Gustave Tridon
Encyclopedia
Gustave Tridon was a French revolutionary socialist
, member of the First International and the Paris Commune
and anti-Semite.
on January 1, 1841. He came from a very wealthy family. Although he studied law and obtained all his professional qualifications, he never actually practised law, due to his independent wealth. As a student Tridon became a radical republican and an opponent of the Second Empire
of Napoléon III. He became a convinced atheist
, considering atheism the highest achievement of scientific reason, a metaphysical materialist and a revolutionary socialist. Among the figures of the first French Revolution
, he most admired Jacques-René Hébert (1757–1794), the Parisian sans-colotte
leader who was guillotined by the Jacobins. Tridon published two books on the Hébertists: The Hébertists: Protest Against a Historical Calumny (1864) and The Commune of 1793: The Hébertists (1871). He also published a history of the Girondists, The Gironde and the Girondists (1869). In addition, Tridon was a glowing French patriot.
Tridon's views in all these matters corresponded closely to the veteran revolutionary Louis Auguste Blanqui
. Tridon first met Blanqui in the Sainte-Pélagie prison in 1865; Tridon had been incarcerated there for writing anti-religious articles that were deemed contrary to morality. He became a close friend and follower of Blanqui. After his release, Tridon founded the journal Candide in 1865. Tridon financed the paper, which served as a platform for Blanqui and his associates. Blanqui himself contributed articles under a pseudonym. The paper was eventually shut down by the authorities, and Tridon was jailed again. In 1866, he joined the First International, one of he first Blanquists to do so. (Some Blanquists were wary of the International because its French section was dominated by syndicalists
, Mutualists and Proudhonists
, whom they considered insufficiently revolutionary.) Tridon was one of six French Blanquists who attended the Geneva congress of the First International in 1866; he acted as Blanqui's representative. Tridon and his fellow Blanquists angrily denounced the Proudhonist majority of the French delegation as agents of Napoléon III. The Blanquists were thrown out of the congress, but they earned the gratitude of Karl Marx
, whose feud with Proudhon dated back to the 1840s. On his return to France from the International congress, Tridon was arrested. He remained in prison until 1868. Imprisonment, however, did not stop his publicistic activities. He founded the journal Revue, among others, and contributed articles to several other journals. In January 1870, he was implicated in a political trial at Blois; fearing imminent arrest, he went to Brussels.
of 1870-71. In 1870 he founded the journal La Patrie en Danger (The Fatherland in Danger), another Blanquist mouthpiece. In its pages, Tridon sharply attacked the government of Napoléon III for prosecuting the war so badly. Tridon returned to France after Napoléon III fell from power. He strongly opposed the peace negotiations with Germany carried out by the conservative republican government of Adolphe Thiers
. On October 31, 1870, the Blanquists led an unsuccessful uprising against the Thiers government, but Tridon avoided imprisonment. In January 1871, as Paris lay besieged by the German army, Tridon collaborated with Édouard Vaillant
, Jules Vallès
and others in writing the Affiche rouge (red poster), which denounced the Thiers government, called for the establishment of an autonomous Paris Commune
and put forward three main demands: general requisitioning of all human and material resources, free rations for all, and fighting to the utmost against the siege. Tridon joined the Republican Central Committee of the Twenty Districts, in which Blanquists, Proudhonists, Jacobins and various other radicals, who had until recently been rivals, collaborated.
In February 1871, Tridon ran as a candidate in elections to the National Assembly and was elected as a deputy for the Côte-d'Or. He voted against the peace treaty with Germany signed by the Thiers government, then resigned his seat and returned to Paris. In March, he was elected to the Council of the Commune by the fifth arrondissement. He sat on the Commune's Executive Commission as well as on the Commission of War. Tridon was among the minority in the Council who voted against the creation of a Committee of Public Safety
, modelled on that of the first French Revolution
, which had unleashed the terror. Tridon's opposition to the Committee of Public Safety made him a strange bedfellow of many of his erstwhile rivals, Proudhonists like Eugène Varlin
, and put him at odds with Jacobin socialists like Félix Pyat
and Théophile Ferré
, whose ideology might on the whole have seemed closer to his own. Perhaps Tridon's sympathy for the Hébertists, who had been victims of the first Committee of Public Safety, motivated his opposition to its revival.
Apparently Tridon had long been suffering from some sort of nervous disorder
; the massacres of the Bloody Week (Semaine sanglante) precipitated an emotional crisis. Tridon escaped from Paris and fled to Brussels, where he died on August 29, 1871. Apparently his death was a suicide.
of the 1890s, when some former republican revolutionaries, including some Blanquist veterans like Ernest Granger
, sided with the anti-Dreyfusards. These events occurred long after Tridon's death. Nevertheless, he had a posthumous influence on them, primarily through a manuscript he had written but not published in his lifetime: Du Molochisme Juif: Études Critiques et Philosophiques (On Jewish Molochism: Critical and Philosophical Studies.) This book was published in 1884, and was cited as an influence by such apostles of French anti-Semitism as Édouard Drumont
. In the book, Tridon proclaimed the superiority of 'Indo-Aryan' over 'Semitic' culture and traced Judaism
back to the ancient worship of the god Moloch, who, he claims, demanded human sacrifice. Christianity
and Islam
, as derivatives of Judaism, are also condemned; by contrast, 'Aryan' culture and western civilization are said to have culminated in the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment
and its corresponding atheism. Tridon also associates Judaism with capitalism and exploitation.
