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Stages of the 1848 revolution in France. French Revolution (1848)

Revolution of 1848 in France(fr. Revolution Francaise de 1848 listen)) - the peasant revolution in France, one of the European revolutions of 1848-1849. The tasks of the revolution were the establishment of civil rights and freedoms. It resulted on February 22, 1848, in the abdication of the once liberal King Louis Philippe I and the proclamation of the Second Republic. In the further course of the revolution, after the suppression of the social revolutionary uprising in June 1848, Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president of the new state.

Prerequisites

Louis Philippe in 1845

François Guizot

Chamber of Deputies under Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe as Gargantua devouring the wealth of the people. Caricature by O. Daumier

Louis Philippe came to power in 1830 during the bourgeois-democratic July Revolution, which overthrew the reactionary Bourbon regime in the person of Charles X. The eighteen years of the reign of Louis Philippe (the so-called July Monarchy) were characterized by a gradual departure from the ideas of liberalism, more frequent scandals and increasing corruption. Ultimately, Louis-Philippe joined the reactionary Holy Alliance of the Monarchs of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Prussia. Although republican slogans dominated among the barricade fighters of 1830, it was not just the bourgeoisie, and not just the big bourgeoisie, that ultimately owned the fruits of their victory, but one faction of the bourgeoisie - the financiers. The words of the banker Lafitte after the proclamation of the Duke of Orleans as king - "from now on the bankers will reign!" turned out to be prophetic.

By the mid-1840s, there were signs of a social and legal crisis in France. Despite the growing industrial revolution, mass bankruptcies became more frequent, the number of unemployed increased, and prices constantly rose. In 1845-1847, the country suffered severe crop failures. “King-bourgeois”, “people's king”, Louis-Philippe no longer suited only the common people (legends about his “simplicity” and populist walks along the Champs Elysees without security with an umbrella under his arm quickly got tired of the common people), but also the bourgeoisie. The greatest dissatisfaction was caused by the established qualification order of suffrage, in which those who paid 200 francs of direct taxes enjoyed active suffrage (the right to elect), and 500 francs - passive (the right to be elected); in total, thus, by 1848 there were 250 thousand voters (out of 9.3 million adult men - that is how many voters became with the introduction of universal suffrage after the revolution).

In fact, parliament was elected, and even more so elected to it, by the big bourgeoisie. Louis Philippe patronized his relatives and friends, mired in financial scams and bribes. The attention of the government was drawn to the monetary aristocracy, which the king gave more preference to than the common people: to senior officials, bankers, large merchants and industrialists, for whom the most favorable conditions were created in politics and trade. In the interests of the financial bourgeoisie, the state was artificially kept on the brink of bankruptcy (extraordinary public spending under Louis Philippe was twice as high as under Napoleon, who was constantly at war), which made it possible for financiers to lend to the state on extremely unfavorable terms for the treasury. The top of the bourgeoisie was also enriched by various kinds of contracts, especially railway contracts, access to which was acquired through corruption, and securities fraud, ruining small investors and based on knowledge of insider information available to deputies, members of the government and their entourage. All this resulted in a number of corruption scandals, especially in 1847, which created in society an attitude towards the ruling group as a solid gang of thieves and criminals. According to Karl Marx, “The July Monarchy was nothing but a joint-stock company for the exploitation of the French national wealth; its dividends were distributed among ministers, chambers, 240,000 electors and their henchmen. Louis-Philippe was the director of this company<…>This system was a constant threat, constant damage to trade, industry, agriculture, shipping, to the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie, which in the July days wrote on its banner gouvernement à bon marché - cheap government "

All this caused growing dissatisfaction with the July regime, in which the workers merged with their masters - representatives of the industrial bourgeoisie, who were in opposition to the kingdom of the bankers. In parliament, this discontent took the form of speeches by the so-called "dynastic" (Orléanist) opposition - led by Adolphe Thiers and Odillon Barrot. The main point of dissatisfaction of the bourgeoisie was the extremely high electoral qualification, which cut off from political life a significant part of this class, as well as representatives of the free professions associated with it. As a result, the belief spread widely that the electoral system must be changed. In the Chamber of Deputies, the demand to expand the suffrage was increasingly heard. The intelligentsia demanded the provision of such for "talents" (people of free professions), demands were made for lowering the qualifications, and finally the most radical party, led by Ledru-Rollin (the only radical Republican in parliament), demanded universal suffrage. However, the king stubbornly rejected any idea of political change. These sentiments were supported in him by the most influential minister of the last seven years of his reign - Francois Guizot, who became the head of the cabinet in 1847. He refused all the demands of the chamber to lower the electoral qualification.

It is not surprising that in those years more than ten attempts were made on the life of the king. They were committed both by members of secret societies (for example, Fieschi from the "Society for the Rights of Man" Auguste Blanqui, who shot the king on July 28, 1835), and by loners who shared the ideas of the radicals. The level of hatred in society towards the ruling monarchy grew rapidly. In 1840, Georges Darmes, who made an attempt on the life of the king, who got a job as a polisher in the palace, was asked during the investigation what his profession was. "Slayer of tyrants," he answered proudly. “I wanted to save France.”

The economic crisis of the autumn of 1847 hit all sections of society, except for the financial oligarchy - from the big industrial bourgeoisie to the workers, exacerbating the general dissatisfaction with the existing situation. By the end of 1847, as a result of the crisis, up to 700 thousand workers found themselves on the street; unemployment in industries such as furniture and construction reached 2/3. For the workers, the crisis was doubly unbearable, as it came against the backdrop of a famine caused by a crop failure in 1846 and a potato disease - in 1847 food prices doubled, it came to food riots with the defeat of bread shops suppressed by the troops. Against this background, the orgy of the oligarchy of bankers and corrupt officials seemed doubly unbearable.

K. Marx describes the social atmosphere on the eve of the revolution as follows: “Factions of the French bourgeoisie that did not participate in power shouted:“ Corruption! ”The people shouted:“ À bas les grands voleurs! A bas les assassins!<Долой крупных воров! Долой убийц!>“When, in 1847, on the highest stages of bourgeois society, those same scenes were publicly played out that usually lead the lumpen proletariat to the dens of debauchery, to almshouses and insane asylums, to the dock, to penal servitude and to the scaffold. The industrial bourgeoisie saw a threat to their interests, the petty bourgeoisie was full of moral indignation, the imagination of the people was outraged. Paris was flooded with pamphlets<…>who, with more or less wit, exposed and denounced the dominance of the financial aristocracy" .

The occasion for a massive outburst of indignation was not long in coming.

Opposition to 1848

Armand Marra

The forces opposing the regime were divided into: "dynastic opposition", that is, the liberal part of the Orleanists, dissatisfied with the overly conservative line of Guizot, right-wing republicans and left-wing republicans.

leader dynastic opposition was Odilon Barrot, who put forward the slogan: "Reform to avoid revolution." Adolphe Thiers joined the dynastic opposition with his supporters, who in the 1830s was one of the pillars of the regime, but then pushed aside by the more right-wing Guizot. An indicator of the crisis of the regime was that the journalist Emile Girardin, known for his unscrupulousness and acute political instinct, went over to the side of the opposition, who created a faction of "progressive conservatives" in parliament.

Republican right opposition grouped around the newspaper Nacional, edited by the politician Marra. The most famous contributor to this paper was the deputy and poet Lamartine, who by 1848 was at the height of his popularity, both for his parliamentary eloquence and for his recently published History of the Girondins, an apology for these moderate bourgeois republicans.

Republican left opposition, or “Reds”, united the petty-bourgeois democrats and socialists proper, and grouped around the Reforma newspaper edited by Ledru-Rollin (Ledru-Rollin himself was not a supporter of socialism, but the socialist Louis Blanc, the author of the popular booklet "Organization of Labor"; Friedrich Engels also wrote for it).

Finally, remnants of communist and anarchist secret societies continued to exist, crushed by the end of the 1830s: these remnants were closely infiltrated by police agents provocateurs (as the 1847 trial of the so-called Firebomb Conspiracy showed). The most energetic figures of secret societies, Blanqui and Barbes, were imprisoned after the uprising of 1839. The largest of the secret societies was the Blanquist and communist "Society of the Seasons", numbering up to 600 people; it was headed by a mechanical worker Albert.

Overthrow of the monarchy

Reformist banquets

The anti-regime movement took the form of campaigns for electoral reform, following the pattern of the English Chartists. It got the name reformist banquets. In order to propagate reforms, and at the same time circumvent the strict prohibitions of unions and meetings, first in Paris, and then in large provincial cities, wealthy participants in the reformist movement organized public banquets, the number of "guests" of which, listening to the speeches of the speakers, totaled thousands of people - in other words, under the guise of banquets, rallies of supporters of the reform were actually held. The idea belonged to Odilon Barrot, but the idea was taken up by the Republicans and then by the Radicals, who also began to organize banquets with the participation of workers and socialist orators such as Louis Blanc. If at the banquets organized by the moderate opposition, the demands did not go beyond halving the electoral qualification and granting voting rights to "talents", then at the banquets of the "Reforms" group they openly talked about universal suffrage, which the radicals considered as their main goal, and the socialists - as an indispensable precondition for the restructuring of social relations. So, at a banquet on November 7 in Lille, toasts were raised "for the workers, for their inalienable rights" to which Ledru-Rollin replied: “The people are not only worthy of representing themselves, but ... they can be represented sufficiently only by themselves”. Guizot and the king, however, did not see these banquets as a serious threat. “Get rich, gentlemen, and you will become voters,” Guizot mockingly declared in Parliament to the supporters of reform. Nevertheless, Guizot made the decision to end the banqueting campaign, which ultimately caused the explosion.

Banquet on February 22

On February 14, the Minister of the Interior, Duchâtel, banned a banquet scheduled for February 19 by the committee of the XII arrondissement (Faubourg Saint-Marceau), with the participation of officers of the National Guard. The organizers tried to save the day by moving the banquet to the 22nd and to a relatively remote corner of the Champs Elysees. The banquet commission challenged the government's right to ban a private event. 87 deputies promised to attend the banquet and scheduled a meeting with the participants at noon on February 22 at the church of St. Magdalen, from where the procession was to move to the place of the banquet. The Commission called on the National Guardsmen to come to this meeting in uniform but without weapons. At the same time, the organizers expected, having solemnly appeared at the place of the banquet and found a policeman there with a ban order, to express a formal protest, disperse and then file an appeal with the court of cassation. However, for the Cabinet, the case was of a fundamental nature, since it was connected with the issue of preventing meetings in any form, including in the form of a procession. As a result, on February 21, in Parliament, Duchatel declared a complete ban on the banquet, in harsh tones threatening the organizers, among whom were many officers of the national guard, that in case of disobedience he would use force. In the evening, the organizers, after the meeting, decided to cancel the banquet. On the night of February 22, a government announcement banning the banquet was pasted up. But this could no longer affect anything: “the machine is running,” as Odillon Barrot put it in the House. On the evening of February 21, great excitement reigned in Paris, crowds gathered, and P. Annenkov recalled that he had heard some young man say: “Paris will try its luck tomorrow.” The leaders of the moderate opposition were terrified, expecting quelling of the unrest and inevitable reprisals: Mérimée likened them to "riders who have sped their horses and do not know how to stop them." The leaders of the radicals looked at the matter in the same way: at a meeting held in the editorial office of Reforma, they decided not to participate in the speech, so as not to give the authorities a reason to crush their party, and the newspaper printed an appeal to Parisians to stay at home. Thus, none of the opposition politicians believed in the possibility of a revolution.

