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revolutions.

2:28

Hello,

2:28

and welcome to revolutions.

2:35

Appendix ten. The revolution

2:38

devours its children.

2:42

Well, we all knew this one was coming eventually.

2:44

The point in the revolution when a small

2:47

click of radical fanatics who sees control

2:49

of the government in the wave of the revolution

2:52

embark on a reign of terror to purge

2:54

the enemies of the revolution. At

2:57

the moment of maximum crisis, surrounded

2:59

by enemies on all sides. They

3:01

turned to firing squads and guillotine

3:03

and chopping blocks to ruthlessly

3:06

eliminate all perceived threats. And

3:08

as the radical click now in charge of the government

3:11

is inevitably composed of a teeny

3:13

tiny minority of the population. The

3:15

vast majority of the population might

3:17

find itself plausibly targeted as

3:20

enemies of the revolution. Not

3:22

just conservatives, reactionaries, and

3:24

restorationists, but anyone

3:26

deemed insufficiently enthusiastic about

3:29

the radical program

3:30

or who

3:31

have ever so slightly different opinions

3:33

about what that revolutionary program should be

3:35

about. And this includes, of course,

3:37

those who helped make the revolution in the first place.

3:40

The leaders of that first wave like the

3:42

hapless moderate so recently overthrown

3:44

in our and wave. So

3:46

we have reached the phase when our revolution begins

3:49

to devour its children. But

3:52

here's the thing. It doesn't

3:54

always go like that. Not all

3:56

revolutions wind up at a rain of terror face,

3:58

in fact, most of them don't.

4:00

It seems like they do because

4:02

the two biggest, most famous, and most

4:04

influential revolutions, the French revolution

4:06

and the Russian revolution, both

4:08

progress to a phase of terror. And

4:10

since we take those to be our model revolutions,

4:13

we think that all revolutions must progress

4:15

to a phase of terror. But as

4:17

we discussed last time, that

4:18

radical second wave challenge to the

4:21

moderates fails as often as

4:23

it succeeds. So

4:25

oftentimes there are no radicals in power

4:27

to launch such a reign of terror. Then

4:29

as we know, moderates would never dream of

4:31

using excessive violence to cement their control

4:34

amidst revolutionary chaos. Oh,

4:36

wait, of course, they would. So

4:38

even though plenty of revolution do not wind up at a

4:40

radical reign of terror phase, they

4:43

nearly all wind up at a point when top down

4:45

violence by the revolutionary government

4:47

is deployed against its own people.

4:49

We don't have a dramatic name such as

4:51

reign of terror for top down violence committed

4:53

by moderate revolutionary regimes. So

4:56

I'm going to take a page from a different period of

4:58

French history to give that a name.

5:01

Let's call them bloody weeks after

5:03

the infamous suppression of the Paris commune

5:05

because here too, the revolution

5:08

is devouring its children. So

5:10

what I wanna do today is go through

5:12

both kinds of top down revolutionary

5:14

violence, both reigns of terror

5:16

and bloody weeks. Establish

5:19

the who, what, when, where, why, and how

5:21

of both types of revolutionary child

5:23

devouring and mark out how they

5:25

are different because they are different,

5:27

but also notice how they are very

5:29

much the same. Let's

5:32

start with the what question.

5:35

As in, what are we even talking about

5:37

here? So let's define our

5:39

terms. A

5:40

reign of terror is when a

5:41

revolutionary government captured by a

5:43

radical faction uses the

5:45

power of the state to carry out a campaign of

5:47

political violence, It involves

5:49

an intrusive mechanism of surveillance,

5:52

encouragement of citizen mutual denunciation,

5:55

mass arrests, flimsy rules

5:57

of evidence, and often, though not always,

5:59

concludes with summary execution. The

6:02

ultimate goal of a reign of terror being the liquidation

6:04

of perceived enemies of the revolution any

6:06

final consolidation of power by

6:08

those in power. This

6:11

is in contrast to a bloody week when

6:13

a revolutionary government, successfully

6:16

defended by the moderate leaders against

6:18

the radicals, uses the power

6:20

of the state carryout a campaign of political

6:22

violence against the defeated radicals. It

6:24

involves the declaration of martial

6:26

law, mass and indiscriminate arrest

6:29

and often though not always concludes with summary

6:31

executions. The ultimate goal being

6:33

the liquidation that perceived enemies of the

6:35

revolution and a final consolidation of

6:37

power by those in power.

