Page:Karl Radek - Proletarian Dictatorship and Terrorism - tr. Patrick Lavin (1921).djvu/25

18 the Robespierrian elements precisely because of their Communist tendencies. In a more modified form the Paris Commune, under the leadership of Chaumette (who likewise was sent to the guillotine by Robespierre) represented the proletarian interests. Robespierre and his government stood resolutely on the platform of bourgeois private property, and this found expression as follows in the Constitution of 1793: "The right to property is granted to every citizen and the right to enjoy his income and the fruits of his labor and industry and to dispose of them as he thinks proper," and again! "Not even the smallest part of his property can be taken from him except when demanded by public necessity, and then only on condition that just compensation be given." Robespierre was a representative of bourgeois Republicanism—neither more nor less. He came to power on the wave of the proletarian-petit-bourgeois movement when the French Revolution, after three years of existence, had not abolished either feudalism or the monarchy. Deceived by the Feuillants and the Girondists—that is, by the representatives of the constitutional nobility and large capital—the masses of the people returned the bourgeois democracy—the "Mountain"—to power. Against their radical bourgeois measures, the actual abolition of feudal dues (on 4th August, 1789, they were only abolished on paper), the realization of democracy, the decapitation of the King, etc.—the feudal counter-revolution entered into union with England, Prussia and Austria for a furious resistance. Then began the war on all fronts against the armies of the coalition as well as against domestic counter-revolution. The greatest scarcity prevailed throughout the country. The revolutionary armies had no shoes, clothing, or food. In the country ruined by feudalism, and suffering from the bad harvests of many years, there was a shortage of everything. What could a radical bourgeois government do in the circumstances? Had it been acquainted with Kautsky's "Erfurt Program" it would perhaps have renounced its "illusions," have given up the struggle and abandoned the country to feudalism. But since they, happily,