genderqueerjacobin

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Joyeux 14 juillet ! Look who I found…..

#these are so cute how did i miss these

[genderqueerjacobin]

Marisa Linton really didn’t like the BBC documentary and Hilary Mantel’s portrayal of Saint-Just

The Sea-Green Incorruptible and the Archangel of Death: How narratives of the French Revolution contrast the roles of Robespierre and Saint-Just

[genderqueerjacobin]

His was an unearthly beauty. His large deep-blue eyes reflected the firmament of an unknown universe. His fair curly hair fell over his rounded forehead, almost touching his eyebrows, whose delicate arches continued the curve of his nose. His mouth was finely moulded and almost unnaturally pure, as if formed by the spatula of an artist. Whence came the almost delirious charm of this physiognomy? Perhaps from the ability to inspire both tenderness and icy fear. If one felt inclined to lay one’s hand on those golden locks thickly covering the childlike head, one also wished to flee to the end of the world from the enigmatic hardness of that look. Had another mouth ever touched those perfect lips? What did that face look like asleep: were the cheeks flushed, the mouth open? Did he ever sleep? Was he alive? Was he dead?

~ Friedrich Sieburg describing Saint-Just (Robespierre the Incorruptible; full book here). 

#this is so incredibly gay

[genderqueerjacobin]

In honor of Marat's birthday I found a complete (?) collection of L'Ami du Peuple ! Happy reading frev pals and happiest of birthdays to Jean-Paul, wherever he may be. In memory of our forever favorite sewer-dwelling doctor, scientist, and revolutionary friend of the people.

#primary sources

[genderqueerjacobin]

Oh my gosh I can actually share all the frev finding here AAAAAAA

I went to the temporary exhibit Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette & la Révolution at Musée des Archives Nationales and it's really really worth it! Also it's free

They had recordings of Louis' room temperature in the Tuileries (which is recorded in réaumur unit). The highest temperature record here is 19 reaumur which apparently converts to 23.75 celsius, so damn Louis' room is pretty cold in May lol. (sorry edit: that's highest it ever reaches most of time it's much colder than that hhhh)

There is also a bunch of exchanges between Antoinette and Fersen that's actually written in cipher! (So yes concrete proof that Antoinette is actively working against the revolution Antoinette stans take that) Sorry the picture is blurry the room is dark

ALSO Robespierre's draft for his speech against the war in the Jacobins!! His writing!!!

ALSO ALSO APPARENTLY the alleged table in which he layed upon during 9 thermidor is in the permanent collection in this museum?? Which i never knew before??

one final thing there's also a page from Robespierre's notebook that is also on display (not part of the temporary exhibit) and it's just...a list of people...with numbers associated to them? It would be very funny if he is ranking them and giving them each a score based on how likeable they are lol

The exhibit continues all the way till July 3rd! But then it will reopen again in later months I believe.

[genderqueerjacobin]

a kind soul uploaded on YouTube an old French miniseries about Toussaint Louverture with English subtitles! i’m about one hour in and so far it’s pretty good (bonus for the least charismatic Bonaparte i’ve ever seen lmao)

link

#👀 #toussaint louverture #haitian revolution #to watch

[genderqueerjacobin]

Camille Desmoulins at Palais Royal by Félix-Joseph Barrias

#art #camille desmoulins

[genderqueerjacobin]

wtf is the bordel patriotique????

An erotic pamphlet from 1791 written under the name of the queen, which features almost every relevant figure of the revolution at the time.

[genderqueerjacobin]

one of the funniest things about studying Robespierre is discovering he was actually a revolutionary heartthrob...while being a scrawny autistic nerd whose popularity with women confused everyone in the national convention, including himself. he was a Tumblr sexyman two hundred years before Tumblr.

from “All of His Power Lies in His Distaff: Robespierre, Women and the French Revolution” by Noah C. Shusterman

from “Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life” by Peter McPhee

(As for Robespierre being autistic, it’s extremely obvious once you study what he was like, how he behaved, and how people reacted to him, but just read these contemporary descriptions of him for an idea)

[genderqueerjacobin]

Terracotta bust of Maximilian Robespierre.

Terracotta bust of Augustin Robespierre.

Both busts are displayed next to each other at the French Revolution Museum in Vizille, France.

