Национальное мученичество в эпоху Французской революции XVIII века: опыт социологического анализа

Abstract

The article considers the ideology of martyrdom and the popular cult of "martyrs of liberty" in the French Revolution. Both are considered to be examples of national martyrdom - a phenomenon that illustrates some aspects of the relationship between nationalism and religion, and establishes a discursive and practical mechanism of revolutionary struggle. The author examines the following cases: the martyrs of Bastille and Tuileries (the Insurrection of 10 August 1792), Marat, le Peletier, Chalier, the young soldiers-martyrs Bara, Viala and Bayle, as well as the murdered maidens of 1797, Dugue and Martin. Robespierre is regarded as one of the key ideologues of martyrdom, whose discourse is conceptualized through the prism of 'reputation entrepreneurship' theory introduced by Gary A. Fine. Analyzing funeral orations, hymns, and other texts dedicated to the martyrs, the author puts forward the hypothesis that they present a specific dialectic of sacrifice/militancy. In the context of revolutionary struggle and national martyrdom, militancy is not a side effect of patriotic imagery, discourse, and practice, but an effective source of legitimization and mobilization. In addition, the author argues that it was precisely the erosion of militancy in the cult of martyrs and the routinization (according to Max Weber) of its ritual practice at the turn of 1793-1794 that caused the decline of the cult of revolutionary martyrs in general. This thesis is lent credence by the cases of non-militant maidens of 1797. Finally, the article provides a comparison of French revolutionary martyrdom with some later cases of national martyrdom, as well as with "classical" martyrdom in Christianity and other religious traditions.