Anatomy of a Revolution; The Reigns of Terror and Virtue

oh i do hope is nico i need the point but the illegal government steps in the critical moment of a coup d'etat our explosive write it in the show all of the legal figure is that a mcwrap or a snake or some other organisms relatively low in evolutionary terms which can grow change only by shedding its shell us get no

non revolutionary or peaceful legal change in the society i'm willing to consider metaphorically more like the organic rogue switch the higher organisms that without ropes that does not involve the striking and violent breaking or shanty of a whole political structure need not expose the society very grave dangers of the revolutionary process remember the crab and it's soft shell stages of very exposed partners in the soul to our societies at this critical stage revolution nevertheless but i am calling the stage a reign of terror and virtue is unlike the stages i've previously analyzed by no means a stage through which all revolutions pass some touches of air like a towering and feathering the tories are present in our own modern

american revolution and even some touches of the reign of the peculiar form of behavior i call revolutionary party for instance here is a print of the time in which it is called by the way the patriotic our ears the patriotic bomber in new york city mr jacob freidberg and he's shaving his depth when he discovered halfway through that this man was actually an officer in his majesty's debate and wants an indignation the letters razor down and gave up a job to another example rage for remaining getting rid of verbal reminders of the past now felt the fact is present in our own revolution only mile thus in boston the revolution is scott mckain street in

queens street and a few other contaminated names in favor of good new names state straight for instance took the place of king street and queen street became court's three but even here in boston a cat hanover street named after george the thirds weekend dynasty in virginia where i suspect the social side of the revolution was pretty well muted at least in tidewater they attacked with many of you no all sorts of compromise names of companies king and queen think your expenses and prince edward and others rich now with the revolution saw the past they are other problem with a late bridget deal with a historic past for the most part i'm going to pay attention this time and next to the three great classic popular or leftist revolutions in england

france and russia let me begin with the political structure of government of the data in all these revolutions at the height remove the extremists i find first a somewhat hastily improvised and usually not very efficient centralized government which has to be called a dictatorship second within this dictatorship the presence of concentrating of leadership by what i must call purges third a well developed revolutionary secret police and a series of special courts operating not under the normal legal system but under special forms no not ironically revolutionary justice for the attempted strict control provincial and local government to agents of the central dictatorship agents recruited from the small consecrated minority of active workers we just up with the revolution faithfully that far most of you recall cromwell's famous remark about that

symbol of legal and civil rights the speaker's race he said take away that ball or rubber spirit of frogs who had his working side could not bring himself to quite such making mirrors in a long speech to the convention in the middle of that era in which he outlined the structure which he frankly call the revolutionary government but he ended in an elaborate apology the draft of which was that the revolutionary government was a depressing anyone but potential oppressors you ought to be a press he ended with a finely and misleading at berkeley i quote the revolutionary government is that despotism of liberty against terror nonsense if you ask me but the time of the russian revolution marxism leninism hadn't even ready or defects for acts of repression and support

the revolution the end of which was to be completely individual freedom for every abolition of all police mildred power in marxist terms the withering away of the state this libertarian revolution has to be accomplished through the dictatorship of the proletariat the proletariat in turn should dictate through its elite agents the baltic leaders i think that led him and almost certainly trotsky were worried deep at heart over this contradiction here as trotsky worrying about luck the bolsheviks took the people as preceding history had created them and as they were called to achieve the revolution the bolsheviks saw it as their mission to stand at the head of these people those against the insurrection where everybody except the bolsheviks but the bolsheviks with the people by the way i said earlier that in the thirteen colonies one third of the

population was program once the ap and one third are listening to isis discovered what i should have known law couple that this statement oh freedom the phone actually in many of our textbooks was actually made by john adams towards the end of his life about american attitudes to the french revolution not to argo i think is quite true that the tarrance in the seventies these were eight strong minority and one that has a name for this but i don't think that my statement was misleading has made and that probably the majority of americans even if you didn't enlist in the army and i assure you that didn't work sentimental emotionally loyalty washington's army and the revolution but to retire as for what rob spear and trotsky said in the way of

apologies don't interpret that as a form of hypocrisy the fanatic revolutionary ideas sure it would be much less successful if only he were a hypocrite and surely less dangerous to the peace of mind of conservative my second generalization was that bypasses the purchase that is actually the nation of rights leaders and groups by exile and imprisoning or killing them the dictatorship of the extremists that's now down to a small group that eventually got one no longer however and extremists napoleon when france prove to be the man of action came the revolution areas as a young man was not even a leader during the time but nearly a seldom artillery office the details of an hour in the leadership groups rupert is very greatly of course revolution the revolution and form a fascinating part of american history here it will be enough for me as an analyst to

remind you of a few concrete example is indeed some contemporary once a clear late in nineteen fifty nine castro dismissed relatively conservative party any rate experienced ministers and broaden his own men such as the famous che guevara trained as a physician and put the head of the national bank and his brother raul as head of the army the very violent revolutionary movement in algeria united after a fashion in the f l and national liberation front was long split into various factions french authorities seized some papers of a rebel leader which through an extraordinary clear light on the deadly rivalries jealousies arising this stage among the revolutionary leaders here are a few pages are we