[genderqueerjacobin]

« Ce n’est point assez d’avoir renversé le trône ; ce qui nous importe, c’est d’élever sur ses débris la sainte égalité et les droits imprescriptibles de l’homme. […] Vous avez chassé les rois : mais avez-vous chassé les vices que leur funeste domination a enfantés parmi vous ? »

- Maximilien Robespierre, Lettres à ses commettants #1, 1792

#robespierre #quotes

[genderqueerjacobin]

What would you say it’s the biggest misconception about French revolution?

If I have to choose ONE thing, I’d say it would be that what is known as the Terror was not a specific government policy and that it was retroactively constructed as such for political gain of a specific group of people.

Expanding from that: what happened in 1793-1794 should be viewed as a state of emergency as a response to war – while not everything that happened is directly related to the war, this is a key component that is often missed when discussing the Terror. Many people don’t even know that France was at war and that the state of emergency due to this is a common thing that happens at the state of war. Things like martial law introduced, more powers to the government, stricter laws (particularly for military misconduct and treason), suppression of the constitution and civil rights and freedoms – all of this is a pretty standard set of measures that happen during wartime. (True for frev, World War II, current war in Ukraine, etc.) And this is also true for suppression of any inside rebellions that go against the war effort and the government. Nobody says that people have to like and support what happened during what we know as the Terror, but it is important to contextualize it correctly. (And nobody says that what happens during emergencies is nice necessarily - it's just that state of emergency is kind of a standard response to the war situation and has to be viewed as such, vs as some sort of a special case that happened during Terror because of evil revolutionaries/Robespierre/etc).

And also related to this, it’s important to say that while they did manage to win the war (at that point), the way that these measures were implemented was faulty. It was faulty not because the government had so much control over France, but quite the opposite – the biggest problem was that they had very little control. The infrastructure was not there, the institutions were not there; they were basically inventing/perfecting the modern government system on a large territory that just was not ready for it yet (both in institutional AND cultural sense). It was not possible to control properly what was going on. They tried (and some of those attempts were better than the others, some were bad, some were horrible, etc.) but they had no proper control. The situation during Terror was more akin to anarchy than a powerful authoritarian state (led by Robespierre) that is often imagined. Everyone implemented emergency measures in their local community how they saw fit, which led to some of the worst crimes committed during this period. And part of the problem were vague instructions from Paris (so it’s not like they don’t have their own share of responsibility). So, it was more of a chaotic mess + war with half of Europe + counter revolutionary conspiracies inside and outside (another misconception was that revolutionaries were paranoid about this – nah, this shit was real. The problem was that they didn’t always go after the right people who were to blame for conspiracies, but conspiracies def existed).

[genderqueerjacobin]

The guillotine of Geneva kept in the maison Tavel museum used to be just the blade and the lunette, and in 2019 I’ve seen a sign saying they were restoring it

I’m back today and I’ve just seen a teacher followed by their students dramatically go THE GUILLOTINE!!! with a theatrical arm gesture as their group reached a room

I had no idea they were going for the whole tall, threatening thing!

#oooh

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what does he mean by the "Invasion of marxism"? the creation of the third republic? anyway this entire quote is... chef kiss

[genderqueerjacobin]

Élisabeth Lebas corrects Alphonse de Lamartine’s Histoire des girondins(1847)

Source: Le conventionnel Lebas: d’après des documents inédits et les mémoires de sa veuve (1901) page 327-331

Volume 4 — page 341: ”Saint-Just… mute as an oracle and sentient as an axiom, seemed to have stripped away all human sensibility to personify in him the cold intelligence and the ruthless impulse of the Revolution, etc… his passion had, so to speak, petrified his entrails. His logic had contracted the impassiveness of a geometry and the brutality of a material force. It was he who, in intimate and long-lasting conversations in the night under Duplay's roof, had most combated what he called Robespierre's weaknesses of soul and his reluctance to shed the king's blood, etc.” (In the hand of the son of Lebas): My mother did not recognize Saint-Just in this portrait. Where do you know that from?"

Volume 5 — page 65. (Interior aspect of the Convention during the trial of Louis XVI): ”The first benches of these popular stands were occupied by butcher boys, their enameled aprons rolled up on one side of their belts and the handles of long knives, etc…” Mark of denial.

Volume 5 — page 73: ”Robespierre, having returned to Duplay's house that evening and discussing the king's judgment, seemed to protest against the vote of the Duke of Orleans: 'to listen to his heart and to recuse himself, he did not want or he did not dare to do it: the nation would have been more magnanimous than he!” Word from Robespierre on d'Orleans made up.