The beginning of the uprising

On February 22, early in the morning, a crowd of people gathered on the Place de la Madeleine, designated by the organizers of the banquet as a gathering place. At first they were mostly workers, then they were joined by a procession of students. With the advent of the students, the crowd acquired a certain organization and headed for the Bourbon Palace (where the parliament was sitting) singing the Marseillaise and shouting: “Down with Guizot! Long live the reform! The crowd broke into the Bourbon Palace, which, due to the early hour, was still empty, then moved to the Capuchin Boulevard to the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the residence of Guizot (he, in addition to the government, also headed this ministry); there she was thrown back by the troops, but did not disperse, but went to other points in the city. Attempts by the dragoons and the police to disperse the crowd were unsuccessful. By evening, the crowd had smashed the weapons shop and in places began to build barricades. At 16:00, the king issued an order for the entry of troops into Paris and the mobilization of the National Guard. However, on February 22, the events still gave the impression of ordinary street riots for Paris at that time, and the revolution that had not begun in any way. "Parisians never make a revolution in winter," Louis-Philippe said on this occasion. The editors of Reforma on the evening of February 22 also agreed that "the state of affairs is not such as to make a revolution."

The real uprising began on the night of February 23, when the workers' quarters of Paris (traditionally Republican-minded) were covered with barricades. As it was calculated later, more than one and a half thousand barricades appeared in the capital. Crowds of workers broke into gun shops and took possession of weapons. Louis Philippe did not want to use troops to suppress the uprising, since the army was unpopular and he feared that, seeing that the king followed in the footsteps of Charles X, the National Guard would support the uprising and there would be a repetition of the events of 1830. Therefore, he sought to end the unrest by the forces of the National Guard itself. However, the national guardsmen, who came from the bourgeois quarters and themselves supporters of the electoral reform, flatly refused to shoot at the people, and some of them even went over to the side of the rebels. As a result, the unrest only intensified. The main demands that united all dissatisfied Parisians were the resignation of Guizot and the implementation of reforms.

Government resignation and shooting on Boulevard des Capucines

Shooting on the Boulevard des Capucines. Lithography

The transition of the National Guard to the side of the rebels frightened the monarch, and Louis-Philippe accepted the resignation of the Guizot government at 3 pm on February 23 and announced his decision to form a new cabinet of dynastic opposition figures with the participation of Thiers and Odillon Barrot. Count Louis-Mathieu Molay was slated as premier. The news of Guizot's resignation was greeted with enthusiasm by the bourgeois-liberal wing of the movement, which considered its goals achieved and called on the barricade fighters to stop fighting. Republicans, whose main support was the workers, as well as the petty bourgeoisie and students, did not accept this replacement. “Molay or Guizot is all the same to us,” they said. “The people of the barricades hold weapons in their hands and will not lay them down until Louis Philippe is overthrown from his throne.”. However, the reassurance of the mass of the bourgeoisie left the Republicans isolated and, in the long run, threatened to turn the National Guard against them. Although the barricades were not dismantled, the tension subsided. Moreover, the people began to disarm the demoralized troops, who gave up their weapons without resistance.

However, in the evening, at about 10:30 pm, on the Boulevard des Capucines near the Hotel Vendome, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was located, the troops opened fire on the crowd, which immediately brought down the situation and led to an explosion that destroyed the monarchy.

The details of this incident remain a matter of dispute to the present day. Both sides blamed each other: military Republicans of unprovoked execution of an unarmed crowd, the military claimed that the shooting began after a pistol shot was fired at the troops from the crowd. Regardless of who actually fired the first shot, which served as a signal for a massacre, the situation itself, undoubtedly, was the fruit of a conscious provocation by the Republicans, who were striving to aggravate the situation as much as possible.

Marrast delivers a speech over the dead.

Procession with the bodies of the dead.

The crowd, with torches and singing, walked through the streets celebrating the victory, and eventually reached the corner of the street and the Boulevard des Capucines, where Guizot was believed to be in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and began to shout: "Down with Guizot!" The building was guarded by a battalion of the 14th line infantry regiment, which, protecting it, blocked the boulevard. Subsequently, the leaders of the procession claimed that they originally intended to bypass the Boulevard des Capucines, in order to avoid conflict with the troops; however, the crowd turned towards the Foreign Ministry building. A certain Pannier-Lafontaine, a former military man, took responsibility for this: by his own admission, under the influence of someone's words that nothing had been done and as a result the movement would be strangled, he decided to direct the crowd to the ministry and persuaded two torchbearers, who set the direction of the crowd, change the route. When the soldiers blocked the boulevard, protecting the ministry, the crowd began to aggressively press on them, trying to break through to the building, and tried to grab their guns; Pannière-Lafontaine and several other National Guards surrounded Lieutenant Colonel Courant, who commanded the battalion, demanding that he give the order to the troops to part and let the crowd through. Courant refused them and gave the order to attach bayonets. At that moment, a shot rang out, fired by no one knows who. Sergeant Giacomoni testified that he saw a man in the crowd with a pistol aiming at the colonel; a bullet wounded Private Henri, who was standing not far from the commander, in the face. According to other versions, the shot was fired by the soldiers, either by accident or by misunderstanding. One way or another, the shot served as a signal, and the soldiers, who were in a state of extreme nervous tension, spontaneously opened fire on the crowd. More than 50 people were injured, 16 of them were killed. The crowd rushed back, shouting: “Treason! We are being killed!" Soon after, a cart was brought from the editorial office of Nacional (the newspaper of moderate republicans), five corpses were placed on it and they began to carry them along the boulevards, illuminating with a torch, shouting: “Vengeance! People are being killed!" A special impression was made by the corpse of a young girl, who showed the crowd, lifting, some kind of worker.

A crowd of angry people, shouting and cursing, followed the cart. On the boulevards, trees were cut down and omnibuses turned over, placing them in barricades. The uprising flared up with renewed vigor, now the slogan was openly put forward: "Long live the Republic!" In the morning, a proclamation appeared on the walls, drawn up in Reform (the newspaper of the radical Republicans), which read: “Louis Philippe ordered us to be killed, as Charles X did; let him go after Charles X".

Renunciation

Defeat of the Château d'Or post. Painting by E. Hagnauer

In the evening, Louis-Philippe appointed the more liberal Thiers as head of government instead of Molay. In the morning, at the suggestion of Thiers, he finally agreed to propose electoral reform and call early elections for the Chamber of Deputies. But it was too late, the rebels did not agree to anything other than the abolition of the monarchy. It was at the very moment when the king accepted the report of Thiers and made orders for reforms (about 10 a.m.), the rebels broke into the Palais Royal, where they fought with the garrison of the Château d'Or post, which protected the approaches to the palace from the direction of the Palais-Royal. Piano. This clash gave the king some time, during which he first appointed instead of Thiers the even more liberal Odilon Barrot, one of the main orators of the reformist banquets, and then, at the insistence of the family, who understood that this could not save the situation, he signed the abdication. The King abdicated in favor of his grandson, 9-year-old Louis-Philippe, Count of Paris, under the regency of his mother Helene, Duchess of Orléans. After that, he got into a cheap fiakre, harnessed by a single horse, and, under the escort of a cuirassier, went to Saint-Cloud. This happened around 12:00. By that time, the people had captured and burned the Château d'Or barracks and soon broke into the Tuileries, the royal throne was taken to Place de la Bastille and solemnly burned. The king and his family fled to England like Charles X, thus literally fulfilling the wishes of the rebels.

provisional government

Volunteers in the courtyard of the Town Hall

Immediately after the abdication of the king, the Duchess of Orleans with the young Count of Paris appeared at the Bourbon Palace (the seat of the Chamber of Deputies). The Orleanist majority received them on their feet and was ready to proclaim the Count of Paris king, but under the pressure of the crowd that filled the Bourbon Palace, they hesitated; the debate began. At this time, the chamber was filled with a new crowd of armed people, shouting: "Repudiation!" "Down with the ward! We don't need deputies! Get out of the shameless merchants, long live the republic!” The most radical of the deputies, Ledru-Rollin, demanded the creation of a Provisional Government, supported by Lamartine. As a result, the majority of deputies fled, the remaining minority, together with the people who filled the palace, approved the list of the government, which was compiled by the editors of the moderate republican newspaper Nacional. The government was headed by Lamartine. At the same time, radical republicans and socialists gathered in the editorial office of Reform and drew up their list. This list generally coincided with the list of "Nacional", but with the addition of several people, including Louis Blanc and the leader of the secret "Society of the Seasons", the communist Albert.

Following the revolutionary tradition, they went to the City Hall and proclaimed a new government there. Following this, the government of the "Nacional" came to the Town Hall from the Bourbon Palace. As a result, the "Nacional" group and the "Reform" group reached an agreement: the list of "Nacional" was expanded by four new ministers, including Louis Blanc and Albert, who became ministers without portfolio, and Ledru-Rollin, who received the post of Minister of the Interior, and remained in the City Hall . The post of prefect of the Parisian police was approved by another associate of Ledru-Rollin, Cossidière, who had previously obtained it without prior notice: he simply appeared in the prefecture surrounded by armed republicans - his comrades in a secret society and declared himself prefect. The famous physicist and astronomer François Arago, who was a member of Parliament, who joined the Reform circle, received in the new government the positions of military and naval ministers (in the list of Ledru-Rollin he was designated as the Minister of Posts).

Moderate republicans led by Lamartine, and even more so representatives of the “dynastic opposition” who were in the government, did not want to proclaim a republic, arguing that only the whole nation had the right to decide this issue. However, on the morning of February 25, the Town Hall was filled with a mass demonstration led by the communist doctor Raspail, who gave the government 2 hours to proclaim the republic, promising, otherwise, to return at the head of 200 thousand Parisians and make a new revolution. The Republic was immediately proclaimed. However, the demand to replace the tricolor banner (which had discredited itself in the eyes of the workers of Paris during the years of Louis Philippe) with a red banner, Lamartine managed to repel: as a compromise, it was decided to add a red rosette to the shaft. To appease the masses of the provincial bourgeoisie, for whom the word "republic" was associated with memories of the Jacobin terror, the government abolished the death penalty.

Elections to the Constituent Assembly were scheduled for 23 April. In preparation for these elections, the government made two important changes. A decree of 4 March introduced universal suffrage for men over the age of 21. At that moment, no country in the world had such a wide right to vote, not even in England, which considered itself a pioneer of democratic freedoms.

At the same time, however, the Provisional Government alienated the peasantry from itself. France as a whole accepted the news of the revolution and its commissioners, appointed to the departments by Ledru-Rollin instead of the royal prefects, calmly. The main problem of the new government was the problem of financial deficit - since the financial oligarchy no longer wanted to lend to the government, and the government did not want to impose a forced collection on the big bourgeoisie or confiscate the estates of the Orleans, as the radicals proposed. As a result, on the initiative of Garnier-Pages (Minister of Finance, a very moderate Republican of the Nacional circle and a major financier), it was decided to cover the deficit at the expense of the peasants, at a time, for a year, increasing by 45% (45 centimes for each franc) all 4 direct taxes. At the same time, the workers were assured that the tax falls on large aristocratic landowners and reimburses the treasury for the famous billion francs paid to them by the Bourbons (as compensation for losses in the Revolution), while the peasants were explained that the tax was introduced due to the whims of the workers and the costs of socialist experiments with " national workshops. The "45 centime tax" evoked hatred of the republic in the peasants and activated the Bonapartist sympathies that never faded in them (the era of the Empire was remembered by them as a golden age). The collection of the tax led in the summer of 1848 to mass peasant unrest.

