ROBESPIERRE'S ROLE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
ROBESPIERRE'S ROLE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Summary/Abstract: Europe at that time was horrified by the cruelty and vileness of the French revolution, it is afraid of losing its comfort. Those who were in Robespierre's entourage were also accused. The French Revolution triumphed as long as it was carried out for man, it failed as soon as it was about the people, it was human in every sense of the word until Robespierre took its leadership, made it inhuman and virtuous. The influential ideas of liberalism that spring from the French revolution and permeate modern civilization are not the work of Robespierre, whose dictatorship rather represents an interruption of the liberal era. What today, some call the legacy of the French revolution, does not come from Robespierre nor from Saint-Just, his only disciple, but was established after the careful elimination of any ideological and political contribution of Robespierre. For his predecessors, terror was only an element of national defense, for Robespierre it was the counterpart of public virtue, inseparable from it. From a defensive weapon, the guillotine became a political tool. Those French who proudly declare themselves descendants of the Jacobins and heirs of the revolution, do not think of the democratic mystique of Robespierre, but of the always seductive humanity of Danton. For Robespierre, Terror is not a simple means of struggle, it is a principle, he rises menacingly not only against those who plan attacks against the revolutionary government, but also against those who are indifferent. His effort to legalize the Terror compels him to constantly make new laws and relentlessly pursue the nation's determination of punishment. This task becomes all the more difficult as Robespierre tends more and more to recognize the guilty, not according to their deeds, but according to their mentality. The motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", the true manifestation of faith and hope at the beginning of the revolution, soon only served to cover with a legal justification the feelings of jealousy, hatred, towards the superiors - true engines of the crowds on which no rule keeps them in check. For the Jacobins of that period, the entity called the people represents a superior personality, which holds the privilege, characteristic of divinities, of not giving an account for its acts and of never being wrong. Never was a sovereign in a more difficult situation than Louis XVI at the time of his flight. The Queen, especially, had the most bizarre illusions about the possible help of Austria, France's rival for centuries. If Austria reluctantly agreed to come to the king's aid, it did so only in the hope of a substantial reward.

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