France is the origin point of Leftist Revolutionary activity, it literally murdered it's own Liberal revolution in favor of Leftism, leading to them ushering in Napoleon. A lot of historians pretend that the French Revolution ended before Napoleon, but that's just not true. No one under Napoleon, nor Napoleon himself, thought that they were something different. They still emphatically claimed that they were part of revolutionary France. Just that they had secured their own country and were expanding revolution to the rest of Europe. (sound familiar?)
However, Leftist academicians and historians don't want to claim that the inevitable end of every Leftist revolution is despotism. Napoleon was a classic example of a "man of the people" style Leftist leader, even though they crowned him fucking Emperor. Through the Emperor, the people's will manifested. That is Leftist Democracy. The Communists don't like admitting that because they don't like monarchism in the form of dynastic rule (when it isn't them).
What you are seeing, and have seen forever, is the split between the Leftist Revolutionary Parisians with their decedents and allies; and the Liberal Revolutionary French with their decedents and allies. The original: Left versus Right. Robespierre v. Lafayette.
France can't decide because the Liberal Revolutionaries never fully lost over the centuries, and the Leftist Revolutionaries always pretended that they had fully won.
However, Leftist academicians and historians don't want to claim that the inevitable end of every Leftist revolution is despotism.
The CPSU certainly did know that this was a possibility, which is why they went down so hard on Trotsky (as a proto-Napoleon) while ignoring the bureaucrat Stalin. Of course, that still led to a despotism.
France is the origin point of Leftist Revolutionary activity, it literally murdered it's own Liberal revolution in favor of Leftism, leading to them ushering in Napoleon. A lot of historians pretend that the French Revolution ended before Napoleon, but that's just not true. No one under Napoleon, nor Napoleon himself, thought that they were something different. They still emphatically claimed that they were part of revolutionary France. Just that they had secured their own country and were expanding revolution to the rest of Europe. (sound familiar?)
However, Leftist academicians and historians don't want to claim that the inevitable end of every Leftist revolution is despotism. Napoleon was a classic example of a "man of the people" style Leftist leader, even though they crowned him fucking Emperor. Through the Emperor, the people's will manifested. That is Leftist Democracy. The Communists don't like admitting that because they don't like monarchism in the form of dynastic rule (when it isn't them).
What you are seeing, and have seen forever, is the split between the Leftist Revolutionary Parisians with their decedents and allies; and the Liberal Revolutionary French with their decedents and allies. The original: Left versus Right. Robespierre v. Lafayette.
France can't decide because the Liberal Revolutionaries never fully lost over the centuries, and the Leftist Revolutionaries always pretended that they had fully won.
The CPSU certainly did know that this was a possibility, which is why they went down so hard on Trotsky (as a proto-Napoleon) while ignoring the bureaucrat Stalin. Of course, that still led to a despotism.