Babeuf’s TrialLong after sans–culotte influence on the government had waned, social conflicts continued to drive some revolutionary events. Throughout 1794 and 1795, urban and rural radicals alike demanded "bread and the constitution of 1793," meaning that the government should feed the people and grant universal male suffrage. One such radical, who took the name Gracchus Babeuf, supposedly organized the "Conspiracy of Equals," a secret group that he hoped to lead in a surprise insurrection to take power and use it to distribute land equally among all citizens. When the "conspiracy" was betrayed, Babeuf was arrested and tried. Before being sentenced and executed, Babeuf offered a statement of his principles and a defense of his action. His attack on private property scandalized many at the time, but others later called him the first socialist. In short, to those who would look back to the Revolution as the unsuccessful birth of socialist movements, Babeuf would remain an inspiration. To his contemporary critics, who were influenced in part by the Directory’s successful propaganda, Babeuf’s conspiracy demonstrated the instability of the Republic and the need for forceful government repression of popular political activity. In their view, such an approach would ensure stability and prevent a return to the chaos of the Terror.
Chapter 1: Social Causes of the RevolutionPre–Revolutionary France had a social structure that assigned every individual their “rightful” place before God. In actuality, commoners resented the nobility and the poor resented those above them, whether noble or common. Although the Revolution destroyed noble rank, it did not attempt a social leveling. Tension between haves and have–nots festered through the Revolution and beyond. This chapter details these social antagonisms and their political ramifications.
Doctrine of BabeufDespite the radical nature of such measures taken by the National Assembly as the abolition of nobility and the civil constitution of the clergy, social conflicts continued to manifest themselves after the National Assembly completed its work in 1791. Peasants continued to believe they were not getting all that was due them from urban merchants who bought their grain, while city dwellers continued to attribute the high cost of bread to large landowners hoarding grain in the countryside. Here Babeuf articulates a desire to overturn inequality by establishing an economic equality far beyond the legal equalities established earlier.
Leon Trotsky, The Permanent RevolutionLeon Trotsky (1879–1940), whose original name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein, was one of the chief figures in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After years spent in exile agitating in favor of Russian communism, he put his ideas into practice as one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution. After falling out with Stalin, he was expelled from the Russian Communist Party in 1927 and forced into exile once again. There he wrote prolifically about the meaning of the Russian—and French—revolutions.
October 5, 1794. Gracchus Babeuf publishes the first issue of his newspaper, Le tribun du peuple, devoted to explaining the principles of an ideal agrarian communist society.
March 30, 1796. The alleged Conspiracy of the Equals organized by Gracchus Babeuf. The goal is a coup d’état and the end of the Directory in order to set a communist government in its place.
May 10, 1796. Babeuf is arrested and his Conspiracy of Equals is suppressed.
May 27, 1797. Gracchus Babeuf is guillotined.