6:40

So as you can see, these are different,

6:42

but they are also the same. The

6:44

particular political sins being

6:46

rooted out and punished are obviously gonna be

6:48

different varieties, whether the violence is

6:50

perpetrated by radicals or moderates,

6:52

but in both cases, we

6:54

are looking at top down state violence perpetrated

6:57

against its own people for the purpose

6:59

of defending the political power of the

7:01

perpetrators. So

7:03

let's move next to the when question.

7:06

As in when do reigns of

7:08

terror happen, when do bloody weeks

7:10

happen? Well, in both

7:12

cases, they obviously happen after the contest

7:14

between moderates and radicals has been decided.

7:17

We also obviously need to have advanced to

7:19

the point in the wider revolutionary event

7:21

where an ongoing existential crisis

7:24

has created emergency conditions that

7:26

seems to justify the harshest possible

7:29

measures, measures that in other

7:31

cases would be considered beyond the pale.

7:33

The question of when this happens

7:36

is when we find our revolutionary leaders

7:38

exhausted, stressed out and afraid.

7:41

They need to be deeply fearful and not a

7:43

little bit paranoid of what will happen

7:45

if their rivals win, so

7:48

they cannot allow their rivals to win.

7:51

We don't find rains of terror bloody

7:53

weeks happening after the initial first

7:55

wave of revolution. In the honeymoon

7:57

period, follows that first wave, everyone is

7:59

excited about the limitless possibilities of

8:01

the revolution. And that isn't exactly

8:04

fertile ground for a rain of terror or a bloody

8:06

week. because the prevailing emotional

8:08

vibe is hope, optimism, and unity

8:10

rather

8:10

than fear,

8:11

bitterness, and division. So

8:15

now let's move on to a bigger question

8:17

of who. And the

8:19

who question has two aspects.

8:22

who perpetrates the reign of terror or

8:24

bloody weak, and who are

8:26

the victims of a reign of terror or a

8:28

bloody weak? Now I want to set

8:30

aside the latter aspect for a moment to focus

8:32

on the former. Who

8:34

is doing this? And we

8:36

already know part of the answer because of the inherent

8:38

distinction between rains of terror and bloody

8:40

weeks. Rains of terror are

8:42

perpetrated by radicals, bloody

8:44

weeks, by moderates. But

8:46

the who is doing this question also

8:49

involves the wider personnel carrying

8:51

out the project because it's

8:53

obviously not going to be enough for uncompromising

8:55

leaders of some executive committee or

8:57

provisional government to order mass

8:59

arrests and executions without anyone

9:01

to carry out the orders. So

9:03

we must also note here that in both cases,

9:05

there's gonna be a loyal apparatus

9:07

of police and military and

9:09

lawyers and judges who

9:11

do the actual rounding up,

9:13

arresting,

9:13

raining, sentencing,

9:16

and carrying out of the

9:18

sentences. These people

9:20

must have some kind of ideological motivation

9:22

for not just going along with all this,

9:24

but actively and eagerly

9:26

participating. So we can

9:28

give the reign of terror a name and a face

9:30

like Robespierre, and we can

9:32

give a bloody week the name and face of

9:34

Adolph Tierre. But absent

9:37

thousands of willing subordinates and

9:39

collaborators, it's never gonna happen.

9:42

Carrying out a vast project of political

9:44

violence is a team effort.

9:46

And before we go on, I also want

9:48

to mention here that everything we're talking about

9:50

here today is distinct from

9:52

white terrors. A white

9:54

terror is perpetrated by reactionaries,

9:57

conservatives, and restorationists. That's a

9:59

whole separate can

9:59

of worms. What we're

10:01

talking about here today is still

10:03

revolutionary on revolutionary violence

10:06

because the revolution is eating

10:08

its children. Now

10:10

I want to briefly set aside the other big who

10:12

question? Who are the victims?