The struggle of left and right Republicans

The idea of a "social republic"

Louis Blanc at the Luxembourg Commission

As it turned out, workers and bourgeois republicans had different understandings of the republic itself. Among the workers, the idea of a republic was combined with the idea not only of equality and universal suffrage, but also of social justice and the elimination of poverty, which this republic should provide. This idea was expressed in the slogan: "Long live the republic, democratic and social!".

The ideas of Louis Blanc about the "organization of labor" were especially popular among the workers. In a pamphlet of the same name, Louis Blanc developed the idea that everyone should have the "right to work" and that the state is obliged to ensure this right to citizens by organizing and supporting workers' associations - "national workshops", all the income from which (minus the necessary for production) would belong to working in them. On February 25, a large demonstration of workers appeared at the Town Hall with banners on which was written: "Organization of labor!" - and demanded the immediate establishment of the Ministry of Progress. Of the government, this demand was supported only by Blanc. However, under pressure from the workers, the Provisional Government adopted its first decrees with vaguely socialist declarations, promising to "guarantee the existence of the worker by labor", "to ensure work for all citizens" and recognizing the right and necessity of the workers "to associate with each other in order to enjoy the legitimate fruits of their labor ". Instead of the Ministry of Progress, the government decided to establish a "government commission for the working people", which was to develop measures to improve the condition of the working class. The Luxembourg Palace was assigned to the commission, which is why it received the name "Luxembourg Commission".

With this step, the Provisional Government removed from the Town Hall elements dangerous to it, representing the working suburbs of Paris. The Luxembourg Commission, in addition to developing draft solutions to the labor issue, also acted as a conciliation commission in conflicts between workers and employers (Louis Blanc was a consistent supporter of class compromise, which made him condemn the workers' uprisings both in June 1848 and later during the Commune) . Decrees were adopted to reduce the working day by 1 hour (to 10 hours in Paris and to 11 hours in the provinces), to reduce the price of bread, to provide workers' associations with a million francs left over from Louis Philippe's civil list, to return mortgaged essentials for the poor, about the admission of workers to the National Guard. 24 battalions of "mobile guards" (so-called "mobiles") were created, mainly from marginalized working youth aged 15-20, on a salary of 1.5 francs a day; subsequently, it served as the government's strike force in the suppression of workers' uprisings.

By a decree of February 26, the "National Workshops" were introduced for the unemployed, outwardly - in fulfillment of the ideas of Louis Blanc. In fact, they were organized in order to discredit these ideas in the eyes of the workers, as the Minister of Commerce Marie, who led them, openly admitted: according to Marie, this project "will prove to the workers themselves all the emptiness and falsity of lifeless theories."

In the workshops, workers organized along military lines were engaged exclusively in unskilled work (mainly the work of diggers), receiving for this 2 francs in a day. Although workshops were introduced only in a few large cities, soon more than 100 thousand people worked in them. Over time, the government, under the pretext of the burdensomeness of economically inefficient workshops, lowered wages to 1.5 francs a day and then reduced the number of working days to two per week. For the remaining five days, workshop workers received a franc.

April 16 events

On April 16, a crowd of workers of 40 thousand people gathered on the Champ de Mars to discuss the elections to the General Staff of the National Guard, and from there moved to the Town Hall with demands: "The people demand a democratic republic, the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and the organization of labor through association." The demonstration was organized by clubs and members of the Luxembourg Commission, who sought to expel the Orléanists (members of the "dynastic opposition") from the government and achieve a postponement of the elections to the Constituent Assembly, since, in their opinion (quite justified by events), during hasty elections without prior long-term republican agitation, in the provinces, the conservative forces will win.

A rumor spread in the bourgeois quarters of Paris that the socialists wanted to carry out a coup, liquidate the Provisional Government and put in power a communist government of Louis Blanc, Blanca, Cabet and Raspail.

The Minister of the Interior, Ledru-Rollin, who himself had previously negotiated with his Reform comrades Louis Blanc and the Prefect of Police Cossidières to use a workers' demonstration to expel the Orléanists from the government, after hesitation sided with the government against the socialists and ordered the National Guard to be beaten. The National Guardsmen went to the City Hall with weapons in their hands and shouted: "Down with the communists!". The demonstration ended in vain, and the positions of the socialists in the government were completely undermined.

Events May 15

Harvest failures, famine, reduced production and financial crisis dramatically worsened the situation of workers, causing a series of European revolutions.
The first spark flared up in February 1848 in France. Dissatisfaction with the July Monarchy united various sections of the commercial bourgeoisie and workers. The opposition demanded the continuation of liberal reforms. The Moderate Liberal Party and the Republican Party in the House of Deputies demanded an electoral reform in favor of the middle industrial bourgeoisie. The Republicans and their leader, Ledru Rollin, pushed for universal male suffrage and the restoration of the republic.
The intransigence of the government aggravated the situation in Paris. On February 22, 1848, clashes between the people and the troops and police began to take place in the streets, barricades appeared. On February 24, all the important strategic points of the capital were in the hands of the rebels. The king abdicated and fled to England. The July Monarchy was overthrown.
A provisional government was set up, which included seven right-wing republicans, two left-wing republicans, and two socialists. The actual head of this coalition government was a moderate liberal, romantic poet Lamartine - Minister of Foreign Affairs. The republic was recognized by the clergy and the big bourgeoisie. The compromise reached by the latter determined the character of the first stage of this bourgeois-democratic revolution. .
The provisional government issued a decree on the introduction of universal suffrage, abolished titles of nobility, and issued laws on democratic freedoms. In France, the most liberal political system in Europe was established.
An important achievement of the workers was the adoption of a decree on the reduction of the working day, the creation of hundreds of workers' associations, the opening of national workshops that provided the unemployed with the opportunity to work. However, there was still not enough work for all those in need.
The provisional government, which inherited a huge public debt, tried to get out of the economic crisis by increasing taxes on peasants and small proprietors. This aroused the hatred of the peasants for revolutionary Paris. The big landowners fueled these sentiments.
The elections to the Constituent Assembly on April 23, 1848 were won by the bourgeois republicans. The new government was less liberal, it no longer needed the support of the socialists. The legislation he adopted assumed more stringent beliefs in the fight against demonstrations and gatherings. Repressions began against the leaders of the socialist movement.
The reason for the uprising of the workers in Paris was the decree on June 22 on the closure of the national workshops, which the government had no funds to maintain. On June 23, barricades appeared in the city. The uprising also spread to the suburbs. On the morning of June 24, the Constituent Assembly declared Paris in a state of siege and transferred all power to General Cavaignac. The uprising was put down with the help of artillery. By the evening of June 26, Cavaignac could celebrate his victory. Terror began: 11 thousand rebels were thrown into prison, 3.5 thousand were sent to hard labor.
The uprising of June 23-26, 1848, forced the bourgeoisie to strive for the establishment of a strong government. Elected in May 1849, the Legislative Assembly adopted a constitution, according to which all power was given to the president of the republic. They were elected in December 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon I. This figure suited not only the financial bourgeoisie, but also the peasantry, who believed that the nephew of the great Bonaparte would protect the interests of small landowners.
On December 2, 1851, Louis Napoleon carried out a coup d'état, dissolving the Legislative Assembly and transferring all power to the president (i.e., to himself).

Plan

Plan.

Introduction

1. Revolution of 1848 in France.

2. Revolution in Germany.

3. Revolution in the Austrian Empire.

4. Revolution of 1848 in Italy.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Introduction

In 1848-1849. new revolutions broke out in a number of countries in Western and Central Europe. They covered France, Germany, the Austrian Empire, the Italian states. Never before has Europe known such an intensification of the struggle, such a scale of popular uprisings and a powerful upsurge of national liberation movements. Although the intensity of the struggle was not the same in different countries, events developed differently, one thing was undoubted: the revolution had acquired a pan-European scale.

By the middle of the XIX century. feudal-absolutist orders still dominated the entire continent, and in some states social oppression was intertwined with national oppression. The beginning of the revolutionary explosion was brought closer by crop failures in 1845-1847, the “potato disease”; depriving the poorest segment of the population of the main food product, and developed in 1847. Immediately in several countries, the economic crisis. Industrial enterprises, banks, trading offices were closed. A wave of bankruptcies increased unemployment.

The revolution began in February 1848 in France, then covered almost all the states of Central Europe. In 1848-1849. Revolutionary events took on an unprecedented scale. They merged the struggle of various sections of society against the feudal-absolutist order, for the democratization of the social system, the actions of the workers, for the improvement of the material situation and social guarantees, the national liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples and the powerful unification movement in Germany and Italy.

1. Revolution of 1848 in France

By the end of 1847, a revolutionary situation had developed in France. The misfortunes of the working people caused by capitalist exploitation were even more intensified due to the poor harvest of potatoes and grain and the acute economic crisis that broke out in 1847. Unemployment has taken on a massive character. Among the workers, the urban and rural poor, a burning hatred for the July Monarchy boiled up. In many regions of France in 1846-1847. hunger riots broke out. More and more open dissatisfaction with the "kingdom of the bankers" embraced wide circles of the petty and middle bourgeoisie, and even large industrialists and merchants. The legislative session, which opened on December 28, 1847, was held in a stormy atmosphere. The speeches of opposition speakers denounced the government of Guizot in venality, extravagance, betrayal of national interests. But all opposition demands were rejected. The impotence of the liberal opposition was also revealed during the banquet campaign, when the banquet scheduled for February 28 was banned: the liberal opposition, which was most afraid of the masses, refused this banquet. Part of the petty-bourgeois democrats and socialists, not believing in the forces of the revolution, urged "people from the people" to stay at home.

Despite this, on February 22, tens of thousands of residents of Paris took to the streets and squares of the city, which were gathering points for the forbidden banquet. The demonstrators were dominated by workers from the suburbs and students. In many places skirmishes broke out with the police and troops, the first barricades appeared, the number of which grew continuously. The National Guard shied away from fighting the rebels, and in a number of cases the guards went over to their side.

It would be useful to note that the domestic and foreign policy of the July Monarchy in the 30-40s of the XIX century. gradually led to the fact that the most diverse sections of the population turned out to be in opposition to the regime - workers, peasants, part of the intelligentsia, industrial and commercial bourgeoisie. The king was losing authority, and even some of the Ormanists insisted on the need for reforms. The dominance of the financial aristocracy aroused particular indignation in the country. The high property qualification allowed only 1% of the population to take part in the elections. At the same time, the Guizot government rejected all the demands of the industrial bourgeoisie for the expansion of suffrage. “Get rich, gentlemen. And you will become voters,” was the response of the Prime Minister to supporters of lowering property qualifications.

The political crisis that had been growing since the mid-1940s was exacerbated by the economic woes that befell the country. In 1947, a reduction in production began, the country was swept by a wave of bankruptcy. The crisis increased unemployment, food prices rose sharply, which further worsened the situation of the people and exacerbated dissatisfaction with the regime.

The opposition grew noticeably among the bourgeoisie as well. The influence of the Republican Party has grown. Convinced that the government decided not to make concessions, the opposition was forced to turn to the masses for support. In the summer of 1947, a wide campaign of public political banquets began in France, at which, instead of posts, speeches were made criticizing the government and demanding reforms. The banquet speeches of the moderate Republicans, the politics of the newspapers, and the exposure of the venality of the state apparatus aroused the masses and pushed them to action. The country was on the eve of revolution. On February 23, King Louis Philippe, frightened by the development of events, dismissed the government of Guizot. The news of this was greeted with enthusiasm, and opposition figures were ready to be satisfied with what had been achieved. But in the evening, a column of unarmed demonstrators was fired upon by soldiers guarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Rumors of this atrocity quickly spread throughout the city, rousing the entire working population of Paris to their feet. Thousands of workers, artisans, students built almost one and a half thousand barricades overnight, and the next day, February 24, all the strongholds of the city were in the rivers of the rebels.

