White terror

The expression of white terror , employed in reference to the Terror of the mountain Convention, indicates the periods of repression exerted by the extreme-right-hand side, generally of the Royaliste S whose emblematic color is the Blanc, on their opponents. First “white terrors” proceed in the South-east of France, in the valley of the Rhone, in 1795 and 1799. In 1815, royalist bands are devoted to assassinations or massacres of militants, personalities revolutionary, Bonapartists and liberals, with the complicity of the authorities which carry out a legal repression.

In Russia, the term of “white terror” is often employed to qualify the massacres made by the white Armées during the civil war, compared to the red Terreur, carried out by the Tchéka and the Red Army .

White terror of 1795

The reaction thermidorienne

After the Fall of Robespierre, and a few weeks when the coalition of 9-Thermidor seems to be linked in the denunciation of Robespierre king, a fight opposes, within the national Convention, the partisans of the maintenance of the revolutionary government, interventionist, of the Terreur and the democratic constitution of year I, gathering all the Montagnards year III, around a Barère or of a Billaud-Game preserve, and holding them of the economic liberalism, the return to the constitutional government and the drafting of a new constitution, founded on the principles of liberty and of property. Among the latter, one meets mountain dwellers “dantonists”, around Tallien, of Fréron or Merlin of Thionville, the deputies of the Marais, around a Boissy d' Anglas or of a Sieyès and the survivors of the the reinstated Gironde the March 8th 1795 (78 deputies return to sit). In the same way, old the Hébertistes knows a short revival, after Thermidor; they preserve the sections of Montreuil and the Gravilliers until the winter. Thermidoriens are opposed on the direction to give to the 9-Thermidor. Among those of the mountain dwellers who approved the 9-Thermidor, excesses of the Terreur must be charged to only the Robespierre and its “accomplices”. For their adversaries, all the terrorists - to which, moreover, belonged many of these deputies, like Tallien, Barras or Fréron - are “tyrants” and “drinkers of blood”. Within this framework, while a great part of the suspect - royalist, federalistic, possessive - profit from a widening, many revolutionary militants are stopped and the civils servant suspected of “complicity” with the “tyrant” (Robespierre) are revoked. In parallel, a certain number of lawsuits of representatives on mission judged for their exactions (Carrier with Nantes or Joseph the Good with Cambric), of the revolutionary Tribunal of Paris (open the March 28th 1795), of the commission popular of Orange (field by multiple death sentences the June 25th 1795), pushed by the families of the victims and the suspects freed, support near the opinion the image of a violent and sanguinary Terror. The revolutionary government is gradually dismantled, with the establishment of the renewal per quarter every month of the members of the Comité of public hello and the reduction in its attributions after Thermidor, then its disappearance in 1795, the suppression of the maximum the December 24th 1794 or the final re-establishment of the Bourse de Paris the October 10th 1795.

Within this framework, the moderate and royalist press breaks out against the terrorists, just as the lampoonists hebertists, like Gracchus Babeuf (at least, until worms mid-November 1794, where one witnesses a reversal of alliances, linking Jacobins and babouvists). The deputy Stanislas Fréron, representing Convention in the South with Barred in 1793, where it had been characterized by its violence and its plunders, makes reappear starting from the September 11th 1794 the Orateur of the People , of which it makes the body of the propaganda reactionary and where it shows a virulent antijacobinism. In the same way, the royalist Méhée of the Key publishes the lampoon the Tail of Robespierre , and Ange Pitou spreads in the streets of the royalist refrains. In addition, verbal violences and physics against all those which resemble closely or by far a “Jacobin” multiply, in all the country. In Paris, Tallien and Fréron - one speaks about the “young jet set of Fréron” - bands of Muscadins organize. 2 000 with 3 000 of these muscadins, composed of suspect left prisons, deserters, unsubmissive people, journalists, artists, clerks, brokers, small shopkeeper living mainly on Right Bank and baptized “black Collets” because of their behavior (a dress skimped with the black velvet collar - as a sign of mourning, compared to the death of Louis XVI -, with 17 mother-of-pearl buttons - in the honor of Louis XVII - Basque cut in tail of cod and the breeches tightened under the knee, the hair braided and retained by cadenettes, with a leaded club), post their rejection of the revolutionary order. Joined together in band around the singer and type-setter Pierre Garat, of Pitou, the playwright Martainville, Elleviou and Langlois, taken along by the marquis de Saint-Huruge (1750-1810), an adventurer, and taking an orientation counter-revolutionary more and more, they carry out a noisy agitation in the district of the Palais Royal; they make din in the streets by singing the Alarm clock of the People , meet in the royalist coffees, read newspapers like the republican Mail , Daily the , the Messenger of the Evening , stop the spectacles with the theater for chahuter a famous actor “terrorist”, to impose a reading or an air, attacks all those which, by their readings, their remarks, their behavior correspond more or less to the description of the Jacobins, make “hunting for the busts”, forcing Convention with dépanthéoniser Marat the February 8th 1795, finally, multiply the confrontations, of which some degenerate into brawls, murder and rapes of jacobines. The brawls multiply between the young jet set and the republicans, Jacobins or not, particularly with the soldiers persons on leave or of the Hôtel of the Invalids, in particular the September 19th 1794, with the Palate-Equality (the Palais Royal). Taking pretext of these violences, the authorities close the Club of the Jacobins in November 1794. Even of Gironde the Louvet de Couvray, which denounces the royalists as well as the Jacobins in his newspaper, the Sentinel , is taken with part by young royalists in his bookstore-printing works of the Palais Royal, in October 1795.

