The Conspiracy of Equals (Ehrenburg)
The Conspiracy of Equals (Russian Заговор равных , Sagowor rawnych ) is a historical novel by the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg about Gracchus Babeuf (1760–1797). The work was created in Paris in early spring 1928 and was published in the same year by the Petropolis publishing house in Berlin and Riga . In the Soviet Union , the novel was printed in the November and December issues of the literary magazine Krasnaya now in 1928 . The text was published in book form in Moscow in 1964 in vol. 3 of Ilja Ehrenburg's collected works in nine volumes . Hans Ruoff's translation came out in 1929 on the German-language book market in Berlin.
The selfless Babeuf and the gloomy Darthé end up under the guillotine . Ilja Ehrenburg closes his novel with reference to the victory of the board of directors over the sans-culottes : "... the revolution is ... over". Although not mentioned in the context, the reader thinks of a rising star; to General Bonaparte mentioned several times in the text .
content
The action runs from February 17, 1795 to May 27, 1797, mainly in Paris and also in Vendôme . Of course, there is a flashback, for example to the year 1787. The 27-year-old naive surveyor François Babeuf, author of the book The Eternal Cadastre , reads the encyclopedists in Arras and investigates border disputes between the greedy feudal lords of Picardy and Artois in the archives . The father of the family Babeuf, at that time still a blank slate politically, married to the uneducated former maid Maria, wrote to Dubois de Fosseux, the secretary of the Arras Academy, that “a great revolution” was “necessary”. That is coming. Babeuf goes to Paris and experiences something horrible on July 22, 1789. The vengeful people hold judgment. Foullon is tied to an iron lantern in the Königswinkel in Paris on Grèveplatz , corner of Rue Vannerie. The finance minister, who wanted to feed the poor with grass during his lifetime, has his head chopped off and a tuft of hay put in his mouth. Babeuf's timid objection is answered with laughter by the mob . Babeuf lasted three months in the city on the Seine . Then he returns to his native Roye . In Noyon , not far away , he has an admirer - the printer Devin. Babeuf's published ideas “right to work, distribution of property” and “struggle against luxury” do not please the rulers. He gets to know one Paris prison after the other from the inside. Babeuf keeps being released. Not lazy, the former prisoner burns noble coats of arms and images of kings. The circle of friends grows. The eccentric Sylvain Maréchal makes the citizen Babeuf the food commissioner of Paris. Babeuf would like to see his enemies behind bars again. The commissioner cannot be bribed. Another reason for detention is sought and found in 1794. But that same year Babeuf was released and wrote a pamphlet against Carrier's “work” in Nantes . The hard-working, furious, implacable François Babeuf publishes the newspaper Der Volkstribun , calls himself Gracchus Babeuf in the paper and reviles the Convention . The welfare committee wants to arrest Babeuf. But he cannot be caught. Despite the ban, the newspaper continues to be printed and read by the starving poor. Back in custody, the now 34-year-old wrote the tribune's letter to all sans-culottes in Paris .
Babeuf's daughter starved to death. Back in freedom, Babeuf calls for equality , the "abolition of wealth, general duty to work and state control over all work" in his paper . Babeuf goes into hiding. The tribune is illegally printed. Maria Babeuf is arrested. Insurgent royalists frighten the Directory . Babeuf's followers were then allowed to found the Society of Friends of the Republic - also known as the Panthéon Society , named after the hall of fame near the secret conference location in the crypt of Saint Genoveva . The police are following Babeuf. He has to be represented in the crypt by his closest comrades-in-arms, Darthé, Buonarroti , Germain and Lepeletier . Advice is given on the question: “How could one overthrow this criminal board of directors?” The police minister believes the informers' reports and classifies the Panthéon society as anti-government. Barras orders: close the company, but no one arrested. General Bonaparte carried out the order on February 27, 1796. The closure spreads the "same" across almost all Parisian cafés. Babeuf, "the driving spirit of the conspiracy", tests the fighting strength: 17,000 men. He has no money at all and counts on the working-class district of Saint-Marceau . The captain of the 38th half-brigade Grisel prepares the support of the planned uprising by the generals Fion and Rossignol . The conspirator Drouet expresses his doubts about Babeuf's ideas: The French farmer will never, ever leave his land to the "equals".
Grisel turns out to be a traitor. The realization comes too late. Darthé introduced Grisel into the inner circle of conspirators; showed him Babeuf's hiding place. The same are arrested. An attempt to free Babeuf fails.
Drouet stayed free. The friends outside the prison are silent. Is Babeuf a Dreamer? Babeuf asks Lepeletier, if he should be released, to take care of the upbringing of his children. The eldest son wants to become a printer.
The Directory tied up with the royalists. The Supreme Court is litigating the 47 equals arrested in the Vendômer Trinité Abbey . Babeuf does not think of himself; want to save the friends first. All the defendants stand together against Grisel, the prosecution's witness. As a result, for example, the Marquis de Antonelle , against whom Grisel can not think of anything despite all his eagerness to cope, is released. It took Babeuf ten hours to deliver his defense speech to the jury . In this address he defines happiness as a state in which there is no mine or yours. Maria Babeuf sobs out among the spectators in the courtroom when her husband alludes to their daughter's death from starvation. Four jurors want to acquit Babeuf. Then he is sent to his death together with Darthé. The others get away with deportation to an equatorial French colony. Babeuf's suicide attempt fails. Grisel receives a sword of honor and thirty francs in silver.
Web links
German-language editions
- Ilja Ehrenburg: The conspiracy of equals. The life of Gracchus Babeuf. Translation from Russian by Hans Ruoff. Malik-Verlag, Berlin 1929 (used edition)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 276 below
- ↑ ru: Красная новь, Das Rote Neuland
- ↑ First appearance
- ↑ Edition used, p. 276, 4th Zvu
- ↑ Dubois de Fosseux (French)
- ↑ Edition used, p. 36, middle
- ↑ fr: Rue de la Vannerie
- ↑ Edition used, p. 105, 2nd Zvu
- ↑ fr: Charles Antoine Guillaume Germain (1770–1814)
- ↑ Edition used, p. 122, 4. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 165, 12. Zvu
- ↑ fr: Georges Grisel
- ↑ Edition used, p. 182, middle