By his ideas and actions, is Robespierre one of history's greatest criminals?

[Julie4]

[ZackBan]

Definitely not history's greatest criminal.

He's a product of his time.

Yes he committed crimes but so did a lot of people in that era. Everyone was doing what they had to do survive and gain more power

[RavVid]

He was certainly the face of the Terror from an anglo view and seems to have been the epitome of revolutionary zeal behaving worse than the old regime. The Committee of Public Safety seems to have given inspiration to many dictators.

I find it hard 43ey6 .

[RavVid]

The cat posted that.

Had tabby permitted, I was going to add that it seems unlikely that it was Robespierre on his own that was running the terror. We have seen other blood lettings in other revolutions. So I would view it as an example of excess that is possible in revolutions.

Kill one or two then you are a murderer. Kill many and you are something else. Perhaps even heroic. I don't think it necessarily helps to just label him as a mass murderer. He was soon disposed - what caused him to lose power is interesting.

I really know little of the background. I am very interested in what you and French people in general think of him.

[Julie4]

It's a mixed bag: left-wing and far-left politicians are admirers of Robespierre, while conservatives consider him a dangerous man.

[RavVid]

Thanks, I can see that divide forming. I would not him running the country I was in because if you were denounced you'd lose your head. Your own view? Dangerous or admirable?

[WhitneySnow]

He killed a lot of people. But he would say he was liberating the French people from the tyranny of the aristocracy.

[DJB72]

His actions led directly to the mass murder of French aristocracy and ultimately to first Napoleon and the post-napoleonic modern era.

He probably thought he was doing France a favour. It'd be interesting to see how he handled Macron, Schwab, etc

[Curmudgeon]

Oui.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/LaTuguQYJaA

[ProbablyClueless]

Nah... I would say that, even if we're going only by his contemporaries, Napoleon is far worse.

[Guanfei]

He took for himself what was supposed to be freedom for France, and made it his own regime that he enforced through the Terror. He started as a revolution advocate, and ended up as a dictator.

[exitseven]

I sort of remember hearing about him in high school but it was a long time ago.

[RyanEC]

I think his regime was the worst period of the French Revolution.

[Engin12]

I dont know him. Greatest criminal sounds like an admiration to criminals. I would say worst criminal.

[KostasKouvalis]

I don't even know who that is

[Staximus]

He certainly was a bastard's bastard

[Kelly6]

I don't know what he’s idea was

[Whatthefluff]

Yes definitely

[Dargil]

Absolutely.

[balyai]

Henry Avery