King Louis-Philip hastened to abdicate in favor of his young grandson, the Count of Paris, and fled to England. The rebellious people seized the Tuileries Palace, the royal throne - a symbol of the monarchy - was transferred to Place de la Bastille and solemnly burned.

At a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies, the liberals tried to preserve the monarchy, but their plans were thwarted by the people. Crowds of armed rebels burst into the meeting room, demanding the proclamation of a republic. Under their pressure, the deputies were forced to elect a Provisional Government.

The lawyer Dupont de L’er, a participant in the revolutions of the late 18th century in 1830, was elected chairman of the Provisional Government, but in fact it was headed by the moderate liberal Lamartine, who took the post of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The government included seven right-wing republicans, two democrats (Ledru - Rolin and Floccon), as well as two socialists - a talented journalist Louis Blanc and a worker - mechanic Alexander Albert.

On February 25, under pressure from the armed people, the Provisional Government proclaimed France a Republic. Titles of nobility were also abolished, decrees were issued on freedom of political assembly and the press, and a decree on the introduction of universal suffrage for men over 21 years of age. But the government did not touch the state coin, which had developed under the July Monarchy. It was limited only to the purge of the state apparatus. At the same time, the most liberal regime in Europe was established in France.

From the very first days of the revolution, along with general democratic slogans, the workers put forward demands for the legislative recognition of the right to work. On February 25, a decree was passed that guaranteed the workers such a right, proclaiming the obligations of the state to provide all citizens with work, and repealed the ban on the formation of workers' associations.

In response to the demand for the organization of the Ministry of Labor and Progress, the Provisional Government created a "Government Commission for the Working People", which was supposed to take measures to improve the situation of the workers. Lun Blanc became its chairman, A.Alber became its deputy. For the work of the commission, they provided premises in the Luxembourg Palace, without endowing it with either real powers or funds. However, on the initiative of the commission, the Provisional Government created offices in Paris that looked for work for the unemployed. The Luxembourg Commission also tried to play the role of an arbitrator in resolving labor disputes between employers and workers.

To combat mass unemployment, the government went to the organization of public works. In Paris, national workshops were created, where bankrupt entrepreneurs, petty employees, craftsmen and workers who lost their earnings entered. Their work consisted of replanting trees on the Parisian boulevards, excavating, paving the streets. They were paid the same - 2 francs a day. But by May 1848, when more than 100,000 people entered the workshops, there was not enough work in the city for everyone, and workers began to take only 2 days a week (for the rest of the days they paid one franc). By creating national workshops, the government hoped to ease tension in the capital and ensure the workers' support for the republican system. For the same purpose, decrees were issued on the reduction of the working day in Paris from 11 to 10 hours (in the provinces from 12 to 11), and the reduction in the price of bread, the return to the poor of inexpensive things from pawnshops, etc.

The mobile guard of the 24th battalion, one thousand people each, recruited from the declassed elements (tramps, beggars, criminals) was to become the backbone of the new government. "Mobils" - were placed in a privileged position. They received relatively high wages and good uniforms.

The maintenance of national workshops, the creation of a mobile guard, and the early payment of interest on government loans complicated the country's financial situation. In an effort to get out of the crisis, the Provisional Government increased direct taxes on owners (including owners and tenants of land) by 45%, which caused strong discontent among the peasants. This tax not only destroyed the hopes of the peasants to improve their situation after the revolution, but also undermined their confidence in the republican system, which was subsequently used by the monarchists.

In this situation, on April 23, 1848, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in the country. Most of the seats in it (500 out of 880) were won by right-wing Republicans. The Constituent Assembly confirmed the inviolability of the republican system in France, but at the same time decisively rejected the proposal to create a Ministry of Labor. Workers' deputies were forbidden to appear in the meeting room, and the law adopted by the new government threatened with imprisonment for organizing armed gatherings on the streets of the city. General Cavaignac, an opponent of democracy, was appointed to the post of Minister of War.

On May 15, a demonstration of 150,000 took place in Paris demanding that the deputies of the Constituent Assembly support the national liberation uprising in Poland. However, government troops dispersed the Parisians. The revolutionary clubs were closed, but the leaders Albert, Raspail, Blanqui were arrested. The Luxembourg Commission was also officially closed. Cavaignac strengthened the Parisian garrison, pulling new troops into the city.

The political situation became more and more tense. The whole course of events led to an inevitable explosion. On June 22, the government issued an order to dissolve the national workshops. The unmarried men aged 18 to 25 who worked in them were asked to join the army, the rest were to be sent to the provinces to work on land in swampy areas with an unhealthy climate. The decree on the dissolution of the workshops caused a spontaneous uprising in the city.

The uprising began on June 23, covering the working-class districts and the suburbs of Paris. It was attended by 40 thousand people. The uprising broke out spontaneously and had no unified leadership. The battles were led by members of revolutionary societies, foremen of national workshops. The next day, the Constituent Assembly, declaring a state of siege in Paris, transferred full power to General Cavaignac. The government had a huge superiority in forces, one hundred and fifty thousand regular troops of the mobile and national guards were pulled against the rebels. Artillery was used to suppress the uprising, destroying entire neighborhoods. The resistance of the workers lasted four days, but by the evening of June 26, the uprising was crushed. Massacres began in the city. Eleven thousand people were shot without trial or investigation. More than four and a half thousand workers for participation in the uprising were exiled to hard labor in overseas colonies. The June uprising of the Parisian workers was a turning point in the revolution of 1848 in France, after which it began to decline sharply.

After the suppression of the uprising, the Constituent Assembly elected General Cavaignac as head of government. The state of siege continued in Paris. Revolutionary clubs were closed. At the request of the entrepreneurs, the Constituent Assembly canceled the decree on the reduction of the working day by one hour, disbanded the national workshops in the province. At the same time, the decree on forty-five centime tax on owners and tenants of land remained in force.

In November 1848, the Constituent Assembly adopted the constitution of the Second Republic. The constitution did not guarantee the right to work, promised after the February Revolution, and did not proclaim basic civil rights and freedoms. After the suppression of the June uprising, the French bourgeoisie needed a strong government capable of resisting the revolutionary movement. To this end, the post of president was introduced, endowed with extremely broad powers. The president was elected for four years and was completely independent of parliament: he himself appointed and removed ministers, senior officials and officers, commanded the armed forces, and directed foreign policy.

Legislative power was vested in the unicameral parliament - the legislative assembly, which was elected for three years and was not subject to early dissolution. By making the president and parliament independent of each other, the constitution gave rise to an inevitable conflict between them, and by endowing the president with strong power, it gave him the opportunity to crack down on parliament.

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In December 1848, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon I, was elected President of France. In the elections, he won 80% of the vote, enlisting the support of not only the bourgeoisie, who aspired to strong power, but also part of the workers who voted for him so that the candidacy of General Cavaignac would not pass. The peasants (the largest segment of the population) also voted for Bonaparte, who believed that the nephew of Napoleon I would also protect the interests of small landowners. Having become President, Bonaparte tightened the political regime. Republicans were expelled from the state apparatus, and the majority of seats in the Legislative Assembly elected in May 1849 were received by the monarchists, united in the party of order. A year later, the Legislative Assembly passed a new electoral law, which established a three-year residency requirement. About three million people were disenfranchised.

In the ruling circles of France, disillusionment with the parliamentary system grew, and the desire for a firm government that would protect the bourgeoisie from new revolutionary upheavals intensified. Having seized the police and the army, on December 2, 1851, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte carried out a coup d'état. The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and politicians hostile to the president were arrested. Republican resistance in Paris and other cities was crushed by troops. At the same time, to appease public opinion, the president restored universal suffrage. The coup d'etat allowed Louis Bonaparte to completely seize power in the country. On December 2, 1852, the President proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III. 8 million French people voted for the restoration of the empire.

The regime of personal power of the emperor was established in the country. Parliament, consisting of the Legislative Corps, which did not have the right to legislative initiative, and the Senate, appointed by the emperor, did not have real powers. Based on the proposals of the emperor, the laws were developed by the State Council. Sessions of the chambers of parliament were held behind the scenes, reports on them were not published. Ministers were appointed personally by the emperor, and were responsible only to him. The press was under the control of censorship, newspapers were closed for the smallest offense. Republicans were forced to immigrate from France. To protect the interests of large owners, Napoleon III strengthened the bureaucracy, the army, and the police. The influence of the Catholic Church increased.

The Bonapartist regime relied on the big industrial and financial bourgeoisie and enjoyed the support of a significant part of the peasantry. The peculiarity of Bonapartism as a form of government is the combination of methods of military and police terror with political maneuvering between different social groups. Relying ideologically on the church, the Bonapartist regime tried to impersonate a nationwide power.

The government encouraged entrepreneurs, and during the years of the Second Empire (1852-1870) an industrial revolution was completed in France. Having come to power, Napoleon III declared that the Second Empire would be a peaceful state, but in fact, throughout the 18 years of his reign, he pursued an aggressive foreign policy. During these years, France participated in the Crimean War with Russia, in alliance with the Kingdom of Sardinia - in the war with Russia, waged aggressive colonial wars in Mexico, China, and Vietnam.

2. Revolution in Germany

The socio-economic and political development of Germany in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century showed that without eliminating the remnants of the country's feudal fragmentation inherited from the Middle Ages, its further progress is impossible.

The liberal bourgeoisie of the German states demanded the convocation of an all-German parliament and the abolition of Junker privileges. The left, radical wing of the opposition called for the elimination of class distinctions, the proclamation of a republic and the improvement of the material situation of the poor.

The strengthening of the opposition of the bourgeoisie and the simultaneous growth of the activity of the working people at the end of the forties testified to the rapid aggravation of the political situation. The news that a republic had been proclaimed in France only hastened the inevitable revolutionary explosion.

In Baden, neighboring France, demonstrations began on February 27. The Petition filed by liberals and democrats to parliament spoke of freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the introduction of a jury, the creation of a people's militia, and the convening of an all-German national parliament. Duke Leopold was forced to accept most of these demands and introduce liberal ministers into the government. Events in March 1848 also unfolded approximately in the other small states of Western and Southwestern Germany. Everywhere, the frightened monarchs were forced to make concessions and allow opposition figures to power.

Soon, popular unrest swept Prussia as well. On March 3, workers and artisans who took to the streets of Cologne surrounded the town hall and demanded the immediate implementation of democratic reforms. From Cologne, the movement quickly spread east, reaching the Prussian capital by March 7th. From that day on, demonstrations did not stop in the streets and squares of Berlin, which turned from March 13 into bloody clashes between demonstrators and the troops and police.

On March 18, the Prussian King Frederick William IV promised to introduce a constitution, announced the abolition of censorship, and convened a parliament. But clashes between demonstrators and troops continued and on March 18-19 escalated into barricade battles throughout Berlin. The rebels - workers, artisans, students, occupied part of the city, and on March 19 the king was forced to order the withdrawal of troops from the capital.

At the same time, a new government was formed, headed by representatives of the liberal opposition, Kamygauzen and Hanseman. The Berlin burghers created a civil guard and took it upon themselves to maintain order in the city. On May 22 in Berlin, the Constituent Assembly of Prussia was convened, which was supposed to adopt the constitution of the state.

In May 1848, an all-German parliament began its work in Frankfurt-Main, elected on the basis of universal suffrage by the population of all German states. Most of its deputies were the liberal bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia. At parliament meetings, a draft unified constitution for all German states was discussed, the question of the future of Germany, the “Great German” (with the participation of Austria) and “Little German” (without Austria) options for unifying the country was discussed.