10:14

Because that question will make a lot more sense

10:16

after we've talked about the why

10:18

question. Why

10:20

embark on political massacres?

10:22

What's the point? This isn't

10:24

something you just haul off and do on

10:26

a whim. Even fanatics have

10:28

justifications beyond just a mindless

10:30

thirst for blood. Mindless

10:33

thirst for blood is actually a far rarer

10:35

condition than one might suppose. even

10:37

historical actors with the most blood on their

10:39

hands can point to a thing they were trying to

10:41

accomplish that somehow necessitated all

10:44

that blood. So

10:46

let's start with the reins of terror.

10:48

For reins of terror, I

10:50

see five broad categories that have

10:53

shown up historically. all of

10:55

which are mutually reinforcing, and so we're going

10:57

to talk about these in no particular

10:59

order. But

11:00

first, we have a thing called winning

11:03

the war. Why have a

11:05

reign of terror because we need to

11:07

win the war? What

11:09

war? Well,

11:10

whatever war the regime happens to be fighting

11:13

at the time. In both

11:15

Russia and France, the perpetrators of

11:17

revolutionary terror, whether Jacobin

11:19

or Red, were waging both civil

11:21

wars and foreign wars. The

11:23

very existent to the revolution seemed to hang

11:25

in the balance. It did hang in

11:27

the balance. It wasn't even

11:29

irrational paranoia that led them to

11:31

see spies and saboteurs and fifth

11:33

columnists trying to undermine them from within

11:35

who needed to be purged. Spies

11:37

and saboteurs and fifth colonists were

11:39

absolutely trying to undermine them from within.

11:41

They probably did need to be purged.

11:43

And with victory or feet in the

11:45

field determining the whole fate of the revolution.

11:47

The

11:48

revolution's owned soldiers and officers

11:50

needed to display iron discipline. If

11:52

anyone slapped off or failed in their duty,

11:55

it wasn't just a mistake. It

11:57

was

11:57

treason. So the

11:58

implementation of terror

11:59

was justified by a leaders as

12:02

a vital response to the exigencies

12:04

of war.

12:05

Second, related to the exigencies

12:08

of war, was economic mobilization

12:10

and the marshaling of resources

12:12

by the state.

12:14

Among those most frequently targeted by

12:16

revolutionary terror were not just

12:18

political partisans or foreign enemies, but

12:20

something else. hoarders,

12:22

speculators, profiteers, People

12:25

who were undermining the revolution's

12:28

economic mobilization, people who

12:30

refused to hand over grain or

12:32

sell at a price below what they thought reasonable.

12:34

People

12:34

who would not give up their tools or their

12:37

livestock or their fodder to some passing

12:39

army or political agents.

12:41

If a revolutionary comes under radical control,

12:43

there's also usually an amount of confiscation

12:45

and redistribution of land going

12:47

on, and

12:48

anybody who opposes that. is

12:50

often gonna find themselves on the wrong side

12:52

of a machine gun or a guillotine.

12:54

Now in those

12:57

economic cases, we're often dealing with people

12:59

motivated by economic self interest

13:01

rather than political ideology. So

13:03

to turn to our third point, is

13:05

the necessity of clearing out those rival

13:08

political factions and parties, the people who are

13:10

driven by political ideology. This

13:12

is the liquidation of the Geronins, the

13:15

trial of the SRs. It's

13:16

very important to paint these rival

13:19

groups as totally illegitimate, so

13:21

as to not challenge the Germany of

13:23

those radicals who have seized power,

13:25

whether it's the mountain or the Bolsheviks.

13:27

It's

13:27

vital for the radicals who,

13:29

as we have noted, are a very small group,

13:31

to

13:31

identify themselves one to

13:34

one with the greater revolutionary

13:36

struggle.