do from the book in which i found these notes of one of the rebel leaders they were found in the cave after he had fled i quote we have contemplated a change of personnel we need unintended made the only person here who might possibly redeem himself in the odyssey and even that is doubtful mubarak has done is because it has ended up on the path that leads to decay is easily influenced by cuisine and last letter to however are not dangerous says their future is in our hands and they have no followers to back them up in case of a maneuver it's necessarily as played the part of a counter revolutionary his primary thought has been to keep the followers would lord parish the revolution is like all politicians he took full advantage of the simplicity ignorance and good faith of the militants

now intense personal rivalries of this so like a normal enough in a stable society even one it is used to pretty mild by no means getting there is but a revolution at this stage these rivalries are stacked up to such a degree they're changed in nature for one thing like visit state orderly stability to avoid exile in prison in this competition the winner does indeed take all there's no projects are very thin in the political defeat means just the chance to continue the struggle one good sign of the way this process of rivalry among leaders turns into a ferocious personal struggle in which principals programs platforms are from the moment obscured or rather identified with a given personality is the fact that the rival groups even at the time at a

designated of the danes of leaders the us and france at the height of the day or we're not so much the party turns federalist jerome mountain with the bristol leadership may well this b l for yeast from the famous sea green incorruptible or daughter needs from the great orator of the time a sturdy leather longfellow not a very delicate man as you can see by this park or one of the most interesting a day and then really went to the people one of the first of the yellow journalists are come to him again in the moment and russia we began to hear of leninist swedes still do actually stalinist it's very soon after brennan's death named of course from the late joseph stalin and naturally enough his opponent the trotsky just these people had ideas i suppose but the use of the purse though maine is very significant all this happens quite shortly after the

bolshevik victory i do not misunderstand this personal struggle is of course carry on in terms of ideas as well as of personalities but the ideas have so to speak become sectarian shrunken and yet somehow intensified and sharpen in all three of our major revolutions that respects groups more radical than the one that held actual control during the height of the car and we stand in our minds as typical of the time france's here almost to meet the needs of the dominant jacqueline group those dozen men who composed the temper executive part of the name i'll committee of public safety commentator so you could be was in a sense lead by rob's be as i say in the senate because in my opinion roberts p i was not a true dictator a true chief the kind of fraught a public relations figure for the

committee as long as the committee held together as a unit anyway those who opposed the committee of public safety in the correct the winter spring of seventy ninety three ninety four were known as the citrus and the options those on this side of the narrow line of jacqueline orthodoxy and goes on the others so the city's being the side won clemency amnesty to stop the bloodshed in revolution the code draws the side that wanted more articulately any more bloodshed more confiscation as in march the voters went into back to the guillotine in a long procession parts of which you see in this contemporary praise and in april a batch of citrus held headed by the great arthur don't all went to the guillotine in a similar tom burrell famous of course from dickens' tale of two seconds i use the rather harmless word that cheered deliberately because the

guillotine were actually a grab bag collection each case of those would be rounded up and put through what amounted to a trial for public show you are familiar with this process in recent times in recent hannah short sports house seventeen thousand people attending the family members of the former but these divisions they added cost the lives of judges on the three men revolutionary tribunals on trial is a major source of one computer crimes against the people great numbers of journalists cover the trial of the public spectacle the cuban people feel the sports powers day after day to see bodies to lieutenants some early tried and seven it's a major acknowledges that he is of a huge crowd of them nervous mean one of the witnesses have a twelve year old boy who accuses the major of killing his father after thirteen hours before the revolutionary

tribunals episodes of uncle was sentenced the authors in france were often called a bit of text from a day out the extremist leaders whose portrait you have already seen and they'll seems to be a candidate for an historic first lot of being the first truitt yellow journalist it's very personal newspaper the they'll be shannon deliberately sought to take it to the multitude you see there is rather crude headline these great anger is fury at the us or out that it's really a tabloid journalism for the first time for sheer variety of radical groups the english revolution remote in time though it is provides one of the best examples many of these groups are on the lunatic

fringe scene rather theologically them politically that killed sixteen fifty line between theology in politics was far from sharp and clear a few of these english extremist its come close to the economic egalitarianism socialism communism but with a biblical touch the digger movement was preface by an obscure package of sixteen forty eight with a title like characteristically be a savvy is light shining in buckingham shot early in april sixteen forty nine one ever ride a cashier that soldier of the new model army with a few followers davis and georgia's phil and so now suburban london and began to dig and so the ground with parsnips carrots be vegetarians but for the time being general fairfax who seemed to regard them as harmless fanatics as indeed they were let them alone to that