But the Frankfurt Parliament did not become an all-German central authority. The government he elected had neither the means nor the authority to carry out any policy. Real power remained in the hands of individual German Monarchs, who had no intention of giving up their sovereign rights. Spontaneous and scattered actions could frighten the ruling classes, but not ensure the victory of the revolution. In addition, the threat of the growing labor movement, increasingly inclined the burghers to compromise with the nobility and the monarchy. In Prussia, after the suppression of an attempted uprising by the Berlin workers, the king already in June 1848 dismissed the liberal government of Camphausen, and soon the next one, the liberal Hamsemann, also fell. In the fall, the reactionaries were again in power, pushing the king to disperse the Constituent Assembly.

In December 1848, the Assembly was dissolved, and following this, the constitution granted by the king was put into effect. It retained the March promise of freedom, but gave the monarch the right to repeal any law passed by the Landtag (Parliament). In May 1849, a new electoral law was adopted in Prussia, dividing voters into three classes according to the amount of taxes paid. Moreover, each class elected an equal number of electors, who, in turn, elected deputies to the lower house of parliament by open voting. A year later, this law became an integral part of the new constitution, granted by the king, which replaced the constitution of 1848.

Meanwhile, in March 1849, the Frankfurt Parliament adopted the Imperial Constitution. It provided for the establishment of hereditary imperial power in Germany and the creation of a bicameral parliament. A special place in the constitution was occupied by the "Basic Rights of the German People". They established the equality of all before the law, abolished privileges and titles of nobility. At the same time, for the first time in history, the Germans were guaranteed basic civil rights and freedoms - the inviolability of the person and private property, freedom of conscience, the press, speech and assembly. All "relations of serfdom" were also abolished, although the peasants had to redeem land duties.

Thus, the conservatives, with the support of the liberals, managed to enshrine the monarchical principle in the constitution, contrary to the demands of the few democrats who insisted on the creation of a single democratic republic. The Frankfurt parliament, in which the "Little German orientation" won, decided to transfer the imperial crown to the Prussian king. But he resolutely refused to accept it from the hands of the assembly created by the revolution. In turn, the monarchs of the German states declared that they refused to recognize the power of the central bodies created on the basis of the constitution.

Republicans and Democrats made an effort to defend the constitution and put it into practice. In May-June 1849 they raised uprisings in defense of the constitution in Saxony, the Rhineland, Baden and the Palatinate. However, they were all suppressed, and in Baden and the Palatinate, Prussian troops participated in the suppression of the uprisings.

The revolution in Germany was defeated, and did not achieve its main goal - the national unification of the country. Unlike the French Revolution of the late 18th century, it remained unfinished: it did not lead to the elimination of the monarchy and other remnants of the Middle Ages. However, many vestiges of feudalism were destroyed. Prussia and other German states had constitutions that provided the population with basic civil rights and freedoms.

The national unification of Germany did not take place democratically. It was replaced by another path of unification, in which the Prussian monarchy played a leading role.

3. Revolution in the Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multinational state. Of the 37 million population of the empire in 1847, 18 million were Slavic peoples (Czechs, Poles, Slovaks), 5 million were Hungarians, the rest were Germans, Italians and Romanians. Therefore, the main task of the revolution brewing in the country was the overthrow of the Habsburg monarchy, the separation of the oppressed peoples from Austria and the formation of independent national states on the ruins of the empire. This was inextricably linked with the task of destroying the feudal system - the semi-serf dependence of the peasants, class privileges and absolutism.

The economic crisis and three and three bad years (1845 - 1847) sharply worsened the situation of the masses. The high cost, the rise in the price of bread and mass unemployment have known an explosive situation in the empire. The impetus for the revolution in Austria was the news of the overthrow of the July Monarchy in France. In early March 1848, the deputies of the Landtag (estates assembly) of Lower Austria and the union of industrialists demanded the convening of an all-Austrian parliament, the resignation of Chancellor Metternich, the abolition of press censorship, and other reforms.

The revolution in Austria began on March 13 with demonstrations and spontaneous meetings of the Viennese poor, students and burghers. Thousands of citizens demanded the immediate resignation of the government and the introduction of a constitution. Clashes between demonstrators and troops began on the streets of the capital, and barricades were built in the city by evening. The students created their own armed organization - the Academic Legion. Some of the soldiers refused to shoot at the people. The Emperor himself hesitated. He was forced to dismiss Metternich, and allowed the Burgesses to form the National Guard. The revolution won its first important victory. The reorganized government included Austrian liberals.

The liberal bourgeoisie, believing that the goal of the revolution had already been achieved, began to call for an end to the struggle and the preservation of "law and order." But the urban lower classes continued to protest, demanding the right to work, higher wages and the establishment of a ten-hour day. A peasant movement for the abolition of redemption payments to landowners spread throughout the country.

By May 1848, the government prepared a draft constitution that provided for the creation of a bicameral parliament in Austria. However, suffrage was limited by a high property qualification, and the emperor could veto all decisions of the Reichstag (parliament). The limitations of the constitution caused a sharp protest of the Viennese democrats, who united around the Political Committee of the National Guard. An attempt by the authorities to dissolve this revolutionary body again aggravated the situation in the capital. On May 15, barricades appeared in the city and the frightened government hurried to withdraw its troops. At night, the imperial court also secretly left Vienna. The lull was interrupted on 26 May when the Minister of War attempted to disarm the Academic Legion. Workers from the suburbs came to the aid of the students, an uprising broke out in the city, and power in Vienna passed into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety. The victory of the revolution in Vienna was facilitated by the fact that the main forces of the Austrian army were at that time in rebellious Hungary and Italy.

In July 1848, the Austrian Reichstag began its work. Although it included quite a few Slavic deputies, including those representing the interests of the peasantry, the leadership at the meetings was seized by the Austrian liberals. This circumstance left an imprint on the nature of the activity of the parliament and on the decisions it took. The Reichstag passed a law on the abolition of feudal-serf relations, but only a small part of the duties were abolished free of charge. Dues and corvee were subject to redemption, and the state compensated the peasants for only a third of the mandatory payments.

The revolution in Austria was accompanied by a powerful upsurge in the national liberation war of the peoples of the empire. So in the Czech Republic, as early as March 1848, mass movements against the Austrian oppression unfolded. A month later, in Prague, the National Committee was created, which practically became the government of the Czech Republic. The peasants achieved the abolition of corvee, the unemployed - the payment of a small allowance. An important event in the public life of the country was the congress of representatives of the Slavic peoples of the empire, created in Prague, in which 340 delegates took part. In May 1848, Austrian troops flooded Prague. The attack of soldiers on a peaceful demonstration of the townspeople became the reason for the Prague uprising, which was brutally suppressed by the Austrian troops on June 17th.

Following Prague, the turn of Vienna and Budapest was bound to come. The suppression of the uprising of Czech patriots and the revolution in northern Italy gave the government determination. But in early October, the troops heading to Hungary were blocked by workers, artisans, and students of the Austrian capital. The soldiers began to fraternize with the people. The crowns stormed the arsenal, the building of the military ministry, the imperial court was again forced to leave the capital. However, the forces were unequal. On October 22, insurgent Vienna was surrounded by Austrian troops, and on November 1, after a fierce assault, the city was taken. After the massacre of the rebels, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favor of Franz Joseph's eighteen-year-old nephew. The new emperor was not bound by the obligations and promises of his predecessor, and began his reign by dissolving parliament and suppressing the revolution in Hungary. In March 1849, Franz Joseph "granted" a new constitution to Austria. But it was canceled after 2 years.

Continuation
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4. Revolution of 1848 in Italy

In the middle of the XIX century, a significant part of Italy was under Austrian rule. Parma Morena and Tuscany were ruled by relatives of the Austrian Habsburgs. In the Roman region, the secular power of the Pope, who was also an opponent of the national unification of the country, and progressive reforms, was preserved. The kingdom of Naples (the kingdom of the two Sicilies) was under the rule of the Bourbon dynasty, and was one of the most backward regions of Italy, where feudal relations completely dominated. The main problem of the social life of the country remained the conquest of national independence, and the political unification of the state. Inextricably linked with this was the task of absolutism and feudal orders.

The crisis, which had been growing since 1846 in the Italian states, developed, in 1848, into violent revolutionary upheavals. The struggle for national liberation and the unification of the country was combined with the speeches of the peasants and the urban poor, the movements of the liberal democratic forces, for civil rights and the convening of parliamentary institutions. All sectors of society participated in the revolution - the liberal nobility, entrepreneurs, students, peasants, workers and artisans. In addition to their will, the monarchs of the Italian states were also drawn into the struggle for the national liberation of the country.

The revolution began with a popular uprising in Palermo (in Sicily) on January 12, 1848, and then spread throughout the island. Power in Sicily passed into the hands of the Provisional Government, which practically got out of obedience to the Bourbons. Events in Sicily gave impetus to popular uprisings in Calabria and Naples. At the end of January 1848, the Neapolitan king Ferdinand II was forced to grant the country a constitution, according to which a bicameral parliament was established and the limited autonomy of Sicily was recognized.

Changes in the non-Polish kingdom stirred up the liberal and democratic forces of Northern and Central Italy. Demonstrations were held everywhere, calls for the struggle for independence, demands for constitutions and civil liberties were heard. As a result, in February-March 1848, constitutions were promulgated in Piedmont, Tuscany, and the Panan regions.

The news of the revolution in Vienna in March 1848 caused powerful anti-Austrian uprisings in the Venetian region and Lombardy. A republic was proclaimed in Venice and a Provisional Government was established. In Milan, for five days (March 18 - March 22), there were stubborn battles between the population of the city and the fifteen thousandth Austrian garrison. Having suffered heavy losses, the Austrians left the city. At the same time, the imperial troops were expelled from Parma and Morena. The successes of the anti-Austrian movement shook the whole country. The fiery fighter for the independence of Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, returned to his homeland from emigration. A native of Nice, a sailor by profession, he was early involved in revolutionary activities. After an unsuccessful attempt at a republican uprising, in Genoa, Garibaldi was forced to leave the country and fight for the independence and freedom of South America for more than ten years. He showed himself to be a talented commander, a man of great courage, and later played a prominent role in the national unification of Italy.

On the crest of a patriotic upsurge, the King of Piedmont, Charles Albert, declared war on Austria, under the slogan of national unification of the country. At the request of the people, the military forces of the Papal States, Tuscany of the Kingdom of Naples, joined him. A significant role in the war was played by numerous detachments of volunteers, including Garibaldi's Red Shirts. However, the first Italian War of Independence ended in failure. Taking advantage of the indecision of the Italian coalition, the commander of the Austrian army, Field Marshal Radetzky, inflicted a serious defeat on the Piedmontese at Custozza, occupied Milan without a fight and forced Charles Albert to sign a humiliating truce in August 1848.

The defeat in the war with Austria caused a new upsurge of the revolutionary movement in the country. Events were especially active in Rome, where a popular uprising broke out in early 1849. Pope - Pius IV fled the city and found shelter in the Neapolitan kingdom. Italian democrats, including Mazzini and Garibaldi, who arrived in the city, urged the Romans to proclaim a republic in the city. Under pressure from the democrats, elections were held in Rome for the Constituent Assembly. In February 1849, at its first meeting, the deputies passed a law depriving the Pope of secular power, and proclaimed the Roman Republic. Then a number of democratic reforms were carried out: the nationalization of church lands (some of them were leased to peasants), the separation of the school from the church, and the introduction of a progressive tax on industrialists and merchants. However, the Republican government, led by Giuseppe Mazzini, simultaneously declared that it would not allow social war and the unjust right to private property.

