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The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution: Some Suggestive Analogies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Isaac Deutscher
Isaac Deutscher
Affiliation:
Editorial staffs of the London Economist
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Extract

An eminent French historian once wrote: “Consider the revolutions of the Renaissance: in them you will find all the passions, all the spirit, and all the language of the French Revolution.” With some reservations, one might also say that if one considers the Great French Revolution, one can find in it the passions, the spirit, and the language of the Russian Revolution. This is true to such an extent that it is absolutely necessary for the student of recent Russian history to view it every now and then through the French prism. (The student of the French Revolution, too, may gain new insights if occasionally he analyzes his subject in the light of the Russian experience.) Historical analogy by itself is, of course, only one of the many angles from which he ought to approach his subject; and it may be downright misleading if he merely contents himself with assembling the points of formal resemblance between historical situations. “History is concrete”; and this means, among other things, that every event or situation is unique, regardless of its possible similarity to other events and situations. In drawing any analogy, it is therefore important to know where the analogy ends. I hope that I shall not offend badly against this rule; and I would like to acknowledge my great debt to the eminent French historians whose works on the French Revolution have helped me to gain new insights into the Russian Revolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , April 1952 , pp. 369 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1952

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References

1 Sorel, Albert, L'Europe et la Révolution Française, 3rd ed., Paris, 1893, Part I, p. 224.Google Scholar (This and following passages from the French are the editor's translation.)

2 Ibid., pp. 224–25.

3 This idea was, of course, developed before Sorel by Alexis de Tocqueville in his L'Ancien Régime.

4 Sorel, , op. cit., p. 3.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., pp. 544–45.

6 Stalin, p. 530.

7 Sorel, , op. cit., pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 548.

9 The reader will find a more detailed discussion of this point in Stalin, Chapters XIII and XIV.

10 Sorel, , op. cit., p. 547.Google Scholar

11 I was brought up in Poland, one of Napoleon's satellite countries, where even in my day the Napoleonic legend was so strongly alive that, as a schoolboy, I wept bitter tears over Napoleon's downfall, as nearly every Polish child did. And now I live in England, where most schoolchildren, I am sure, still rejoice over the story of the defeat of Napoleon, that villain of the English traditionalist historians.

12 sorel, , op. cit., pp. 541–42.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., p. 5.

14 Stalin, p. 554.

15 For instance, see Byrnes, James F., Speaking Frankly, New York, 1947, p. 228.Google Scholar

16 In The Times of London, a Special Correspondent wrote on his return from Peking: “… there is much evidence to suggest that the Kremlin did not anticipate the sweeping victory which Chinese Communism was so soon to gain. … As late as July, 1948, the Russians neither expected nor desired an immediate Communist victory in China. In that month the Chinese Communist Party held a conference to discuss plans for the coming autumn campaign. The advice from Russia was to continue guerrilla warfare for the coming year in order to weaken America, who was expected to continue to pour arms into China in support of the Kuomintang. Russia opposed any plan to end the civil war by taking the large cities. Russian advice was rejected by this conference, the contrary policy was adopted. … ”The Times, June 27, 1950. Similar reports have appeared in many other papers.

17 Blanc, Louis, Histoire de Dix Ans, 10th ed., Paris, n.d., I, 135.Google Scholar