The Jacobins, confronted with the double hostility of the moderate republicans and the royalists, and populates it of Paris, touched by the food shortage which strikes the capital at the winter 1794-95, and which the liberal policy of the Convention (which rejects the “tax” on the price of the grains) prevents from stopping, react and revolt. However, the insurrections of the germinal 12 and the 1 {{er}} meadow year III (April and May 1795) fail, and the authorities order the disarmament of the terrorists (law of the 21 Germinal), compelled with residence; 1.200 Jacobins and sans-culottes are stopped, in Paris. They are the last popular insurrections before the revolution of 1830.

White Terror

Benefitting from the reaction thermidorienne, with the return of the refractory monks and the surge of emigrants, of the movements of spontaneous revenge on the royalists, victims' families of the Terror and catholics fanatic develop during the year 1795, in the south-east of France, more particularly the valley of the the Rhone, against the former Jacobins, particularly of the militants sans-culottes, called terrorists (or “Mathevons” in Lyon, from where the term of “mathevonnade”). Owner country reactions, revenges popular and actions counter-revolutionaries, which create a climate of violence, counter-revolutionaries chiefs - Saint-Christol, Lestang, Bésignan, Allier - recruit among young dissatisfied people, the former federalists, the deserters and the criminals, in a spirit of clientelism. With Lyon, the English agent Wickham, installed in Swiss, in the city an agency of propaganda which recruits counter-revolutionaries, like Imbert-Colomès establishes or the marquis de Bésignan, and prepares a new insurrection with Précy. The royalist bands of the Companies of Jéhu (or Jesus) and of the Sun, pursue and massacre Jacobins, republicans, constitutional priests, Protestants (for reasons socio-economic and political as much as nuns), political prisoner of the prisons, with Lons-the-Salt maker, Bourg, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Aix, Marseilles, Toulon, Tarascon, etc, generally with the complicity of the municipal authorities and secondary roads, when in fact representatives on mission are pressed on the royalists in their fight against the Jacobins. Other bands are denounced, that it is about the “Triqueurs”, of the “Vibou” or a group of national guards “chouans” in the Gard gathering noble emigrants and “popular elements”. Thanks to lists of denunciation, they attack with the old agents of the administration and the correspondents of the popular companies. It seems that these bands were centralized enough, the principal center of coordination being Lyon.

To include/understand the virulence of this “white Terror” and its localization in the valley of the Rhone, in addition to the proximity of the border, which facilitates the infiltrations, it is necessary to take into account the violence of the civil war which opposed the republican army and national guards to the royalist forces and federalists in 1793, which has of equivalent only the Guerre of the Vendée. Moreover, Agricol Viala, victim of the royalists close to Avignon, is one of the principal martyrs of the Republic with Joseph Bara. Especially, the repression of the insurrections of Lyon and the South had been the occasion of bloody excesses (the shot of prisoners in Lyon, ordered by Fouché and Collot d' Herbois, execution of 100 notable with Bédoin…).

The collapse of the structures of the capacity Jacobin and the weakness of the authorities thermidoriennes leave a good place to moderate, even with the royalists. In the same way, the proximity of the border supports the infiltrations. Especially, the Parisian insurrectionary days make fear a blaze jacobine. When the sans-culottes of Toulon raise themselves, fine Floréal, and goes on Marseilles to deliver the prisoners, the fear seizes the moderate ones, who fear to live new days of September and organize a form of preventive counter-revolution.