In March 1849, the Piedmontese troops resumed hostilities against Austria, but were again defeated. King Charles Albert abdicated in favor of Victor's son Emmanuel and fled abroad. The outcome of the war was a tragedy for many regions of Italy. The Austrian authorities occupied Tuscany, and elevated their protege Leopold II to the throne. By May 1849, the uprising in Sicily was crushed, and all constitutional reforms in the Kingdom of Naples were actually annulled.

Against the Roman Republic, the troops of Austria, Spain, France, and Naples came out. For more than two months, the Romans defended their city, but in July the power of the pope was restored to the French bayonets. Mazzini and many other Republicans were forced to emigrate. Pursued by enemies, he left his homeland and Garibaldi. After the overthrow of the revolutionary government in Tuscany and the death of the Roman Republic, the republicans still held out only in Venice. But she didn't last long either. Added to the horrors of the Austrian bombardments were the disasters of famine and cholera. In August 1849, the surviving residents of the city laid down their arms. The Austrian Empire regained Lombardy, the Venetian region, restored its influence in Tuscany, and not in the North of the Papal States.

The revolution in Italy was defeated, and did not solve its tasks - the liberation and unification of the country, the implementation of democratic changes in society. Due to the fragmentation of the country, as in Germany, revolutionary actions in different parts of Italy did not occur simultaneously, which contributed to the victory of the forces of reaction. The counter-revolution in Italy was supported by the direct intervention of the European powers. However, the events of 1848-1849 significantly shook the feudal foundations and absolutist regimes in Italy, and became the impetus for the subsequent development of the national liberation and unification movement.

Conclusion

Thus, summing up the work, we found out that in 1848-1849 the countries of Western and Central Europe were engulfed in revolutions. Europe experienced an aggravated war, popular uprisings, and national liberation movements. In France, Germany, the Austrian Empire and Italy, events developed differently, however, the revolution acquired a pan-European character. Preceded by the revolution in all countries, a difficult economic situation caused by famine, crop failures, unemployment. Revolutionary events united various segments of the population against the feudal-absolutist order.

Bibliography

The World History. Author - composition: Ya. M. Berdichevsky, S.A. Osmolovsky. - 3rd ed. - Zaporozhye: Premier, 2000. - 432p.

Civil War in France. From the history of the revolution. Sobr. op. - M.; 1969

Revolution in 1848 - 1849 / under. Ed. F.V. Potemkin and A.I. Milk in 2 volumes. - M.; 1952

Sobul A. From the history of the Great Bourgeois Revolution of 1789 - 1894. And revolutions in France. - M.; 1969

Introduction

Revolution of 1848 in France

It would be useful to note that the domestic and foreign policy of the July Monarchy in the 30-40s of the XIX century. gradually led to the fact that in opposition to the regime were the most diverse sections of the population - workers, peasants, part of the intelligentsia, the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie. The king was losing authority, and even some of the Ormanists insisted on the need for reforms. The dominance of the financial aristocracy aroused particular indignation in the country. The high property qualification allowed only 1% of the population to take part in the elections. At the same time, the Guizot government rejected all the demands of the industrial bourgeoisie for the expansion of suffrage. “Get rich, gentlemen. And you will become voters,” was the response of the Prime Minister to supporters of lowering property qualifications.

King Louis - Philip hastened to abdicate in favor of his young grandson, the Count of Paris, and fled to England. The rebellious people seized the Tuileries Palace, the royal throne - a symbol of the monarchy - was transferred to Place de la Bastille and solemnly burned.

The lawyer Dupont de L "er, a participant in the revolutions of the late 18th century of 1830, was elected chairman of the Provisional Government, but in fact it was headed by the moderate liberal Lamartine, who took the post of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The government included seven right-wing republicans, two democrats (Ledru - Rolin and Floccon ), as well as two socialists - a talented journalist Louis Blanc and a worker - mechanic Alexander Albert.

Legislative power was granted to the unicameral parliament - the legislative assembly, which was elected for three years and was not subject to early dissolution. By making the president and parliament independent of each other, the constitution gave rise to an inevitable conflict between them, and by endowing the president with strong power, it gave him the opportunity to crack down on parliament.

The main events of the revolution of 1848 - 1849 in France

Introduction

On the eve of the revolution

February period of the revolution

Establishment of a bourgeois republic

June uprising of Parisian workers

Election of Louis Napoleon as President

Rise of the democratic movement in the spring of 1849 Defeat of the revolution

Conclusion

List of sources and literature

Introduction

The year 1848 was one of the most turbulent in the history of the 19th century. Revolutions and national liberation movements swept almost all the countries of Europe: France, Germany, the Austrian Empire, the Italian states. Never before has Europe known such an intensification of the struggle, such a scale of popular uprisings and a powerful upsurge of national liberation movements. Although the intensity of the struggle was not the same in different countries, events developed differently, one thing was undoubted: the revolution had acquired a pan-European scale.

By the middle of the XIX century. feudal-absolutist orders still dominated the entire continent, and in some states social oppression was intertwined with national oppression. The beginning of the revolutionary explosion was brought closer by the crop failures of 1845-1847, the “potato disease”, which deprived the poorest sections of the population of the main food product, and the economic crisis that broke out in 1847 in several countries at once. Industrial enterprises, banks, trading offices were closed. A wave of bankruptcies increased unemployment.

The revolution began in February 1848 in France. The events in France became the spark that ignited liberal uprisings in many European states.

In 1848-1849. Revolutionary events took on an unprecedented scale. They merged the struggle of various strata of society against the feudal-absolutist order, for the democratization of the social system, the workers' protests for the improvement of their material situation and social guarantees, the national liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples and the powerful unification movement in Germany and Italy.

The French Revolution of 1848 remained in the memory of contemporaries and participants mainly as an unsuccessful attempt to implement political democracy and a social republic. For more than a century, it has been considered by world historiography from the same angle of view. The perception of this revolution by its contemporaries and descendants was influenced by events that took place mainly during 1848. Among them are two turning points: the June uprising of the workers in Paris and the Bonapartist coup d'état. They crossed out the hopes of the revolutionaries for the triumph of the ideals of social justice and democracy.

aimof this work is: to consider the significant events of the revolution of 1848 - 1849. in France.

Tasks:

1) consider the events preceding the revolution of 1848;

) to characterize the February period of the revolution;

) to consider how the establishment of the bourgeois republic proceeded;

) characterize the June uprising;

) show how Louis Napoleon was elected president:

) to characterize the events of 1849.

The beginning of the scientific study of the revolution of 1848 was laid by K. Marx and F. Engels. In addition to articles in the New Rhine Gazette, two major works by Marx, published in the early 50s, are devoted to this revolution - “The Class Struggle in France from 1848 to 1850” and The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. In these works, the periodization of the revolution was first given, its character was determined, its course was traced, the role of individual classes and parties in it, the reasons for its defeat and its political lessons were analyzed.

In Soviet historiography, the problems of the revolution of 1848 were fruitfully developed in the works of N. E. Zastenker, A. I. Molok and F. V. Potemkin. Turning to the key moments in the history of the revolution, they subjected to a detailed analysis of the industrial revolution and its socio-economic consequences (F. V. Potemkin), the June uprising of the proletariat (A. I. Molok).

In our work, we used more recent studies, in particular:

general works on world history, the history of Europe and France, as well as the history of the state and law of foreign countries;

the work of A.B. Reznikov devoted to the analysis of the role of the working class in the European revolutions of 1848-1849;

book by A.R. Ioannisyan, dedicated to the revolution of 1848 in France;

a study by R. Farmonov devoted to the development of French social and political thought in the period under consideration;

the work of A. Yu. Smirnov, dedicated to the coup d'etat on December 2, 1851 and Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.

In addition to research, the following sources were used in the work:

texts of revolutionary proclamations;

memoirs of an eyewitness of revolutionary events - the great Russian thinker A. I. Herzen.

revolution france napoleon uprising

1. On the eve of the revolution

Louis Philippe came to power in 1830 during the bourgeois-liberal July Revolution, which overthrew the reactionary Bourbon regime in the person of Charles X. The eighteen years of the reign of Louis Philippe (the so-called July Monarchy) were distinguished by a gradual departure from the ideas of liberalism, increasing scandals and increasing corruption. Ultimately, Louis-Philippe joined the Holy Alliance of the Monarchs of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Prussia. The aim of this union based on the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was to restore the order in Europe that existed before the French Revolution of 1789. This was expressed, first of all, in the renewed dominance of the nobility and the return of its privileges.

By the mid-1840s, there were signs of social and economic crisis in France. Despite the continued industrial boom, mass bankruptcies became more frequent, the number of laid-off and unemployed people increased, and prices constantly rose. In 1847, the country suffered severe crop failures. The “bourgeois king”, the “people's king” Louis-Philippe no longer suited not only the common people (legends about his “simplicity” and populist walks along the Champs Elysees without guards with an umbrella under his arm quickly got tired of the common people), but also the bourgeoisie. First of all, she was angered by the introduction of suffrage, in which votes were no longer equal, but were weighted depending on the income of the voter, which in practice reduced the influence of the bourgeoisie on legislation. Louis Philippe patronized only his relatives and friends, mired in financial scams and bribes. All the attention of the government was turned to the monetary aristocracy, to which the king gave clear preference: to senior officials, bankers, large merchants and industrialists, for whom the most favorable conditions were created in politics and business.

There was a widespread belief that the electoral system needed to be changed. In the Chamber of Deputies, there was an increasing demand for the extension of suffrage to all taxpayers, but the king stubbornly rejected any idea of political change. These sentiments were supported by the most influential minister of the last seven years of his reign, Francois Guizot, who became head of the cabinet in 1847. He refused all the demands of the chamber to lower the electoral qualification.

There is nothing surprising that in those years there were absolutely more than ten attempts on the life of the king. They were committed both by members of secret societies and by illiterate loners who had heard enough of the propaganda of the radicals.

In the summer of 1847, the opposition circles of the French bourgeoisie launched a "banquet campaign" in Paris. At banquets, speeches were made that criticized government policies. The initiative for the campaign came from a moderate-liberal party, dubbed the "dynastic opposition". This party did not go further than demanding a partial electoral reform, by means of which the bourgeois liberals hoped to strengthen the shaky position of the ruling dynasty. The leader of the party, lawyer Odilon Barrot, put forward a slogan typical of moderate liberals: "Reform to avoid revolution!" However, despite the efforts of the "dynastic opposition", banquets in favor of electoral reform gradually began to take on a more radical character. At a banquet in Dijon, a prominent figure in the left wing of the bourgeois republicans, the lawyer Ledru-Rollin, made a toast: "To the Convention that saved France from the yoke of kings!"

In France, as in most European countries, a revolutionary explosion was brewing.

A revolutionary explosion in France took place at the beginning of 1848. On February 22, another banquet of supporters of parliamentary reform was scheduled in Paris. The authorities banned the banquet. This caused great indignation among the masses. On the morning of February 22, unrest reigned in the streets of Paris. A column of demonstrators moved towards the Bourbon Palace, singing the Marseillaise and shouting: "Long live the Reform!", "Down with Guizot!". Without making their way to the palace building, the demonstrators scattered into the neighboring streets and began to dismantle the pavement, overturn the omnibuses, and erect barricades.

Troops sent by the government dispersed the demonstrators by evening and took control of the situation. But the next morning, the armed struggle in the streets of Paris resumed. Frightened by reports that the uprising was growing and that the National Guard was demanding a change in the head of the ministry, King Louis-Philippe dismissed F. Guizot and appointed new ministers who were considered supporters of the reform.

