Page:Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov - The Bourgeois Revolution- Its Attainments and Its Limitations - tr. Henry Kuhn (1926).pdf/4

 der," He makes clear that revolutions establish their own law and order, recognizing no code of jurisprudence but that which reflects the needs and purpose of the revolution. Incidentally, it reveals the modern proletariat in embryo as a factor in the bourgeois revolution, a factor, however, that served chiefly as a broom in the hands of the bourgeoisie with which to sweep out thoroughly the rubbish left by the collapsed feudal system.

To the reader not familiar with the various political factions a few words as to these may be in order. The Girondists, the Jacobins and the Montagnards reflected certain social and economic layers in society at that time. The Girondists represented the upper (though not uppermost) layers of the bourgeoisie—the well-to-do middle class. The Jacobins represented the petty bourgeoisie and that portion of the as yet unformed proletariat which was not absolutely on "the ragged edge." The Montagnards ("The Mountain") represented that vast number of propertiless proletarians which, however vaguely, sensed the fact that