Tridon's posthumous screed thus makes for a mixed legacy. Writers who value his contributions to French socialism tend not to dwell on the Moloch book, while Tridon's anti-Semitism makes him one of the patron saints of far right movements that have much less use for his involvement in such organisations as the First International.
Revolutionary socialism
The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...
, member of the First International and the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
and anti-Semite.
Blanquism and the International
Edme Marie Gustave Tridon was born in Châtillon-sur-SeineChâtillon-sur-Seine
Châtillon-sur-Seine is a commune of the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.-Population:-Personalities:Châtillon-sur-Seine was the birthplace of:* Auguste Marmont, duke of Ragusa , Marshal of France...
on January 1, 1841. He came from a very wealthy family. Although he studied law and obtained all his professional qualifications, he never actually practised law, due to his independent wealth. As a student Tridon became a radical republican and an opponent of the Second Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
of Napoléon III. He became a convinced atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, considering atheism the highest achievement of scientific reason, a metaphysical materialist and a revolutionary socialist. Among the figures of the first French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, he most admired Jacques-René Hébert (1757–1794), the Parisian sans-colotte
Sans-culottes
In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...
leader who was guillotined by the Jacobins. Tridon published two books on the Hébertists: The Hébertists: Protest Against a Historical Calumny (1864) and The Commune of 1793: The Hébertists (1871). He also published a history of the Girondists, The Gironde and the Girondists (1869). In addition, Tridon was a glowing French patriot.
Tridon's views in all these matters corresponded closely to the veteran revolutionary Louis Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui was a French political activist, notable for the revolutionary theory of Blanquism, attributed to him....
. Tridon first met Blanqui in the Sainte-Pélagie prison in 1865; Tridon had been incarcerated there for writing anti-religious articles that were deemed contrary to morality. He became a close friend and follower of Blanqui. After his release, Tridon founded the journal Candide in 1865. Tridon financed the paper, which served as a platform for Blanqui and his associates. Blanqui himself contributed articles under a pseudonym. The paper was eventually shut down by the authorities, and Tridon was jailed again. In 1866, he joined the First International, one of he first Blanquists to do so. (Some Blanquists were wary of the International because its French section was dominated by syndicalists
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
, Mutualists and Proudhonists
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
, whom they considered insufficiently revolutionary.) Tridon was one of six French Blanquists who attended the Geneva congress of the First International in 1866; he acted as Blanqui's representative. Tridon and his fellow Blanquists angrily denounced the Proudhonist majority of the French delegation as agents of Napoléon III. The Blanquists were thrown out of the congress, but they earned the gratitude of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, whose feud with Proudhon dated back to the 1840s. On his return to France from the International congress, Tridon was arrested. He remained in prison until 1868. Imprisonment, however, did not stop his publicistic activities. He founded the journal Revue, among others, and contributed articles to several other journals. In January 1870, he was implicated in a political trial at Blois; fearing imminent arrest, he went to Brussels.
The Paris Commune
Although Tridon detested the régime of Napoléon III, he was a passionate advocate of national defence during the Franco-Prussian WarFranco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
of 1870-71. In 1870 he founded the journal La Patrie en Danger (The Fatherland in Danger), another Blanquist mouthpiece. In its pages, Tridon sharply attacked the government of Napoléon III for prosecuting the war so badly. Tridon returned to France after Napoléon III fell from power. He strongly opposed the peace negotiations with Germany carried out by the conservative republican government of Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...
. On October 31, 1870, the Blanquists led an unsuccessful uprising against the Thiers government, but Tridon avoided imprisonment. In January 1871, as Paris lay besieged by the German army, Tridon collaborated with Édouard Vaillant
Édouard Vaillant
Marie Édouard Vaillant was a French politician.Born in Vierzon, Cher, son of a lawyer, Édouard Vaillant studied engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, graduating in 1862, and then law at the Sorbonne. In Paris he knew Charles Longuet, Louis-Auguste Rogeard, and Jules Vallès...
, Jules Vallès
Jules Vallès
Jules Vallès was a French journalist and author.-Early life:Vallès was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire. His father was a supervisor of studies , later a teacher, and unfaithful to Jules' mother. Jules was a brilliant student...
and others in writing the Affiche rouge (red poster), which denounced the Thiers government, called for the establishment of an autonomous Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
and put forward three main demands: general requisitioning of all human and material resources, free rations for all, and fighting to the utmost against the siege. Tridon joined the Republican Central Committee of the Twenty Districts, in which Blanquists, Proudhonists, Jacobins and various other radicals, who had until recently been rivals, collaborated.
