The first consciously socialist statesman of the great French
Revolution, Babeuf, developed his program in a significant
letter to his friend Bodson early in 1796. In this letter
Babeuf acknowledges that he is an absolute follower of
Robespierre. He represents the reawakening of Robes-
pierre as his task. Babeuf writes: "To awaken Robespierre
again means to reawaken all the energetic patriots of the
Republic and with them the People. . . . Robespierrism
lives in the whole Republic, it lives in the entire class of
clear-thinking people who are competent to judge, and na-
turally in the People. The cause for this is simple: Robes-
pierrism is democracy, and both of these words are abso-
lutely identical. Therefore if one reawakens Robespierrism,
one can be certain to awaken democracy again."

Today if one were to ask an average politician, or for that
matter any educated person, whom he considered as the
historical personification of democracy, it is very improba-
ble that one would receive the answer "Robespierre." The
man of the Terror, the head of the bloody dictatorial gov-
ernment of 1793, is not exactly a democrat for the present
generation. For Babeuf, however, the system of Robes-
pierre and democracy are absolutely identical. The passage

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