Victor Jaclard
Encyclopedia
Charles Victor Jaclard was a French revolutionary socialist, a member of the First International and of the Paris Commune
.
and joined the Blanquists' secret society. In 1865 he helped orgnise Blanqui's escape from prison to Belgium. That year, Jaclard attended the International Student Congress in Liège, where he held a speech expounding atheism, materialism and socialism. The speech led the French Council of Universities to ban him from all French universities.
, whom they considered insufficiently revolutionary. Jaclard, however, seems to have moved easily among the factions of contemporary revolutionary socialism. While he remained involved in the Blanquist organisation, he was on friendly terms with Proudhonist Internationalists like Benoît Malon
. In 1866, Jaclard was imprisoned for six months for participating in a demonstration. After his release, he went to Geneva, Switzerland, where he met the Russian feminist and revolutionary socialist Anna Vasilevna Korvin-Kurkovskaya
(1843-1887). She had left Russia in 1866, after rejecting a marriage proposal from the famous writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Jaclard and Korvin-Kurkovskaya were married in 1867.
In 1868, Jaclard was one of the founding members of the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy in Geneva. This was an organisation created by the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin
. It was affiliated with the International Working Men's Association (the First International), but Bakunin's International Alliace soon came into conflict with the London leadership of the International Association, dominated by Karl Marx
. Jaclard's involvement with the Bakuninist Alliance once again demonstrated his ability to transcend factional diputes; in general, the Blanquists were wary of anarchism. Furthermore, Jaclard and his wife were both personal friends o Bakunin's great rival Marx.
. In early September of 1870, Victor Jaclard seems to have been involved in the uprising of the Lyons Commune, which proclaimed the Republic even before Paris did. Bakunin arrived in Lyons on September 16. Jaclard wenton to Paris, charged with establishing a liaison between the Commune of Lyons and the Paris Commune
. Victor and Anna both remained in Paris for the duration of the revolution and played an active part in the Commune. They contributed to several revolutionary journals and acted as representatives of the First International (Victor was among the representatives of the French section, Anna represented the Russian section). Victor Jaclard was elected commander of the 158th batallion of the National Guard and took part in the insurrection of October 31. In November he became deputy mayor of the 18th district (arrondissement); the mayor was the republican Georges Clemenceau
. In February of 1871, Jaclard ran unsuccessfully as a Socialist-Revolutionary candidate in the elections to the National Assembly. During the 'Bloody Week' Jaclard fought on the barricades at Batignolles and Château d'eau. He was captured by the Versaillais troops and sentenced to death by a French court.
circles. He contributed to the Russian oppositional journals Slovo and Delo. The couple also maintained friendly relations with Anna's former suitor, Dostoevsky. This demonstrated broad-mindedness on both sides; not only could Anna's past relationship with Dostoevsky have made things awkward, but Dostoevsky was also, by this time, deeply religious and politically conservative. The Jaclards meanwhile were professed atheists, materialists and communists, or, in the Russian terminology of the time, 'nihilists'.
of Jules Guesde
and Paul Lafargue
while simultaneously maintaining good relations with Clemenceau. While republicans like Clemenceau were shedding whatever socialist sympathies they may once have had and moving into positions of power in the Third Republic
, the French Blanquists and Marxists firmly opposed socialist participation in 'bourgeois' republican governments and furiously denounced reformist socialists like Alexandre Millerand
who sought power. Jaclard was once again able to straddle that divide.
In the 1880s, Jaclard edited the journal La Justice. This was Clemenceau's paper. In 1889 he was elected to the city council of Alfortville, where he had settld after Anna's death in 1887. Apparently, Jaclard's capacity for broad sympathy with all sorts of radical causes led him to sympathize with General Georges Boulanger's
campaign for a revision of the constitution in the late 1880s. Many French socialists and republicans suspected Boulanger of monarchist designs, but the General professed himself a sincere republican and social reformer. Jaclard was not the only veteran Blanquist to sympathize with Boulangism; in fact the Blanquist Central Revolutionary Committee had split over it, with Ernest Granger
leading the Boulangist minority on a long march to the far right, while Édouard Vaillant
led the anti-Boulangists into an alliance with Marxism. Jaclard, meanwhile, apparently remained on good terms with all concerned.
in 1889. Jaclard was actively involved in these endeavours. He was a French delegate to the International congresses of 1889, 1891 and 1893, held in Paris, Brussels and Zurich, respectively. Jaclard was also a member of the Union of Socialist Journalists, serving as its (1843- general secretary. He was also the author of the pamphlet Tactiques Socialistes (1893). Although Jaclard had not spent much of his time practising medicine, he seems to have remained a doctor in good standing in the eyes of his profession. At ny rate, the British Medical Journal of May 2, 1903, noted his recent death. What is striking about Jaclard is his political adaptability and the ease with which he maintained good personal as well as political relations with representatives of very different, and in some cases mutually hostile, ideological tendencies: Blanquism, Proudhonism, Bakuninism, Marxism, Clemenceauvian Radicalism and Boulangism.
