Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov

“ In other words, mankind must be satisfied with the results of the great revolution attained by the bourgeoisie, but must not take another step forward, But we hold that the very opposite is true. The aims of the bourgeoisie cannot possibly be those of the working class, and the results attained by the former cannot satisfy the latter. And, therefore, the workers go one step further when they reject the bourgeois spirit of the great revolution, but remain true to the revolutionary spirit. ”

“ The victory of the working class, now impending in all civilized countries, is certain not to be marred by cruelty, because the victory of the cause of labor is made secure by the course of history to an extent that no terror will be needed. Of course, the bourgeois reactionists will be well advised if they abstain from trying to trip up a victorious proletariat and are judicious enough not to imitate the royalist conspirators of the great revolution. ”

“ There was no lack of examples lying near to his hand, The bourgeoisie had taken unto itself many a piece of aristocrat and church property—why should not he now do the same with bourgeois property? The sansculotte had at that time to pass through many hard, albeit many merry days. Often he had to endure hunger in the most literal sense of the term, and hunger, as is well known, is a bad counselor. Thereupon our has-nothing begins to exhibit a great nonchalance toward bourgeois property. The bourgeoisie resists that as well as it knows how. ”

“ But, we repeat, the entire course of historic evolution guarantees the success of the proletariat.
On the occasion of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the great revolution, the French bourgeoisie has almost purposely proceeded to demonstrate to the proletariat ad oculos (to the eyes) the economic possibility and necessity of a social transformation. The world exhibition gave it an excellent demonstration of the unprecedented development of the means of production in all civilized countries, which has outwinged the boldest fantasies of the Utopians of the preceding century. ”

“ It will be secure only when the French people shall dispense with all forcible, unlawful methods and once for all have learned to look upon their revolution as finished, and, finally, when the revolution itself has passed into the historic past as irrevocably as has already been the case with the revolutions in England and in the United States. "The attainments of the revolution should be held fast, but there must be renunciation of the revolutionary spirit and of forcible and unlawful means." ”

“ After what has already been said, the reader will now be able to predict with certainty what the bourgeois philosopher, Paul Janet, thinks of those revolutionary movements.
In the final chapter of his book, Janet says: "In order to arrive at an objective evaluation of the French revolution, one must in regard to it differentiate three moments: the purpose, the means and the results obtained. The purpose of the revolution—to gain civic equality and political freedom—was the most sublime, the most legitimate a people has ever striven to attain." ”

“ The bourgeoisie would fain instil into the workers' minds the idea that modern society knows no class divisions, because the foundation of the modern state is the equality of all before the law. But this formal equality can console the workers as little as, under the old regime, the bourgeoisie was satisfied with the proclaimed equality of all before God ”

“ Force, naked force, based upon bayonets and cannon, becomes ever more the only support of bourgeois rule. And candid "theoreticians" make their appearance, who admit without further ado that the prevailing bourgeois order cannot be justified theoretically, and does not require such justification—because the bourgeoisie controls the public powers. ”

“ Generally speaking, it may be regarded as a rule permitting no exceptions, that a given social class or layer of the population come to power, will the more readily resort to measures of terror if its chances to retain power are small. In the 19th century, it had to become clear to the bourgeoisie that its rule over the proletariat was becoming more shaky every day and, in consequence, it now strives more and more for terroristic subjection of the same. ”

“ To the present-day representatives of the working class, these contradictions are foreign, because modern, scientific Socialism is nothing but the theoretic expression of the unbridgable antagonism of interests between bourgeoisie and proletariat. The impending victory of the working class under the banner of Socialism, is going to be far more glorious than all the "glorious" revolutions of the bourgeoisie put together. ”

“ In order to escape the dangerous consequences of these crises, nothing is left for the European proletariat but to lay the foundation stone for the planful organization of social production which, for the sansculottes of the past century, was a thing impossible. Not only do the modern production forces make possible such an organization, but they tend in that direction. Without such an organization the full utilization of these forces is not to be thought of. In the modern mechanical workshop production has already taken on a social character ”

“ He makes clear that revolutions establish their own law and order, recognizing no code of jurisprudence but that which reflects the needs and purpose of the revolution. Incidentally, it reveals the modern proletariat in embryo as a factor in the bourgeois revolution, a factor, however, that served chiefly as a broom in the hands of the bourgeoisie with which to sweep out thoroughly the rubbish left by the collapsed feudal system. ”

“ Come to power during its "glorious" revolution, the bourgeoisie introduced the social order suited to its needs, and did it with such thoroughness that even the most stubborn reactionists could thereafter scarcely think of abolishing it ”

“ The bourgeoisie must be held solely responsible for the reactionary lapses that typify the history of France in the 19th century. Even during the time of the restoration the victory of the reactionaries was made much easier because the bourgeoisie, mortally afraid of the workers, for a long time prevented their entrance upon the struggle. ”

“ You are certain that henceforth your privileges will be amply protected by law. The bourgeoisie strove for lawfulness in politics, because historic evolution had fully secured its triumph in economics. ”

“ So far as results are concerned, civic equality, according to Janet, has been fully attained and leaves nothing to be wished for; "political freedom," however, "obtains in France since the revolution only sporadically, and to this day is more or less endangered." ”

“ After the Montagnards had called to arms the entire French youth, without being able to supply the newly-formed. armies even insufficiently with arms and food out of the slender means flowing to them from taxation, they resorted to requisitions, confiscations, forced loans, decreed rates of exchange for the "assignats"—in short and in fine they forced upon the seared possessing classes money sacrifices, all in the interest of an imperiled country for which the people sacrificed blood. ”

“ England passed through her revolutionary storms in the 17th century, and there were then two revolutions: the first, among other things, led to the execution of Charles I, while the second ended with an animated banquet and the rise of a new dynasty. ”

“ True, both parties favored the sovereignty of the people, but with the difference that the Girondists righteously wanted to include among 'the people' all the citizens, while for the Montagnards, in keeping with the perversity still current today, the people consisted only of members of the working class, of persons living by their own labor. ”

“ Napoleon Bonaparte, who at the psychologically right moment consolidated the revolution, definitely establishing the capitalist Political State which was to prevail henceforth, all surface changes notwithstanding. ”

“ Few other books on the French Revolution are worth the attention of the busy working class reader, though the more studious will find Carlyle’s dithyrambic work interesting and stimulating, and Krapotkin’s "The Great Revolution" profitable despite its somewhat anarchistic bias. ”