Contrary to the calculations of the ruling circles, these concessions did not satisfy the popular masses of Paris. Clashes between the rebellious people and the royal troops continued. They especially intensified after the provocative execution of unarmed demonstrators on the evening of February 23. New barricades were erected in the streets. Their total number reached one and a half thousand. That night the uprising took on a more organized character. Members of secret revolutionary societies became the leaders of the insurgent people.

On the morning of February 24, almost all the strategic points of the capital were captured by the rebels. Panic reigned in the palace. On the advice of his close associates, Louis-Philippe abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Count of Paris, and fled to England. Guizot also disappeared there.

The abdication of the king did not stop the development of the revolution. Street fighting in Paris continued. The revolutionary detachments took possession of the Tuileries Palace. The royal throne was taken out into the street, installed on the Place de la Bastille and burned at the stake to the jubilant exclamations of a crowd of thousands.

The upper classes of the bourgeoisie continued to defend the monarchy. They were afraid of the very word "republic", which reminded them of the times of the Jacobin dictatorship and the revolutionary terror of 1793-1794. At the meeting of the Chamber of Deputies, the bourgeois liberals tried to secure the preservation of the monarchy. These plans were thwarted by barricade fighters who broke into the meeting room. Armed workers and national guards demanded the proclamation of a republic. The Provisional Government was created.

The Provisional Government included seven bourgeois republicans of the right wing, grouped around the influential opposition newspaper Nacional, two left-wing republicans - Ledru-Rollin and Floccon, as well as two petty-bourgeois socialist publicists Louis Blanc and the worker Albert. The lawyer Dupont (from the department of Eure), a participant in the revolution of 1830, was elected chairman of the Provisional Government. A decrepit and sick old man, he did not enjoy great influence. The actual head of the government was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the famous poet and historian Lamartine, a right-wing bourgeois republican who came to the fore thanks to his oratorical talent and noisy speeches against the July monarchy.

. Establishment of a bourgeois republic

Despite the demands of the people, the government was in no hurry to proclaim a republic. On February 25, a deputation from the workers, headed by an old revolutionary, a prominent scientist (chemist) and doctor Raspail, demanded the immediate proclamation of a republic. Raspail declared that if this demand was not met within two hours, he would return at the head of a demonstration of 200,000. The threat had its effect: even before the expiration of the appointed time, a republic was officially proclaimed.

On the same day, disagreements arose between the bourgeois majority of the Provisional Government and the revolutionary workers of Paris on the question of the color of the national flag. The demonstrators demanded the recognition of the red flag - the banner of revolution and social change. This demand was opposed by bourgeois circles, who saw the tricolor flag as a symbol of the dominance of the bourgeois system. The provisional government decided to keep the tricolor flag, but agreed to attach a red rosette to its staff (later it was removed). The disputes over this question reflected the contradictions between different classes in their understanding of the nature and tasks of the February revolution.

Almost simultaneously, another conflict arose. The workers' deputation demanded the immediate issuance of a decree on the "right to work." The presence in Paris of a huge mass of unemployed people made this slogan extremely popular among broad sections of the working people. After long objections, the government, at the suggestion of Louis Blanc, adopted a decree stating that it was obliged to "guarantee the existence of the worker by work" and "provide work for all citizens."

February, in front of the building where the Provisional Government met, a mass demonstration of workers took place with banners on which the demands were embroidered: "Organization of Labor", "Ministry of Labor and Progress", "Destruction of the exploitation of man by man." As a result of lengthy debate, the government decided to create a commission on the labor question, headed by Louis Blanc and Albert. For the meetings of this commission, which included delegates from workers, representatives of entrepreneurs and several prominent economists, the Luxembourg Palace was assigned. But the Luxembourg Commission did not receive any real power and no financial resources. The commission was used by the bourgeoisie in order to instill illusions in the masses and, having lulled their vigilance, to buy time to strengthen their forces.

Louis Blanc urged the workers to wait patiently for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, which supposedly would solve all social problems. At meetings of the commission and outside of it, he propagated his plan for industrial workers' associations, subsidized by the state.

One of the few gains of the February Revolution was the reduction of the working day. In Paris and in the provinces, the length of the working day then exceeded 11-12 hours. A decree issued on March 2, 1848, fixed the working day at 10 o'clock in Paris and 11 o'clock in the provinces. However, many employers did not comply with this decree and either forced workers to work longer hours or closed their enterprises. The decree did not satisfy the workers, who demanded a 9-hour working day.

Another achievement of the revolution was the introduction of universal suffrage (for men over 21). The abolition of the obligatory cash deposit for the press made possible the emergence of a large number of democratic newspapers.

The February Revolution secured freedom of assembly and led to the organization of many political clubs, both in Paris and in the provinces. Among the revolutionary clubs of 1848, the "Society for the Rights of Man" enjoyed the greatest influence. Close to this organization was the "Club of the Revolution", its chairman was the prominent revolutionary Armand Barbès. Of the revolutionary proletarian clubs, the "Central Republican Society" stood out in its significance, the founder and chairman of which was Auguste Blanqui. At the beginning of March, this club demanded the abolition of all laws against strikes, the general armament, and the immediate inclusion of all workers and unemployed in the national guard.

A special place among the democratic achievements of the February Revolution was occupied by the decree of the Provisional Government of April 27, 1848, on the abolition of Negro slavery in the French colonies.

The revolutionaries sought a decisive democratization of the social and political system of France. But the Provisional Government opposed this. It retained almost unchanged the police and bureaucracy that existed before the February Revolution. In the army, monarchist generals remained in leading positions.

To combat unemployment, which could cause new revolutionary unrest, the Provisional Government organized in early March in Paris, and then in some other cities, public works called "national workshops". By May 15, there were 113 thousand people in them. The workers of the national workshops, among whom there were people of various professions, were employed mainly as diggers in laying roads and canals, planting trees, etc. By creating national workshops, their organizers - the bourgeois republicans of the right wing - hoped in this way to divert the workers from participating in revolutionary struggle.

The financial policy of the Provisional Government was entirely determined by the interests of the big bourgeoisie. It carried out measures that saved the Bank of France, which found itself in danger of bankruptcy as a result of the crisis: it established a compulsory exchange rate for the bank's tickets and gave the bank state forests as collateral. At the same time, the government placed new financial burdens on the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry. The issuance of deposits from savings banks was limited. The government retained almost all the previous taxes and, in addition, introduced an additional tax of 45 centimes on each franc of the four direct taxes levied on landowners and tenants.

The plight of the working people strengthened their desire to use the establishment of a republic to fight for the improvement of their working and living conditions. In Paris and other cities there were workers' demonstrations, strikes, attacks on grain merchants' warehouses, usurers' houses, and tax collection offices on foodstuffs imported from the countryside.

The agrarian movement gained wide scope and took various forms. Crowds of peasants beat and drove out the foresters, cut down the state forests, forced the large landowners to return the communal lands they had seized, and forced the usurers to give promissory notes. Serious opposition to the authorities was caused by the levying of an additional 45 centime land tax. This tax gave rise to great discontent among the peasants.

Elections to the Constituent Assembly were scheduled for April 9. The revolutionary democratic and socialist organizations were in favor of postponing the elections in order to better prepare for them. On the contrary, the right-wing bourgeois republicans opposed the postponement of the Constituent Assembly, reckoning that the sooner the elections were held, the greater their chances of winning.

March, the revolutionary clubs of Paris organized a massive popular demonstration under the slogan of postponing the elections to the Constituent Assembly until May 31. However, the government rejected this demand. The elections took place on 23 April.

The elections brought victory to the bourgeois republicans of the right wing, who received 500 seats out of 880. Orleanist monarchists (supporters of the Orleans dynasty) and Legitimists (supporters of the Bourbons) put together about 300 candidates. An insignificant number of seats, only two, were received by the Bonapartists (supporters of the Bonaparte dynasty). Petty-bourgeois democrats and socialists won 80 seats.

In a number of industrial cities, the elections were accompanied by violent street clashes. They took on a particularly stormy character in Rouen. For two days, April 27 and 28, the insurgent workers fought fierce barricade battles with government troops here.

In such a tense atmosphere, the sessions of the Constituent Assembly opened on May 4. A new period began in the history of the French Revolution of 1848.

The place of the Provisional Government was taken by the Executive Commission. The decisive role in the Executive Commission was played by the right-wing Republicans, closely connected with the big bourgeoisie.

From the very first days of its activity, the Constituent Assembly turned against itself the democratic strata of Paris by rejecting the bill on the creation of the Ministry of Labor and Progress, passing a law restricting the right to petition, and speaking out against the revolutionary clubs.

In order to influence the Constituent Assembly, on May 15, revolutionary clubs organized a mass popular demonstration in Paris. The number of its participants reached almost 150 thousand. The demonstrators entered the Bourbon Palace, where the assembly was meeting. Raspail read out a petition adopted in the clubs demanding armed assistance to the Polish revolutionaries in Posen and decisive action to combat unemployment and poverty in France. Most of the deputies left the hall, which was taken over by the demonstrators. After much debate, one of the leaders of the demonstration declared the Constituent Assembly dissolved. A new government was immediately proclaimed, which included prominent revolutionary figures.

The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was a mistake, premature and unprepared. The broad masses of the people did not support him. Blanqui and Raspail, correctly evaluating the events, even on the eve of the demonstration, warned against actions that would give the authorities a pretext for persecuting the revolutionaries. These fears were soon confirmed: government troops and detachments of the bourgeois national guard dispersed the unarmed demonstrators. Blanqui, Raspail, Barbes, Albert and some other prominent revolutionaries were arrested and imprisoned. The workers of Paris have lost their best leaders.

. June uprising of Parisian workers

After May 15, the offensive of the counter-revolution began to intensify every day. On May 22, the Blanca and Raspail clubs were closed, and on June 7, a harsh law was issued banning street gatherings. Troops were gathering in Paris. The counter-revolutionary press furiously attacked the national workshops, claiming that their existence hindered the revival of "business life" and threatened "order" in the capital.

June, the government issued a decree on the liquidation of national workshops; workers over 25 years old employed in them were sent to earthworks in the provinces, and unmarried workers aged 18 to 25 were subject to enlistment in the army. The workers' protests were rebuffed by the authorities. The provocative policy of the government pushed the workers to revolt. On June 23, the workers of Paris took to the barricades.

The June uprising had a pronounced proletarian character. Red banners fluttered over the barricades with calls: "Bread or lead!", "The right to work!", "Long live the social republic!" In their proclamations, the insurgent workers demanded: to dissolve the Constituent Assembly and bring its members to justice, to arrest the Executive Commission, to withdraw troops from Paris, to give the right to draft a constitution to the people themselves, to preserve the national workshops, to ensure the right to work. “If Paris is put in chains, then all of Europe will be enslaved,” declared one proclamation, emphasizing the international significance of the uprising.

For four days, June 23-26, there were fierce street battles. On one side fought 40-45 thousand workers, on the other - government troops, mobile guards and detachments of the national guard with a total of 250 thousand people. The actions of government forces were led by generals who had previously fought in Algeria. They have now applied their experience in suppressing the liberation movement of the Algerian people in France. At the head of all government forces was placed the Minister of War, General Cavaignac, who received dictatorial powers. The main stronghold of the uprising was the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; the barricades erected in this area reached the fourth floor of the houses and were surrounded by deep ditches. The struggle at the barricades was led for the most part by leaders of the proletarian revolutionary clubs, the communist workers Rakari, Barthélemy, the socialists Pujol, Delacolonge, and others.