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...
.
Early Life
Charles Victor Jaclard came from a humble working class family, but, as a pecocious student, he was given a good education, obtaining degrees in mathematics as well as medicine. However, durin his studies, he became involved in the radical republican opposition to Napoléon III. After working as a mathematics teacher, he moved to Paris in 1864 to pursue further studies in pharmacology. He soon fell in with the followers of the veteran revolutionary Louis Auguste BlanquiLouis Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui was a French political activist, notable for the revolutionary theory of Blanquism, attributed to him....
and joined the Blanquists' secret society. In 1865 he helped orgnise Blanqui's escape from prison to Belgium. That year, Jaclard attended the International Student Congress in Liège, where he held a speech expounding atheism, materialism and socialism. The speech led the French Council of Universities to ban him from all French universities.
First International and exile
Jaclard was one of the earliest French Blanquists to join the First International, which had been founded in 1864. Other Blanquists initially remained aloof from the organisation because it French section was dominated by followers of Pierre-Joseph ProudhonPierre-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. Jaclard, however, seems to have moved easily among the factions of contemporary revolutionary socialism. While he remained involved in the Blanquist organisation, he was on friendly terms with Proudhonist Internationalists like Benoît Malon
Benoît Malon
Benoît Malon , was a French Socialist, writer, communard, and political leader....
. In 1866, Jaclard was imprisoned for six months for participating in a demonstration. After his release, he went to Geneva, Switzerland, where he met the Russian feminist and revolutionary socialist Anna Vasilevna Korvin-Kurkovskaya
Anne Jaclard
Note: This article deals with the Russian-born nineteenth-century revolutionary, not with the American Marxist-Humanist theoretician Anne Jaclard....
(1843-1887). She had left Russia in 1866, after rejecting a marriage proposal from the famous writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Jaclard and Korvin-Kurkovskaya were married in 1867.
In 1868, Jaclard was one of the founding members of the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy in Geneva. This was an organisation created by the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
. It was affiliated with the International Working Men's Association (the First International), but Bakunin's International Alliace soon came into conflict with the London leadership of the International Association, dominated by 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...
. Jaclard's involvement with the Bakuninist Alliance once again demonstrated his ability to transcend factional diputes; in general, the Blanquists were wary of anarchism. Furthermore, Jaclard and his wife were both personal friends o Bakunin's great rival Marx.
The Paris Commune
The Jaclards remained in exile in Geneva until the fall of Napoléon III in 1870. They returned to France to take part in the revolution and in the defence of Frnce against the Germans, who were winning 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...
. In early September of 1870, Victor Jaclard seems to have been involved in the uprising of the Lyons Commune, which proclaimed the Republic even before Paris did. Bakunin arrived in Lyons on September 16. Jaclard wenton to Paris, charged with establishing a liaison between the Commune of Lyons 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...
. Victor and Anna both remained in Paris for the duration of the revolution and played an active part in the Commune. They contributed to several revolutionary journals and acted as representatives of the First International (Victor was among the representatives of the French section, Anna represented the Russian section). Victor Jaclard was elected commander of the 158th batallion of the National Guard and took part in the insurrection of October 31. In November he became deputy mayor of the 18th district (arrondissement); the mayor was the republican Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
. In February of 1871, Jaclard ran unsuccessfully as a Socialist-Revolutionary candidate in the elections to the National Assembly. During the 'Bloody Week' Jaclard fought on the barricades at Batignolles and Château d'eau. He was captured by the Versaillais troops and sentenced to death by a French court.