In February 1871, Tridon ran as a candidate in elections to the National Assembly and was elected as a deputy for the Côte-d'Or. He voted against the peace treaty with Germany signed by the Thiers government, then resigned his seat and returned to Paris. In March, he was elected to the Council of the Commune by the fifth arrondissement. He sat on the Commune's Executive Commission as well as on the Commission of War. Tridon was among the minority in the Council who voted against the creation of a Committee of Public Safety
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
, modelled on that of the first French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, which had unleashed the terror. Tridon's opposition to the Committee of Public Safety made him a strange bedfellow of many of his erstwhile rivals, Proudhonists like Eugène Varlin
Eugène Varlin
Eugène Varlin was a French socialist, communard and member of the First International. He was one of the pioneers of French syndicalism.-Early Activism:...
, and put him at odds with Jacobin socialists like Félix Pyat
Félix Pyat
Félix Pyat was a French Socialist journalist and politician.-Biography:He was born in Vierzon , the son of a Legitimist lawyer. Called to the bar in Paris in 1831, he threw his whole energies into journalism...
and Théophile Ferré
Théophile Ferré
Théophile Charles Gilles Ferré, was one of the members of the Paris Commune. He, together with Louis Rossel and Bourgeois, was one of the first to be executed at Satory, the military base south-west of Versailles....
, whose ideology might on the whole have seemed closer to his own. Perhaps Tridon's sympathy for the Hébertists, who had been victims of the first Committee of Public Safety, motivated his opposition to its revival.
Apparently Tridon had long been suffering from some sort of nervous disorder
Anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal and pathological fear and anxiety. Conditions now considered anxiety disorders only came under the aegis of psychiatry at the end of the 19th century. Gelder, Mayou & Geddes explains that anxiety disorders are...
; the massacres of the Bloody Week (Semaine sanglante) precipitated an emotional crisis. Tridon escaped from Paris and fled to Brussels, where he died on August 29, 1871. Apparently his death was a suicide.
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitic opinions were widespread in nineteenth century Europe and can be found in the writings of many French socialists of the period as well. Usually, however, these were private expressions of prejudice. Proudhon, for example, complained in his diaries that France was overrun with Jews and foreigners, while Blanqui, in his letters, sometimes used the term 'shylock' as a synonym for capitalist or usurer. However, in the late nineteenth century, some veterans of the previous revolutionary movements expressed a more vehement and public anti-Semitism, usually combined with fierce nationalism. This ideological mixture—nationalism, anti-Semitism and social radicalism—paved the way for the French fascist movements of the twentieth century. The high-water mark of this revolutionary anti-Semitism came during the Dreyfus affairDreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
of the 1890s, when some former republican revolutionaries, including some Blanquist veterans like Ernest Granger
Ernest Granger
Ernest Granger was a French politician, a veteran of the Paris Commune of 1871, a Blanquist socialist and subsequently a Boulangist nationalist.-Early Life: Blanquism under the Second Empire:...
, sided with the anti-Dreyfusards. These events occurred long after Tridon's death. Nevertheless, he had a posthumous influence on them, primarily through a manuscript he had written but not published in his lifetime: Du Molochisme Juif: Études Critiques et Philosophiques (On Jewish Molochism: Critical and Philosophical Studies.) This book was published in 1884, and was cited as an influence by such apostles of French anti-Semitism as Édouard Drumont
Edouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont was a French journalist and writer. He founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper La Libre Parole.- Early life :...
. In the book, Tridon proclaimed the superiority of 'Indo-Aryan' over 'Semitic' culture and traced Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
back to the ancient worship of the god Moloch, who, he claims, demanded human sacrifice. Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, as derivatives of Judaism, are also condemned; by contrast, 'Aryan' culture and western civilization are said to have culminated in the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
and its corresponding atheism. Tridon also associates Judaism with capitalism and exploitation.
Tridon's posthumous screed thus makes for a mixed legacy. Writers who value his contributions to French socialism tend not to dwell on the Moloch book, while Tridon's anti-Semitism makes him one of the patron saints of far right movements that have much less use for his involvement in such organisations as the First International.
Sources and Links
- Noël, B., Dictionnaire de la Commune. Flammarion, collection Champs, 1978.
- The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1979.
- Biographies des Deputés de l'Assemblée Nationale. Online at: www.assembleenationale.fr.
- Hutton, P.H., The Cult of the Revolutionary Tradition: The Blanquists in French Politics, 1864-1893. London, 1981. (This is not specifically about Tridon, but an interpretation of the political milieu to which he belonged.)
- Sternhell, Z., La Droite Révolutionnaire 1885-1914. Les Origines françaises du Fascisme. Ed. Fayard, 2000.
- Crapez, M., L'antisémitisme de gauche au XIXème siècle. Ed. Berg, 2002.