Thermidor

The Thermidor ( German also heat Month) is the eleventh month of the Republican Calendar of the French Revolution. He follows the Messidor, it follows the Fructidor.

Origin

The name is derived from French thermal ( warm). Thermidor is the second month of the summer quarter ( mois d' été ). He begins around July 19 and ends around August 17.

The dismissal of Maximilien de Robespierre end of July 1794 is called after this month also as thermidor. Still on 8 Thermidor (July 26 ) he had several deputies of the National Assembly, but especially Joseph Cambon, threatened in a speech to the death. By Robespierre hints, many deputies of the National Convention felt threatened, so the vast majority on the 9th of Thermidor decided to arrest Robespierre. Already the day after, on the 10th of Thermidor, he was executed with 21 of his followers, among them François Hanriot.

The following less radical ruling politicians were then referred to as a logical Thermidorians.

Day names

Like all months of the French Revolution calendar of Thermidor had 30 days, which were divided into 3 decades. The days were named after agricultural plants, except for the 5th and 10th day of each decade. The 5th day ( Quintidi ) was named after a pet, the 10th day ( Decadi ) to an agricultural implement.

Conversion Table

Conversion example

To be determined is the 8th Thermidor II

The Year II is in the top table, including the Gregorian 1794. Among the 8 (upper row days ) is the 26th Since this month before the transition ( 31 → 1 ) is, of July is meant.

The Gregorian date is therefore July 26, 1794.

See also: Conversion table between Gregorian and Republican calendars

Soviet Thermidor

As Thermidor of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky described the upheaval that was marked at the political level by the rise of Stalin to sole power, and through the Moscow show trials. " The Soviet Thermidor ," he wrote in The Revolution Betrayed, " which we define as victory of bureaucracy over the masses. "

"It is well enough known ," he said to the parallels of the Thermidor of the French and the Russian Revolution, "that so far every revolution triggered by a reaction or even counter-revolution, which, of course, the nation never threw back all the way to the starting point, the people but always the lion's share of his conquests wrested back. Victims of the first reactionary wave are usually the pioneers, creators, initiators, who were at the head of the masses in the attack period of the revolution; other hand, occur in the first place people second caliber, in league with yesterday's enemies of the revolution. Behind the dramatic duels the, luminaries ' on the open political arena going shifts in the relationships between the classes in front of him, and, what is no less important, drastic changes in the psyche of yesterday revolutionary masses "(Chapter 5).