Lenin And Robespierre

Revolutionary Thought When the individuals that comprise the governing institution of a society no longer represent the common will of the people, [often] those whose interests are set aside come together and fight for what they believe they are due. And in extreme instances, when the conflict spans years, drastic change is called for often resulting in a bloody laborious struggle. From the crowd leaders emerge, the intelligent, the most powerful, and the ones who can get the job done. In two of history's more renowned revolutions, the French and Russian, two great thinkers pushed the revolution onward, Robespierre and Lenin, respectively.

Maximilien Robespierre was born on May 6, 1758, the son of a lawyer in Arras. His life was successful early on, being awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Louis-le-Grand College in Paris. Here he was prominent in his studies of philosophy and law, after which he became a lawyer then a judge. As a lawyer he represented mainly poor people, and outraged the privileged classes when he protested against royal absolutism and arbitrary justice. Then the notice of the summoning of the Estates General came out the people of Arras elected him to represent them in the Third Estate. He became the leader of the Jacobins, the political group in favor of the Revolution, and later devoted himself to the National Assembly, the group responsible for the newly drawn constitution. He openly accepted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the preamble to the constitution. He fought for universal suffrage, unrestricted admission to the National Guard and public offices. He opposed that which would restrict powers to fewer people, such as the royal veto and also opposed racial and religious discrimination. He worked in the National Convention and more specifically the Committee of Public Safety and its infamous Reign of Terror, that slaughtered anything standing in the way of revolutionary progress, eventually even he would fall