#Thermidorian

[magicmagic09]

Barras and snake ChéChé doodle.

[citizen-card]

internet activities french revolutionaries might have done in another universe:

robespierre: posts six hour video essays on youtube

marat: immensely popular with sans-culottes and has 24839 accounts trying to copy him after he gets banned

fabre: pretends to be celebrities and DMs people asking for money

danton: does the same thing but people believe him because he bought the verified checkmark

desmoulins: chronically online x (formerly known as twitter) user, always gets into internet drama

hebert: gets terribly terribly angry about people using terms such as 'unalive'

carnot: corrects people's punctuation and grammar ('*you're')

fouche: photoshops robespierre's (and others) posts to make him look awful, everyone believes him

[aedesluminis]

I relized I have drawn Prieur so many times and his best friend not even once.

This took me way more that it should have. I'm tired af >.> Also Year II hairstyle, because he's never depicted with it v_v

[frevandrest]

Charlotte is all "it's a horrible LIE that I was Fouché's mistress before and after Thermidor!!!" Gurl why would anyone associate you with him? Were you... seen meeting with him or something?

[sieclesetcieux]

Reminder that the 10 thermidor was only the beginning of a purge that saw hundreds of people murdered in the next two days and hundreds more arrested. Some committed suicide or were poisoned in jail.

The Commune was almost entirely purged:

there were 140 members on the general council on 9 thermidor

87 were guillotined

40 imprisoned

only 13 remained free

On 11 thermidor, twelve tumbrils carried 71 people to be executed. Here are their names. 12 more people were guillotined on 12 thermidor. Remember this when you read the traitorous CSP members tell you they did this to "prevent bloodshed" - when the execution toll on 11 thermidor was the biggest in one day ever.

Four months later in November the Club des Jacobins would be attacked by a right-wing militia led by Fréron, who broke the windows and doors down, beat the men, and stripped and whipped the women who were there. These women were ridiculed in crass pamphlets the following days. A deputy's wife was among them, whom Fréron had been personally targetting in his rag for weeks. The Convention punished no one but the Jacobins themselves by ordering the Club to be shut down and destroyed. A market was later built there and named to celebrate Thermidor.

The terrible winter came where tons of people starved because the new useless government of corrupt fiends lifted all regulations to "free" the market. This is the winter where Victor Hugo wrote Jean Valjean stealing bread to feed his sister's children. It's not a coincidence.

Less than a year later, in May 1795, the sans-culottes would rise for the last time in an insurrection that was utterly crushed and, with it, the popular spring of the Revolution.

The Revolution had been dying. It was now truly dead.

The next years were just a corpse they pretended was still alive.

[theravenclawrevolutionary]

Brount watching the Thermidor executions...

[keepthyfaithandthylight]

“How many tears I saw him shed over the violence of the revolutionary government and over the prolongation of a dreadful regime, which he only aspired to temper with institutions.”

Once, when scrolling through the frev tag I saw a letter posted by @orpheusmori (if memory serves correctly) that was written by a friend of Saint Just. It’s lived in my mind for quite some time, and the final line is one that can really put my mind in a chokehold.

So, as a result.. I had to draw this. Why is it that I always draw when I need to be sleeping…

[saint-jussy]

The Thermidorians:

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Is there a list of frev figures who claimed to be at the storming of the Bastille? The people I know who said they at least witnessed it is pretty eclectic like Herault, Léon and Saint-Just.

I found all the (official?) ”vainqueurs de la Bastille” listed in alfabethical order here (1889). However, according to Michael J. Sydenham’s Léonard Bourdon: The Career of a Revolutionary, 1754-1807, who’s subject of study claimed to belong to this group, simply holding this title was not a guarantee that you had actually taken part in the storming itself:

The only people found on the list that I myself recognized were those of the dantonist Louis Legendre, the girondin Claude Fauchet and the general Antoine Joseph Santerre. I therefore don’t know if the people claiming to have participated in the storming here below are just lying (saying you played a role in it after all being something that would easily better your patriotic reputation) or if their participation just wasn’t recorded (which doesn’t sound particulary hard to be true either):

Stanislas Fréron claims in a letter to Lucile Desmoulins dated October 18 1793, that both he, Barras and La Poype ”besieged” the Bastille.