13:37

No other group can be allowed to have

13:39

a legitimate claim to the revolution. and

13:41

anyone who does and is

13:42

liable to find themselves on the wrong side of

13:44

a machine gun or

13:45

a guillotine. Now,

13:48

this

13:48

relates to the fourth point, which is that

13:50

the regime must eventually establish its

13:52

own preponderance of force over

13:54

the society. That's the whole

13:56

basis of political sovereignty. The

13:59

first wave of the revolution broke the ASEAN

14:01

regime's claim, but eventually

14:02

the post revolutionary chaos is going

14:04

to have to give way to something resembling a

14:07

new order. If the radicals

14:08

won their contest with the moderates,

14:10

then obviously the moderates were unable to

14:13

establish such a preponderance of force for

14:15

themselves. And as

14:16

the radicals take over in a hostile,

14:18

dangerous and chaotic time, they

14:20

need

14:20

to bring down some kind of violent hammer

14:22

to establish that we are now

14:24

sovereign. and

14:25

the way that you know that we're sovereign is that

14:28

we can lock you up or kill you whenever

14:30

we want. A ray of

14:32

terrorism that's partly about making

14:34

society well and truly afraid of challenging

14:36

them. That's what sovereignty is

14:38

all about. Fifth,

14:40

and finally, A reign of terror

14:42

has its own ideological logic outside

14:45

immediate threats to the power of the radicals,

14:47

whether it's real or perceived. The

14:49

reign

14:49

of terror is an extension of the radical's

14:51

willingness to liquidate and destroy

14:53

old institutions and start

14:55

their revolutionary society off with a

14:57

clean slate.

14:58

Defenders and beneficiaries of the old

15:01

ways, canon should be cleared out ruthlessly

15:03

so that a good and pure new society

15:05

can be built. And

15:07

because they are radical, that

15:08

list includes not just people actively

15:11

conservative or reactionary, but

15:13

anyone insufficiently committed

15:15

to

15:15

new beginnings. So

15:18

broadly speaking, those are the justifications

15:20

for reigns of terror.

15:21

They answer the question, why do

15:24

we need to have a reign of terror?

15:26

And

15:26

it's not that we have to accept those justifications.

15:29

It's just that those are the justifications

15:31

the radicals themselves believe.

15:33

A bloody weeks on the other hand

15:35

have subtly different justifications. To

15:39

follow-up from that last point, about the

15:41

desire to start new and destroy

15:43

everything old. The top down

15:45

state repression that goes along with a good

15:47

bloody week is the other side of

15:49

that coin. They

15:51

must arrest and deport and confiscate

15:53

and kill not to ensure a

15:55

year zero fresh start, but

15:57

to prevent a year zero fresh

15:59

start. Moderates as

16:01

we've defined them often love a

16:03

good political revolution. but

16:05

they hate the possibility of a social revolution.

16:08

And they are absolutely willing to

16:10

kill to prevent the world from being turned

16:12

upside down. In fact, they're perfectly willing

16:14

to compromise and reconcile with

16:16

many parts of ASEAN regime society,

16:18

but unwilling to compromise with

16:20

the most radical wing of their own revolutionary

16:23

coalition. So it's

16:24

pardons for conservatives and

16:26

firing squads for radicals. But

16:29

the

16:29

principle justification for a bloody

16:31

week is order.

16:33

Where a reign of terror is

16:35

tied to the continuing advance of the

16:37

revolution, Bloody weeks are all

16:40

about restoring order. The

16:42

radical challenge and further extracurricular

16:45

activities by revolutionaries out

16:47

there

16:47

must be declared out of bounds for all

16:49

time. And so the

16:50

radicals who keep challenging and pressing

16:53

the new moderate regime are condemned

16:55

for their criminal behavior, for their

16:57

rioting, their disturbing of the peace,

16:59

destruction of property, and treason. The

17:01

justification vacation for a brutal crackdown on the

17:03

radical wing of the revolutionary coalition rests

17:06

on the need to restore order.