being on public land many years were however eventually dispersed in good revolutionary fashion by the military russia to conform to my pad and i think what happened after the november revolution of nineteen seventeen with the rapid rise of land in to dictatorial power but a power than in part the pentagon holding imbalance rivalries among the dozen or so leaders the premature death of lenin in january nineteen twenty four after a crippling illness he was only fifty three through the dictatorship into a long dispute which we oversimplified if we think of it simply asked ali vs trotsky just too in russia right down a very recent times in juneau such terms as wright deviations left deviation this wear and use as well as personal designations for serious contestants at the top name from people like

sen dodd yeah come in yet book are in the book are interests many others of course barring out what i said about the personal party group by third element in this long analysis of the structure of crisis politics and terror is the secret police the whole apparatus of what came to be called in france revolutionary justice reforms there in england committees of the new model army parish clergy leading their flocks in the prosecution beyond god late we knew this well in massachusetts time also witnesses tearing down of the innocent maple marymount and the banishment of thomas moore and england by these fine puritans soldiers of a clearly austere type though they seem to look on the scene with a certain shocked the light actually shocking know this is the english lines special

court was set up on the rug and sixteen fifty and operated without the usual safeguards into riddick of the facts at his caucus and the rest of the individuals in france is a central committee known as the committee of public safety operated as a police force through local county paid by police and they are in theory responsible and central paris committee is seat one of them were before the network of revolutionary tribunals as well as a special set of rules under which ordinary courts could also handle crimes against the revolution the crimes were too many for this simple setup actually this phenomenon of revolutionary justice i like a lot but i can't you had these rather striking films of castro i wish we might have similar films of the period in russia nineteen thirty six seven eight known as the measure off period when these famous trials for

treason the purges the public confession security there may well be movies in russia but i've never known them to be available here at any rate this phase is an important factor in revolutions i think you always find them and crucial ones in russia of course the secret police familiar at the original chekhov a fanatic jews in ski a polish nobleman about why has undergone change of name but highly character arc who and k e e m d day but always a special police force operating above the law for the last the no political structure this crisis period in our revolutions is designed to minimize local initiative and achieve as much direction and supervision from the central government as practical and upset and conditions remember that there's a kind of dictatorship the stage even though the revolution began with an appeal to local

self governance but there is a normal tendency in our western society for local variation smoking self govern of the store grassroots so the new central authority to enforce its will as a crime down on natural deep seated local authorities local difference even in england the crime well ian dictatorship worked hard to circumvent that idea of local liberties the justice of the peace and was briefly successful and first the central committee of public safety sent out all over the country and sending ninety three ninety four members of the convention known as representatives on mission dooley uniform as you see in this splendid picture with the aid of local chapter and clubs really purge the local administrations of jiro counterrevolutionary fanatics by which german catholics and set up a nice dress when the jacobin administration the catholic put its head an agent of the paris government known simply as the national at russia and in spite of the

uncertainties of the civil war the network of boss sent to watch the garden station transferred soon after the october revolution from back to grab to moscow where the state got through the machinery of the soviet system and the single party organization a very complete control right down to the village and factory let the popular base of this extent rise to they shipped his family now rarely i think anywhere even five percent of the adult males these are the pure revolutionized the active to convince the excess supply i do not wish to be understood has to ben when i say they're the few not the whole people i am really caramelized maybe in some profound way they are people as trotsky said to a number of the bolshevik few you can read it here is he said in england this basic group was of course the left

wing of the pure see in the pants and the particular the new model army in france the jacobin orthodox of associate people male and in russia is that investors are the actual membership of the communist party probably in nineteen seventeen twenty one never quite one percent of the total population of rash is these people who first make of rubble that reservoir from which their leaders and especially some of barron's in the hardworking necessary non primes are draw and second do much committee work busy work provide essential audience participation audience sympathy sometimes perhaps that technically are very well in some detail on this political machinery of the crisis period because i think it is not merely an accompaniment not merely an instrument or face of the terror but in part because an explanation to

not by any means the sole cause of course but still a very important one that we was driving on this day the striking thing about all these dictatorships even the russian bolshevik one prepared so carefully by so skilled and undemocratic technician says lenin and trotsky the striking thing about these dictatorships is their eckstein broadest character the consequent inefficiency they are compared with longstanding even democratic governments sloppy irregular inefficient the politics who run this machine are also as i noted earlier subject to a fearful dog eat dog riding from power rivalry stepped up to a murderous intensity the upshot is clear the men who make the tariff fall back on terror it's inhuman crack down in part too because they are afraid they're living in tents

but that there is more than a political phenomenon while it lasts the terror pervades every phase of life every phase of culture no one in possession of his faculties can escape the obsessive pressures of the common ploy the public life no one can be indifferent to politics during the reign of terror and this by the late preacher's who keep telling us that we all love it politics i hold a certain amount of difference to matters of state the politics is essential to this environment right next time i'm going to bring up some of these obsessive faces of life during what i call the reins of terror and virtual this would be perhaps a very difficult an interesting topic until next time anyway we

can the peak this week this is an eighty national educational television fb