Volume 6 — page 35: “The bourgeoisie, the bank, the upper class, the men of letters, the artists, the landowners, were almost all of the party which wanted to moderate and contain anarchy. They promised the orators of the Gironde an army against the suburbs, etc…” Lamartine does not explain the temporary triumph of the Girondins. See my husband's letters.

Volume 6 — page 300: ”Love warmed, without softening, the hearts of these men. Couthon's tenderness for the devoted woman who consoled his infirm life, Saint-Just's stormy and passionate feelings for Lebas's sister, Robespierre's grave and chaste predilection for his host's second daughter, Lebas's love for the youngest, etc…” Correction: very calm feelings.

Volume 7 — page 105: ”Fort Vauban was taken by the Austrians, Landau was about to fall. Saint-Just and Lebas were sent to Alsace to intimidate treason or weakness with death.” (Mark of protest.)

Volume 7 — Page 212: (About the proscriptions of Collot d'Herbois and Fouché in Lyons.) "Fouché, in his letters to Duplay, endeavored to circumvent Robespierre, and presented Lyon as a permanent counter-revolution." Letters of Duplay — false. [1]

Volume 7 — Page 232 (Imprisonment of Madame Roland) “They arrested her in spite of her summons, and threw her into another prison, at Sainte-Pélagie, that sewer of vices where the prostitutes of the streets of Paris were swept away. One wanted to debase her through contact and torture her through her modesty.” (Note from the son of Lebas:) Madame Roland was sent to Sainte Pélagie by the Commune; my mother to Saint-Lazare by the Thermidorians.

Volume 7 — page 287 and following: ”Robespierre, now dominant in the Committee of Public Safety, threw in notes, since revealed, the vague outlines of the government of justice, equality and freedom… When will, he wrote, their interest (interest of the rich and the government) be confused with that of the people? Never! "To that terrible word, etc...." Never! — Papers seized and falsified by Courtois. [2]

Volume 7 — page 341: ”Saint-Just… brought to the battlefield the enthusiasm of his youth and the example of an intrepidity that astonished the soldier. He spared no more his blood than his fame, etc…” So his heart was not petrified.

Volume 7 — page 342: ”He sent to the guillotine the president of the revolutionary tribunal of Strasbourg…” He sent to the revolutionary tribunal.

Volume 7 — page 343: ”Lebas, his friend and almost always his colleague, had been Robespierre's classmate.” Fellow patriot, not classmate.

Volume 7 — page 344: ”Lebas had become the commensal of this family (the Duplay family).” Not the commensal: the friend.

Volume 7 — pages, 344, 345 et 346 (reproduction of letters from Lebas to his fiancée). Made up letters.

Volume 7 — page 396. ”Hébert’s wife, a nun freed from the cloister by the Revolution, but worthy of another husband, frequented the Duplay house.” Invention.

Volume 7 — page 409. (Arrest of Hébert, and his friends) “They lamented, they shed tears, a spy of Robespierre, imprisoned as their accomplice, in order to reveal their confidences…” A spy of the Committee. (The Committee of Public Safety which had just instructed Collot d'Herbois to replace Robespierre at the session of the Jacobins which immediately preceded the arrest.)

Volume 7 — page 411: ”Robespierre's dark imagination magnified everything.” Courtois.

Volume 8 — page 8. (Attempt to reconcile Danton and Robespierre): “An interview was accepted by the two leaders. It took place at a dinner in Charenton at the house of Panis, their mutual friend…” Narrative of the dinner meeting between D and R — Melodrama.

Volume 8 — page 67. (Robespierre's words on the death of Danton and Camille Desmoulins): ”Poor Camille! Why couldn't I save him! But he wanted to get lost! As for Danton, I know very well that he clears the way for me; but it is necessary that, innocent or guilty, we must all give our heads to the Republic…” (Lamartine adds): “He pretended to moan…” He pretended to moan (Mark of protest)

Volume 8 — page 76: (About the letter from Madame Duplessis in favor of her daughter Lucile Desmoulins) “This letter remained unanswered. Robespierre… either did not receive it, or pretended to ignore it. He was silent…” Who proves that he received this letter? If he did not receive it, why reproach him for not having paid attention to it?

Volume 8 — page 153. ”Saint-Just, his only confident.” His only confident?

Volume 8 — page 159: ”…Finally, Courtois, deputy of Aube, friend of Danton, having never applauded his crimes but never betrayed his memory, an honest man whose honest and moral republicanism had not hardened his heart. Praise of Courtois!