17:09

But just like a reign of terror, this restoration of

17:11

order is about establishing the modern regime

17:13

hold to preponderance of force and a

17:15

monopoly on the legitimate use of

17:18

force. The time has come for

17:20

people to stop taking up arms, stop

17:22

manning barricades, and stop with all these

17:24

irregular solutions to their political

17:26

problems. The moderate regime that's

17:28

in charge right now is in charge.

17:30

You are playing by our rules and

17:32

if you don't like it, there will

17:34

be fatal consequences. And

17:37

this is related to the same kind of clearing

17:39

out of political rivalries that we see in a

17:41

reign of terror. The

17:43

moderates need to poison the legitimacy of the radicals to make

17:46

sure that whatever standing they once had

17:48

amongst the people is destroyed. and

17:50

as much as we think that such behavior is

17:53

only the purview of a radical,

17:55

moderates can get up to some pretty shady

17:57

business in the interest of preserving position

17:59

against

17:59

ideological rivals. Radical

18:01

leaders claiming to represent a better

18:04

truer or less compromised version of the

18:06

revolution must be swept off

18:08

the table. that people must not be allowed to

18:10

hear their alternatives to the

18:12

moderates. And

18:12

if they suggest that revolutionary solutions

18:14

are the answers to their problems,

18:16

there must be fatal consequences.

18:18

So now that

18:22

we have a sense of the whys,

18:24

we can return to the second part of the

18:26

who question. who are the

18:26

victims. Because of the

18:29

question,

18:29

why are we doing this? Set

18:31

the stage for who are

18:33

we doing it too? So

18:36

let's talk about who winds up a victim of

18:38

a reign of terror. These

18:41

terrors of course involve famous names like

18:43

kings and queens and high princes,

18:45

Louis VIteenth and Marie Antoinette, the Romanov

18:48

family. And this is usually the most

18:50

common popular understanding of what a reign of

18:52

terror is. It's

18:54

the people rising up and dispatching

18:56

once and for all the hated benefactors of the

18:58

former regime, ruthlessly

19:00

killing the blood sucking parasite who had

19:02

been rightly overthrown by the

19:04

revolution. But when you actually

19:06

go through the numbers in the list of

19:08

victims, we find that those people small

19:10

minority of the victims. Aristocrats

19:12

are not the most common victims of a reign

19:15

of terror. For

19:16

a very simple reason that by the time the revolution

19:18

has reached the reign of terror phase, most

19:21

of those original benefactors of the

19:23

ASEAN regime, like the old nobility, have

19:25

fled into exile. They are beyond the

19:27

reach of the revolution. Most of the

19:29

French aristocracy had taken up residence

19:31

elsewhere by the time the reign of terror

19:33

came along, Same is true of the old Russian

19:35

nobility. So if they're not

19:37

around to get killed, who is

19:39

getting killed? Well,

19:42

obviously, we should talk about the fact that a lot of people

19:44

getting killed are revolutionary leaders

19:46

who were simply rivals for power of

19:48

those who now happen to be in charge.

19:50

This is Jafir Briseau in the Gerondens against

19:52

Robes beer in the mountain. This is

19:54

the leadership of the SRs against Lenin

19:56

in the Bolsheviks. This

19:59

is where

19:59

the colloquialism about the revolution

20:02

eating its children comes from.

20:04

It's

20:04

there's Rhonda's talking about the

20:06

mountain. And most

20:07

especially, it applies to those overthrown moderates

20:09

now rebranded as reactionaries. Jean

20:13

Sylvain Baier, who stood at the center of the oath

20:15

of the tennis court, was then hauled out

20:16

to the Chamorros to get his head chopped off

20:18

for crimes against the revolution, most

20:21

especially

20:21

the massacre of the Chamorros.

20:24

We

20:24

have the Duke Dorollion turned Felipe Gallatay, whose ambitions in

20:26

money had played such a huge role in seventeen

20:28

eighty seven and seventeen eighty eight and

20:30

seventeen eighty nine. eventually

20:33

executed for treason. May didn't

20:35

give him so much as a thank you

20:38

note. I should

20:38

also add at this point that revolutionary

20:41

terrorists are not directing

20:42

their terror solely from the

20:44

left against everyone to their right.

