The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions

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Princeton University Press, 15 ene 2002 - 716 páginas

The great romance and fear of bloody revolution--strange blend of idealism and terror--have been superseded by blind faith in the bloodless expansion of human rights and global capitalism. Flying in the face of history, violence is dismissed as rare, immoral, and counterproductive. Arguing against this pervasive wishful thinking, the distinguished historian Arno J. Mayer revisits the two most tumultuous and influential revolutions of modern times: the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917.


Although these two upheavals arose in different environments, they followed similar courses. The thought and language of Enlightenment France were the glories of western civilization; those of tsarist Russia's intelligentsia were on its margins. Both revolutions began as revolts vowed to fight unreason, injustice, and inequality; both swept away old regimes and defied established religions in societies that were 85% peasant and illiterate; both entailed the terrifying return of repressed vengeance. Contrary to prevalent belief, Mayer argues, ideologies and personalities did not control events. Rather, the tide of violence overwhelmed the political actors who assumed power and were rudderless. Even the best plans could not stem the chaos that at once benefited and swallowed them. Mayer argues that we have ignored an essential part of all revolutions: the resistances to revolution, both domestic and foreign, which help fuel the spiral of terror.


In his sweeping yet close comparison of the world's two transnational revolutions, Mayer follows their unfolding--from the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Bolshevik Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Masses; the escalation of the initial violence into the reign of terror of 1793-95 and of 1918-21; the dismemberment of the hegemonic churches and religion of both societies; the "externalization" of the terror through the Napoleonic wars; and its "internalization" in Soviet Russia in the form of Stalin's "Terror in One Country." Making critical use of theory, old and new, Mayer breaks through unexamined assumptions and prevailing debates about the attributes of these particular revolutions to raise broader and more disturbing questions about the nature of revolutionary violence attending new foundations.

 

Índice

Revolution
23
Counterrevolution
45
Violence
71
Terror
93
Vengeance
126
Religion
141
II
169
The Return of Vengeance Terror in France 178995
171
Peasant War in Russia Ukraine and Tambov
371
IV
411
Engaging the Gallican Church and the Vatican
413
Engaging the Russian Orthodox Church
449
Perils of Emancipation Protestants and Jews in the Revolutionary Whirlwind
483
V
531
Externalization of the French Revolution The Napoleonic Wars
533
Internalization of the Russian Revolution Terror in One Country
607

In the Eye of a Time of Troubles Terror in Russia 191721
227
III
321
Peasant War in France The Vendee
323

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Sobre el autor (2002)

Arno J. Mayer is Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He is best known for his last two books: The Persistence of the Old Regime and Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The "Final Solution" in History. He is also the author of Political Origins of the New Diplomacy and Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking.

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