Second exile
However, on October 1, Jaclard's brothr-in-law helped him escape from prison. The Jaclards managed to escape from France with the aid of Anna's wealthy and well-connected father, General Korvin-Kurkovsky. They settled in London, where they stayed with Karl Marx, who sheltered them and later arranged for Anna to travel to the university of Heidelberg. Jaclard's recent entanglements with Bakunin apparently did not stand in the way of friendly relations with Marx. In 1874, the Jaclards moved back to Anna's native Russia, where Victor became a teacher of French at a gymnasium for young women. Through Anna he was introduced to Russian NarodnikNarodnik
Narodniks was the name for Russian socially conscious members of the middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo which can be translated as "Peopleism", though is more commonly rendered "populism"...
circles. He contributed to the Russian oppositional journals Slovo and Delo. The couple also maintained friendly relations with Anna's former suitor, Dostoevsky. This demonstrated broad-mindedness on both sides; not only could Anna's past relationship with Dostoevsky have made things awkward, but Dostoevsky was also, by this time, deeply religious and politically conservative. The Jaclards meanwhile were professed atheists, materialists and communists, or, in the Russian terminology of the time, 'nihilists'.
Return to France
In 1880, a general amnesty of Communards enabled the Jaclards returned to France. Jaclard resumed his association with the Blanquists but, characteristically, also remained on good terms with several other political factions. He seems to have been involved in founding the Marxist French Workers' PartyFrench Workers' Party
The Parti Ouvrier Français was the first Marxist party in France, created in 1880 by Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Marx's son-in-law...
of Jules Guesde
Jules Guesde
Jules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
and Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy...
while simultaneously maintaining good relations with Clemenceau. While republicans like Clemenceau were shedding whatever socialist sympathies they may once have had and moving into positions of power in the Third Republic
Third Republic
Third Republic may refer to:* French Third Republic * Third Republic of South Korea * Third and current Democratic Republic of the Congo * Third and current Hellenic Republic of Greece...
, the French Blanquists and Marxists firmly opposed socialist participation in 'bourgeois' republican governments and furiously denounced reformist socialists like Alexandre Millerand
Alexandre Millerand
Alexandre Millerand was a French socialist politician. He was President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924 and Prime Minister of France 20 January to 23 September 1920...
who sought power. Jaclard was once again able to straddle that divide.
In the 1880s, Jaclard edited the journal La Justice. This was Clemenceau's paper. In 1889 he was elected to the city council of Alfortville, where he had settld after Anna's death in 1887. Apparently, Jaclard's capacity for broad sympathy with all sorts of radical causes led him to sympathize with General Georges Boulanger's
Georges Boulanger
Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger was a French general and reactionary politician. At the apogee of his popularity in January 1889 many republicans including Georges Clemenceau feared the threat of a coup d'état by Boulanger and the establishment of a dictatorship.- Early life and career :Born...
campaign for a revision of the constitution in the late 1880s. Many French socialists and republicans suspected Boulanger of monarchist designs, but the General professed himself a sincere republican and social reformer. Jaclard was not the only veteran Blanquist to sympathize with Boulangism; in fact the Blanquist Central Revolutionary Committee had split over it, with 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:...
leading the Boulangist minority on a long march to the far right, while 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...
led the anti-Boulangists into an alliance with Marxism. Jaclard, meanwhile, apparently remained on good terms with all concerned.
The Second International
The First International had expired in the 1870s, due to the factional conflict between Marxists and Bakuninists. The anarchists had kept their own International going for some time, but the socialist International was practically defunct. In the late 1880s, efforts were made to revive it, which led eventually to the creation of the Second InternationalSecond International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
in 1889. Jaclard was actively involved in these endeavours. He was a French delegate to the International congresses of 1889, 1891 and 1893, held in Paris, Brussels and Zurich, respectively. Jaclard was also a member of the Union of Socialist Journalists, serving as its (1843- general secretary. He was also the author of the pamphlet Tactiques Socialistes (1893). Although Jaclard had not spent much of his time practising medicine, he seems to have remained a doctor in good standing in the eyes of his profession. At ny rate, the British Medical Journal of May 2, 1903, noted his recent death. What is striking about Jaclard is his political adaptability and the ease with which he maintained good personal as well as political relations with representatives of very different, and in some cases mutually hostile, ideological tendencies: Blanquism, Proudhonism, Bakuninism, Marxism, Clemenceauvian Radicalism and Boulangism.
Sources and Links
- http://chipluvrio.free.fr/yin-yang-terre/terrep2/terre2-vf-2.html
- http://www.leksikon.org/art.php?n=4573
- Wolfe, R., 'The Parisian Club de la Revolution of the 18th Arrondissement 1870-1871.' Past & Present. No. 39, April 1968.
- Doty, S., 'Parliamentary Boulangism After 1889.' In: The Historian, Vol. 32, Issue 2, February 1970.
- Frank, J., Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881. Princeton, 2002, pp. 362 ff.
- Lantz, K.A., 'Korvin-Krukovskaia, Anna Vailevna (1843-1887).' In: The Dostoevsky Encyclopedia. pp. 219-221.