20:47

What we actually find them doing is creating their

20:49

own new middle and launching

20:51

themselves against their right wing, yes,

20:53

but also against their left

20:56

wing. So obviously, many

20:58

people caught up in the terror or caught up because

21:00

they're conservatives or because they're

21:02

moderates. But others are caught up in the terror

21:04

because they are too radical and

21:06

too extreme. The terror is

21:08

coming from a new center of gravity.

21:10

So in Russia, for example, we could talk

21:12

about left communists, and SR

21:14

maximalists, and anarchists, who

21:16

were targeted by the Bolsheviks along with Liberals and white

21:19

for the same reason that their activities

21:21

were undermining the unity of the revolution

21:23

at a time of foreign and civil

21:25

war. When Rob Spire launched the

21:27

great terror in seventeen ninety four, who

21:29

did he target before he even got to the Cordo

21:31

Yi gang? Left wing embarrassed.

21:34

who were actually more radical than the members of the committee of

21:36

public safety. So beyond

21:40

ideological rivals, We often find a good

21:42

number of foreigners being targeted in all

21:44

of this. It is typically a

21:46

very dangerous thing to be a foreigner

21:48

inside of a revolutionary event. Because

21:50

though you might find temporary excited encouragement and

21:53

a universality of fellow feeling early

21:55

in the revolution, This

21:57

is often eventually gonna be met by a

22:00

paranoid style of revolutionary nationalism,

22:02

where you now might be identified

22:04

with enemies of the revolution because of

22:06

your foreign Revolutions are

22:09

very dicey times for even the

22:11

most apolitical of expatriates.

22:14

But

22:14

most of the victims Most

22:16

of the victims are simply poor

22:19

anonymous commoners, peasants,

22:21

workers, lower class randos

22:23

who run afoul with a regime in one way

22:25

or another, or who simply live in an

22:27

area that happens to be in a state of

22:29

acute unrest, then the government

22:31

decides to order in some internal

22:33

columns. The official tally

22:35

of the official reign of terror is

22:37

packed with victims from the Bondi, for example,

22:40

whether they were engaged in the uprising or

22:42

simply picked up for being in the wrong the

22:44

wrong time. Those who are

22:46

subject to such summary executions, whether

22:48

by drowning, hanging, cannon fired, guillotine,

22:50

or machine gun, Their names escape

22:52

our notice because they were nobodies. For

22:55

every execution of a famous celebrity

22:57

historical figure, there are hundreds or

23:00

thousands of executions of unknown

23:02

commoners. Partly, this can be the

23:04

result of ratcheting up draconian

23:06

capital punishment for the simplest

23:08

of crimes. Lots

23:09

of victims of the French reign of terror were like big

23:11

pockets and thieves, people who had

23:13

just broken the law. If

23:15

you think about the September massacres,

23:17

which were prelude, to the official reign of

23:20

terror. Something like half the people who were killed were

23:22

not aristocrats or enemies of the

23:24

revolution at all. But people simply being

23:26

held for having committed some regular

23:28

old crime.

23:28

A bloody week

23:31

meanwhile, tends to be a little bit

23:33

more focused than all of that. It's

23:36

less about a prolonged period of repression

23:38

hitting out in multiple directions at

23:40

once, and more about a brief and

23:42

sharp blow against the radical of

23:44

the revolutionary coalition. And it is heading

23:46

out especially against those who have recently attempted

23:48

to take up arms against the government in

23:50

the second wave of the revolution.

23:53

So

23:53

after the June rebellion of eighteen thirty two or the

23:55

June days of eighteen forty eight or

23:57

the suppression of the Paris Commune, like after

23:59

the

23:59

Spartacus revolt in Germany,

24:02

The victims tend

24:02

to be politically radical. They

24:05

are targeted for trying to move the

24:07

revolution beyond whatever center the moderates have

24:09

tried to establish and

24:10

unlike a reign of terror is not

24:13

accompanied by a similar attack against

24:15

conservatives, reactionaries, and

24:17

restorationists, unless some group of them also

24:19

attempted to stage some kind of violent

24:21

counterrevolution. In terms

24:23

of economic class and social

24:25

standing, the

24:26

victims of a bloody week tend to come from

24:28

the lower middle classes and lower classes.