Volume 8 — page 207 (Feast of the Supreme Being): “A symbolic mountain rose in the center of the Champ-de-Mars, in place of the old altar of the fatherland. Access was difficult. Robespierre, Couthon carried in an armchair, Saint-Just, Lebas, placed themselves alone on the summit. ?

Volume 8 — page 249. (About Dom Gerle): ”Robespierre often received the former monk at the Duplay’s.” (Note from Lebas's son:) My mother saw him two or three times.

Volume 8 — page 255: ”Trial, a man of the theater and mutual friend, took Robespierre to Madame de Sainte-Amaranthe. He was received there as a dictator. He sat down at the table in the middle of a circle of guests chosen by himself, etc…” Interview of Robespierre with the Sainte-Amaranthe — false

Volume 8 — page 257: ”Make every effort, Payan wrote to Robespierre, to diminish in the eyes of public opinion the importance that they want to give to the Catherine Théos affair…” Payan. — is his letter authentic?

Volume 8 — page 278: ”The fear that the insurrection, without moderator and without limits, would break out of its own accord and carry off the Convention, which he regarded as the only center of the country, finally determined Robespierre not to act, but to speak. … He only recalls Saint-Just, his brother and Lebas, to assist him in the crisis or to die with him. (Note from Lebas's son) My father had been in Paris for six weeks and more.

Volume 8 — page 366. ”Robespierre, carried by four gendarmes on a stretcher, his face covered by a bloody handkerchief, led the procession. The carriers of Couthon, etc. Robespierre the younger, having fainted, was carried by his arms by two men of the people. Lebas' corpse was covered with a bloodstained tablecloth. Saint-Just… followed on foot.” The corpse of Lebas — Error. (It is these passages from Lamartine that Mme Le Bas seems to be referring to in the last part of the manuscript reproduced above.)

Volume 8 — page 369. ”After the dressing, the wounded were all transferred and brought together in the same cell at the Conciergerie. Saint-Just would wait for them there beside Lebas. — ibid

Volume 8 — page 370. ”At five o'clock, the tumbrels were waiting for the condemned at the foot of the main staircase. Robespierre, his brother, Couthon, Hanriot, Lebas were either human remains or corpses. They were tied by the legs, by the throne and by the arms, to the wood of the first cart.” — ibid

Volume 8 — page 374: ”These twenty-two thrones were thrown pell-mell into the dumpster with the corpse of Lebas” — (We have already said that this passage, on the edition of the History of the Girondins owned by Mrs. Lebas, was annotated with the word ” No")

Volume 8 — page 372: (At the time of the passage in front of the Duplay house, of the tumbrel driving Robespierre to the execution) ”A child was holding a butcher's calf filled with ox blood and deceiving a broom on it, the goettes were thrown against the walls of the house. Fable.

Volume 8 — page 372: On the evening of the same day, these furies of vengeance invaded the prison where Duplay's wife had been thrown, strangled her and hung her from the rod of its curtains. That very evening its furies — la Lacombe.

[1] Élisabeth is mistaken here, Collot d’Herbois did in fact send a letter regarding Lyon to Maurice Duplay December 5th 1793.

[2] Élisabeth is mistaken here, the ”catechism” where Robespierre wrote this has been accepted as his.

#fascinating

[genderqueerjacobin]

Apparently there’s controversy in France over 3 deputies from NUPES going to Arras to pay tribute to Robespierre on 9 Thermidor

Reaction from Macron’s Minister of Transport:

And this…what the hell is this

And then a Frev historian made this whole thread where he was like “yeah Robespierre has been unfairly slandered and said some good things but he was also a conspiracy theorist”:

To be very fair to him the rest of his thread is pretty firmly neutral on Robespierre but unfortunately most people who read the thread were just like YEAH YOU TELL THEM!!! ROBESPIERRE WAS TERRIBLE!!!

anyway french politics is a whole ass mess it seems

#oh god #supporting napoleon in 2022 how embarrassing #robespierre #thermidor

[genderqueerjacobin]

“There is little evidence for what Saint-Just really thought during the early weeks of the Convention, so there is now no way of knowing whether he hesitated or not between factions, or what factors inclined him to make up his mind. We only know that he chose Robespierre, unequivocally, and for the rest of his life. His choice was all the more striking since, out of the twelve deputies from the Aisne, he was the only one to align himself with the Montagnards.”

- Marisa Linton, The Man of Virtue: The Role of Antiquity in the Political Trajectory of L. A. Saint-Just 

#saint-just #french revolution #thermidor