Pierre Nicolas Berryer wrote in his memoirs that the Convention deputy Bourdon d’Oise participated in the storming of the Bastille, and still kept the blood stained coat he had worn during it five years later:

At the same time, and as if he felt the need to convince me even more of the strength of his mind, [Bourdon] took out from under his bed an oblong casket, in which was tucked the coat he had worn on the day of the storming of the Bastille… […] He took great care to point out to me that his coat was still covered with stains from the blood he had spilled at the Bastille. 

Albert Mathiez summarized in the article La vie de Héron racontée par lui-même (1925) a memoir the Committee of General Security spy François Héron wrote while imprisoned after thermidor. In it, he would have claimed to have participated in the storming of the Bastille, as well as the women’s march on Versailles, the demonstration of June 20 and the Insurrection of August 10.

According to Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (…) de 1789 à 1889, Jacques-Alexis Thuriot took part in the storming.

Regarding some more well known guys and their Bastille activities, Desmoulins, in a letter written to his father written July 16, leaves a rather detailed description of the storming. Through the following part, he does however indicate that he himself missed it:

Then, the cannon of the French Guards made a breach. Bourgeois, soldiers, everyone rushes forward. An engraver climbs up first, they throw him down and break his legs. A luckier French guard followed him, seized a gunner, defended himself, and the place was stormed in half an hour. I started running at the first cannon shot, but the Bastille was already taken, in two and a half hours, a miracle that is.

Camille also adds that, on July 15, he was among the people who scaled the ruins of the stormed Bastille:

However, I felt even more joy the day before, when I climbed into the breach (montai sur la brèche) of the surrendered Bastille, and the flag of the Guards and the bourgeois militias was raised there. The most zealous patriots were there. We embraced each other, we kissed the hands of the French guards, crying with joy and intoxication.

On July 23 1789, Robespierre wrote a letter to Antoine Buissart telling him he had gotten to see the ”liberated” Bastille, but he had of course not participated in the storming himself:

I’ve seen the Bastille, I was taken there by a detachment of the brave bourgeois militia that had taken it; because after leaving town hall, on the day of the king's trip, the armed citizens took pleasure in escorting out of honor the deputies they met, and they could only march among acclamations from the people. What a delightful abode the Bastille has been since it came into the power of the people, its dungeons are empty and a multitude of workers work tirelessly to demolish this odious monument to tyranny! I could not tear myself away from this place, the sight of which only gives sensations of pleasure and ideas of liberty to all good citizens.

According to Danton: le mythe et l’histoire (2016), Danton did not take part in the actual storming of the Bastille, however, the following day he went to the abandoned prison and took the provisional governor hostage:

Absent from the storming of the Bastille, it was on the night of July 15 to 16 that Danton took action. At the head of a patrol of the bourgeois guard of his district, of which he proclaimed himself captain, he claimed, we do not know in what capacity, to enter the "castle of the Bastille,” placed under the control of the elector Soulès, as provisional governor. Without worrying about his powers, Danton has him kidnapped and taken to City Hall, surrounded by a threatening crowd. But Soulès was released the next day upon the intervention of La Fayette; Danton's initiative was openly disavowed and blamed by the assembly of electors.

According to Clifford D. Connor, Marat wrote the following about his activities on July 14 1789 in number 36 of l’Ami du peuple (12 November 1789):

[magicmagic09]

A member of the National Convention basically got the idea of killing Robespierre and his followers, then he would join the Thermidor 9th. He might not decide to kill Robespierre and his followers soon after talked with another member of the National Convention.