24:30

So students, artisans, rank

24:33

and file soldiers and sailors,

24:35

possibly a few professionals and intellectuals

24:37

if they got a little too enthusiastic

24:39

about the radical second wave of the

24:41

revolution. But unlike a reign of terror,

24:43

which can find a number of ranch or

24:45

at least formerly ranch aristocrats,

24:47

as well as lots of comfortable

24:49

ladies and gentlemen, The victims of the

24:51

bloody week are gonna be coming from the poorer

24:54

districts, which doesn't exactly set

24:56

bloody weeks apart from rains of

24:58

terror since rains of terror also involve

25:00

lots of lower class victims.

25:01

But those victims do seem to come

25:04

exclusively from the lower

25:06

classes, and that is different.

25:07

Now

25:09

finally, we come to the question of how

25:12

they did it. What

25:13

are the mechanisms and procedures

25:16

undertaken by the who who are

25:18

perpetrating top down state violence and the

25:20

who who are the victims of that top

25:22

down state violence. But

25:23

when it comes to the reign of terror, the mechanism is usually

25:25

some kind of revolutionary tribunal to

25:28

at least give a

25:28

nominal appearance of revolutionary

25:31

justice. Now

25:32

during the French revolution, revolutionary

25:35

tribunals were set up to do more than

25:37

just give the appearance of justice, and

25:39

there were rules of evidence. But

25:41

when the law of suspects came down, those

25:43

rules were suspended, and we get

25:45

to infamous kangaroo court

25:48

style tribunals. Evidence no longer really matters,

25:50

accusation carries all before it.

25:52

So even as there are judges and prosecutors

25:54

and defendants all playing their

25:57

part, the verdict is predetermined. And

25:59

with ruthless

25:59

efficiency, the accused are turned

26:02

into the executed. But

26:05

for the

26:05

most part, the reign of terror likes to keep up

26:08

the appearance of legality, especially

26:10

when it comes to trying people who are in the dock

26:12

for political reasons. People were not

26:15

hauled before the revolutionary tribunal

26:17

merely for their political leanings.

26:19

The accusation was not we disagree

26:21

with you politically. The

26:23

accusations for example against Anton

26:25

and Dane Law were that they were involved

26:27

in a corrupt self dealing scandal with a

26:29

certain state owned company. which they

26:31

had nothing to do with. But it's not like the

26:33

committee and public saying was just saying, oh, these

26:35

people pose a political threat to our power so they

26:37

must be dispatched with. It

26:39

was far

26:40

more that they were corrupt, that

26:42

they were profiting from the revolution at the

26:44

extent of the people. One of the

26:46

most common accusations we find

26:48

are collaboration with foreign enemies

26:50

no matter how

26:50

spurious or absurd the charge.

26:53

And so for example,

26:53

as with Stalin's purges in the

26:56

nineteen thirties, have inner admitting

26:58

that they colluded with the imperialist capitalist

27:00

to overthrow the revolution. Even

27:02

if such accusations are literally

27:05

unbelievable, It is necessary

27:07

to establish them so as to discredit

27:09

these leaders, which is, as I said, one of

27:11

the key goals of a reign of terror to make sure

27:13

that the party in power is recognized as

27:16

the only legitimate representative

27:18

of the revolution. So you

27:20

don't accuse them of supporting the wrong

27:23

political policies you accuse them of colluding with

27:25

enemies of the state.

27:27

A bloody week's can

27:29

use the same kind of legal procedures And

27:32

though there is certainly quite a

27:34

bit more fidelity to objective facts

27:36

and following something like the rule of law

27:38

in bloody week procedures, there is still something

27:40

very perfunctory and summary about

27:42

the nature of the justice being dispensed.