At the heart of the fighting of the insurgents was a plan of offensive operations drawn up by a prominent revolutionary figure, chairman of the "Action Committee" in the "Society of Human Rights", a former officer Kersozi. A friend of Raspail, who was repeatedly subjected to legal persecution, Kersozy was very popular in the democratic circles of Paris. Taking into account the experience of previous uprisings, Kersozy provided for a concentric attack on the town hall, on the Bourbon and Tuileries palaces in four columns, which were supposed to rely on the working suburbs. However, this plan failed to materialize. The rebels were unable to create a single leading center. Separate detachments were loosely connected with each other.

The June uprising is a bloody tragedy, a vivid description of which was given by its eyewitnesses. A. I. Herzen wrote:

“On the twenty-third, at four o'clock before dinner, I walked along the banks of the Seine ... The shops were locked, the columns of the national guard with ominous faces went in different directions, the sky was covered with clouds; it was raining ... Strong lightning flashed from behind a cloud, thunderclaps followed one after another, and in the midst of all this there was a measured, drawn-out sound of the tocsin ... with which the deceived proletariat called its brothers to arms ... On the other side of the river, everyone barricades were built in alleys and streets. I, as now, see these gloomy faces carrying stones; children, women helped them. On one barricade, apparently finished, a young polytechnic climbed up, hoisted a banner and sang in a low, sadly solemn voice "La Marseillaise"; all the workers sang, and the chorus of this great song resounded from behind the stones of the barricade, captivated the soul... The alarm went on and on...”

The uprising was put down. A brutal terror began. The victors finished off the wounded rebels. The total number of those arrested reached 25 thousand. The most active participants in the uprising were brought to a military court. 3.5 thousand people were exiled without trial to distant colonies. The working-class quarters of Paris, Lyon and other cities were disarmed.

4. Election of Louis - Napoleon as President

The defeat of the June uprising meant the victory of the bourgeois counter-revolution in France. On June 28, Cavaignac was approved as the "head of the executive branch of the French Republic." The dissolution of all national workshops (both in Paris and in the provinces), the closure of revolutionary clubs, the restoration of a monetary guarantee for the organs of the periodical press, the abolition of the decree on the reduction of the working day - these were the counter-revolutionary measures carried out by the Cavaignac government immediately after the defeat of the June uprising.

November was proclaimed a constitution, drafted by the Constituent Assembly. It completely ignored the interests and needs of the working masses and forbade workers from organizing strikes. At the head of the republic, the new constitution put the president, elected by popular vote for four years, and the legislative power was given to the Legislative Assembly, elected for three years. Suffrage did not extend to many groups of workers. The president was granted extremely broad rights: the appointment and removal of all officials and judges, command of the troops, and leadership of foreign policy. In this way, the bourgeois republicans hoped to create a strong government capable of quickly suppressing the revolutionary movement. But at the same time, giving the president so much power made conflicts between him and the Legislative Assembly inevitable.

December 1848 elections of the President of the Republic were held. Six candidates were nominated. The advanced workers nominated Raspail, who was in prison at the time, as their candidate. The candidate of the petty-bourgeois Republicans was the former Minister of the Interior, Ledru-Rollin. The bourgeois republicans supported the candidacy of the head of government - Cavaignac. But the Bonapartist candidate, Prince Louis Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon I, turned out to be elected, having received an overwhelming majority of votes in the elections.

Louis Bonaparte (1808-1873) was a man of mediocre abilities, distinguished by great ambition. He had already twice tried to seize state power in France (in 1836 and 1840), but failed both times. In 1844, while in prison, he wrote the pamphlet "On the Elimination of Poverty", in which he demagogically pretended to be a "friend" of the working people. In fact, he was closely associated with big bankers, who generously paid his supporters and agents.

During the July Monarchy, the Bonapartist clique was a bunch of adventurers and did not enjoy any influence in the country. Now, after the defeat of the June uprising, the situation has changed. Democratic forces were weakened. The Bonapartists led an intensified agitation in favor of Louis Bonaparte, which had a great influence on the peasants, who hoped that he would alleviate their situation, in particular, abolish the hated 45 centime tax. The success of the Bonapartists was also helped by the halo of Napoleon I, the memory of his military victories.

December Louis Bonaparte assumed the presidency and took an oath of allegiance to the republican constitution. The next day, a new government was formed, headed by the monarchist Odilon Barrot. His first step was the expulsion of the Republicans from the state apparatus.

5. The rise of the democratic movement in the spring of 1849. The defeat of the revolution

In the winter of 1848/49, the economic situation in France did not improve: industry and agriculture were still in crisis. The position of the workers remained difficult.

At the beginning of April 1849, in connection with the forthcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly, the electoral program of the bloc of petty-bourgeois democrats and socialists was published. His supporters considered themselves the successors of the Jacobins, "Mountains" 1793-1794, and called themselves "New Mountain". Their program, which was of a petty-bourgeois nature, put forward a plan for democratic reforms, demanded tax cuts, the emancipation of the oppressed peoples, but bypassed such issues as the length of the working day, the level of wages, freedom of strikes and trade unions.

May 1849 elections to the Legislative Assembly were held. Most of the seats in the Legislative Assembly (about 500) were won by the bloc of monarchist parties of the Orléanists, Legitimists and Bonapartists, which was then called the "party of order". The bourgeois republicans of the right wing ran 70 candidates; bloc of democrats and socialists won 180 seats.

May Legislative Assembly began its work. From the very first days, disagreements on foreign policy issues, closely related to disagreements on domestic policy issues, were revealed within it. In the center stood the so-called Roman question. As early as April 1849, the French government undertook a military expedition to the borders of the newly emerged Roman Republic. The republican left opposed this counter-revolutionary intervention. At a meeting of the Legislative Assembly on June 11, Ledru-Rollin proposed that the president and ministers be brought to justice for gross violation of the constitution, which forbade the use of the armed forces of republican France to suppress the freedom of other peoples. The Legislative Assembly rejected Ledru-Rollin's proposal. Then the petty-bourgeois democrats decided to organize a peaceful demonstration of protest.

The demonstration took place on June 13. A column of several thousand unarmed people moved to the Bourbon Palace, where the Legislative Assembly met. But the troops stopped the procession and dispersed its participants, using weapons. Ledru-Rollin and other leaders of the petty-bourgeois democrats issued a proclamation only at the last moment in which they called the people to arms to defend the constitution. Handfuls of determined people offered armed resistance to the troops, but the leaders of the demonstration fled. By evening the movement was crushed.

The events of June 13, 1849 evoked a response in the provinces as well. In most cases, the matter was limited to demonstrations, which were quickly dispersed by the troops. The events in Lyon took a more serious turn, where on June 15 an uprising of workers and artisans, led by secret societies, broke out. In the working-class suburb of Croix-Rousse, the main center of the Lyon uprising of 1834, the construction of barricades began. Numerous detachments of soldiers, supported by artillery, were moved against the rebels. The battle lasted from 11 o'clock in the morning until 5 o'clock in the evening, the rebels defended every house with a fight. 150 people were killed and wounded, 700 were taken prisoner, about 2 thousand were arrested and put on trial. The miners of Rives-de-Giers moved to the aid of the Lyon workers, but, having learned about the defeat of the uprising, returned back.

On the night of June 15, 700-800 peasants gathered in the vicinity of the city of Montlucon (Department of Allier), armed with guns, pitchforks, spades. Having received the news of the unsuccessful outcome of the demonstration in Paris, the peasants went home.

The victory won in June 1849 by the bourgeois counter-revolution over the democratic forces coincided with the improvement of the economic situation in France, with the weakening of the industrial crisis.

Conclusion

Revolution of 1848 - 1849 in France took place in several stages.

As a result of the February events, a provisional government was created, which included seven right-wing republicans, two left-wing republicans and two socialists. The actual head of this coalition government was a moderate liberal, romantic poet Lamartine - Minister of Foreign Affairs. The republic was recognized by the clergy and the big bourgeoisie. The compromise reached by the latter determined the character of this stage of this bourgeois-democratic revolution.

The provisional government issued a decree on the introduction of universal suffrage, abolished titles of nobility, and issued laws on democratic freedoms. In France, the most liberal political system in Europe was established.

An important achievement of the workers was the adoption of a decree on the reduction of the working day, the creation of hundreds of workers' associations, the opening of national workshops that provided the unemployed with the opportunity to work.

However, these conquests could not be kept. The provisional government, which inherited a huge public debt, tried to get out of the economic crisis by increasing taxes on peasants and small proprietors. This aroused the hatred of the peasants for revolutionary Paris. The big landowners fueled these sentiments.

The elections to the Constituent Assembly on April 23, 1848 were won by the bourgeois republicans. The new government was less liberal, it no longer needed the support of the socialists. The legislation he adopted provided for tougher measures to combat demonstrations and gatherings. Repressions began against the leaders of the socialist movement, which led to the June uprising, which was brutally suppressed.

The uprising of June 23-26, 1848, forced the bourgeoisie to strive for the establishment of a strong government. Elected in May 1849, the Legislative Assembly adopted a constitution, according to which all power was given to the president of the republic. They were elected in December 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon I. This figure suited not only the financial bourgeoisie, but also the peasantry, who believed that the nephew of the great Bonaparte would protect the interests of small landowners.

On December 1851, Louis Napoleon carried out a coup d'état, dissolving the Legislative Assembly and transferring all power to the president (i.e., to himself).

List of sources and literature

Sources

1. Herzen A. I. From the other side / A. I. Herzen. - M.: Direct - Media, 2008 - 242 p.

Kuznetsov. D.V. Reader on the history of modern times in Europe and America. In 2 books. Book 1. Internal political development. Part 2. XIX century / D. V. Kuznetsov. - Blagoveshchensk: Publishing house of BSPU, 2010. - 434 p.

Literature

4. Vologdin A.A. History of the state and law of foreign countries / A. A. Vologdin. - M.: Higher school, 2005. - 575 p.

World History: In 24 vols. T.16: Europe under the influence of France. - Minsk; M.: Harvest; AST, 2000. - 559 p.

Zastenker N. Revolution of 1848 in France / N. Zastenker. - M .: Uchpedgiz, 1948. - 204 p.

History of Europe: In 8 vols.V.5: From the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. before the First World War. - M.: Nauka, 2000. - 653 p.

History of France: In 3 vols. Volume 2 / Rev. ed. A.Z. Manfred. - M.: Nauka, 1973. -586s.

Ioannisyan A.R. Revolution of 1848 in France and communism / A. R. Ioannisyan. - M.: Nauka, 1989. - 296 p.

Marx K. Class struggle in France from 1848 to 1850 // Marx K., Engels F. Soch. Ed. 2. T. 7. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1955. S. 5-110.

Marx K. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte // Marx K., Engels F Op. Ed. 2. T. 8. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1955. S. 115-217.

Revolutions of 1848-1849 in Europe / ed. F.V. Potemkin and A.I. Milk. T. 1-2. - M.: Nauka, 1952.

13. Reznikov A.B. The working class in the European revolutions of 1848-1849. / A. B. Reznikov // International labor movement. Questions of history and theory. T. 1.- M., 1976. S. 387-487.

Smirnov A.Yu. Coup d'état on December 2, 1851 by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte in the context of the political evolution of the Second Republic. - M, 2001.- 275 p.

Farmonov R. The development of French social and political thought during the Second Republic (1848 - 1851). - M., 1992. - 311 p.

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Stages of the 1848 revolution in France. French Revolution (1848)

Prerequisites

Opposition to 1848

Overthrow of the monarchy

Reformist banquets

Banquet on February 22

The beginning of the uprising

Government resignation and shooting on Boulevard des Capucines

Renunciation

provisional government

The struggle of left and right Republicans

The idea of ​​a "social republic"

April 16 events

Events May 15

Introduction

Revolution of 1848 in France

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The idea of a "social republic"