. On May 7, 1794, he submitted the Draft Decree on Worship of the Supreme Lord and National Holidays to the National Assembly, which reflected Rousseau's influence. On June 8th, a celebration of the Supreme God Festival was held, which was designed and arranged by the painter David. Robespierre, then chairman of the National Association, gave a speech and burned idols symbolizing atheism and nothingness.
Hot Moon
At the beginning of July, 1794, he stopped taking part in the work of the public safety committee. On July 26th, he went to the National Association to give a four-hour speech, implying that the conspirators and charlatans in the National Association and the public safety committee would be liquidated. On July 27th (the ninth day of the hot month), Saint Giust was going to give a speech at the National Association. While criticizing the National Association, he did not ask for arrest in the spirit of compromise. However, his speech was rudely interrupted at the beginning, and the National Assembly subsequently passed a decree to arrest robespierre and his supporters, but robespierre and others were later rescued by the commune. The revolutionary commune mobilized weapons, but it was too late to get clear instructions, so it began to dissolve in the middle of the night. That night, the National Association announced that he was deprived of the right to vote, and the guild guards went to arrest him; He was shot in the jaw, and the next afternoon he was guillotined with Saint Giust, Couton and other followers. This is the hot moon coup.
Evaluation and influence
robespierre was one of the most controversial figures in the French Revolution. His manuscripts and notebooks were not all preserved, which brought difficulties to the research work. The evaluation of him often reflected the critics' own ideology.
Some people think that he is too idealistic or rigid and lacks practical action ability, but others think that he is good at sizing up the situation and can seize the opportunity to take action. Critics call him self-centered, suspicious and unsympathetic, while supporters praise him for his honesty, integrity and keen insight into the country and revolution. Some people criticized him for have it both ways and constantly changing his position, but others thought that the principles and goals he adhered to remained unchanged, and he just chose different means to achieve his goals according to different situations. It is widely believed that his misbehavior in the hot months caused panic in the National Assembly and led to his own failure. Some people speculated that he lost confidence in the revolution at that time, so he took the act of self-destruction, while others criticized him for being stupid and incompetent.
robespierre's role during the reign of terror is the most controversial issue. Critics believe that he is a theorist of the reign of terror, extremely cruel, and his hands are covered with blood, and he is responsible for the mass slaughter of innocent people during the terror. Some supporters point out that people like Fu Xie and Bayeux-Vallon are far more ferocious than robespierre, and believe that his role in the public safety committee actually played a role in easing the radicals. Some contemporaries, including Napoleon, believed that his purpose was to alleviate the terrorist activities during the "Hot Moon" by punishing Fu Xie and others for their indiscriminate killing, which led to the alliance between the latter and the Rightists, but some scholars questioned this. Some supporters believe that France was at home and abroad, and terrorist dictatorship was inevitable, but critics believe that terrorism has set a dangerous precedent, which is not worth the candle.
robespierre had a profound influence on French and world history, and many European revolutionaries in the 19th century admired him. Some critics believe that jacobins's dictatorship is the pioneer of dictatorship from fascism to the * * * production party. Whether robespierre and fascism come down in one continuous line is still inconclusive, but in view of the fact that the robespierre Monument was erected shortly after the October Revolution in Russia, it seems that the Bolshevik leaders created the people's democratic dictatorship based on the experience of the French Revolution. As the influence of the French Revolution has not been eliminated, an objective evaluation of robespierre is still difficult to achieve.
robespierre:
"Revolutionary government is the dictatorship of freedom over autocracy"
"Terror without virtue is evil, and virtue without terror is weak".
"Louis will die, because the motherland must survive!"
"We should either return to the former slave state or take up arms again!"