“The law of Thermidor” in the political history of Russia

Abstract

The article refers to the “Thermidor law”, characteristic of all great revolutions. The author states that after a period of radical destruction of the old foundations, a period of full or partial restoration of the previously destroyed orders, institutions and relations begins. This trend is called, by analogy with the events of the Great French Revolution, “the law of the Thermidor”. The article notes that after the October Revolution in Russia, Lenin and other leaders of the Bolsheviks constantly feared the offensive of the “Thermidor”, which they understood as the victory of the counter-revolution. To avoid this, the Bolsheviks strived to maximally radicalize their transformations, and after the failure of the policy of “war communism” they tried to implement “self-thermidorization” in the form of a New Economic Policy. However, the Bolsheviks failed to avoid a return wave. According to L. Trotsky, one of the leaders of the October Revolution, the “thermidor” was the establishment of the Stalinist regime. Trotsky saw signs of the Thermidor in the revival of a number of social principles destroyed during the revolutionary years. It is noted in the article that, with reference to the Stalin period, one can speak of an “imaginary thermidor”, since Stalin did not refuse the main goals of the October Revolution, but the emergence of the Stalinist regime, from the original revolutionary practice of the Bolsheviks, was the result of the action of the “Thermidor law”. The article states that the effect of the same law was manifested in the period of political and economic changes in the USSR and Russia in the late 20th and early 21st century.

Keywords:

revolution, the Thermidor law, Lenin, Trotsky, Kautsky, Stalin, perestroika