In addition to the political crimes, these massacres also concern for a good portion villainous operations, revenges between members of a community or old antagonisms suitable for South-east, overpowering Protestant or purchasers of national goods. Thus, the authorities, threatened by popular violence of the unfavourable religious confession, do not hesitate to divert it over the former terrorists. These violences go from the insult to the assassination of prisoners (a hundred victims with Marseilles or Avignon, an about sixty with Aix, 47 with Tarascon, 55 between Orange and Pont-Saint-Esprit, perhaps 2.000 on the whole), while passing by personal attacks, plunderings, imprisonments and individual settings with death (in particular by Lapidation). Public, these acts are held in front of spectators, in the tradition of the hullabaloos or the Farandole S.

Haute-Loire with the Rhone delta, the killers track the republicans, often designated by a landlord or Justice of the Peace. Each day and each night, of the Jacobins are attacked, wounded, even thrown in the Rhone.

Crushing argument to the royalism

After the unloading missed of the emigrants with Quiberon in June - July 1795, and the failure of the royalist Insurrection of the 13 vendémiaire year IV (October 5th 1795), Convention becomes aware of the royalist threat and reacts by sending Fréron, which represses partially white Terror at the end of 1795, before its recall, in January 1796.

As from this moment, the moderate ones of the Convention thermidorienne seek to find the union of all the republicans against the royalist threat. The June 24th, already, the Lyoneses are summoned to return their weapons, to drive out the foreigners and to deliver emigrated and assassins. Threatened by the arrival of 12 000 men under the orders of Kellermann, the city ends up being subjected. The officers relieved Jacobins are reinstated in the army (in particular Jean Antoine Rossignol, but also Napoleon Bonaparte, whose action at the time of the insurrection of Vendémiaire the career starts again), the continuations against the Mountain dwellers are stopped, by the decree of the October 13rd; a general amnesty “for the facts properly relating to the Revolution” (from which the emigrants are excluded, the deportees, defendants of vendémiaire, as well as the forgers) is voted the October 26th 1795. The Club of the Pantheon, composed unconditional former terrorists and Jacobins, all resulting from the lower middle class, opens its doors the November 6th. However, successes of the left worry the new government, where figure moderate the Carnot, and a new policy antijacobine is followed as from January 1796, in particular with the discovery of the conspiracy of Equal the, in May 1796. In fact, between 1795 and 1799, the Directory will not cease oscillating between a fight against the royalists and the Jacobins.

Chronology

February 14th 1795 - Lyon. Joseph Fernex, judge of the revolutionary Commission in prison since Thermidor, is massacred and thrown in the the Rhone by a crowd of “engines”, in full day. Beginning of white Terror with Lyon, carried out by a secret society, the Companions of Jéhu, or Jesus.
April 19th 1795 - Ain. Six terrorists, whom one led to Lons-the-Salt maker, are massacred with one half-league of the city.
April 24th 1795 - Lyon. Raid antijacobine. House searches and with the searchings in the residence of the Jacobins ordered by the representative on mission Boisset, pursuant to the measurements of disarmament taken by the Committee of general security, most of the “suspects” are slackened.
May 1795. White Terror falls down on the country. The days of Germinal gave him a renewal of strength by breaking last inclinations of the resistance of the Sans-culotte S. In the valley of the Rhone and in all South-east, one attends the most abominable slaughters. There, one makes public of the lists of citizens known for their republicanism, in order to indicate them with the bloody vindication of the new terrorists. Generally recruited within aristocracy, grouped in secret organizations, the company of the Sun in Marseilles or the companions of Jéhu in Lyon, the royalists employent mercenaries who assist them in their work. Elsewhere, repression is less terrible. It results rather in a ceaseless harassing. Representatives on mission, administrators of districts, members of the revolutionary tribunals and the inspection committees make the object legal proceedings committed on the faith of denunciations. In all the cities, Muscadins are characterized by their intrigues, which leave the indifferent local authorities.
May 4th 1795 - Lyon. Several thousands of rioters invade the prisons of the city and massacre 99 held Jacobins, of which the actor Dorfeuille, former president of the revolutionary Tribunal.
May 7th 1795 - Saint-Etienne. The former mayor Jacobin Johannot is killed in full street by two unknown.
May 11th 1795 - Aix-en-Provence. About thirty Jacobins are assassinated in the prisons the city.
May 17th 1795 - VAr. The Jacobins of Toulon seize the city which they will control until the 23.
May 25th 1795 - Tarascon. Massacre patriots locked up with the castle of Tarascon.
June 2nd 1795 - Saint-Etienne. During the night, twelve Jacobins are removed from their prison and are assassinated.
June 5th 1795 - Marseilles. At the height Midsummer's Day, the royalist “sabreurs” massacre 107 prisoners Jacobins. The representative on mission Cadroy makes any possible sound to slow down the intervention of the national guard.
June 27th 1795 - Avignon. The members of the revolutionary tribunal of Orange are massacred, and their bodies thrown in the Rhone.
July 9th 1795 - Avignon. Revenge against the Orange court. A clerk of the court, single survivor of the massacre of the June 27th, a further information having been requested, is condemned to twenty years of irons and six hours of exposure. But, threatened to be massacred by crowd during the exposure, it obtains judges whom the exposure is commuted to four years of additional irons.
July 24th 1795 - Paris. With Convention Marie-Joseph Chénier denounces the white Terror which devastates Lyon and the South of France.
August 14th 1795 - Aix-en-Provence. The companions of the Sun massacre fifteen terrorists.
September 28th 1795 - Avignon. Following a dispute with soldiers, the national guard local, mainly royalist, raises and obliges the representative Boursault and the garrison to leave the city.
October 12th 1795. Rehabilitation in the army of the officers relieved Jacobins.
October 13rd 1795. Decree of Convention stopping the continuations against the Mountain .
November 6th 1795 - Marseilles. Sent by Convention to October, Fréron arrives in the city, where it is charged to stop the royalist massacreurs. It decides to relieve the municipality and to purify the departmental authorities.

