Maximilian Robespierre was at one time a very famous ascetic of the Great French Revolution. From 1793 to 1794 he was a "gray cardinal" and practically the head of the republic, being one of the main ideologists and leaders of a harsh revolutionary dictatorship.
Biography
Maximilian was born back in 1758 in the small town of Arras. His father, Francois Robespierre, was a lawyer, and his mother passed away when the boy was only six years old.
In addition to Maximilian, there were four more children in the family. After the death of his wife, Robespierre’s father went abroad, leaving all his children in the care of relatives. The boys were raised by a maternal grandfather, and the girls went to live in the families of their aunts.
In 1765, Maximilian entered college at Arras. Then, in 1769, thanks to the active application of Canon Eme to His Holiness Bishop Konzi, Maximilian received a scholarship from Saint-Vaas Abbey and was assigned to study at the Lyceum of Louis the Great in Paris. The boy decided to follow in his father's footsteps and began to study law. He studied very successfully and several times became one of the best students.
After graduation, Robespierre returned to Arras in order to begin law practice. In April 1789, he was elected to the General States of France as a deputy from the third estate. Working in the National Assembly (1789-1791), Robespierre adhered to an extremely leftist position.
Political Views of Robespierre
Robespierre was an active supporter of the ideas of Rousseau. Maximilian fiercely criticized the liberal majority for the weak radicalism of the reforms. Then he became the leader of the Jacobin club, in which he developed his position.
Passionate speeches, saturated with democratic ideas and slogans, brought Robespierre fame and admiration for the common people, as well as the nickname "Incorruptible."
After dissolving the National Assembly in 1791, Robespierre became a public prosecutor in a Paris criminal court. He actively defended his political views and advocated the ideas of the revolution. In 1792, he wrote an article in the weekly Defender of the Constitution on the need to deepen the revolution.
In his appeals to the people, he acted as an adherent of equal political freedoms and rights for all categories of citizens:
- for men, regardless of their religion;
- for black people from the French colonies;
- freedom of speech;
- free assembly rights;
- active state assistance to the elderly, poor and disabled.
Robespierre said that in order to achieve all these goals, it is necessary to organize resistance to the inept ruling king and selected groups that impede innovation.
Girondins, Terror and Robespierre
During the French Revolution, Robespierre was one of its most active participants. On August 10, 1792, as a result of the rebellion, he becomes a member of the Commune of Paris. In September, Maximilian was elected to the Convention, where he, along with Danton and Maratomi, became the leader of the left wing and began to fight against the Girondins.
In December 1792, Robespierre proposed the immediate execution of Louis XVI. After the trial of the monarch, he voted for the death of the king and actively campaigned for others to vote as well.
After the victory of the revolutionaries and the expulsion of the Girondins from power, Robespierre joined the Committee of Public Safety.
Together with his associates L. A. Saint-Just and J. Couton, he determined the general political line of the revolutionary government and practically led it.
Then he secured a complete cessation of the "de-Christianization" carried out by the ultra-left (Ebertists), and severely condemned the atheism they propagated.
Robespierre also rejected the demands of like-minded Danton to end the bloody revolutionary terror.
In his speech of February 5, 1794, and in several other speeches, he proclaimed the main goal of the revolution to build a completely new society based on the well-known Russoist principles of "republican morality."
The main idea of the new system should, according to Robespierre, be become an artificially created state religion, namely the cult of the Supreme Being.
Maximilian thought that thanks to the triumph of "republican virtue" all major social problems would be resolved.
Robespierre's dream was:
- the destruction of all the rules and values of the old system;
- prohibition of privileges of the old regime;
- creation of a new democratic system.
But, surprisingly, Robespierre considered strict terror to be the only sure means of achieving his political ideals.