27:45

Since mass arrest and processing of

27:48

detainees unfolds quickly and sometimes

27:50

haphazardly. And it just really doesn't matter

27:52

if somebody who's really innocent gets

27:54

found guilty. But that

27:56

said, there is some attempt to

27:58

limit the harshest penalties to those who were,

27:59

for example, caught with arms in hand

28:02

or who were recognized as the leaders

28:04

of some interaction. In these

28:05

cases, the

28:06

crimes don't necessarily have to be

28:09

manufactured. Because the bloody week is taking place

28:11

in the aftermath of a failed revolutionary

28:13

challenge to the government, and

28:14

it's much easier in that case to accuse and prosecute somebody

28:17

for participation in a fail coup

28:19

when they are caught with a gun in

28:21

their hand. But it

28:22

is worth pointing out that those who are

28:25

rounded up and tried by a moderate

28:27

regime's court and subsequently

28:29

sentenced to detention or deportation

28:31

or execution, are

28:32

there after a period when martial law

28:35

had been declared? And

28:37

plenty of

28:37

people who surrendered or laid down

28:40

their arms were not arrested and processed

28:42

according to the regular rules of

28:44

law, but instead came under the immediate

28:46

jurisdiction of military officers operating

28:48

under that martial law. And

28:50

so before the polite niceties of an organized criminal

28:52

court come into play, many

28:54

radical

28:54

leaders and followers find themselves primarily

28:57

shot on-site. rather

28:58

than being processed at all. The vast

29:00

majority of those killed in action during the

29:02

bloody week were not killed during an

29:04

exchange of fire, but

29:06

in summary executions in the street after

29:09

surrendering or being

29:11

arrested. Now there are

29:13

plenty of difference between rains of

29:15

terror and bloody weeks. A bloody

29:17

week does tend to be of shorter duration

29:20

and more limited in scope and more

29:22

limited in who it's targeting. The

29:24

reign of terror tends to go on for longer

29:26

and be a more encompassing blanket

29:28

over society. Thus difficult,

29:30

given conflicting historical evidence to know for sure

29:33

who counts as a victim in the reign of terror

29:35

or a bloody week, and what the final

29:37

numbers for such activities actually

29:39

were. But it also seems that a ray of

29:41

terror often involves more suspects,

29:43

more defendants, and more execution than

29:45

a bloody weak will. A bloody week

29:47

also has a tendency to directly

29:49

hit a group that has recently attempted

29:51

to stage some kind of insurrectionary coup

29:54

d'etat and so it under purview of a sovereign regime

29:56

defending itself from an illegal revolt

29:59

as opposed to a reign

29:59

of terror. which

30:01

is more ideologically driven and is attempting to

30:03

use their violence to establish entirely

30:05

new political economic and social

30:07

norms among other things.

30:10

So I have not come here to say that rains of terror

30:12

and bloody weeks are morally and

30:14

politically equivalent. But they

30:17

are both expressions of the same moment in

30:20

a revolution. When the

30:22

revolutionary regime uses the power of the state

30:24

in murderously violent ways in an

30:26

attempt to establish permanent ascendancy

30:28

over the society in question. And

30:30

more importantly, that these murderously violent

30:32

acts are committed against other factions

30:34

of the original revolutionary coalition.

30:37

In both cases, this is

30:39

the revolution devouring its

30:42

children. and

30:43

that is something that does

30:44

seem to inevitably occur in

30:47

every revolution.

30:51

So we

30:51

are approaching the end of this

30:53

final project of appendices to the revolution's

30:56

podcast. We've

30:58

gone through many stages, and one of the key

31:00

through lines from beginning to end is

31:02

that chaos has

31:04

prevailed. Old political and legal

31:06

structures no longer have the force that they

31:08

once did. The society engulfed

31:10

in revolution grapples with almost

31:13

continuous uncertainty and in security.

31:16

Violence and criminality rise, disorder

31:18

seems to rain.

31:19

And so next week,

31:21

as we approach the final stages of both

31:23

revolution and the revolution's

31:26

podcast. We will talk about why it is that at the

31:28

end of every revolution, We

31:30

always seem to meet a

31:31

revolutionary dictator.