ABOUT ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE

Everyone here today is posting the judgment of our Ramzan Akhmatovich that anyone who is not with Putin today and uses difficulties to rock our boat is an enemy of the people, which means he is a traitor and must be dealt with according to the laws of our difficult times.

The usual associations that arise on this occasion among people who are at least a little familiar with Russian history are understandable.

But it’s worth looking a little further into the history of the wonderful term “enemy of the people.” This is not a Russian invention at all, although it has sprouted abundantly on our soil. And if a little further... Then we will find such a surname - Petion. Pétion de Villeneuve, lawyer, Rousseauist, deputy of the Constituent Assembly, then of the Convention, mayor of Paris from 1791, Girondist.

By the standards of that fun time, he’s not a villain at all. Did not participate in the September murders, hesitated during the trial of the king. But it seems that it was he who was the first to throw this into the excited psyche of the French: “Enemies of the people defend themselves by appealing to the people, and Louis XVI supports their right to conspiracies.”

The revolution dressed itself in Roman clothes and this old Roman term - “enemy of the people” - somehow came very well to the court. He was introduced into legal practice and greatly contributed to the further smooth operation of the guillotine.

Pétion spoke about the royalists, but the concept took on a life of its own, as usual. Royalists, aristocrats, saboteurs, spreaders of false rumors, Girondins, Jacobins, richer neighbors...

So - about Petion, then. After the fall of the Girondins, he was expelled from the Convention. Fled from Paris. Wandered. Revolutionary justice did not reach him. Didn't have time. I poisoned myself. The wolves chewed up his corpse. Not completely. Therefore, they were able to identify him. He was a popular man, after all.

The wolves chewed it up. This is how it happens.