White terror of 1799

After the Coup d'etat of the 18 fructidor year V, the royalist movement reorganizes, mainly with Bordeaux, Narbonne, Montpellier and Toulouse. They lack weapons and of sure recruits and wait until the united armed threaten the borders, and they must wait, before launching a common offensive in the West and South-west. However, as of the autumn 1798, of the confrontations oppose republican and royalist, and of the rural cantons enter in dissidence. This agitation is supported by the law Jourdan instituting the conscription; many desertions follow the lifting of April 1799 and of the bands are formed.

Confronted at worst the difficulties on all fronts, the Directoire cannot send the army to restore the order. However, in South-west, the authorities jacobines were not the subject of the same dismantling as in the valley of the Rhone. Maintained with the head of the municipalities by the last elections, they organize resistance.

August 5th, the royalists of the Red general, in Haute-Garonne, pass to the attack. But the town of Toulouse is well kept by the republicans, and the royalists occupy the surrounding countryside. August 9th, Toulouse is released. In Bordeaux, the premature offensive of Toulouse ruins the efforts of the royalists of Dupont-Constant, just as in the Moors and the Low-Pyrenees. On the other hand, Gers, Ariège and the Haute-Garonne are in a state of insurrection, on August 10th. After the arrival of reinforcements of the Batch and the Tarn, the republicans pass to the offensive from the 20 and easily beat the royalist, badly armed and badly organized bands.

After the victory of the republican forces, repression is moderate: only eleven insurgent is carried out, in the months which follow. The majority are released soon.

In same time, the Chouannerie includes in the West (in Normandy, in Brittany, in Maine), but the royalist forces are divided, and an agitation diffuses perdure until 1800. Some qualified these resurgences of violences, less intensity, white Terror.

White terror of 1815

It indicates the massacres which take place in midday of the France to the fall of the First Empire, the Ultras being avenged for the revolutionists to knowing the republicans and the Bonapartists. Among the latter, the marshal Brune is assassinated with Avignon and his profaned corpse. The marshal Ney is condemned to died by the Room of the Pars and carried out in Paris. The Protestants are also aimed. Following these massacres, Louis XVIII ends up dissolving the ultraroyalist room, room known as “untraceable”, in 1816.

Repressions of the Days of June 1848 and of the Common of Paris (1871)

August 1st They are sometimes described as white terror.

White terror during the Russian civil war

In Finland

In 1918, after the proclamation of the independence of Finland, in December 1917, the takeover by force of the Finnish Communists, supported by the Soviet Russia, leads a mode qualified by the partisans of the independence of “red Terror”, which made some 1.700 died. The repression of the revolutionary movement carried out by the general Mannerheim, and qualified “white Terror” by the Communists, who ensures the independence of Finland, fact, on his side, approximately 8.400 dead. The figures, on a side like other, do not take into account deaths directly related to the engagements.

In Russia

Russian white Terror returns to a whole series of actions counter-revolutionaries (sometimes very violent) in answer to the Russian Révolution of 1917. This “white terror”, carried out primarily by the officers of the old army tsarist (Dénikine, Kornilov, Wrangel, Krasnov, Koltchak, etc), is assumed and asserted. The general Kornilov declares in December 1917 thus: “Even if we have to burn half of Russia and to pour the blood of the three quarters of the population, we will have to make it if it is necessary to save Russia”.

White terror in Hungary

In Hungary, one spoke about white terror to qualify the massacres made, after the fall of the Communists of the Hungarian Soviet republic, by officers of the army of Miklós Horthy, in reprisal of communist red Terror .

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