Imagine: You are told by the thermidorian (such as Fouché) that you may be prosecuted by Robespierre and at the same time, you are THE PLAIN, you become a little nervous, and then the thermidorian ask you whether you can join them and kill Robespierre and his followers. As a member of National Convention, at least you have the basic capability of judgment, you may doubt why the Thermidorian take the initiate to tell you such words. Maybe you even have no idea of the Thermidorian, and you actually got along with both the Thermidorian and Robespierre a little. And the Thermidorian do not give you any proof. So, there are many things to be doubted.

Moreover, I have heard about Robespierre told the Duplays that most members in National Convention were pure. Robespierre must know the National Convention well, and he knew who viewed him as a friend or an enemy. If it was true, there should be people started to doubt after being told by the Thermidorian of the "Bad News". Thus, not all members wanted to kill Robespierre, just those who wanted to eliminate Robespierre earlier.

So, I doubt the whitewashing of the people who are told the "Bad News" by the Thermidorian. Were they totally innocent as the whitewashing of them that they were just frightened by the "Bad News" so they sentenced Robespierre to death?

[little-red-phrygien]

my friend irl drew me these lovely pigeon Robespierre after I rant about him for 6 hours straight

[monimarat]

So it’s likely that this watercolor of Camille in prison:

Which was a study for this illustration (published with his last letter to Lucile, London 1795):

May have used a portrait of Robespierre as a source.

[frevandrest]

Why are Girondins so annoying?

Lmao, Robespierre, is that you?

Seriously, tho... Not sure why (if?) others find them annoying so I can't comment on that (I have some ideas, but I can't speak for others). Personally, I am not an expert on Girondins so I don't focus on them so much. I don't think they were "the best option" (not with the whole "protect propertyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!1111" shit that they had going on), and I disagree with a lot of stuff, though I do think some of them had some based takes.

But honestly? I am mostly annoyed at today's (mis)understanding of Girondins and flop takes that come with it. They are somehow remembered as these level-headed, "good" revolutionaries who want change but through democratic TM and not violent means... When they are the group who advocated for the fucking war that claimed hundreds of thousands of people (and also messy bitches who attacked their opponents - they were not somehow above that stuff).

Look. I love learning and researching frev. I like it even when the content is difficult or when I disagree with historical people. It's just so interesting to me. But I have a short patience for flop takes about frev that are just factually incorrect but try to sound profound (or, worse, like activism). Bad "feminist" takes are there, but also a lot of bullshit and misinformation about other things. Liking Girondins is often not about Girondins at all - it is about criticizing Montagnards, which is often based on incorrect info (biased Anglo takes, Thermidorian takes, horribly inaccurate online takes, etc.) If one wants to hate frev/Montagnards/Robespierre/whoever, be my guest, but at least be correct about it. Unfortunately, Girondins attract a lot of bad/incorrect takes precisely because of their reputation as "good" revolutionaries, which means people interpret them through today's lens, which in turn makes it very, very annoying to read.

[sieclesetcieux]

Michel Biard and Marisa Linton, The French Revolution and Its Demons (2021), p. 8-16:

(first part)

[demaskblue]

the worst duo ever

[keepthyfaithandthylight]

Having been absent from the frev community for a while I seem to have forgotten how wrongly remembered a lot of these individuals are.

Im reminded, now, that Maximilien Robespierre was not a heartless dictator as many would have us believe, who’s sole thought was bloodshed. Instead, he was a shy, quaint individual who had an affinity for oranges and loved his dog and friends. A man who’s dogedness for liberty and willingness to fight tooth and nail for the people and country he loved should be admired.

Im reminded that Saint Just was not a cold, heartless revolutionary, blinded by ambition, but felt emotion, empathy, compassion for those he cared about who describe him as charming, kind, gentle in aspects that relate to the world beyond his work. That he was loyal to those he cared about, almost to a fault. That he most likely had to witness his own friend turn the barrel of a gun on himself and commit suicide during the events of thermidor, as well as seeing Robespierre get shot in the jaw.

Im reminded that they were human. Humans feel. They care. They form bonds and relationships and only those who truly know us can help to portray an accurate version of us when we are gone, especially if we leave few footprints.