Francois-Noel Babeuf Papers

Period N.d.
Total size   1 microfilm
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Biography

François-Noël Babeuf, known as Gracchus Babeuf; born in Saint-Quentin 1760, died in Vendôme 1797; French political agitator and journalist of the Revolutionary period; worked for a land surveyor at Roye when the Revolution began; wrote an article demanding the abolition of feudal rights in 1789 and lived from July to October 1789 in Paris; after his return to Roye he founded the journal Correspondant Picard and was elected as member of the municipality of Roye, but was expelled; appointed as commissioner on the national property in Roye in March 1791; elected as a member of the council-general of the département of the Somme in September 1792; accused of fraud he fled to Paris; sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment but the Aisne tribunal acquitted him in July 1794; returned to Paris and published in September 1794 the first number of his Journal de la Liberté de la Presse, the title of which was altered later to Le Tribun de Peuple; after the execution of Robespierre in July 1794 ended the Reign of Terror but Babeuf, now self-styled Gracchus Babeuf, defended the fallen Terror politicians and attacked the leaders of the Thermidorian Reaction with the usual violence; an economic crisis and the efforts of the Directory to deal with it ispired Babeuf to found the Société des égaux with merged with the rump of the Jacobin Club; published a new journal the Eclaireur de Peuple, ou le Défenseur de Vingt-Cinq Millions d'Opprimés; with the development of the economic crisis thousands of the lower class were rallying to Babeuf's flag; arrested in May 1796 and in spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was tried and convicted for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals and was guillotined at Vendôme in May 1797.

Content

Manuscripts by Babeuf n.d.

Location of originals

Originals at the RGASPI (Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History), the former RCChIDNI, Moscow, fond 223.